We were slammed yesterday, mostly due to the folks who, at the last minute, connected "Voting is important!" to "I must register and today is the last day!" A frustrating number didn't make the final connection to "I must look up the documentation I need to take in order to register."
It's a beautiful day and the extra hour of sleep was helpful.
Yeah. Been quite a while since I'd listened to it. Ended up playing / replaying it. Not like I'm 'running behind' or anything like that this morning...
Don't you feel at least a little uncomfortable discriminating against International-Dateline-challenged individuals who should get a Happy Montag? Especially all the Montag repairmen over there. They're already feeling pretty low from being the loneliest guys in town.
Has fascinated me since childhood. It's why I got a physics degree. Alas, me discovering I'm not in the league I aspired towards.
Time.
Tomorrow, all of you, my friends, except in Arizona and Hawaii, will move about 1,000 miles Westward in relative time to us.
Clocks. You all need to fall back your clocks. Anyone own a mechanical clock? I am a collector of early American electric clocks from the 45 year old Henry Ellis Warren. MIT EE class of 1895 with Alfred P. Sloan. Warren started the Warren Gear company. And worked to develop electric clocks.
He invented the world's first self starting (induction) synchronous motor. In 1916, age 45. I have his original sealed US Patents, and his original lab notebooks. Including the exact page, and a pencil rubbing of his inventive step. So cool.
Clock manufacturing was the highest discrete unit volume industry in America for maybe a century. Warren led the evolution of new materials and designs. From traditional wood crafted cases to the 1st bakelite and then colored plastics. Glass faces, etched and electro deposited silver and gold and aluminum.
His motor was designed to turn the primary rotor at 60 cycles per second. Geared down 60x for the minute hand. Then geared for the hour hand. All little shafts rotating inside a hollow tubed geared component.
What I enjoy, is the smooth sweep of a large second hand. With 60 increments per second, you only see smooth movement. No tik wait move tok. No quartz jump. Far smoother than almost any fancy Swiss watch.
Having been a GM employee in Flint, MI., it would be a bit strange if I'd not heard of Alfred P. Sloan (we have an automotive museum here named after him) but I'd never heard of Warren or what he did until now. That was quite interesting. Appreciate the post.
Ironically, my cell phone number, which I got about 1991, has the Flint area code. Which includes a lot of other towns. When I get the spam call for new windows, I send them to an address that is a vacant lot in Flint. Bad me!
From 1979 thru 1995, worked with GM almost 2x a month coming in from Massachusetts. In Flint with the Buick Reatta plastic fenders, the intake manifold and engine lines. AC Delco. Also up in Saginaw, Saginaw Gear.
I worked at the sprawling old AC Spark Plug complex on Dort Hwy / Averill St. / Center Rd. It was still AC Spark Plug when I started in '72. Can't recall what year it became AC Delco after that, but it wasn't long... maybe '75 or so. Only AC facility I didn't work in was the Industrial Ave. plant over by the huge Buick complex.
If the last time you were here was in '95 you would not recognize the place today. Where I used to work on Dort Hwy. is a 60+acre vacant lot now. The mfg. and admin buildings, engineering building, powerhouse all gone. That huge Buick complex - foundry, V-8, assembly, all of it - all gone. Chevy-in-the-Hole, Fischer #1 & #2 and Coldwater Rd, ditto. Grand Blac 'Tank' became a tooling center for a while. I don't think there's much of an op left there these days. About all that's left is Chevy Truck, Flint Metal Center (a remnant of the old Flint Metal Fab) and the V-6 engine plant. Swartz Creek still has that small SPO, and a new fairly large dealer service pack op was built and opened a few years ago in Burton not far from where AC used to be.
Saginaw Steering Gear went through some rough times and a couple of owners but has fared better in recent years under the name of Nexteer. Did a lot of work for them in a couple of the job shops I worked in after leaving *AC-Delphi*, as some old hands like me used to refer to it in defiance after GM cut it loose in the Delphi spinoff and kept the "AC" logo and brand name for itself. Not a real recipe for success as far as Delphi was concerned, though that was never GM's aim in spinning it off in the first place.
When the spinoff was officially announced, they had the AC name and logo painted over on the company water towers and anything and everything everywhere in the complex with the AC name and / or logo on it was gone within a matter of a few days. Which really pissed off a whole lot of people, myself included.
AC went to Delphi in '99 and I left in early '06 after the October '05 bankruptcy filing, knowing I'd never finish my working days there. They tore the place down 2 years later. In knocking around the job shops in the area for the next decade and a half, whenever anyone asked me about my work history at AC, I used to tell them I was there for 30+ years until '06, and they just couldn't run it without me after I left so they had to tear it down. They all thought that was pretty funny. But not many of us found the death of a near century old company much of a laughing matter.
I worked wiith GM everywhere. From top product and engineering management, to design engineering, to manufacturing engineering and down on the floor with UAW. Where some good sandwiches and pizza got us able to run and adjust equipment ourselves for some development runs.
