Gentle Reader -- You are welcome to peruse my web-based journal. I assure you that my contributions to this medium will be both infrequent and inconsequential. Read on!

HELP!

This "Spyware" thing has taken control of my computer, constantly changing my homepage and suddenly flooding me with popups. I don't know how I got this, and I want to get rid of it. Can anyone help me?

Also -- my first day of work at my new job is tomorrow, so wish me luck. posted by Carlton at 6:34 PM

TWO TOWERS EE

I have this DVD collection, and have watched it enough to get quite tired of it, and vow to get on with my other important activities of life. Whenever I walk into the living room, however, I rediscover an appetite for switching it on and plowing through the myriad extras, commentary tracks, documentaries, etc.

Comments (Very Derivative):

1. Sean Astin SHUT UP. Shut your fucking pie-hole. You have nothing interesting to say and you are using up oxygen that might better be breathed by any of the other actors. I'll cut you some slack because your mother was batshit crazy and you clearly had a hard childhood, but that only goes so far. I wonder why the editors of the commentaries allowed him to go on like that.

2. It occurs to me that the Two Towers (the movie) has all of three instances in which a major character who is thought to be dead by the other chjaracters is discovered to be alive (counting Mippen as one). I would say that this is overuse of this dramatic trick, except that I didn't notice it until just now. Also, the film only tries to fool the viewer into thinking that the character is dead in one instance, Gandalf, which was a carryover from the last flick. So, I guess it works.

3. I think this product pushes the DVD into an entirely new realm of importance in regards to cinematic product. The extra forty-five or so minutes that is included here is going to be regarded as essential for fans, and the theatrical version will fall away. Is it right to say that the theatrical version is a commercial for the DVD? Putting aside my inner geek, I am completely impressed with the quality and attention to detail that is shown in these two EE DVD's. Peter Jackson should be praised for, among many other things, keeping his eye on the end product in the consumer's hands.

4. More Boromir! Yay!

5. If ROTK is at least as good as the first two movies (and I'm going to bet that it will be), then this will be the only one of the major franchises that hasn't dramatically disappointed a base of fans. There won't be a Return of the Jedi, a Matrix Revolutions, a Godfather III, a Highlander II, a Phantom Menace (shudder) or any other horribles that one could list. That would be a great accomplishment.

6. Any thoughts about showing the entire LOTR on television as a miniseries? There may be eleven hours of screen time when ROTK EE comes out, and no bad language or sex at all. Certainly one of the cable movie networks should show the entire thing nonstop once a year or so. People would watch.

7. This is enough to get me excited about King Kong, which otherwise leaves me cold. posted by Carlton at 5:01 PM

DELETED POST

I mention here, simply because someone asked, that I deleted a long response to Scott's comment about the "four points". I thought it was a bit snarky, which was not the tone I wanted to strike. Boiled down to its nuggets, it said the following:

Scott is right to assert that his students are not Carlton or Greg or Scott -- for one thing, he points out that his students as a group are on a different skill level (allegedly lower -- I have a hard time evaluating my own level at the time, Scott seems positively insecure about his). I think he's correct about that, but that he may be ignoring this idea by assuming that all of his students are similar to him in personality and having similar experiences with similar solutions.

I would point out that he almost certainly has a wide variety of personality types in his class (Gregs and Carltons, for example), for whom his "four points" are at best inappropriate and at worst confusing and discouraging. (Student: "Scott said we should be staying up overnight and eating all the time and living in lean-tos and washing our hands every five minutes! Why am I not like the others? Wah!")

I imagine that Scott was actually more moderate in his lecture than he presents himself in his post. A simple disclaimer of "your mileage may vary -- many students find this helpful" would probably do the trick. posted by Carlton at 4:36 PM

THE LAWS OF ROBOTICS

Scott just posted the following principles about the college experience, which were noteworthy for me because my experience has taught me the exact opposite of each. They are:

1. Never turn down free food.
2. Home is anywhere that keeps the rain off your head.
3. Sleep is optional.
4. College will make you obsessive-compulsive.


1. Most of my adult life has been occupied with learning to avoid free food. I was reatively skinny in high school, but once I got to college where food was free and plentiful (in that I could eat as much as I could stuff in my greedy face all day every day in the Commons and my scholarship covered the bill) I packed on the pounds and never looked back. In my current situation, a large law firm, there are always sandwiches, cookies, drinks and other emuscables available somewhere, if you look for them. Many times, they are foisted on you by some well-meaning person who will be sad if you don't accept. The food-avoidance skill is a necessity, especially for a natural "grazer" like me.

2. It's really quite difficult to get a space to feel like home. I lived in the same room in the dorm for three years, and I think it took me an entire semester to hang anything on the wall in my part of the room. In the fun-but-dirty semi-commune where I lived during law school, I believe I cooked a meal exactly four times -- it only takes one instance of discovering someone has put a saucepan back into the cabinet without washing it at all to put you off of the kitchen for good. Such a place is not 'home' to me.

3. Sleep is vital. I organized my classes around my afternoon naps. I soon discovered that if I had not learned or written it by 11PM, it would not get learned or written.

4. This one simply baffles me. I don't even know what phenomenon this refers to. Can anyone help me?

posted by Carlton at 12:01 AM

DEMOGRAPHICS

There are people in the world who, upon finding themselves blessed with a couple of weeks of vacation during which they weren't going anywhere, would have a very clean house. I'm not one of those people. I walk through a room trailing dirty dishes, it seems.

There are also those who, in the above circumstances, would post to their blog. I am also apparently not one of those people.


I AM reading a book entitled War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning, by Chris Hedges, which is double-plus good. Go out and get it.
posted by Carlton at 8:59 PM

NEWS

So, I have a new job. I have been quite unhappy at my old job for a while now, since a bit before our merger with the big national firm in Febraury. The specifics don't bear mentioning, but I can safely say that whenever we had a big meeting (and we had meeting after meeting after meeting) to discuss for great the new firm was and how we would be constantly moving forward into a bright new day, the message that I got loud and clear was "You will not last here, Carlton".

So, I got a new job, at the firm where my friend Amy works (though she's in a different department). I'm exited to make the change, and excited to be working closer to Ms. Twink's office. My compensation is exactly the same, although there is the possibility of a raise as early as January (based on my "year" as opposed to any work that I may or may not have performed by then). I had it on good authority that I would probaby never ever get a raise at the old place (they are cheap).

Best of all, however, is that I don't start until December, so I have a couple of weeks to sit around and watch TV in my underwear. posted by Carlton at 11:29 PM

NOW IT CAN BE SHOWN

If anyone out there is interested in looking at some of the anonymous postcards I've received, they may be seen here (click to enlarge). More will be forthcoming.

I think I know who it is. posted by Carlton at 8:16 PM