Prometheus

Okay, in this review of Prometheus:

MovieBob expresses some minor disappointments, but declares the movie to be pretty good overall. Since none of his issues with the movie mean anything at all to me, I decided to catch a matinee this afternoon.

Have you ever seen a movie that was almost good? That you would have liked, except for a few seemingly minor details that just killed your enthusiasm? Prometheus was like that for me. So I'm going to vent here. Don't be surprised if I ramble.

Let me start with this: MovieBob discusses the extent to which this is a preqel to Alien. Whatever. This is totally a prequel to Alien. It's almost a damn remake. And like the Star Wars prequels, there are continuity issues by the end of the movie, which are kind of irritating.

 Supposedly smart people doing stupid things. (These people were selected for a deep space mission requiring two years in cryosleep, one way.  Presumably, they've been vetted for expertise, as well as the ability to cope with extremely stressful situations.) Like, not taking any kind of weapon when going to investigate an alien planet (this is kind of the "I'll be safe, I have a flashlight" trope that most horror movies use to make the characters helpless). Or this: It is noted early on that Vickers (Charlize Theron) stays in luxurious quarters that are actually a lifepod, completely separable from the rest of the ship. Towards the end, when things are going to hell, she needs to abandon ship, so she runs to the standard, coffin-sized escape pods; where she has to hurriedly don an environment suit before climbing into the pod. Her quarters/lifepod are shown to detach from the ship about ten seconds before her escape pod launches. So why didn't she just run to her quarters and buckle into a seat? After all, that sort of thing is explicitly given as the reason she set it up that way in the first place.  And why in the hell-of-being-cut-to-pieces is the medical pod in her quarters(!) programmed exclusively for male patients? (Seriously, why would any medical pod be?)

This next one is actually a big issue for me.  There is a scene where a small lifeform is left alone for a time (a few hours in this case).  When we next see it, it is huge.  However, it is clear that there was no source of food for it during that time.  So where did all that mass come from?  I sort of have the same issue with comic-book characters like the Hulk, except that in the comic-book genre it is easier to accept, because willing acceptance of super powers is necessary.  Hulk's sudden mass increase is no more unbelievable than Cyclops' laser-eyes or any other character's power.  And, for all its (oh, so many) flaws, the first Hulk movie tried to address the issue.  At one point the military was able to track the Hulk by looking for sudden temperature drops as he absorbed the ambient energy around him.  (I said "tried").  It's just part of the genre. But Prometheus (like Alien, Species, and every other sci-fi/horror movie that uses this) is supposed to have at least a nodding acquaintance with physics.

Finally, though I can't say it was intentional, my first thought on seeing the titular ship was "It looks suspiciously like Serenity on steroids."

So yeah.  Almost good, but overall not worth it.  I kind of want my two hours back.

Later,

Brownies

So I decided I wanted to make brownies. But I wanted to try something different. Here's what I did:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a double boiler*, I combined a can of Mtn Dew: Code Red, 4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, one stick of butter and half a teaspoon of vanilla. I whisked it occasionally, but mostly just let it go while I prepared the rest.

In a mixing bowl, I combined one and a third cup flour, a quarter teaspoon salt, a quarter teaspoon baking soda, and 1 cup of sugar (I would have cut this in half or even left it out, if I'd been thinking. The Code Red has plenty of sugar already).

I separated out two egg yolks.

Now I poured the Code Red mixture into the dry ingredients, and beat with an electric mixer (scraping the sides with a spatula), then added the egg yolks while still beating. I also added a quarter cup of walnut pieces and some maraschino cherries I chopped.

I poured the batter into a greased brownie pan, and baked for 25 minutes.

As you can see, It came out more cake-like than brownie-like.

Still, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of chocolate sauce, it was really good

It even wasn't over-sweet like I'd feared it would be. I'm calling this a success.

Later,

* My double boiler is a 1 qt saucepan and a 2 qt saucepan. Figure it out.

Today's episode of "Things that irritate me."

Okay, here's another thing that irritates me (is this a sign of getting old?):

Arrogant, iconoclastic jackasses who think their personal taste in music (or books, movies, whatever) is objectively correct and anyone who disagrees is simply wrong. These jerks seem to be positively eager to express their disdain and contempt. Bonus irritation if they also feel the need to expound at length on exactly why you are wrong.

Later,

Mouse Trap

So I wrote this little applet. If you move the mouse into the gray panel, then press and hold the left button, you will not be able to move the mouse out of the panel until you release the button. It also leaves a trail, and tracks the location of the mouse cursor while it is being dragged around in the panel.

This uses Java's Robot class, which can take control of the keyboard and mouse. This is a big security risk, so, even though I promise that this applet does nothing malicious (or anything more than I've described for that matter), unless you know and/or trust me, do not give the applet permission to run.



If you don't give it permission, it will still track the mouse when dragged around in the panel, but it won't trap it there.

Later,

Well that's a question answered

Sometimes I get email for a Prof. John Marley (or Dr. John Marley). It hasn't happened in a while. I usually just mark it spam and delete it. Today however, the body of the email included the address it was meant to go to.

johnmarley@gmail.com

That isn't me.

My email address is john.marley@gmail.com

So I did a search on the mistaken address. What I found is that there is a doctor in Australia named John E. Marley, whose email address is prof.johnmarley@gmail.com.

So if someone leaves the "prof." off, gmail probably finds my address before his as a best guess. I suppose I'll forward the mail I received today to him.

Later,

I can't watch lecture videos.

I can't watch certain types of videos.

Specifically lecture or debate videos in which the scene is just people talking (and using slides as visual aids).

For instance, I have been trying to watch videos of last night's debate between Sam Harris and William Lane Craig. I am really, really interested in this debate. But I just can't follow it. I would be different if I was actually there, but not a lot. I hated lectures in college, too. I usually skipped them. (I'd go to the class website for reading/homework assignments, and to recitations or office hours to ask questions).

But sticking to my problem with videos.

If the speaker has an accent or a monotonic voice, mumbles, speaks too quickly or too slowly then I will tune out, no matter how hard I try to follow. The same goes for a poor quality audio recording. If there is an audience, the mic often picks up that noise, too, and drowns out the speaker. If the speaker sounds like someone else, I will be too distracted to follow along. (I can't listen to either Isaac Asimov or Richard Feynman. They both have an accent that reminds me too much of Billy Crystal.)

There's no possible interaction either. If I don't understand something, I can't say "Please repeat that." I have to back up the video and listen again. And it will be exactly the same each time. So I may have to listen several times to work out what is being said.

Then there are too many distractions on my end to list.

I don't have the same problem with studio produced and edited videos or shows. I have no problem with Mythbusters or videos like this one, because they are designed to be engaging. Just watching someone talk is boring, no matter how interested I am in the subject matter.

So I try to find transcripts if I can. Failing that I have to rely on reviews and summaries. Which sucks, because if the reviewer gets it wrong, so do I.

Later,

Weird

So, I'm sitting here doing some net-surfing. I see what seems to be a shadow of something moving on the wall. But when I turn my head to get a better look, there's no shadow. "Weird" I think, and turn back to the computer. The moving shadow returns immediately. Gone when I look. There. Gone. There. Gone. "But that's mad," I think (in Simon Jones' voice). Eventually I realize that it isn't a shadow. It's a reflection in my glasses. When I move my head to look where the "shadow" seems to be, the object is no longer reflected.

I'm pretty tired (going to bed soon).

Later,