I worked with AC Delco and Remy in Anderson Indiana, and Kokomo, to bring our engineering plastics to the new age electronics that made modern engines and transmissions possible. Sensor, actuator and CPU housings. Even radiator end tanks, electronic ignition and fuel injection.
It was a great window of engineering and technology changing paradigms.
Started when engineers used wood drafting tables, sin/cos_log lookup books!. Splines, sweeps, beziers. All long before the computer engineering advent
Down in the basement somewhere I have a slide rule and trig tables along with a drafting set with T-square, French curves, triangles and circle templates that anyone under the age of 45 or so would probably not even be able to call by their proper names, much less use them.
When I started in my trade a simple digital readout on a lathe or mill was considered to be really hi-tech. When I gave it up last year, I doubt more than one or two guys of the more than dozen in the shop I'd been working in part time for a couple of years would even be able to run a 'manual' lathe or mill that had only dials and vernier scales for positioning and simple motor drive feeds with leadscrews instead of ball screws. Few if any of them would know what "backlash" is when it comes to running a machine tool or how to deal with it.
I've got to say, I hated learning how to run and deal with CNC's when I first had to start dealing with them. I'm not fond of computers. But I'll admit that by the end they had me pretty darned spoiled as to what it took to do a lot of things compared to "the good ol' days."
I learned to mill in 1972 73 at MIT. They kinda required students to learn machining, print reading, glass blowing, radio tube making. It was wonderful
Interesting to think about this movie 25 years later. For one thing, it’s awfully hard to have a unique perspective on something when it’s so hot and talked about that your point of view ends up looking derivative. It’s really difficult to view a major cultural sensation impartially. In fact, sometimes the item is so over-hyped that to watch it is to be disappointed that it can’t possibly live up to its contemporary excitement.
For such an influential film—by sheer weight of its popularity—it’s easy to overlook some of the techniques and technologies that went into the production. At the time, “bullet time” was a Very Big Deal. There was a lot made of all the expensive live-action sequences involving car chases and high-wire character choreography. Much of that these days would probably be done with CGI that has become a lot easier and more cost effective since.
Also, back in 1999 there were still water-cooler effects where people would gab at the workplace about common cultural experiences. Now that’s mostly gone to social media, or become *about* social media, or dissipated entirely, it seems to me.
Speaking of cute movies, my first date with Katie was to see "The Saint" staring Val Kilmer. It was a Friday, April 11th, 1997. I was at U Kentucky, and she had to work that night, so I drove 3 hours to put my oldest to bed (a toddler) with Bob and Janet (Pam's parents), then I met her at the movie theater in Indy.
I treated, which impressed her because she knew I was a broke college student, so the fact I didn't feel entitled to her paying sent a good message. Two cokes, a tub of popcorn, some Mike and Ikes (her favorite, I let her choose), and some Reeces Pieces.
It was a fun movie (spoiler alert, Val Kilmer saves the day and wins the girl), and he wears different disguises throughout the movie, which was fun. It's a typical movie, the plot a bit weak and far-fetched, some action scenes. If one was willing to suspend disbelief for awhile, it worked. I had my arm around Katie; halfway through the movie I looked at her and her face was lit up smiling. She was happy and beautiful.
Afterwards we hit a Steak n' Shake diner for a light meal, and we chatted. I asked about her life, what her interests were, etc. She talked and I listened. The conversation was going really well, and then it happened. 😱 She asked about my research. Given that she was a pharmacist and I was studying the financing history of the biotech industry, I lost her roughly after the first sentence , "I study the biotech industry's financing". 🥶I went into great detail about all sorts of interesting stuff (fun fact: 3/4th of all biotech are clustered about 7 research sites, and did you know there are over 15 biotechnology companies in the Houston suburb of Woodlands that all have "immuno" in their company name). I explained I had not one but two different methods on the same data. I was very enthused explaining all this to her. 🤦♂️
Did I mention I lost her after the 1st sentence? I noticed almost an hour later she seemed tired so I walked her to her car, and gave her a good night kiss, but I felt I had blown the evening. 🥺 The next day she called a common friend Gail, and told her the date was great until she asked about my research, and she had no idea what I studied. Gail told her to relax, no one understood what I studied, just nod along from time to time and smile, and after five minutes change the subject.
On the second date I didn't discuss research...or the 3rd...She came to visit me on campus a month later, and then I felt okay discussing research, but I kept it light and high level. She still doesn't understand it, other than I discovered something and was the first publish on it. Once the DVD came out we bought a copy of The Saint. Someday I may buy the movie poster for it.
I asked my AI Overlord what happens if you take the red pill and the blue pill simultaneously.....Answer..... "In the context of "The Matrix," if you took both the red pill and the blue pill together, it would essentially be a meaningless action, as the narrative implies that choosing one pill definitively determines your path - either remaining blissfully ignorant in the Matrix illusion (blue pill) or waking up to the harsh reality (red pill); taking both would not result in a combination of the two states, and would likely be interpreted as simply choosing the blue pill, allowing you to stay within the Matrix's simulated reality."
