BrockLi Soup

My dear friend and former roommate Sara recently posted a video of herself doing a painting in a temporary tunnel over the Quarter Mile at RIT. The Quarter Mile (which is actually about a third of a mile) went from the sundial on the dorm side to the Infinity Quad on the academic side, so I walked it almost every day until I moved out of the dorms at the end of my junior year. The temporary “tunnel” was erected late in my freshman year when they started the Gordon Field House. I don’t remember when they tore it back down, but I remember thinking that, at that point in my time at RIT, it had been there longer than it hadn’t, so it was weird to see it go.

After the thing was built, RIT had a bunch of artists paint panels in it. I have no idea how they chose the people to do it, but Sara painted Icarus in one panel (see the final product in her gallery). I walked past it almost every day for a couple years, but I didn’t realize at the time that she had done it because I barely knew her then.

Most of my fondest memories are of seemingly insignificant shit like this: walking past a bunch of paintings from people I didn’t know at the time, watching CMT’s Top 20 with BP, our weekly Iron Chef get-togethers. It’s always the little things that seem most important in retrospect.

Does anyone else feel like they don’t really have a home town?

I sort of keep in touch with two friends from grade school, one via a blog and the other via the occasional AIM chat every couple months. When I’m actually home, I hang out with one guy who I graduated with, a couple guys that were younger, and a handful of guys that I didn’t even know back then. Aside from my family, there are only a couple of people I feel close to back in the Buffalo area.

It seems like everyone has their crew of friends back home that they grew up with. Is it unusual that I don’t?

When I was about fourteen, I got my hands on my grandfather’s old Nikon SLR. I can only assume that my dad had it for years (grandpa died when I was a baby), but I’m really not sure how I wound up with it.

The batteries had long since died by the time I got it. It took two watch batteries, which we didn’t have lying around, so I had some time to read through the manual before I finally got batteries and could actually play with it. It was a lot to try to wrap my head around, with no experience beyond a cheap Kodak 35MM, but I understood the basics and shot a few rolls of film.

I’ve still got some “artsy” shots I did - they’re laughably inane in retrospect, but at fourteen I thought it was the coolest shit ever. More importantly, every shot came out looking better than any other picture I - or anyone I knew - had even taken. All I had seen was blurry, under-lit, off-color shots from regular point-and-shoot cameras, so getting that first roll of film back was like seeing color for the first time. The focus! The colors! The detail! I had never imagined that regular people could produce pictures that looked like a professional took them.

Granted, they didn’t look like a professional took them, and a lot of them were out of focus, but the difference was incredible. I only shot a few rolls on that camera - when you’re only source of income is mowing the neighbor’s lawn, photo development will put a significant dent in your budget, so I put it on a shelf and forgot about it. A few years ago, my brother took the camera and used it for a photo class, and as far as I know he’s still got it. I don’t think he’s used it since, so I could probably get it back from him - thing is, development hasn’t gotten any cheaper.

My dad also had an SLR camera - an old Sears model - that he used once in a while when we were kids. I can’t even remember him taking any pictures; I just remember the tan camera bag that always sat high up on a shelf in our front closet. Last fall, I borrowed it from him for a couple weeks. It had been stored in the garage for several years, so the body was a little moldy, the fibers around the mirror were all dry-rotted, and if I looked closely, I could see tiny spiderweb patterns in the lenses (Mold? Moisture?). I shot a few rolls, a half-dozen shots actually came out, and they all looked like crap.

I mention all of this because the photo bug has been biting lately. I initially borrowed my dad’s camera because, thanks to Flickr, I was seeing more and more really nice photos and I wanted to try my hand at it again. In the past couple months, four friends have gotten digital SLRs - a Nikon D70s, a D80, a Canon Rebel XT and an XTi. They keep coming down in price (as these things will), and Nikon has a whole spread of options (D40, D50, D70, D70s, D80) so they’ve been looking more and more tempting. Granted, I can’t afford a $600 toy right now, but I can think about them without crying about my bank balance.

BP brought his Rebel XTi with him this weekend and let me play with it more than he probably should have. I’ve posted a bunch of pictures from the weekend, including some he shot. I always thought that the auto-focus lens was sort of a cop-out, but you can take nice photos really easily with it and still flip over to manual focus when you want more control. It was convenient in the bar, when we were just taking a bunch of quick shots of people, but also easy to get a little more particular about things.

Now that I’ve actually had the chance to play with a digital SLR for a bit, I want one more than ever. It’s still on the Wishlist of Shit I Won’t Be Able To Afford Until I Finish Paying For College or Maybe Win The Lottery, but sooner or later, I’ll be able to get one.

