- Saw Oblivion – well deserved round of applause as credits rolled. 2013-04-26
- Rough Night: Charleyhorses And Such: Last night was a rough one; I've been having some muscle pain … http://t.co/Ksg9bxvCIr 2013-04-27
- Haunting Images of #Oblivion: See the Film Before You Get Spoiled: http://t.co/7kRl9ajlDg 2013-04-27
- Getting lunch at the local burrito joint, managed to order in Spanish, watching Survivorman in Spanish too. http://t.co/3uwIcP8gUN 2013-04-27
- @RedRector Really? I've wandered into many an open church in the UK (granted, mostly in beauty spots and touristy areas). in reply to RedRector 2013-04-27
- @grantimahara hands off my turkey leg, sirrah! in reply to grantimahara 2013-04-27
Monthly Archives: April 2013
Haunting Images of Oblivion: See the Film Before You Get Spoiled
Don’t read that 2011 press blurb about Tom Cruise’s latest movie, Oblivion, if you haven’t seen the film. It gives away some of the best twists in a pretty satisfyingly twisty and stylish science fiction outing. It may show up as a link on GooglePlus; I wanted to see what had been written about the film back when the project got Tom Cruise to commit and was shocked to see that the premise and biggest surprise twist was awkwardly given away.
What I found satisfactory about the film was that I was still trying to work out the “bedrock premise” about 3/4 through the run time. I’m a long-time science fiction fan, and I’ve been disappointed before by big-action blockbuster “SF” stories that are just popcorn delivery vehicles IN SPACE.
The cinematography is both beautiful and disturbing, contrasting the dystopian Earth and the sky-dwelling utopian lives of a very effective team (Cruise’s character is a “drone repair” tech, partnered with a beautiful communications tech).
Don’t read any reviews, don’t look it up, just go and see the film and form your own conclusions. I’ll say that Tom Cruise is NOT a favorite actor or action star of ours, but my husband David and I have formed a kind of grudging respect for the work he’s done in high-tech action movies, although personally I liked “Minority Report” (based on a story written by an actual SF writer) much more than any of the Mission: Impossible movies, which are simply spectacle.
David remarked, as I was writing this, that he also really liked the movie, “even though it had Tom Cruise in it.” So don’t let your pre-conceived notions hold you back: see the movie with an open mind, and prepare for it to be blown.
Watch the film, and ponder what happens to all of human creativity and culture as you do. Think about art and music, as well as architecture and literature. Think of all the precious things that could be lost in a planet-wide cataclysm, whether we bring it on ourselves, or it’s brought upon us via some sort of deus ex machina.
Here’s the old preview from Huffington Post, which does NOT contain the spoilers in the quoted portion, but does ruin the premise if you read it and haven’t seen Oblivion. The movie turns out to be quite a bit more than the press blurb leads you to believe; see it, then come back here and tell me what you thought. I checked Twitter last night for comments on the film, and it was about 3/4 “good movie” and about 1/4 “durr, whut?” comments.
While the rapture hasn’t quite gone down yet on Saturday, the end of human civilization on Earth as we know it will have already come and gone in Tom Cruise’s newest film commitment.
via Tom Cruise Joins 'Oblivion,' Joseph Kasinski's Sci-Fi Film.
Rough Night: Charleyhorses And Such
Last night was a rough one; I’ve been having some muscle pain lately (probably due to not having my work chair/office desk/keyboard/mouse set up at the right positions relative to each other). But then all of a sudden I got a massive charleyhorse in my left calf.
Ow. Ow. Ow.
I’d been restless (we saw Oblivion last night, the images were striking), and I was tossing and turning a little. When it hit, the pain was kind of a mental shock, after being mostly comfortable and drowsy and mostly asleep.
I thrashed around and groaned and cried out, and David woke up a little. For a few sweaty moments, I wondered if I’d have to really wake him up to go to the emergency room – the pain was that bad. Then I decided to try to get up, but was surprised to find I was feeling dizzy, too. Back to bed for a bit – the pain made me think I was about to faint. Then I tried to just stand and put weight on the left leg, and like a miracle, the pain finally ebbed, and I could feel relief (and probably endorphins) surging through me.
What the hell was that?
I got up again, drank some water, took some stuff, and decided I need to eat better, get more exercise, and so on.
Del.icio.us Links: January 21st – April 24th
- Redheads
- Former GOP Rep. Joe Walsh: We Need to Begin Profiling ‘Young Muslim Men’ | Video Cafe
- Can 3D save the PC industry? – Hypergrid Business
- lf0y_psds.zip Eloh Elliott’s male skin
- Splendor Skin by Sezmra Svarog | OpenSim Creations
Alternative to Eloh Elliott open source skin
- Norwich mosaics: Royal Arcade
Many Art Nouveau treasures!
