Garaphernalia 7.5

I’m set a tenative start date for my trip of September 1. Its still far enough away that it could move forward or back, but it at least gives me a planning point to work with. That is seven full months to take care of my affairs, finish school, and assemble the gear I need and get practice in with it.

I also need to make some personal changes in that time. While I wouldn’t consider myself morbidly obese, I do need to lose weight. My goal is to start the trip 50 pounds lighter than I am now and significantly more fit. I will also need to get some dental work done before hand and maybe even Lasik surgery. If I can do all of that, I’m sure no one will recgonize me 🙂

In the pursuit of this goal, I’ve been taking the PE class I’m in pretty seriously. I’m trying to hit the gym at least once per day and am gradually building up my cardio endurance. My immediate goal in this department is to be able to run at a good pace for 40 minutes straight. (I’ve never been one for stamina, even when I ran track. I was a sprinter)

Last Tuesday was the first time I’ve run or exerted myself since I was laid up in November. During that time, I put back on most of the 10 pounds I had lost.

I’m also trying to make some active changes to my diet. I have a pretty poor diet. I’ll have days where I eat a lot and days where I don’t eat much at all. If I don’t eat much, what I do eat will usually be pretty bad. I seldom if ever get green vegtables, and most of the protein I intake is in the form of hamburgers (often of the White Castle variety). I’ve been pretty good about avoiding fast food for about two weeks. Now I just need to increase the intake of vegtables and non-burger protein.

The trick to making changes like these is sticking with it. It’s easy to do, but hard to continue. The real test will be to see if I’m still doing this in 1 week, 2 weeks, a month etc. If I can just make the behavioral changes permanent, I should have no problems meeting my goals in time.

In addition to my research and classes, I’m also the TA for two sections of Geology 1001 on Monday.

The vast majority of people in Geo 1001 will never take another science course again. Ever. They’re taking it to fulfill their science distribution requirment and that’s it. As such, the course isn’t too hard to teach. I like to think that at the end of the term, they should have a Discovery Channel level of knowledge of how the world works.

I’ll probably have more updates on this as the semester progresses.

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They are remaking The Omen. The original movie was really god damn scarry. There was little in the way of blood and gore, but it had the awesome score by Jerry Goldsmith (who also did the score to Patton) and a story that you could let a part of you believe just enough to be scared.

There are some movies which should never be remade, and some which absolutly must. I think the Omen falls in to the first category. They got it right the first time, so it will be difficult for them to top it. Some of the casting also has me worried. Liev Schreiber as Robert Thorn is fine (he was in the Manchurian Canidate, another movie that didn’t have to be remade), but Julia Stiles as his wife has be scratching my head. Mia Farrow as Mrs. Baylock should be OK. Pete Postlethwaite as a priest will be great. (remember the Pakistani guy from The Usual Suspects??)

The one really interesting thing about the remake, if you look at the IMDB listing for it, you will notice under “original music” the name Jerry Goldsmith….who died last year. I’m not sure if thats good or bad. His music made the original. If they rehash the music, then the movie is just a retread of the original. If they do something too different, it could ruin everything.

I’ll have to wait until 6/6/06 to find out I guess..

I’m a big fan of the Oak Street cinema. Its a movie house near the U campus that shows old and art films.

Lately they’ve been having problems and it looks as if the theater is very close to closing down if something isn’t done. A site to save the Oak Street Cinema has been started. If you read the website, I think you can tell pretty quickly why the theater is doomed.

1) Its run by committee. Nothing run by committee ever does well.

2) The solution to solve the problems of the theater is to contact politicians and try to get funding. This is basically an admission of failure. If not enough people show up to support the theater and you need gubment funding, then you’ve already lost the battle.

3) The theater is really horrible. The seats are uncomfortable. The screen is small. It has a very run down look to it. But for the type of films they show, there is no reason to ever go and see a film there. There is a nostalgia aspect to keeping it open, but quite honestly, old theaters are just inferior to newer mall theaters. I can go to the mall near my house and watch a film on a giant screen, stadium seating, with very comfortable seats. (see my last post on The New World) I’d be better off watching most old movies in my basement.

I think the answer to their problems are obvious. They need to let the audience select the movies that are shown, not a committee. Do it over the internet. You may get a lot of Star Wars and Godfather, but so what. Use those to fund the art films in between. Get a new theater or renovate the Oak Street. The screen is just too small for the size of the auditorium (its also why I dislike the Uptown). Ideally, you should also get more than one screen. The biggest audience you’ll have for many obscure movies is tens of people, so there is no point in hogging an entire auditorium for a film with that sort of draw.

There are lots of other little management things they could do as well to reduce costs, like online ticket sales, kiosks, and self serve consessions which would reduce your overhead.

…and go digital. Use DVD instead of film. The quality of some of the prints they get there is so bad, DVD iwould be an upgrade for most films they show. Digital would also provide much more flexibility on how long a show could run and what they could show.

There is a market for what the Oak Street is trying to do, but the current way its being done will never be successful.

I saw The New World last night. I highly recommend it.

It is not your normal film. On face, its the story of Pocahontas, but this is not a Disney cartoon. The film is beautiful. If it doesn’t get an Oscar nomination for cinematography, there is no justice. I’d give it a nod for Best Picture. Q’Orianka Kilcher should get a nomination for Best Actress.

The film is shot in a very dream like way. Who is the focus of the film changes as does the idea of what the New World is.

Go see it.

Is the wristwatch going out of style?

I haven’t worn a wrist watch in years. I never really did to be honest. Like the article says, if I want the time, I usually have my cell phone handy.

The only reason why I am bothering to write this is that I recently purchased a wristwatch. (MSRP is nowhere near what you pay retail for it btw. Its much less.)

To be honest, I really like it. Its a very heavy watch. Its a very technical watch, but technical in subtle ways that a digital watch is not. For starters, its a solar powered watch. You’d never guess by looking at it becuase there are no obvious solar cells. The cells are below the face of the watch , which lets light pass through it. It also show time in UTC on the face, which I think is great. I don’t know why, but I always like knowing what UTC is. (UTC is not exactly the same as GMT btw.)

It also has a slide rule type tool on the rim you can use to do simple navigation calculations. I have no need to ever use it, but its pretty cool. It also has a power saving feature where if it is out of the light it will stop movement of the hands and speed them back to current time when its in the light again. If my watch is in my sleeve for too long, when I take it out I can see the second and minute hands zoom to the present.

I can’t really pin down the reason I wanted a watch, espeically a (mostly) analog watch. Fashion may very well have been the determining factor. Men don’t have a lot of options for accessorizing. I have no desire to put in another earring (yes, I had one once). I can’t see myself wearing a ring. A necklace isn’t me. I don’t like to think that I’m a slave to fashion, but maybe the fact that men don’t wear watches as much anymore appeals to my contrarian nature.

I really don’t care. I like my watch.