I haven’t been listening to music much this past month. I think it’s because I’ve been wearing glasses instead of contacts for most of the past month: I wear headphones when I’m listening to music at work, and they get uncomfortable quick with glasses on.

So, it’s a short list this month, but that’s OK. I just want to cross it off my to-do list.

Albums

Cowboy Mouth - Voodoo Lounge
I saw these guys open for Barenaked Ladies about eight years ago, when I was a sophomore in high school. It was the first concert I’d been to, so it was more memorable for that than for their music. They came back across my radar when they released Easy in the summer of 2002, and I listened to them quite a bit three years later when I was working for the College of Business. They’re a fun, upbeat, slightly southern rock band, so they make good programming music. They also hail from New Orleans, so a couple songs on this disc address Katrina and the aftermath. My favorites: Joe Strummer, a send-up to the late Clash singer, and I Told Ya.

Singles

The Sounds - Living In America
I have no idea when or how I got this MP3, but it came up on shuffle a few weeks ago and I love it.

Teddybears (feat. Iggy Pop) - Punkrocker
These guys got two mentions last month, but Punkrocker is definitely the best yet. I’ve never been an Iggy Pop fan - in fact, I’m not even sure I’ve heard anything other than Lust for Life - so I can’t really tell you how this compares to his previous work. The best I can do to describe this track is mellow indie-synth, with a tired-sounding Iggy crooning on top. The Godfather of Punk is getting old - he’ll be sixty this year - and he may still be in good shape, but it shows in his voice.

The New Pornographers - Use It
Technically, this was mentioned last month as part of the Twin Cinema album, but I’m still listening to it a lot. It’s just a really good track.

The New Pornographers - The Slow Descent into Alcoholism
This was on Mass Romantic, but it’s become one of my favorite Pornographers tracks of late.

According to Last.fm, these were my top 11 artists for the past year (11 because I wanted to include Gogol), including play count:

1. Against Me! (403)
2. The New Pornographers (294)
3. Flogging Molly (265)
4. The All-American Rejects (245)
5. Dropkick Murphys (167)
6. Ted Leo and The Pharmacists (133)
7. Billy Talent (126)
8. Metallica (117)
9. Coheed and Cambria (108)
10. Weezer (103)
11. Gogol Bordello (102)

And the top 10 tracks:

1. Against Me! – You Look Like I Need a Drink (34)
2. Flogging Molly – Laura (30)
3. Ben Folds – Bitches Ain’t Shit (25)
4. Against Me! – Those Anarcho Punks Are Mysterious (25)
5. Against Me! – Don’t Lose Touch (25)
6. O.A.R. – Love and Memories (24)
7. Against Me! – Miami (22)
8. Silversun Pickups – Kissing Families (21)
9. Editors – Munich (21)
10. Lacuna Coil – Enjoy The Silence (20)

BP and Klem are down here for the weekend, and we’ve been having a hell of a time.

BP and I have been marauding as the O’Malley twins all weekend: our mother Shannon - rest her soul, she died when we were nine - slept with two different men, Patrick and Seamus, in the same evening, thus two different sperm fertilized the same egg, thus two twins from different fathers.

Yesterday, we had dinner at the pub and met a ton of college kids in town for this solar power contest thing, then went out to Whitlow’s to meet up with a bunch of Sharon’s friends, and convinced this chick Jen that BP and I really WERE twins. After some pant-less Scrubs and pizza, we turned in around 4.

We finally got up around one today, grabbed lunch (breakfast?) at Five Guys around four, and had some more napping, Scrubs, and beer. We were going to get drinks at Fado, but a long line sent us up to Dupont Circle, where Schmitty invited us to a full-up apartment party for a bit (just long enough for me to fall halfway down the outdoor stairway in front of a bunch of people). We wound up downstairs at The Big Hunt, then had an absolutely delicious dinner at Kramerbooks & Afterword Cafe, then met some cool chicks on the Metro ride home and spent pretty much the whole night yelling “O’Malley!”

It’s been rowdy and fun and lovely, and I wish we could do it every weekend.

UPDATE: I feel it’s worth noting that while I was writing this, they both fell asleep in front of the TV. Damn college kids got nothing on me!

Does anyone know a decent blog traffic analysis tool? I’ve been using Google Analytics, but it’s geared toward companies and marketers, not bloggers. On the upside, it gathers data via JavaScript, so I only get stats from actual visitors and not bots or spammers. My hosting company offers a web stats tool, but the numbers there are an order of magnitude higher than the ones on Analytics because they count all page requests, not just the ones that come from an actual browser.

I can also get the log files from my host, so a desktop app that handles raw files would work. I used Weblog Expert Lite for a little while; it gives me the information I want, but since the reports are based on the logs from the server, it’s got all the same crap results that the host’s web stats utility does. As such, another JavaScript-based tool would probably be best.

