'...'

This past weekend I had the good blessing to see two things which I am not exactly qualified to describe well. One of which I am pretty confident I will never see again. I was flying on a plain from a dismal week of work in Baku and toward the promise of a free weekend in Abu Dhabi. Coming into the city of Dubai the Persian Gulf was lit by small oil rigs and fishing boats, an amazing sight to be sure. I saw a firework firework burn out almost level with the plane, and thought, 'who's shooting fireworks at 2 o'clock in the morning?' And then it hit me. It wasn't a firework at all. It wasn't a rocket or another plane. It was a shooting star. In the clear desert night sky over the persian gulf I got to see a shooting star up close. I saw it streak across the atmosphere and fizzle in a shower of sparks. I couldn't believe it. I don't even know how to describe it in a way that will remotely convey how cool it was. This I will never get to see again.

Still flabbergasted from my spotting of the shooting star, the plane continued it's descent into Dubai. Which brings me to the second amazing sight from this weekend. Towering above the city was the world's tallest building, the Berj Dubai. I have been to New York and I have seen the Empire State Building, but what makes the Berj so unique is the fact that there is nothing around it. Even the tallest buildings around are only a third of its height. A fact I was reminded of by my cab driver when I returned to Dubai three days later. 

I think it is awesome that I went into trip wanting to see Dubai and came out of it hardly having been impressed by what I saw, all because the most brilliant of manmade constructions couldn't compare with the amazing beauty of God's creation. 

On what is allowed

I don't mean to make it sound like I'm making a transistion into a philosophical hobbiest. Spending large amounts of time away from everyone and everything I know just tends to bring it out in me. I don't have much to occupy my time other than a little bit of work and a lot of free time to read, doodle, and shoot some occasional video. Which brings me to what I've been thinking about a lot lately. Freedom.

I read this book called Little Brother. I had heard about on a couple blogs I frequent and their praise, coupled with the fact that it was one of a handful of english books available here, had me intrigued. To say the least I was blown away. This book is fun, way fun. If you have ever had any interest in tinkering with things, computers, or the internet, you might want to pick this book up. I seriously geeked out. Everytime I sat down to read I had my computer there with me and every couple of pages I ended up googleing something with the thought of 'you can do that?' running through my head. 

Sadly the book doesn't exactly deliver on the narrative front. It eventually runs out of steam and drags itself up to a climax that is a whimper compared to the solid first act. Part of the reason is that the author makes the decision to preach to the reader in what I can only assume is the hope that they will accept his point of view without the processing the argument that he is delivering. He repeatedly 'Bush bashes' (Bush isn't a character in the novel, I'm just using that to summerize his overall contempt with the Department of Homeland Securities policies) and I found myself thinking, 'I can't agree with this.' I am not a staunch liberal detractor that thinks he tried to burn our country to ground, nor am I a hard core Bush supporter,  but I prefer to give the man the benefit of the doubt. He's the President. He knows more about this country than you and I will ever know. 

But I've gotten off topic. Freedom is...to tell the truth I'm not exactly sure what it is. To each person it may mean something different, but when it comes to political freedom and individual rights I have to draw a line right down the middle. I don't think that everything in the Patriot Act was justifiable, but I do feel that the Goverment has some amount of athority to tighten security in certain key areas. "Certain key areas" being the operative words. One example from the book is a reference to a court case in the early 90's. The case was Bernstein vs. The United States. In it, the Government argued that the computer code written by Daniel Bernstein for his doctoral thesis on applied mathmatics was illegal because they couldn't crack it. The brightest minds working for the NSA couldn't crack it so obviously this was dangerous right? Well you might be suprised to learn that you have at one time or another used Daniel's encription. If you've bought anything online using your credit card or paypal you've used it. If you've managed your bank account online you've used it. It keeps your information from falling into hands that you'd rather it not fall into. What the government didn't approve of ultimately bettered the lives of the American people, it made them safer. But there are numerous times when a particular device or loophole the government didn't approve of has killed thousands of people. It's hard to draw this line, and it is never a straight one, but it is important to think about. To have an opinion. 

