Saturday, August 26, 2006

Movie Review

"City of Angels" (1998) starring Cage-olas Nick, and Meg Ryan
On the face of it this is a story about how great love is. But it is (probably unintentionally), a story about the making of a demon.
Nick is well cast as an emotionless angel (Seth). During the course of the movie, Seth becomes obsessed with Meg Ryan's character. By the end, he decides to "take the fall", to give up his role in eternity to spend a lifetime with Meg.

This is a refreshing take on evil. Evil is so often portrayed as a guy in a black hat, a laughing monster who delights in evil. Rarely do we see the true definition of evil: seeking what would be considered good - in the wrong way.

Genesis 6:2
Matthew 22:30
Revelation 12:4

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Fun with sed

I've applied random sed 's/.*/pants/g' to some famous movie quotes. See if you can identify the quotes!

> O-B-Pants never told you what happenened to your pants.
>> He told me enough, he told me you took them!
> No, I AM YOUR PANTS!
>> NOOOOO!

> If only you knew the power of the dark side of my pants.

> The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant, next to the power in my pants.

> I find your lack of pants, disturbing.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Books I'll Never Forget

"Two Hawks from Earth" by the Philip "the outlaw" Jose Farmer
I read this book during a particularly difficult time in my life. Let's just say, I was in high school, and there was this girl... Two Hawks (who was an American bomber pilot, shot down during the fire bombing of Dresden and transported to an alternate earth) was also betrayed by the girl he liked (with the evil Nazi fighter pilot also from our Earth). It led to my statement, "all of time and space is crashing down about my ears".

I'll never forget the line from the book, "And Two Hawks buried himself in his work."

As men, when things are going bad, it is very tempting and somewhat comforting to bury ourselves in work. But it's not a real solution...

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Stuff I've read lately

Accelerando (by Charles Stross) - All I can say is "Russian doll, Dyson sphere, computronium!"
Hmm, let me also say Stross presents an interesting solution to the Fermi Paradox, but one that is ultimately insufficient.

Mere Christianity (by C.S. Lewis) - Well thought out, but shows its age. I am working on an updated version. If you have any comments, leave them here!

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus (by John Gray) - A good, humorous description of the differences between men and women. Offers some excercises to help men and women communicate.

Iron Sunrise (by Charles Stross) - A fun adventure set in the "Singularity Sky" universe.

Out of the Silent Planet (by C.S. Lewis) - I'm glad I've read this after "Mere Christianity". I know Lewis denies allegory in this case, but otherwise I would of likely filed it with Edgar Rice Burroughs ("Pirates of Venus").

Opening Post

Hello world!

puts "Hello world!"; # TCL

printf("Hello world!\n"); // C,C++

str DB "Hello world\n"
100 mov DX, str
mov AH, 9
int 21h