Venture Brothers = Awesome!
31-Dec-06
This is how I dress in the morning…
Check out The Ghosts of Sargasso. It's got pirates and everything.
Unfriending
29-Dec-06
Via
Fan Boys Trailer
28-Dec-06
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaMDJxQjKP0
Via Jacqueline Passey
Namely, a guy with FTD (frontotemporal dementia). When you meet Mr. B, he seems normal. He's in his early 60's, with a round face, neatly trimmed gray hair, and a twinkle in his eye. When he sees you, he smiles, shakes your hand, and says “My names B.” As you shake his hand, he asks “Where were you born?”. “Pocatello, Idaho.” “My wife and I were born in Kansas City.” “Oh really. When did you move here?”
“What?”
“When did you move here?”
“What?”
“When did you move here?”
“My wife and I were born in Kansas City.”
At this point, you know somethings not quite right. Then you feel a hand on your back.
“Does this feel good?”
He's rubbing your back. His wife cringes, “It's okay, it's just his way of saying he likes you.”
“Is this okay?”
“Yes, it's okay.”
He rubs your back for a minute or so. Then he bunches his fists straight out in front of him, and squees like a 6 year old girl on Christmas morning.
Thus was my first introduction to FTD, and to documentary filmmaking. My friend S. works as a researcher in a Bay Area lab that specializes in treating patients with FTD. She got a grant to make a documentary about the disease, and Mr. B. was her first subject. S. and I spent December 23 – 26 staying at Mr. and Mrs. B's house, interviewing her, and their two daughters about the effects the disease has had on their lives.
Mr. B had worked for many years as a dairy consultant for Safeway. About 10 years ago, he started having trouble understanding words. For example, while reading to his grandchildren, he would not be able to remember words like “alligator”.
Ten years later, he can still do some complex tasks. For example, he can play solitaire on the computer (though not with physical cards). And he can rapidly solve difficult 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles. He can play pinball. Yet he can't drive, can't recall the names of his parents, or his own middle name. If permitted, he will walk into other people's houses in search of soda cans for recycling (and he will drink soda out of cans retrieved from the neighbor's garbage).
Most of our time was spent filming the families of Mr. B's two daughters as they opened presents, while Mr. B. snored on the couch in the background. Good lord, those families don't stint on Christmas. We filmed them opening presents from 7:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. S., the documentarian, got 10 gifts alone.
The highlight was when Mrs. B. took him to church. As soon as the car stopped, he opened the door and ran into the church as fast as he could. He then proceeded to give the girl in the pew in front of him a backrub. As she gave him a “WTF?!?” look, his wife explained that he had FTD, and that he didn't know what he as doing.
S. isn't sure how she's going to tell the story. After all, how often do people at Blockbuster's say “Hey, let's watch a documentary about a woman's futile effort to keep her demented husband out of nursing home?” However, I'm learning a lot about what I don't know. I learned that documentaries mostly involve a lot of standing around, that cameras are really hard to hold steady for any length of time, and the basics of three-point lighting. I also have more of an inkling for why movies cost so much. The shot has to be perfect to be usable, and there is infinite number of ways a shot can go wrong. So you have to have backups (of tapes, batteries, cameras, etc.) and do lots of planning.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/17/fashion/weddings/17FIELDBOX.html?ex=1324011600&en=177d7653fb0b85d7&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
Questions Couples Should Ask (Or Wish They Had) Before Marrying
Relationship experts report that too many couples fail to ask each other critical questions before marrying. Here are a few key ones that couples should consider asking:
1) Have we discussed whether or not to have children, and if the answer is yes, who is going to be the primary care giver?
2) Do we have a clear idea of each other’s financial obligations and goals, and do our ideas about spending and saving mesh?
3) Have we discussed our expectations for how the household will be maintained, and are we in agreement on who will manage the chores?
4) Have we fully disclosed our health histories, both physical and mental?
5) Is my partner affectionate to the degree that I expect?
6) Can we comfortably and openly discuss our sexual needs, preferences and fears?
7) Will there be a television in the bedroom?
8) Do we truly listen to each other and fairly consider one another’s ideas and complaints?
9) Have we reached a clear understanding of each other’s spiritual beliefs and needs, and have we discussed when and how our children will be exposed to religious/moral education?
10) Do we like and respect each other’s friends?
11) Do we value and respect each other’s parents, and is either of us concerned about whether the parents will interfere with the relationship?
12) What does my family do that annoys you?
13) Are there some things that you and I are NOT prepared to give up in the marriage?
14) If one of us were to be offered a career opportunity in a location far from the other’s family, are we prepared to move?
15) Does each of us feel fully confident in the other’s commitment to the marriage and believe that the bond can survive whatever challenges we may face?
GEEK: How to configure Pine IMAP
28-Dec-06
I had a mailbox full of 128,000+ automated error messages from a test machine I was running. I couldn't even delete them because Thunderbird would time out before it finished opening the mailbox. So I tried to set up Pine to read and delete the messages.
This page proved useful for general configuration:
http://www.decf.berkeley.edu/help/mail/pine-imapssl.html
However, I still had a devil of a time getting Pine to display all of the subdirectories in my INBOX folder. Finally, I found this page, which had an example that worked for me:
user-domain=foofoo.org
smtp-server=192.168.1.25
inbox-path={192.168.1.25/user=foofoo}INBOX
folder-collections=”INBOX Folders” {192.168.1.25/user=foofoo}inbox/[],
“Mailbox Folders” {192.168.1.25/user=foofoo}[]
default-fcc=”{192.168.1.25/user=foofoo}Sent Items”
postponed-folder={192.168.1.25/user=foofoo}Drafts
customized-hdrs=From: Foo Foo
ldap-servers=192.168.1.100 “/base=/impl=1/rhs=0/ref=0/nosub=0/type=
/srch=contains/time=/size=/cust=/nick=/matr=/catr=/satr=/gatr=”
rsh-open-timeout=0
* Turn on the Aggregate command set.
* From the Main menu, type S (setup) then C (config).
* Scroll down the list to the section entitled Advanced Command Preferences.
* Select enable-aggregate-command set and press Enter to “check” the option.
* Type E (exit setup), then Y (yes to save/commit changes).
* Select the messages you want to delete.
* Open the folder that contains the messages to be archived.
* Type ; (semi-colon). The SELECT Criteria prompt displays at the bottom of the screen.
* Choose the selection criteria you want (options include all, by message number, status, date or text).
* Follow the instructions displayed at the bottom of the screen for the selection criteria you selected.
Type “D” (no quotes) to [D]elete.
If there are a lot of messages, it may take a while to select them.
http://www.cmu.edu/computing/documentation/pine/pine.html
He-Bro
23-Dec-06
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLQBEmr7MDw
Via
Mr. Body
23-Dec-06
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIAfLDZmg4o
Awesome
23-Dec-06
Via
PS3 vs. Wii Commercial
23-Dec-06
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXm5n2n_U3c
Yes, I'm going to hell for this.