Updated the Guts of the Site

Finally got around to updating the software for this website. It’s probably been over 5 years since this happened. A miracle, I know. I’ve updated to Expression Engine from pMachine - my CMS of choice by the way. Don’t go looking for any big changes anytime soon. Just doing this took all the energy out of me. I will say this though: it was easier than I thought updating from pMachine than I initially thought. They really work things out over there at Ellis Labs.

The Fleece

Nowadays there’s a lot of talk about how the cost of fuel is increasing the cost of everything else. I agree. But I also think it’s definitely an opportunity for businesses to take advantage of the situation. Does anyone think for a second that these companies will lower prices when the price of oil comes down again? For example, take the tomato crisis. McDonald’s valiantly declared that it would stop using tomatoes for the sake of its customers but they didn’t lower prices. We’re still paying for the tomatoes while they’re not. Now when they do re-introduce tomatoes, they get to negotiate with their tomato suppliers who’ll probably want to unload all the tomatoes they can. Will McDonald’s pass those savings on? When airlines raise prices for everything from, buying a ticket online (remember how this was supposed to save them money and therefore us money?), adding a surcharge for checking in baggage, and making a captive audience pay for food and drink, will those prices go down when fuel prices decrease? I think we all know the answer to that.

Driving A Smart Car, Lovin NYC

Thanks to Zipcar, I had the opportunity to drive one of those Smart cars today.  Overall, I thought the ride was pretty snappy.  I’m guessing it’s a 4 cylinder because it was lagging behind on the highway, but it was zooming through city driving.  I noticed that the car liked to stay in lower gears and even shifted down more often than I would’ve wanted.  This made all the difference in the world when I tried to push it a bit on the highway.  Maybe there’s a way to use the very broad accelerator which almost covered the whole underside of my foot to make it shift to a higher gear.  Dunno.  Maybe it has to do with the fact that it runs on midget tires.  The car’s roomier than you think, sits two people rather comfortably, and perhaps even another person in the back.  I’m a little taller than 5’ 8” and I noticed that the windshield angle is slightly odd, it kept cutting stuff off at the top which I expected to see - like traffic lights.  This might have something to do with the fact that there’s no hood, so when I stop near the lines for the crosswalk, I’m a little further up than I would be in a regular sedan.  The brakes weren’t as responsive as I would’ve liked considering that it drives pretty fast in the city.  But then again, since the car’s pretty light, it does stop faster than you think when you add it all up.  I’ll have to mention that the suspension is not really a highlight of the car, add to that the light weight of the car and the mini-tires and potholes become giant chasms.  Bad news for the person drinking coffee in the passenger seat.  It has a nice large sun roof and we spent a good deal of time trying to find a way to slide it open - don’t bother it does no such thing.  If you close the sun shade over it though, the car gets pretty claustrophobic fast.  One thing bothered me though, the handle on the shift was really tiny, and even if they added stitched leather to make it look nicer, it felt cheap, as a golf ball was sitting under that leather.  You’ll get a bunch of people rubbernecking to check out the car. You’ll get a fair amount of people tailgating you because they think they can outrun you or people cutting you off near the toll lines because they think you have more space to give - and they’re right.  Suddenly though, you’ll notice your parking vision transforming as you realize, yes, you CAN fit in there, and yes, you can make that turn in one go.

But the best part was driving the FDR across the southern tip of Manhattan early on a Saturday morning, feeling the bare road slip under you and watching the parade of magnificent bridges cascading one after another over you.  And fording two rivers, colliding into each other under those crisp eastern crests straight into the mighty Atlantic.

“No Country for Old Men” - In Korean

Finished reading “No Country for Old Men” in english a couple of days ago and am now reading it in Korean.

First, I noticed how similar the film was during the first half to the book, then how it verged later on.  Pretty fascinating why the Coens made their choices and I could see why in most cases.  Once again, I was struck by how cinematic McCarthy’s writing is and how it naturally lends itself to adaptation - in fact inistently calls for it in the reading.

Now on reading the Korean translation, I’ve come across some basic questions about the process of translating text.  I suppose there must be some school of thought about this.  But here I’ve already found sentences omitted, dialogue replaced and even and example or two of just incoreect translation of sentences because of the souther slang the characters use. 

I understand that the meaning of the text is probably most important, but because of the caliber of McCarthy’s writing I felt it was wrong to have made those editorial changes.