In the end I think the best view point to have is to actively seek dialogue on the subject. Everyone is going to think something different than their neighbor and I believe that only by confronting the opposition head on can you justifiably rest in your beliefs. 

On Imitation

It has occurred to me that my English has gotten worse. I could point to the fact that I haven't written a paper in five years, or the fact that I haven't read a really good novel in a while, but I think there is another reason. I've started to imitate the local people.
Many people here speak fragmented English, which for some odd reason I have adopted when speaking to them. Automatically my brain slices and dices my sentences and they come out sounding remarkably similar to how an Azeri person would speak. Whether this is helpful or degrading to Azeri people, or people that don't speak English well, is a mute point, but what this got me thinking about was how people tend to imitate others.
It seems that in societies that are blessed with the ability to be somewhat decadent and able to neglect utilitarianism there is a tremendous pressure upon people to be creative. Be different. Go against the grain. Think outside the box. Those that we look up to, are those that create. They give us something we never would have conceived of, or better yet something we think we should have.
It occurs to me in writing this that this topic could get very complex very quickly. I could branch off into philosophizing about how our imitating things really hearkens back to some basic instinct of wanting to be creative and thus imitating God, or how there are no new stories, only new characters, but I won't.
What really interests me is the thought that learning comes through imitation, especially in regards to language. You want to influence people, just change the way you talk around them. See how long it takes them to adopt your words (Parents know just how influential their words can be on there children, for better or worse).
We imitate. There are no if's, and's, or but's about it. It is kind of suprising that people have such an aversion to something they practice regularly and have gained so much from. Or maybe it isn't. I don't know.

Azerbaijan

I recently took a job in Azerbaijan. Yeah, I hadn't heard of it either. The trip over was long and in total I stayed up for almost 30 hours straight. Now that I'm here and have had a few days and nights to adjust, I can finally sit down and post a new blog. Azerbaijan as a country is pretty cool. Their isn't a lot in the way of national history that is important in a global sense or that I would have heard of in school, but the city is old. There is a temple here that is among the oldest religious structures in the world (they worshiped fire back then in case you were wondering). The people seem to be polite if somewhat apprehensive about interacting with Americans, definitely not the same as the more western European countries. The food, oh the food is outstanding. All the produce is very fresh and they love simple meat and bread dishes with a side of veggies. I threw together a short video of my first few days here. Hope you enjoy. There will definitely be more frequent updates from here on.

DIY: Paperback Book

A couple of weeks ago a fellow blogger, that just so happens to be related to me, told me about a website that will take your blogs over a period of time and compile them into book form. I'm not quite sure how the transition happened(it may have something to do with her email or watching too much "How It's Made" on Discovery Channel), but I started to research how involved it would be to make my own paperback book. Turns out it's pretty easy.

Just like in Mcgyver episodes the first thing you need to do is figure out what you'll need to build your book:

Glue (preferably flexible, but must be strong, so hot glue is out)
Paper
Exacto knife
Clamps
Card Stock

For this project I wanted to make a pocket design booklet out of graph paper. Cut the graph paper down to size and tap it on a table like a stack of cards to line everything up, then clamp it together using binder clips.



To get the pages to hold to each other as well as the binding you need to get glue between the pages. To do this simply fan the pages out by folding the free edge over like so:


Once you have done this simply apply glue(I like to use Gorilla Glue which requires you to dampen the surface before applying the glue) along the exposed areas and repeat in the opposite direction.

Next just press the stack with some weight for an hour or so to let the glue dry. Once that is done it's time to attach the binding/cover. Place the free edge of the paper stack along the edge of your card stock and crease and fold the card stock along the glued edge with backside of the exacto knife.


I like to add a extra crease about a quarter of an inch from the first crease for mark the edge of where the glue will go on either side of the cover.You're going to want to measure the thickness of your insert here and make another crease and fold where the back will line up. Once you have made all your creases just apply glue to this center portion and press it once again. When finished it should look like this:

Finally all you have to do is cut the card stock down to the appropriate size. A nice little notebook that's much cheaper than store bought you can personalize it all you like.