Believe it or not, Katie and I watched the matrix together, and I asked her the red pill blue pill question. By then she knew I was merely being playful, so she told me the blue pill is what speakers in college tell you and the red pill are when customers are in line.
In the movie, though, they said the red pill was a marker for the avatar's body's physical location in the people-farm. Therefore, taking both would work the same as just taking the red one.
I should rewatch it but I don’t really like to rewatch movies. He was cute back in the day. The Eagles at the Sphere review: if you can swing it, GO! It was worth every dollar I paid. WOW.
The Sphere is indescribable. It's going to transform entertainment. I've read where there are already other "Spheres" in the planning stages to catch up with Vegas.
There’s something like 160k speakers. Your ears don’t ring after a concert. Would be nice not to have to travel to extremely overpriced Vegas to see a concert in such a venue.
The elevation of Trump to a thing is proof we live in a computer simulation ala Matrix. There are aliens out there right now, laughing at us and our torment, while they work at thinking up another weirdo to inject into our realities and to torment us with.
I am inclined to think that Trump's reactions are often inspired by that twisted sense of fun. "Can you believe I was able to get them to believe that?! Gotta love 'em - they loce me!"
They do it that way on purpose....lull us into complacency...in fact, now that I think about it, you may be put here to dissuade us from seeing reality.
....with those properties mysteriously morphing into alternate realities. That's how the Matrix works. If one day you find yourself prancing down the street in a Bright Red Dress...beware, it's happening.
I have a thing about the Matrix. The Sixth Sense came out the same year and my friend was the editor. That movie was ALL about the editing. He was nominated for an Oscar. He lost to The Matrix, which had fine editing, but would have been a good movie with "just okay" editing, but The Matrix was on a roll that year in a lot of categories. Without my friend's editing, the Sixth Sense would have flopped.
Not trying to ape your praise for Willis by saying he was pretty darned good in "12 Monkeys", which he was. A lot of 'action' in that one, but it took some pretty good 'acting' to make it all work.
(I think Brad Pitt sort of stole the show as that over-the-top lunatic character Jeffrey Goines.)
"You get trapped by stories. Though I've got this reputation for being out of control, it's not true, it just happens to be a more interesting story than the truth." T. Gilliam
I get your point. It's like good directing: if you're watching, and you say, "Oh, that's a really well-framed shot! Look how they set up the lighting there!" then it's overdone and not, actually, good directing ... unless they were ironically trying to make it look like that ...
I’m sorta/kinda mixed on that. I appreciate creators who disappear from their representations, but I also like some who are highly stylized as long as their stylizing appeals to me.
Good morning. Cool morning, in teh 390s, with projected highs in the 50s. After the Bucks game I will be attending to the leaves in my backyard, a bit over half which will have fallen by now.
Congratulations to Cynthia W, who now understands the terms “red pill” and “blue Pill”. There are times indeed when I wish I had taken the blue pill. It seems as good an explanation as any for the half of our voting population that supports Donald Trump, who in The Matrix is a good and selfless fighter for America.
Honestly, I've already forgotten which pill is which. Probably the wine. In general, I didn't find the concept applicable to real life. People who brag that they are the ones who see things as they are, regardless of how they think things are, seem a bit like kooks.
The way I was raised, there were two legitimate grandmother names: Granny for one, and Grandma for the other. It wasn't until I was an adult that I learned some people called their grandmother "Nana," and I was like "Huh? What's that supposed to be about?"
My mother was "grandmommy" until my daughter (grandchild#7, granddaughter #1) came along. Then we read Seven Little Postman, about the delivery of a boy's letter to his granny, and she became Granny to my children.
It's a start. I expect sharp outfits, too. I can see guys, including cute ones, going around like slobs in real life. If a movie wants my time, make a real effort!
Appreciated the review. It was interesting to learn that someone else who had never seen it, liked it. I like steampunk. I bet I could wear an outfit with a bit of a steampunk aesthetic and not look ridiculous, even at my age, provided it was sufficiently Victorian-looking. I agree that one of the things Lucas got really right with Star Wars was the "used universe" look. He really was the trailblazer in credibility with that.
I have always been into science fiction, but by the time The Matrix came out I had been reading the best sci-fi for more than 25 years, which meant some 50 years worth of sci-fi for me to read, and I just felt like the idea this movie was sort of like taking sci-fi to a whole new level and putting all the rest to shame had to be the kind of hype people born yesterday would buy, but I shouldn't. (Also, 1999 was a pretty busy year for me so I had less time to go to the movies.) And I still think in some ways books are superior to movies in presenting a science fiction or fantasy story. So if all this prejudiced me, consider me set straight. Maybe I'll put the movie on my list, though I don't know when I'll get around to seeing it.
I’m guessing you would have been or are a fan of William Gibson, in particular the co-authored “Difference Engine.” (I’m not a big sci-fi/fantasy fan, so my familiarity is very restricted.)