There’s also the question of translating regional tone.  There is a certain quality of Texan speech which evokes a matter of fact, yet to me plaintive quality of communicating which I don’t think has been brought out in the translation.  That could be my own ignorance, I admit of the subletied of the Korean language which I was basically severed from when I immigrated here at age four.

Nevertheless, I’ve retained an ear for the language as well as a certain sensibility of some of the tones which can be communicated through it.

It takes me hours to get through a page because of all the looking up I have to do in the dictionary, but it’s been so far a great learning experience and one I should’ve taken up years ago.

I think once I get through this I’ll have Cormac McCarthy to thank for inspiring me to pick up my native langauge once again.

McKee’s Book is Poison

I stopped reading Robert McGee’s book “Story” because I think it is an absolutely poisonous book.

I stopped reading after torturing myself day after day trying to finish it.

I stopped reading to save myself, because if there is one sure way to banish all creativity in your writing it is to read this book.

For one thing, the book constantly uses Jaws, Chinatown and Casblanca as the most relevant examples of all his theories - all movies written and directed by precursors of his so-called non-method.

Now understand, I do agree with some of his observations (and yes this is a book about his observations on film), but I draw the line when there pages of illustrated examples (complete with arrows) pointing out the dichotomies of Truth and Lies and oh yes the Contrariness of White Lies to Truth.  If this is something you need an illustrated lesson on, I say there are greater obstacles to overcome in your writing.

There is a list of genres which I will say is useful. If you want a copy of this list, save your money I will gladly oblige.

My opinion may not hold as much weight compared to a professional but I will say this - Mr. McKee’s writing credits to date include three TV shows: The Bible, Abraham; J’Accuse Citizen Kane (documentary); Mrs. Columbo.

His pupils include those who have written, directed or produced (does not say which) these movies: Air Force One, Ally McBeal, Crimson Tide, but maddeningly, The Deer Hunter, The Elephant Man, Gandhi, Glory, Leaving Las Vegas, The Truman Show but the list is long as it is varied.

So take it or leave it.  You know what I’m going to do.

Robert McKee’s “Story”

Been reading this to see what all the talk is about.  So far I think it’s a fair way to analyze things already written, but for me, it’s no way to write.

What does “Brazil”, “Bee Movie” “Wall-E” & “Eli Stone” Have in Common?

They all use the same music which was featured in “Brazil” - the song I think is Central Services/The Office’ by Michael Kamen, from the Brazil soundtrack (found that on Yahoo! answers… soon to be Microsoft answers?). Or Aquarela do Brasil.

It kinda makes sense that “Bee Movie” uses it since the movie is a sort of bizarro-dystopia-lite - where at the end of the movie, the totalitarian state is right (bees should all work and keep making honey). But I don’t get where “Wall-E” is involved - maybe in the sense that in the great struggle between man and machine, the cute robot wins out so long as he’s industrious even though no on is there to boss him around?  As for the “Eli Stone” - the TV show featuring a lawyer who sees the future, maybe what they’re suggesting is that, yes you can do great things in the system, all you need do is open your eyes and you will see there is redemption in the work you do pushing papers. 

Some other people have noticed as well:

“Brazil" Now Signifies Conformity...or the Fight Against It?
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2007/07/brazil-now-sign.html

Where the Vampires Roam

I received an email from a friend about a rock band called, “Vampire Weekend.” Funny name, but what was funnier were the ads Google served up in my Gmail:

I suggest you go to the site selling blood vial jewelry. Play the video at the bottom of the page - http://www.bloodvials.com/

Mounting Remote Drives Using MacFuse + SSHFS on Mac & iPhone

Just found this on the Google Code site. If you ever need to access a remote drive on your computer and mount it like any other drive in Mac OS X then MacFuse and SSHFS is the thing to use.

Really simple stuff. Let’s say you have a computer or even an iPhone you want to mount on your Mac then install the programs - available here:

http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/

Install your version of MacFuse along with SSHFS. Run the installers then launch SSHFS.

If for some reason your computer is behind a firewall or router, then you’re going to have to open up the port to allow SSH - that’s port 22.

If your router has a dynamic IP, you might consider using something like dyndns.com along with a program to send the correct IP address to dyndns.com so you can resolve to the correct IP.