- Kent Fletcher – Naval training – humor
This is truly charming and funny – a landlocked Naval Reserve center that came up with a creative way to keep up on training
- Millions of middle-class jobs disappearing | CapeCodOnline.com
- Rigging models in Blender 2.64 – a workflow – SLUniverse Forums
- Mesh Textures: A message for all skin and clothing creators – Cyanide’s Mesh Applicator Script
- Merged Alpha Layers That Don’t Flicker in Second Life by Jopsy Pendragon
Another 'secret' building trick I learned a while back creates merged alpha layers … that don't flicker!
Try this yourself:
CREATE: a sphere
DUPLICATE it (press Ctrl-D, or shift-drag to copy)TEXTURE the spheres with the Library textures:
"Waterfall – dense layer 1" and "Rock – Heavy Moss"Just for fun, add this script to the sphere with the waterfall texture:
Weekly Tweets:
- @NPRinskeep like the suspicious hoodie puller-upper, then? The truth will come from camera imagery and evidence analysis, not stereotypes 2013-04-15
- RT @revmek Gracious God, give us that peace which passes all understanding. 2013-04-15
- Peace be with us all, within us and between us. 2013-04-15
- Well, wonder what the anti-tax protestors think of today's events? Best not to know. 2013-04-15
- @JC_Christian cant connect to scanner, watched WCVB awhile, this is nervewracking 2013-04-19
- @JC_Christian still cant connect via TuneIn, thanks for relaying, Sir. May go back to WCVB feed, for 2am F-bombs 2013-04-19
- @JC_Christian damn. 2013-04-19
- RT @WCVB If you live anywhere near Watertown, MA: STAY INSIDE. LIVE COVERAGE: http://t.co/TI4rPx4Wdc 2013-04-19
- RT @redeyechicago FBI just released new photos of the Boston bombing suspects: http://t.co/89hNYFiswR http://t.co/pQ7qYr3RUq 2013-04-19
- RT @MichaelSkolnik picture of one of the suspects in custody. #watertown http://t.co/pGgp56tT3v 2013-04-19
- Of course, must wait for confirmation. Already had one misidentification this week… #Watertown 2013-04-19
- @JC_Christian they could certainly use her assistance as a spokesalad tosser. 2013-04-19
- @marcusgilmer @craignewman @suntimes Please give Marcus a break tomorrow AM, news happens. in reply to marcusgilmer 2013-04-19
- @JC_Christian Thanks for the earworm, Sir! 2013-04-19
- One of my biz travelers flew in to Boston Monday just as the bombs went off, got him out today before Pres. Obama arrived. 2013-04-19
- His admin said it was crazy to be there but business had to be done. Hope all travel safe tomorrow. #CarryOnBOS 2013-04-19
- @childfreediva Can you imagine what would be going on in BOS if Preznit Mittens were in charge? Eesh. 2013-04-19
- Holy calendar! RT @livepono “@AKitz: Bullet hole through our wall and the chair #mitshooting #mit #boston http://t.co/LQBqbsyhBl 2013-04-19
- And Reddit RT @kumailn CNN should just point a camera at twitter. 2013-04-19
- @DukeStJournal That dog is obviously a newshound. Check the police scanner tweets… 2013-04-19
- "This shit is REAL?" – Neo 2013-04-19
- Pretty concise: RT @sdmattpotter Explosives Detonated in #Massachusetts Standoff – http://t.co/ov1GpN7MWe via @nytimes 2013-04-19
- @marcusgilmer Or Canada? WTH? 2013-04-19
- RT @redeyechicago You can watch a live feed of news report from Boston, here: http://t.co/Ikyc3dEZj5 2013-04-19
- @redeyechicago weren't you reporting at a fun bar event earlier? News at this hour is nuts 2013-04-19
- @marcusgilmer Srsly, with passports they could have gone anywhere, BOS is a pretty big air hub. Is there a big Brown-MIT rivalry?? o.0 2013-04-19
- @Shivani510 Try not to worry, hope you have a peaceful day tomorrow. Tonight nobody knows what's really going on. 2013-04-19
- RT @NatashaChart RT @RaniaKhalek: RT @benabyad: White people never need to pray to God the perpetrator's surname isn't Smith. 2013-04-19
- Must. Sleep. Work tomorrow will be stressful enough. 2013-04-19
- Reuters liveblog twitterfeed has good info. photos #watertown http://t.co/WQN3wEgJ2U 2013-04-19
- CNN has the gall to post a "while you were sleeping" timeline that Twitter and local residents reported live 2013-04-19
- @petersagal True. We could call them the BM Bombers? Mental image… disturbing 2013-04-19
- The Globe and CNN werent at the cutting edge at 2am last night. 2013-04-19
- Tuning in to public radio for the day 2013-04-19
- RT @GeekFurious We can all stop claiming the terrorist is Sunil Tripathi and give that family a break and an apology. 2013-04-19