I thought that was fine and well written, but had wished for more of a story.
I have the book on my Kindle now, borrowed from the public library. Just started reading the introduction to the 2011 paperback edition. Cory Doctorow (had to look up who he is) writes "The Difference Engine [consider the title italicized] did not inspire steampunk, but it surely did predict it." That's helpful context. I think I get it now.
I may have read that one. The title kind of rings a bell. There's a lot of stuff I read a long time ago and don't quite remember. But yeah, some sci-fi can be a bit light on story, and I prefer stories that are more replete. Maybe I'll put that one on my list anyhow.
EDIT: Looks like I will at least start reading it. Just borrowed the Kindle version from the Chicago Public Library.
Among the significant figures of the Victorian-Edwardian era were many scientific and literary ladies of mature years.
I wouldn't say The Matrix was "a whole new level" or anything like that, but it was an outstanding production in several ways, with no real weakness. And darling Keanu Reeves.
You should knock off all this Keanu Reeves cuteness stuff. At some point Christopher Reeve is gonna' start gettin' upset. After all, that character Keanu played in The Matrix was sort of a neo-superman.
The stereotypical "old lady" of modern times wears vaguely Victorian dress and hairstyle. This has to have originated in the pre-WWII years, when my great-grandmothers would have been getting up in years, but culturally it had a pretty long half-life and still influences the popular depiction of senior women. But I actually do wear my hair in a bun now, because it's neat and practical.
My mother used to tell me that one of her grandmothers referred to "those old dust catchers" when expressing appreciation of mid-20th-century hemlines.
Good morning. Early voting is over.
We were slammed yesterday, mostly due to the folks who, at the last minute, connected "Voting is important!" to "I must register and today is the last day!" A frustrating number didn't make the final connection to "I must look up the documentation I need to take in order to register."
It's a beautiful day and the extra hour of sleep was helpful.
Good morning. I admire your commitment!
Thank you! It's mostly fun in a nerdy, purposeful way.
“BUT MY SMARTPHONE CAN VOUCH FOR WHO I AM! WHY CAN’T YOU TAKE HIS WORD FOR IT!!!!”
'Cause when they start doin' that the next thing you know we'll be votin' by phone.
But hey... what could possibly go wrong with that?!
The government of Estonia has had exactly that objective for around two decades now. Check out E-Stonia:
https://e-estonia.com/solutions/e-governance/e-democracy/
Placido Domingo, everyone. Fall back!
This gal's got a better idea... less chance of injury. Safety First!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwS9BIqbffU
That hair!
Majestic! Never knew I needed an ‘80s retro flashback, but that hit the spot.
Yeah. Been quite a while since I'd listened to it. Ended up playing / replaying it. Not like I'm 'running behind' or anything like that this morning...
Happy Sonntag. I’m in full retreat.
Don't you feel at least a little uncomfortable discriminating against International-Dateline-challenged individuals who should get a Happy Montag? Especially all the Montag repairmen over there. They're already feeling pretty low from being the loneliest guys in town.
Regroup!
Time.
Has fascinated me since childhood. It's why I got a physics degree. Alas, me discovering I'm not in the league I aspired towards.
Time.
Tomorrow, all of you, my friends, except in Arizona and Hawaii, will move about 1,000 miles Westward in relative time to us.
Clocks. You all need to fall back your clocks. Anyone own a mechanical clock? I am a collector of early American electric clocks from the 45 year old Henry Ellis Warren. MIT EE class of 1895 with Alfred P. Sloan. Warren started the Warren Gear company. And worked to develop electric clocks.
He invented the world's first self starting (induction) synchronous motor. In 1916, age 45. I have his original sealed US Patents, and his original lab notebooks. Including the exact page, and a pencil rubbing of his inventive step. So cool.
Clock manufacturing was the highest discrete unit volume industry in America for maybe a century. Warren led the evolution of new materials and designs. From traditional wood crafted cases to the 1st bakelite and then colored plastics. Glass faces, etched and electro deposited silver and gold and aluminum.
His motor was designed to turn the primary rotor at 60 cycles per second. Geared down 60x for the minute hand. Then geared for the hour hand. All little shafts rotating inside a hollow tubed geared component.
What I enjoy, is the smooth sweep of a large second hand. With 60 increments per second, you only see smooth movement. No tik wait move tok. No quartz jump. Far smoother than almost any fancy Swiss watch.
Having been a GM employee in Flint, MI., it would be a bit strange if I'd not heard of Alfred P. Sloan (we have an automotive museum here named after him) but I'd never heard of Warren or what he did until now. That was quite interesting. Appreciate the post.
My pleasure!
Ironically, my cell phone number, which I got about 1991, has the Flint area code. Which includes a lot of other towns. When I get the spam call for new windows, I send them to an address that is a vacant lot in Flint. Bad me!