JR linked me to Measure Map the other day; I don’t know anything about it, but it’s intriguing…and closed to new users right now. Anyone got any other ideas?

Waking up in my apartment this morning was very much like living in the RIT dorms in late spring or early fall: it’s 80 degrees in my room, the air conditioning is useless, and all I can do is throw open the windows (and here, my balcony door) and sit really still, waiting for a cool breeze. When I look outside, there are people in shorts and t-shirts playing soccer out in the quad (er, the building’s courtyard).

I know they say that Global Warming only causes small temperature changes over several years, and that this unusual heat is all thanks to El Niño, but if this is an indication of what’s to come, I’m moving to Canada. I’m also wondering if our summer will also be abnormally warm, in which case I won’t be leaving my apartment between April and October.

But we’ll worry about that then. For now, I need to find some shorts so BP, Klem and I can go do whatever it is we’re going to do today.

It’s weird to hear weed whackers and smell fresh-cut grass in January.

One of the points that seems to come up a lot in atheist commentaries is the fact that religion holds some special place in our society that protects it from criticism. As Sam Harris wrote in Letter to a Christian Nation:

While believing strongly, without evidence, is considered a mark of madness or stupidity in any other area of our lives, faith in God still holds immense prestige in our society. Religion is the one area of our discourse where it is considered noble to pretend to be certain about things no human being could possibly be certain about.

It’s true that discussing religion has long been considered impolite, and criticizing another person’s religious beliefs is sometimes seen as cause for confrontation. The leap from religious criticism to religious intolerance isn’t necessarily a difficault one to make.

It’s for that reason that I’ve always felt a little put off by Harris’ writing. I enjoyed Letter to a Christian Nation when I read it a few months ago. Right now, my copy is probably sitting on my dad’s pile of crap at home; when I was home for Christmas, I left it for him to read so he could get a sense of my stance on things (I included the disclaimer that Harris makes a much more aggressive argument than I do). It’s true that I think belief in some higher deity, with absolutely no evidence, is a little ridiculous, but that’s not really the way to make the argument. “I think you’re core beliefs are ludicrous and you’re just too ignorant to see it.” You’re not going to win any converts that way, for damn sure.

However, this is pretty much the way Harris operates. Edge.org posted an article from him on Christmas: 10 Myths - and 10 Truths - About Atheism. Just before number 1, he offers this level-headed view of the situation:

Given that we know that atheists are often among the most intelligent and scientifically literate people in any society, it seems important to deflate the myths that prevent them from playing a larger role in our national discourse.

It’s worth noting at this point that Myth #6 is “Atheists are arrogant.”

About a month before this article was published, Richard Dawkins addressed the issue on his website in I’m An Atheist, BUT…

5. I’m an atheist, but I wish to dissociate myself from your intemperately strong language.

Sam Harris and I have both received criticism of this kind… Yet if you look at the language we employ, it is no more strong or intemperate than anybody would use if criticizing a political or economic point of view: no stronger or more intemperate than any theatre critic, art critic or book critic when writing a negative review. Our language sounds strong and intemperate only because of the same weird convention I have already mentioned, that religious faith is uniquely privileged: above and beyond criticism.

…Book critics or theatre critics can be derisively negative and earn delighted praise for the trenchant wit of their review. A politician may attack an opponent scathingly across the floor of the House and earn plaudits for his robust pugnacity. But let a critic of religion employ a fraction of the same direct forthrightness, and polite society will purse its lips and shake its head…

I think Dawkins is calling people like me the atheist equivalent of twice-a-year Catholics - the semi-devout who swell churches on Christmas and Easter, but don’t feel guilty enough to attend mass every week.

Expressing a negative opinion of a film maker’s movie or an author’s book is hardly on par with attacking someone’s religious convictions. Dawkin’s The God Delusion has been on the New York Time’s Best Seller list for 14 weeks now, so I’m hardly in a position to question his methods, but I can question the sustainability of them. Ideally, we will someday find ourselves in a society that values science over superstition and looks back fondly on the days of religious zealotry the same way we look back on the imaginary friends of our childhoods - how silly we were! - but this is not the way to get there.

Maybe Harris and Dawkins are just interested in stirring up controversy so they can sell books. I don’t care either way: at least they’re bringing attention to the issue. However, I don’t think that you can try to change someone’s deeply-held beliefs about the world around them the same way you try to change their opinion about a movie or politics. It’s true that religion holds a privileged, untouchable status in our society, but those are the rules one has to play by if one wants to do anything about it. Listing ten myths about atheism isn’t going to change this country’s perception of atheists if we just keep producing this self-righteous horseshit.