- RT @aidenscott If suspect #2 ends up not being Sunil Tripathi I feel really bad for his family. What a shitstorm! 2013-04-19
- @Shivani510 Better today, I hope. in reply to Shivani510 2013-04-19
- Catch me up, Twitter. #Watertown 2013-04-19
- RT @Bobblespeak So now he's alive (good) U.S. and world will get see terrorist is not existential threat but stupid scared teenager. 2013-04-19
- @JC_Christian @Bobblespeak I blame the mad old men who "inspire" young men to extremism. in reply to JC_Christian 2013-04-19
- RT @adamfelber Worst. getaway. vehicle. ever. 2013-04-19
- @adamfelber 2 years ago the kid could have been Prom King, now he's Bomb Teen. 2013-04-19
- @ZooeyDeschanel Truly epic. Being 19 again not so bad now, though! 2013-04-19
- Real Time with @billmaher will be real time. Really. 2013-04-19
- So, not the perfect person to speak with unless he somehow stops flailing. #realtime #firstguest #hotseat @billmaher 2013-04-19
- Oh, my, helpless flailing is flailing helplessly. Some interesting points, not helped by locking horns over religion. #realtime 2013-04-19
- RT @cnnireport An earthquake has hit southwest China – are you there? Share photos, video but stay safe http://t.co/a1wNrn8tJo 2013-04-19
- Ok, srsly, WHAT NOW? It must be #FFS Friday. 2013-04-19
- Okay, #firstguest ended on a better note. Relief. #realtime 2013-04-19
- RT @StNickEpiscopal A favorite prayer for a quiet night, and peaceful rest: the Night Prayer #NZPB http://t.co/3LrJjOw0D2 2013-04-19
- @GillianHorvath Aw, one more crappy thing cancelled that might have been a nice diversion for BOS 2013-04-19
- Stressed Out? How You Handle It May Predict Future Health Issues http://t.co/lpDuA5dhTo 2013-04-20
- @dhewlett The Pancake Punisher will consume ALL! 2013-04-21
- It's not the religion, it's the extremism. RT if you agree. 2013-04-21
- Hello, @RachelNPR – Rhubarb pie (or strawberry-rhubarb pie) in our family is called "Damn Sour Pie." Here it is: http://t.co/vmtuv33Zc7 2013-04-21
- The story of #IWANTPIE is actually on my #SecondLife blog. http://t.co/1QpQFm6I3C http://t.co/vmtuv33Zc7 2013-04-21
- Reportedly the younger Tsarnaev ran over his brother when attempting to escape. Panic, or atonement? #Boston 2013-04-21
- @whovian99 Is there time to visit a large secondhand store? 2013-04-21
- @petersagal did you download it from itunes? in reply to petersagal 2013-04-21
Stressed Out? How You Handle It May Predict Future Health Issues
Uh, my work life got a LOT more stressful recently, and it’s probably not healthy to scream at my computer with my phone mic muted.
Also: not healthy to go days without leaving the house.
Must. Do. Something.
In the latest research showing just how important the handling of stress is, a new study shows that having a stress-prone personality could seriously up your risk for heart disease.The new research, conducted in a large Danish population, found that people who are "mentally vulnerable" — meaning they are more susceptible to stress — are at a significantly higher risk for both fatal and non-fatal heart events. The studys findings were presented on April 18 in Rome at the EuroPRevent 2013 congress.Researchers measured "mental vulnerability" on a 12-point scale, looking at mental and physical symptoms that measured an individuals level of stress, and determined whether they had a personality that was more prone to getting stressed-out. A statistical analysis of nearly 11,000 individuals showed that mental vulnerability was correlated with cardiovascular events, both fatal and non-fatal, independently of normal risk factors like smoking, cholesterol and age.The researchers followed the Danish cohort, which consisted of 10,943 individuals initially free of heart disease, for nearly 16 years. Just over 3,000 fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events were recorded during the follow-up analysis, and the data showed that the risk of cardiovascular events in the mentally vulnerable was 36 percent higher than in the non-vulnerable, independently of other risk factors.
via Vulnerability To Stress May Increase Risk Of Heart Disease, Study Finds.
My first priority today is to turn off the feature that emails every single Google+…
My first priority today is to turn off the feature that emails every single Google+ posting from my communities to me. I'm anti-social like that, I guess.
Google+: View post on Google+