I also printed and made a full size screenplay. I won't say which movie I picked, but it was easily the best movie I saw this year.


I had to apply the colored band on the edge because I couldn't find card stock that was big enough for printer paper. Oh and by the way the website that my fellow blogger pointed me to was blurb.com if you're interested, but I might just try and make my own.

Watchmen

It finally happened yesterday. I made the trip over to the local cineplex with much anticipation to see Watchmen. The commercials have looked incredible and Warner Bros. certainly upped the advertising budget, perhaps hoping for another The Dark Knight. It just so happened that I saw the movie with two friends that hadn't read the book and one friend that had, so I was very interested to hear the perspectives of those that came into the movie knowing nothing about the story.
Spoilers Follow:
As far as a movie goes I would give it a B+, 3 out of 4 stars, whatever rating system you prefer. The visual pop of the film really sets it apart from previous comic book adaptations or even surrealist sci-fi films. Say what you want about Zack Snyder, the man knows how to work a camera. I guess that is what they mean by "visionary". Unfortunately, some of the special effects and make up completely fall flat. At several points during the film the actors appear obviously before a green screen, and I won't even get into the portrayal of Richard Nixon. It was sad to see them handle his character, even though he is a minor one, with so little care.
Which brings me to the music. Wow did Mr. Snyder drop the ball here. Some moments work extremely well, Bob Dylan in the opening credits, and others sound like a bad mix tape, "Sounds of Silence" at the Comedian's funeral. He gives snippets of familiar songs but only just enough for you to get a chuckle out of it or to say, "Oh, I love this song!" The original music is exciting and works great in the action sequences and I wish that he had done something similar to what he did in 300 and used more orchestration with and used familiar songs more sparingly.
The actors do a decent job of playing their perspective roles, especially Jackie Earle Haley and Billy Crudup. The only problems with the characters arise form the changes to the original story with regards to the nature of the characters. Dr. Manhattan is made into a redemptive character through a convenient plot device that prevents him of having knowledge of Ozymandias's plan. In the novel he is completely detached from world and even though he knows what Ozymandias will eventually do, he does nothing, he sees the logic of it. A logic the movie completely disregards. Another small nitpick is the way the movie spends too much time building up an energy crisis (a plot point I could clearly see a studio executives fighting for thinking people will be able to relate to without having read the source material or understanding the extent of Dr. Manhattan's power) and not enough time on the finer aspects of the character development. It skims over the reasons that people would fight for justice in the first place and that prevents the characters from having any inherent nobility later in the film.
End Spoilers
Overall the film was enjoyable for myself and the people I saw it with. It should be noted that the two people that hadn't read the novel left the theater slightly overwhelmed by the complexity, weight, and bleak nature of the story. These are certainly not the same kind of super heros that have 12 year old kids lining up to see it. When all the hype has settled the film will leave studio executives disappointed, audiences confused, and long time fans ultimately pleased. Strangely enough I think that this fits the nature of the comic better than it had been a monumental block buster. Those involved in the production that truly understand the source novel, I think, realize that this isn't for everyone and those that allow themselves to get involved in philosophical discussions about human nature and Machiavellianism will find a movie that will really get there blood red juices flowing.

Baby Bro

This past weekend my Baby Bro won the State Championship in basketball. It was awesome to see the seniors on his team reach the level that they did. This year will only be the second graduating class from their high school and most of the seniors were on the very first basketball team at the school. Congrats guys on a great year and an impressive win in the Finals. I threw this video together using footage I shot from the stands, unfortunately YouTube is having a copyright dispute with the record label that owns the rights to T.I.'s "Slide Show" which is the song that I used, so they deleted all of the audio. I'll work at is and hopefully I'll follow this up with an update with the audio fixed.



Update: I fixed the audio and swapped it out for Outkast's "So Fresh, So Clean". Also tweaked some of the title cards.