Like the new look? Of course you do.

I upgraded to MT 3.2 almost a year ago, and “re-design blog” has been on my to-do list ever since. The default template isn’t bad, but I definitely didn’t care for the grey-blue crap. So, I stripped out most of the coloring, touched up some borders, and brought back the random banner images (who doesn’t love random banner images?). I’ve got about a dozen of them from the old design and I’ll be adding more when I get around to it - collect them all!

I don’t know if anyone besides Jym has tried the LJ Comment Grabber, but I fixed the comment parsing…sort of. Read the project page for more details. If you are using it, this is definitely an update you want to get.

Now that we’re a full twelve hours (and change) into the new year, I think it’s about time for a little self-evaluation with regards to resolutions.

1. Go to the gym: It’s where I started my day.
2. Spend less time just hanging out in the apartment: I’ve already been out of the apartment TWICE. I know some people (ahem, roommates) who aren’t even out of bed yet.
3. Get a handle on my finances: Unless you count the bill payments I scheduled online last night (they’ll be processed in the next couple of days), I haven’t spent a dime. I DID go down to Olsson’s (second trip out of the apartment) looking for a Moleskine daily planner and the Little Miss Sunshine DVD, but they had neither so I’m still doing OK.
4. Be more positive about life in general: I’m just bursting with joy this morning.
5. Try brewing beer: Not yet. Maybe I’ll start small: “Try drinking beer.”
6. Do more personal projects: I took care of a lot of little crap this morning - the kind of stuff that only takes ten minutes, but just keeps getting put off. I’ve also started plans for a big project that’s been percolating for a few weeks and combined all my little to-do lists of smaller projects, so I know what I’m up against.

Not so bad, eh? I think we can all agree that 2007 is already a strong contender for Best Year In The Second Half of This Decade So Far.

To begin with: yes, I’m sitting at home at midnight on New Year’s Eve. I’ve had an upset stomach all evening and really didn’t feel like going out, so I didn’t. I’ve been dicking around with MySQL and writing this post for the past two hours, so I didn’t even realize it was 2007 until I heard fireworks in DC. For the record, they can’t be seen from my balcony. I DID see the last 30 seconds of the ball drop; those people in Times Square always seem to have a much better New Year’s Eve than I do.

Anyway.

It’s been a banner year for movie-watchin, folks! I’m not going to give all the analysis I did last year. In all honesty, I DID run the same queries for this year, but they aren’t interesting enough to include (I don’t know why I bothered last year).

In the way of quick summary: since the beginning of 2004, I’ve been noting every movie I see all the way through, an idea I stole from Grahams. It’s likely that I’ve forgotten one or two, but I consider it to be a complete list. Here are the basic stats for the past three years:

I started watching more movies around the time I started keeping track of them, so I’m more than certain that this year has had my highest volume of movie-viewings yet. 144 movies this year means 12 a month, or one every two and a half days. There were nine movies that I watched twice this year; there are others that I’ve seen in previous years and again this year (ie, Boondock Saints, which I’ve seen five times in the past three years), but I don’t feel like coming up with the SQL query to determine that number.

I’ve definitely become a little more critical in my ratings, something I wanted to improve on from last year. I noted last year that I generally only watch movies I expect to like, so the numbers are skewed toward the positive. It’s hard to say if I’ve actually gotten more critical, or just started taking more chances on movies that I may not like (thus causing more low ratings).

I subscribed to Netflix just before moving to Arlington at the end of last November, and then upgraded from three to four movies at a time sometime early this year. In 2006, I watched 88 movies from Netflix. According to their website, I returned 111 discs this year. Eight of those were movies I got but didn’t watch, and the remaining 15 were TV shows. I’d say I’m getting my money’s worth: at $24/month, I paid about $2.60 per disc (including TV shows and unwatched movies). That’s certainly better than $10 at Regal.

I’ve put a serious dent in the list of movies I need to see, but I’ve still got over 340 discs in my Netflix queue. I approach it sort of like I approach books: if it sounds interesting, I’ll try it. When I glance over the list, I don’t even recognize half the titles. I go through it every month or two and remove a bunch that were added on a whim, but obviously I haven’t done so in a while. I should probably spend some time getting rid of all the crap that will never make it to the top: I’m constantly shuffling my queue, and the stuff I don’t recognize never makes it to the top.

Now, I need some suggestions. I’ve caught up on a bunch of older stuff I hadn’t seen, but I want to spend the first month or two of the new year watching new movies that I’ve been missing. What movies would you recommend from the past year or two? The second season of The Office is coming first no matter what you say, but drop me an e-mail or leave a comment here if you’ve seen something good lately.

Addendum: I’ve just trimmed the queue from 348 to 213. That should help.