Dear Pixar, we need a different kind of hero…

Posted on June 1, 2009 by Gandalfe

uppic We took two of the grandkids and our daughter to see UP. What a laugh fest that was. Getting food by the way for five people reminded me how much work it was to raise kids.

From NPR and Linda Holmes we hear this.

“I have nothing against princesses. I have nothing against movies with princesses. But don’t the Disney princesses pretty much have us covered? If we had to wait for your thirteenth movie for you to make one with a girl at the center, couldn’t you have chosen something — something — for her to be that could compete with plucky robots and adventurous space toys?

Or more to the point, why couldn’t your first female central character be as specifically drawn as the women and girls (and girl robots, etc.) you’re already writing as secondary characters? Ratatouille has a chef! WALL-E has Eve! The Incredibles has superheroes!“

Very nicely put and an interesting view point. And the comments are even a good read this time with this comment from Jenz:

“And regarding Wall-E. Did you miss that not only is Eve a main character of the story she is the one that saves Wall-E? She was more advanced and stronger.”

We hardily recommend this movie. Kudos to Pixar.

Posted in Hobbies | Leave a comment

Bibliodyssey: Sax Noir

Posted on May 31, 2009 by Gandalfe
Posted in Saxophone | Leave a comment

Anyone for a quickie?

Posted on May 29, 2009 by Gandalfe

Okay, I stole that title from Witchy. It (the use of quickie in a blog title) just made me laugh but is apropos here me thinks.  ;o)

Yesterday Microsoft rolled out Bing, our new search engine internally. Next week y’all get to see it. But if you go to Bing.com you can view a short video. Now the naming pundits are coming out in force, second guessing the naming strategy. Sigh…

bing

Having played with bing for a while now, I have come to luv many of the new features. If you believe in Bill Gate’s observation that “The future of search is verbs.” you will be very pleased with the new capabilities of this search platform.

See Ballmer and WSJ’s Walt Mossberg talk about bing and the future of search engines. Are we having fun yet?  :o)

Posted in Computers and Internet | 4 Comments

Damnation steampunk PC could be yours for a song

Posted on May 28, 2009 by Gandalfe

This computer (cover, art, wtf?) could be yours. Read more…

damnationPC-thumb-530x488-18433

Picture from http://dvice.com. So sexy, I soooo want.  :o)

Posted in Computers and Internet | Leave a comment

Joke du Jour: Classifieds

Posted on May 27, 2009 by Gandalfe

bannerdog4
These classifieds actually ran in a Minneapolis newspaper – a smile for your day…

FREE YORKSHIRE TERRIER: 8-years old. Hateful little bastard. Bites!

FREE PUPPIES: 1/2 Cocker Spaniel, 1/2 sneaky neighbor’s dog.

FREE PUPPIES:
Mother, AKC German Shepherd…
Father, Super Dog..able to leap tall fences in a single bound.

FOUND DIRTY WHITE DOG:
Looks like a rat. Been out a while. 
Better be a big reward.

NORDIC TRACK:
$300 Hardly used, call Chubby.

JOINING NUDIST COLONY!
Must sell washer and dryer $300.

WEDDING DRESS FOR SALE :
Worn once by mistake. Call Stephanie.

And the best one?:

FOR SALE BY OWNER:
Complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica, 45 volumes.
Excellent condition. $1,000 or best offer.
No longer needed,Got married last month. Wife knows everything.

A tip of the hat to sister Deb for the email.

Posted in Humor | 3 Comments

Reply to In Flanders Field

Posted on May 23, 2009 by Gandalfe

I have posted ‘In Flanders Field’ by LTC John McCrae so many times that I thought this year I would provide a pointer to the many replies in poetry form to this poem honoring the soldiers who give their lives for this country and our way of life.

flag

by John Mitchell

Oh! sleep in peace where poppies grow;
The torch your falling hands let go
Was caught by us, again held high,
A beacon light in Flanders sky
That dims the stars to those below.
You are our dead, you held the foe,
And ere the poppies cease to blow,
We’ll prove our faith in you who lie
In Flanders Fields.

Oh! rest in peace, we quickly go
To you who bravely died, and know
In other fields was heard the cry,
For freedom’s cause, of you who lie,
So still asleep where poppies grow,
In Flanders Fields.

As in rumbling sound, to and fro,
The lightning flashes, sky aglow,
The mighty hosts appear, and high
Above the din of battle cry,
Scarce heard amidst the guns below,
Are fearless hearts who fight the foe,
And guard the place where poppies grow.
Oh! sleep in peace, all you who lie
In Flanders Fields.