From 1979 thru 1995, worked with GM almost 2x a month coming in from Massachusetts. In Flint with the Buick Reatta plastic fenders, the intake manifold and engine lines. AC Delco. Also up in Saginaw, Saginaw Gear.
Henry Warren's 1st job after MIT was in Saginaw.
I worked at the sprawling old AC Spark Plug complex on Dort Hwy / Averill St. / Center Rd. It was still AC Spark Plug when I started in '72. Can't recall what year it became AC Delco after that, but it wasn't long... maybe '75 or so. Only AC facility I didn't work in was the Industrial Ave. plant over by the huge Buick complex.
If the last time you were here was in '95 you would not recognize the place today. Where I used to work on Dort Hwy. is a 60+acre vacant lot now. The mfg. and admin buildings, engineering building, powerhouse all gone. That huge Buick complex - foundry, V-8, assembly, all of it - all gone. Chevy-in-the-Hole, Fischer #1 & #2 and Coldwater Rd, ditto. Grand Blac 'Tank' became a tooling center for a while. I don't think there's much of an op left there these days. About all that's left is Chevy Truck, Flint Metal Center (a remnant of the old Flint Metal Fab) and the V-6 engine plant. Swartz Creek still has that small SPO, and a new fairly large dealer service pack op was built and opened a few years ago in Burton not far from where AC used to be.
Saginaw Steering Gear went through some rough times and a couple of owners but has fared better in recent years under the name of Nexteer. Did a lot of work for them in a couple of the job shops I worked in after leaving *AC-Delphi*, as some old hands like me used to refer to it in defiance after GM cut it loose in the Delphi spinoff and kept the "AC" logo and brand name for itself. Not a real recipe for success as far as Delphi was concerned, though that was never GM's aim in spinning it off in the first place.
When the spinoff was officially announced, they had the AC name and logo painted over on the company water towers and anything and everything everywhere in the complex with the AC name and / or logo on it was gone within a matter of a few days. Which really pissed off a whole lot of people, myself included.
AC went to Delphi in '99 and I left in early '06 after the October '05 bankruptcy filing, knowing I'd never finish my working days there. They tore the place down 2 years later. In knocking around the job shops in the area for the next decade and a half, whenever anyone asked me about my work history at AC, I used to tell them I was there for 30+ years until '06, and they just couldn't run it without me after I left so they had to tear it down. They all thought that was pretty funny. But not many of us found the death of a near century old company much of a laughing matter.
It was sad.
I worked wiith GM everywhere. From top product and engineering management, to design engineering, to manufacturing engineering and down on the floor with UAW. Where some good sandwiches and pizza got us able to run and adjust equipment ourselves for some development runs.
I worked with AC Delco and Remy in Anderson Indiana, and Kokomo, to bring our engineering plastics to the new age electronics that made modern engines and transmissions possible. Sensor, actuator and CPU housings. Even radiator end tanks, electronic ignition and fuel injection.
It was a great window of engineering and technology changing paradigms.
Started when engineers used wood drafting tables, sin/cos_log lookup books!. Splines, sweeps, beziers. All long before the computer engineering advent
Down in the basement somewhere I have a slide rule and trig tables along with a drafting set with T-square, French curves, triangles and circle templates that anyone under the age of 45 or so would probably not even be able to call by their proper names, much less use them.
When I started in my trade a simple digital readout on a lathe or mill was considered to be really hi-tech. When I gave it up last year, I doubt more than one or two guys of the more than dozen in the shop I'd been working in part time for a couple of years would even be able to run a 'manual' lathe or mill that had only dials and vernier scales for positioning and simple motor drive feeds with leadscrews instead of ball screws. Few if any of them would know what "backlash" is when it comes to running a machine tool or how to deal with it.
I've got to say, I hated learning how to run and deal with CNC's when I first had to start dealing with them. I'm not fond of computers. But I'll admit that by the end they had me pretty darned spoiled as to what it took to do a lot of things compared to "the good ol' days."
If I could find somebody to take me and hire me, at my age, and teach me to do millwork or tool and die making, I'd be there in a heartbeat.
ETA: hire me.
I learned to mill in 1972 73 at MIT. They kinda required students to learn machining, print reading, glass blowing, radio tube making. It was wonderful
A year in the life of a leaf - WAPO gift article
https://wapo.st/3Uz5bcy
Interesting to think about this movie 25 years later. For one thing, it’s awfully hard to have a unique perspective on something when it’s so hot and talked about that your point of view ends up looking derivative. It’s really difficult to view a major cultural sensation impartially. In fact, sometimes the item is so over-hyped that to watch it is to be disappointed that it can’t possibly live up to its contemporary excitement.
For such an influential film—by sheer weight of its popularity—it’s easy to overlook some of the techniques and technologies that went into the production. At the time, “bullet time” was a Very Big Deal. There was a lot made of all the expensive live-action sequences involving car chases and high-wire character choreography. Much of that these days would probably be done with CGI that has become a lot easier and more cost effective since.