This is where you can get the program for your iPhone:
http://code.google.com/p/iphonedisk/

And this is how to implement SSHFS + iPhoneDisk:
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/07/27/tuaw-tip-put-iphones-file-system-onto-your-desktop-with-sshfs/

NOTE:

As for myself, I’m trying to figure out how to use a port other than the default 22 for SSHFS, since the firewall using using another port. It then forwards the port to the proper server and port.  Just not sure if SSHFS is going to take a port in the dialog box.

You can do this on the command line, using for example 8080 as the port:

ssh -p 8080

Last thing. I believe you need to SSH into the server you plan to mount using terminal to get the DSA fingerprint loaded into the computer you’re using.

Here’s a nice howto:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070904180753526

I think you could hack around with SSH to figure out how to get around logging into terminal the first time - in case you have various users who need to do this.

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/openssh.html

Those Reddish-Brown Dots Shaped Like a “T” in Movies

So there was this thing I kept noticing on films projected in the theater. A series of reddish-brown dots which was shaped like a “T” in the middle of the frame. I finally looked it up and lo and behold, the internet in its infinite wisdom answered the mystery.

According to answers.yahoo.com and wikipedia, those are “cap codes” which are placed in the movie to help track down where a particular pirated copy might’ve come from.

REFERENCES:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070929230731AAMtv1T
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coded_Anti-Piracy

Art Video on NYT: I-Be Area

The NYT made a big thing out of it. It’s art so I was going to make fun of it. I watched a clip of it in the online video section of the Times. It’s at times grotesque and at the same time compelling. It’s the kind of ingenuous playmaking you witness in children. You say to yourself, wow, that was brilliant, and I’d never be able to think of that because I’m an adult. Well, this artist does. Check out the dialogue. Dead on.

Ryan Trecartin, “I-Be Area”
http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=100f48379940d71e45603156d96681e491f48e3d

Best Part of NYT Movie Review: The Rating

Lately, I’ve come to really enjoy the very last bit of the New York Times Movie reviews: the rating blurb.

Sometimes you can skip the review and get the gist of it from the tone. Take for example this snide rating blurb for “One Missed Call” -

“One Missed Call” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Characters are burned, drowned, impaled and ring-toned to death.

Ring toned to death. That’s chuckle-funny. Speaking of which, I got me a txt from fandango regaling the movie opening with even a free ringtone for me to download - http://www.d1e.mobi/. Getting a txt asking me “What does it sound like when you die?” was kinda funny, clever and creepy. So yeah I clicked the link and downloaded it.

I totally forgot that this was a Takeshi Miike film. One of the reported 6-7 films he makes every year. Not one of his best, but I imagine better than this remake.  Should’ve taken Miike’s really strategy and made sure this went straight to video. 

Outsourced PA

This is intriguing to me. It’s possible you could outsource someone to do a PA job. So you pay these guys $30 a month and then they’ll get someone to accomplish a task for you. I guess like arrange travel plans or find something online.  Me I’m wondering if I could get them to do production type stuff.

http://asksunday.com/

Finding Funding Online

Found an intriguing service on Springwise a site discovered by a very productive entrepreneur and friend, Amol.  It’s called Zopa. It’s a social site where people invest in each other with loans. The investor gets a nice little return for his/her investment, and the investee gets a nice loan to work on their dream of the moment.

Might be worth investigating. There was also another site which helped hold money together in some kind of escrow account. And once you had all the money they you could use it for the purpose you laid out. I forget the name of it now....

The Writing Regimen

Pretty simple really. It’s something people always recommend: Write everyday for 20 minutes.

Here are my particulars on it:

- Write mornings, after washing up, coffee, possibly food, whatever it takes to wake me up, but nothing that’s going to exert mind matter.
- Write before reading. Possible exception is a news article which should really have been read the night before. So no reading - re: no procrastinating.
- Breaks after writing. No bread, no water, no cigarettes until the 20 minutes are up.
- Everything written typewriter to paper. Computers strangely give me a false sense of permanence which means I never see the stuff once it’s saved.
- Script format. You know, the basics: scene headings, action, dialogue. If tabbing gets in the way forget about that, just keep it as real as possible while you’re busy typing.
- Write continuously and freely. This means no editing, no sitting and lingering on the best way to put things. Just say everything every which way.
- Display the work. On the wall, anywhere, just don’t hide it.

After about a week or month or whatever suits you, you can go through an editing process with this stuff. But that’s another story.