And still the poppies gently blow,
Between the crosses, row on row.
The larks, still bravely soaring high,
Are singing now their lullaby
To you who sleep where poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

Happy Memorial Day (was Decoration Day).

Posted in Holiday | 4 Comments

WCB Spring Concert

Posted on May 20, 2009 by Gandalfe

Suzy and I really enjoyed the Woodinville Community Band Spring 2009 Concert this weekend. Suzy played all eefer (Eb sopranino clarinet) parts and I was on alto sax. My sax peeps really came through for us, playing exceedingly well. We also performed for the first time at the Redmond High School Performance Center which turned out to be a very nice venue with a stellar staff.

We played with tongue in cheek arrangement, a musical joke called Perpetuum Mobile by Johan Strauss, Jr. and arranged by Alfred Reed.

We also played a special version of Fiddler on the Roof that most people have not heard. It was arranged by Michael P. Buckley. My solo starts at minute marker 5:25.

This was the last concert of the 2009 WCB Concert season.

Posted in Music | Leave a comment

Smashing Pumpkins and a Spring Concert

Posted on May 17, 2009 by Gandalfe

Smashing_Pumpkins Reading from Eolake’s NSFW blog and he sez:

What If That Guy From Smashing Pumpkins Lost His Car Keys?, parody.

Admittedly the most I know about SP is a line from one of my favorite movies: LA Story. Steve Martin’s character goes out with a much younger woman, and she asks him: "do you like Smashing Pumpkins?" And he says "I love doing that!"

The picture is from Harp Magazine. I knew about bands like SP and Nine Inch Nails (NIN) because my son listened to them when he was in high school. I remember walking through the parking lot at work and seeing SP and NIN bumper stickers. I then realized with some shock that kids my son’s age were working in the same company where I worked. Man, did I feel old.

Suzy and I have a Spring concert this afternoon at the Redmond High School Performance Center. She is on the eefer (Eb sopranino clarinet) and I am on alto sax. The music is very challenging and nice to listen too. I let y’all know how it goes.

Posted in Music | Leave a comment

NYT: Online Age Quiz Is a Window for Drug Makers

Posted on May 14, 2009 by Gandalfe

realage From the New York Times article Online Age Quiz Is a Window for Drug Makers we learn that takers of the popular online RealAge test are handing out valuable data to drug companies.

“According to RealAge, more than 27 million people have taken the test, which asks 150 or so questions about lifestyle and family history to assign a “biological age,” how young or old your habits make you. Then, RealAge makes recommendations on how to get “younger,” like taking multivitamins, eating breakfast and flossing your teeth. Nine million of those people have signed up to become RealAge members.

But while RealAge promotes better living through nonmedical solutions, the site makes its money by selling better living through drugs.”

I guess this was predictable to some. Supposedly the info provided is not connected to your name, but still I wonder when less scrupulous web data vendors will provide that info too.

Mr. Mikulak said that RealAge protected privacy: it does not give personally identifiable information to the drug companies and the advertisements in e-mail messages are clearly labeled as such. RealAge is “providing value in return for the information,” he said.

That is a fair trade-off, some members said. Leslie Swan, 31, a stay-at-home mother and former pharmaceuticals saleswoman in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., took RealAge after a Dr. Oz appearance on Oprah. She had not been aware that drug companies had access to her answers, but, she said, she was not bothered by that.

“So many patients are so clueless and they count on their doctor to know everything and be right 100 percent of the time and don’t always inform themselves, and I think that’s a huge mistake,” Ms. Swan said. “As a patient and a person, you have to take your health into your own hands.”

Read more…

Posted in Health and wellness | Leave a comment

Twitter Dating – what next?

Posted on May 11, 2009 by Gandalfe

Taken from http://amnesiablog.wordpress.com/

“With all the jokes about people finding dates on twitter Radaroo has created a prototype template. Users sign up by sending a tweet to @radaroo, specifying their gender, the gender(s) they’re interested in, and which activities they’d like to participate in on a first date.” <paraphrased>

      TwitterDates

                          Picture from amnesiablog.wordpress.com

It reminds me of the speed dating phenomenon where studies showed that most people made their choices within the first three seconds of meeting. Another study on split-second decision making, chronicled in Blink, found that what people said they wanted in an ideal mate did not match their subconscious preferences.

barcamp_second_life

                       Picture of SL from laughingsquid.com

I dunno, with the advent of Second Life where you can make money, marry people, have kids and live your lives without out ever really meeting them, I’m thinking we are getting much closer to the Matrix world Neo discovered when he took the red pill. Where’s the blue pill?

Posted in Technology | Leave a comment