Also, back in 1999 there were still water-cooler effects where people would gab at the workplace about common cultural experiences. Now that’s mostly gone to social media, or become *about* social media, or dissipated entirely, it seems to me.
Well played.
Ykes! My wife and met in March 1977. Our 1st date was driving to see King Tut at the National Gallery.
Our 1st movie was the premiere of Star Wars in May 1977.
The force was with you! 🤠
My first date movie with Pam was Kevin Costner‘s Robin Hood movie. Although she and I saw a bond movie in 1987 starring Timothy Dalton.
Those Timothy Dalton Bonds were very violent.
Just to clarify: what letter is the drama queen? I think B?
C
Cynthia, you may need to post a list of your offspring again, updated from the one you posted several years ago.
Good suggestion.
Speaking of cute movies, my first date with Katie was to see "The Saint" staring Val Kilmer. It was a Friday, April 11th, 1997. I was at U Kentucky, and she had to work that night, so I drove 3 hours to put my oldest to bed (a toddler) with Bob and Janet (Pam's parents), then I met her at the movie theater in Indy.
I treated, which impressed her because she knew I was a broke college student, so the fact I didn't feel entitled to her paying sent a good message. Two cokes, a tub of popcorn, some Mike and Ikes (her favorite, I let her choose), and some Reeces Pieces.
It was a fun movie (spoiler alert, Val Kilmer saves the day and wins the girl), and he wears different disguises throughout the movie, which was fun. It's a typical movie, the plot a bit weak and far-fetched, some action scenes. If one was willing to suspend disbelief for awhile, it worked. I had my arm around Katie; halfway through the movie I looked at her and her face was lit up smiling. She was happy and beautiful.
Afterwards we hit a Steak n' Shake diner for a light meal, and we chatted. I asked about her life, what her interests were, etc. She talked and I listened. The conversation was going really well, and then it happened. 😱 She asked about my research. Given that she was a pharmacist and I was studying the financing history of the biotech industry, I lost her roughly after the first sentence , "I study the biotech industry's financing". 🥶I went into great detail about all sorts of interesting stuff (fun fact: 3/4th of all biotech are clustered about 7 research sites, and did you know there are over 15 biotechnology companies in the Houston suburb of Woodlands that all have "immuno" in their company name). I explained I had not one but two different methods on the same data. I was very enthused explaining all this to her. 🤦♂️
Did I mention I lost her after the 1st sentence? I noticed almost an hour later she seemed tired so I walked her to her car, and gave her a good night kiss, but I felt I had blown the evening. 🥺 The next day she called a common friend Gail, and told her the date was great until she asked about my research, and she had no idea what I studied. Gail told her to relax, no one understood what I studied, just nod along from time to time and smile, and after five minutes change the subject.
On the second date I didn't discuss research...or the 3rd...She came to visit me on campus a month later, and then I felt okay discussing research, but I kept it light and high level. She still doesn't understand it, other than I discovered something and was the first publish on it. Once the DVD came out we bought a copy of The Saint. Someday I may buy the movie poster for it.
Fabulous movie!
Rade Šerbedžija, the Tretiak actor, played cool Russian bad guys in Shooter, Space Cowboys and others
That was the movie where Val Kilmer was super cute.
This is a revelation to me, that you fall for guys without "cute little accents," like Val Kilmer and Keanu Reeves.
You don't have to be nearly as objectively cute if you have a darling little accent.
Sorry, I meant "darling," not "cute" little accent! 🤣
I understood. Technical vocabulary can trip anyone up.
I asked my AI Overlord what happens if you take the red pill and the blue pill simultaneously.....Answer..... "In the context of "The Matrix," if you took both the red pill and the blue pill together, it would essentially be a meaningless action, as the narrative implies that choosing one pill definitively determines your path - either remaining blissfully ignorant in the Matrix illusion (blue pill) or waking up to the harsh reality (red pill); taking both would not result in a combination of the two states, and would likely be interpreted as simply choosing the blue pill, allowing you to stay within the Matrix's simulated reality."
Believe it or not, Katie and I watched the matrix together, and I asked her the red pill blue pill question. By then she knew I was merely being playful, so she told me the blue pill is what speakers in college tell you and the red pill are when customers are in line.
In the movie, though, they said the red pill was a marker for the avatar's body's physical location in the people-farm. Therefore, taking both would work the same as just taking the red one.
I've got my pharmacist on the phone right now, trying to straighten this out. I'll be back to you in a minute...
I should rewatch it but I don’t really like to rewatch movies. He was cute back in the day. The Eagles at the Sphere review: if you can swing it, GO! It was worth every dollar I paid. WOW.
The Sphere is indescribable. It's going to transform entertainment. I've read where there are already other "Spheres" in the planning stages to catch up with Vegas.
There’s something like 160k speakers. Your ears don’t ring after a concert. Would be nice not to have to travel to extremely overpriced Vegas to see a concert in such a venue.
Glad you had a good time.
The elevation of Trump to a thing is proof we live in a computer simulation ala Matrix. There are aliens out there right now, laughing at us and our torment, while they work at thinking up another weirdo to inject into our realities and to torment us with.
I am inclined to think that Trump's reactions are often inspired by that twisted sense of fun. "Can you believe I was able to get them to believe that?! Gotta love 'em - they loce me!"
As a theory of reality, it lacks zing.
Well, if you don't like that one there's another one that involves a pretty big bang.
They do it that way on purpose....lull us into complacency...in fact, now that I think about it, you may be put here to dissuade us from seeing reality.
I am a figure of mysterious properties.
....with those properties mysteriously morphing into alternate realities. That's how the Matrix works. If one day you find yourself prancing down the street in a Bright Red Dress...beware, it's happening.
I've put on weight since my red dress prancing days.
So, your sayin' we shouldn't weight for that to happen?
This is just too darned easy this morning...
Congratulations to Cynthia!
Enjoy this special day and take lots of photos. Maybe even (gasp!) print and frame one!
(FWIW, I was unfazed by Keanu's cuteness. Would it be as enjoyable with Gérard Depardieu?)
"Would it be as enjoyable with Gérard Depardieu?"
No. Although I thought he was okay as Cyrano de Bergerac.
Keanu Reeves played Cyrano de Bergerac? I thought he only did action movies.
That just shows how much you nose.
I know a pun when I see one -- 🚪
Well, I think it's nothing to sneeze at.
What would Edith "Edit" Burton think? -- 🚪
?
You callin' that nose *nothing*? Holy Pinocchios, CC! How long since you've had an eye exam? 👃👀🧐
Well played.
Congrats on the new granddaughter. I'll bet she's extraordinarily cute, no?
Definitely above average.
Depardieu looks like what would happen if Jabba the Hutt went on a Vegan crash diet.
Yeah, he's homely but can generate charm.
I have a thing about the Matrix. The Sixth Sense came out the same year and my friend was the editor. That movie was ALL about the editing. He was nominated for an Oscar. He lost to The Matrix, which had fine editing, but would have been a good movie with "just okay" editing, but The Matrix was on a roll that year in a lot of categories. Without my friend's editing, the Sixth Sense would have flopped.
I have never seen The Sixth Sense. I just requested the DVD from the library. I'll try to keep an eye out for signs of exceptional editing.
What I mean to say is that you don't "see" great editing, but the fact that the movie works is a sign of how good it is.
That makes pretty good Sense.
It's the movie that made me understand that Bruce Willis is an exceptionally fine actor. He's not just John McClane and action stuff; the guy can act.
Not trying to ape your praise for Willis by saying he was pretty darned good in "12 Monkeys", which he was. A lot of 'action' in that one, but it took some pretty good 'acting' to make it all work.
(I think Brad Pitt sort of stole the show as that over-the-top lunatic character Jeffrey Goines.)
I loved 12 Monkeys. Willis was excellent. And yes, Pitt’s turn as the nut job was spooky good.
Big fan of Terry Gilliam here. You’re reminding me that I still wanted to rent “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote”…
"You get trapped by stories. Though I've got this reputation for being out of control, it's not true, it just happens to be a more interesting story than the truth." T. Gilliam
He could act in "Moonlighting". Before that, he played a sociopathic drug dealer in an episode of "Miami Vice".
I get your point. It's like good directing: if you're watching, and you say, "Oh, that's a really well-framed shot! Look how they set up the lighting there!" then it's overdone and not, actually, good directing ... unless they were ironically trying to make it look like that ...
*drink*
I’m sorta/kinda mixed on that. I appreciate creators who disappear from their representations, but I also like some who are highly stylized as long as their stylizing appeals to me.
Wes Anderson does that in several of his films...ironically directing the shot to make it clear someone was mechanical in their directing the shot.
It's in the same category of thought as Elmore Leonard's statement of "If it sounds like writing, rewrite it."
Yes, exactly. Don't show your work. 'Sprezzatura.
"Poetry written while falling off a horse."
But right now: Enjoy your new granddaughter!
The grandparents are gathering at the hospital at 10:30 a.m., EDT.
Just watch the movie without looking for signs of exception editing and then we will have a colloquy afterwards.
Good morning. Cool morning, in teh 390s, with projected highs in the 50s. After the Bucks game I will be attending to the leaves in my backyard, a bit over half which will have fallen by now.
Congratulations to Cynthia W, who now understands the terms “red pill” and “blue Pill”. There are times indeed when I wish I had taken the blue pill. It seems as good an explanation as any for the half of our voting population that supports Donald Trump, who in The Matrix is a good and selfless fighter for America.
Honestly, I've already forgotten which pill is which. Probably the wine. In general, I didn't find the concept applicable to real life. People who brag that they are the ones who see things as they are, regardless of how they think things are, seem a bit like kooks.
Lots of truthiness in that last sentence.
For those who weren't watching this space, my granddaughter, Georgia Carolyn, was born Friday evening (Nov. 1). 5 lbs. 14 oz., 18".
Your granddaughter now shares a birthday with my daughter, Victoria, born on Nov 1st twenty-one years ago (oy vey)
Congrats Cynthia!
Happy 21st to Victoria and you (and her mom)!
Much happiness and health to your granddaughter!
Imagine the amazing world she will experience by 2100 !
Was she born near the Georgia Carolina line, like that musical group?
Congrats on a granddaughter. May you love spoiling her and seeing her disrupt her parent's carefully laid plans! 😀
Florida Georgia Line.
When a new grandchild arrives from the factory they always come with different options. But the one standard feature is *payback*.
Congratulations 💞 I love her name. She’s a little babe. Hope all are doing well. Welcome to the grand club!
Will you have some cutesy grandma name? I’m Grammy/Grandma.
We'll see. I've proposed "Amma," but you never know what will "take." Half the world calls me "Miss Cynthia," so that could get picked up.
I thought GrannyW had a nice ring to it...
The way I was raised, there were two legitimate grandmother names: Granny for one, and Grandma for the other. It wasn't until I was an adult that I learned some people called their grandmother "Nana," and I was like "Huh? What's that supposed to be about?"
My mother was "grandmommy" until my daughter (grandchild#7, granddaughter #1) came along. Then we read Seven Little Postman, about the delivery of a boy's letter to his granny, and she became Granny to my children.
In Germany, Oma and Opa are popular too.
Gaffer and Granny in the Midlands of England.
Meemaw, Mamaw are popular down south. Is North Carolina down south? I hear Meemaw more in 'Bama than elsewhere.
Big Day! Congratulations!
Congratulations! We now know your top criteria for movie watching: super cute guys.
It's a start. I expect sharp outfits, too. I can see guys, including cute ones, going around like slobs in real life. If a movie wants my time, make a real effort!
Appreciated the review. It was interesting to learn that someone else who had never seen it, liked it. I like steampunk. I bet I could wear an outfit with a bit of a steampunk aesthetic and not look ridiculous, even at my age, provided it was sufficiently Victorian-looking. I agree that one of the things Lucas got really right with Star Wars was the "used universe" look. He really was the trailblazer in credibility with that.
I have always been into science fiction, but by the time The Matrix came out I had been reading the best sci-fi for more than 25 years, which meant some 50 years worth of sci-fi for me to read, and I just felt like the idea this movie was sort of like taking sci-fi to a whole new level and putting all the rest to shame had to be the kind of hype people born yesterday would buy, but I shouldn't. (Also, 1999 was a pretty busy year for me so I had less time to go to the movies.) And I still think in some ways books are superior to movies in presenting a science fiction or fantasy story. So if all this prejudiced me, consider me set straight. Maybe I'll put the movie on my list, though I don't know when I'll get around to seeing it.
I’m guessing you would have been or are a fan of William Gibson, in particular the co-authored “Difference Engine.” (I’m not a big sci-fi/fantasy fan, so my familiarity is very restricted.)
I thought that was fine and well written, but had wished for more of a story.
I have the book on my Kindle now, borrowed from the public library. Just started reading the introduction to the 2011 paperback edition. Cory Doctorow (had to look up who he is) writes "The Difference Engine [consider the title italicized] did not inspire steampunk, but it surely did predict it." That's helpful context. I think I get it now.
I may have read that one. The title kind of rings a bell. There's a lot of stuff I read a long time ago and don't quite remember. But yeah, some sci-fi can be a bit light on story, and I prefer stories that are more replete. Maybe I'll put that one on my list anyhow.
EDIT: Looks like I will at least start reading it. Just borrowed the Kindle version from the Chicago Public Library.
Among the significant figures of the Victorian-Edwardian era were many scientific and literary ladies of mature years.
I wouldn't say The Matrix was "a whole new level" or anything like that, but it was an outstanding production in several ways, with no real weakness. And darling Keanu Reeves.
You should knock off all this Keanu Reeves cuteness stuff. At some point Christopher Reeve is gonna' start gettin' upset. After all, that character Keanu played in The Matrix was sort of a neo-superman.
The stereotypical "old lady" of modern times wears vaguely Victorian dress and hairstyle. This has to have originated in the pre-WWII years, when my great-grandmothers would have been getting up in years, but culturally it had a pretty long half-life and still influences the popular depiction of senior women. But I actually do wear my hair in a bun now, because it's neat and practical.
My mother used to tell me that one of her grandmothers referred to "those old dust catchers" when expressing appreciation of mid-20th-century hemlines.
Cynthia: Hearty congratulations and my sincere wishes to Georgia, the parents, and you and your husband.
Congratulations to the happy parents and family. (And to you, Grandma W!).
Congatulations to you, her parents and all her family! What a day it will be for you all!
She shares an All Saints Day birthday with yours truly. Envious, but Mrs F and I continue to enjoy our granddog and grandniece.
Happy belated birthday to you!