Monday, June 15, 2009

   Recent animated viewings
Hello everyone - I hope you ar edoing well. I watched a couple of animated movies recently & thought I would share with you my feelings on those films.

The first is actually anime - it is called "Sky Crawlers". This one had a nice blend of fully rendered CGI environment and traditional 2D anime characters. The basic storyline surrounds some young pilots fighting without memory of their past or knowing the purpose of the fighting. This film is a little tough to discuss in detail because the message is tightly tied to spoilers. I did like the questions raised. The questions were very much in line with the themes of classic science fiction stories.

The pacing of the movie was definitely more art house than mainstream. There is a lot of quiet time in the first 2/3 of the movie. There is not much action or discussions in that segment that progress the movie or develop the characters. I think they were either too subtle or not subtle enough here. I picked up on a few things I was supposed to notice pretty quickly & then not much happens for about an hour. Rewatching it may show more things unfolding that I may have missed on the first viewing, but generally, I felt that this could have easily been an animated short of about 20-30 minutes and conveyed the overall messages just as well. So - I think the trick is looking at it more like art than a traditional film. If you are able to let the film wash over you & just immerse yourself in the images and atmosphere, you will most likely enjoy the film. If you are looking for complex characters or a well developed story - you might find yourself disappointed.

The other animated movie I saw was Up. I really enjoyed this film. It was not a perfect film, but there were definitely segments that were definitely a pleasant surprise. Most significantly, the backstory of the main character and his wife. I thought it was touching and very well done. I think the most disappointing aspect of it was the heavy. I don't think the movie needed a villain. I think it would have been less formulaic and could have developed the 2 leads better without it. Unfortunatley, I don't think it would have made as much money. So - comparing it to other Pixar films, I would probably put it above Cars and Bug's Life and below Toy Story.

I also just signed up for Netflix, so I hope I will get to start watching move animated movies soon. I was a little disappointed in their selection. I think Scarecrow video in Seattle had a MUCH larger selection - probably by a factor of 10. Unfortunately, I am in a not so metropolitan area now, so finding anime to rent is a little more challenging.

Until next time.

-bunraku
Comments (0) | Permalink

Friday, April 3, 2009

   Religion and Politics
Two of my friends recently had a falling out. These are two people that have been friends for over 20 years. The topic: politics.

One of the two individuals was starting to believe a number of political conspiracy theories & most of the conversations with him were turning in that direction. He is obviously very passionate and concerned about these subjects. My other friend was pretty blunt about what he thought about those ideas. It did not go over well.

Now, for me, I had a number of in-depth communications via e-mail with the conspiracy theorist addressing specific topics. I took the route of spending a lot of time researching the issues to get my facts straight & did not summarily dismiss his feelings. My arguments did not persuade him & his arguments were emotional & did not hold up under rational scrutiny. That is not to say I proved him wrong. There is a big difference between highly unlikely and impossible. I put his concerns into the highly unlikely category, but still communicated that I understood his fear. We left it at it would be better if we could talk about it over a pint of beer & left it at that. I have had some superficial conversations with him since then, but have tried to avoid the politics topic.

My other friend took the route of basically calling him crazy. His last update indicated that he was saddened that his friend felt politics were more important than friendship.

This led to me to think about two highly emotional topics - politics and religion. These topics are very emotionally charged. I think one of the main reasons for this is that they go beyond casual conversation. Political views and religion are both tightly bound to a person's definition of self. These decisions and beliefs really define a person's explanation of the world around them & also plays a big factor in defining themselves. So - if a person treats these subjects callously, it can really feel like a personal attack and lead to... well, broken friendships.

The other topic that comes up is what is a friend & how important are they? I realize that is a topic waaaay too big for this measly post. I will suffice it to say that as people change, some of the changes can be great enough that there really is nothing but the past to base a friendship on & I do not believe that is enough for any kind of real friendship.

Take care & I hope everyone is doing well.

-bunraku


Comments (0) | Permalink

Sunday, January 11, 2009

   Current Favorite Word
To continue on with the language theme - I thought I would briefly talk about my current favorite word. Mindfulness. For me it is almost a healthier version of obsessive about everything important. It is living in the moment - being aware of what is happening. It is being aware of your actions. It implies a deliberateness to both the awareness and action at a level that goes beyond the self. I look at it as somewhat of a zen thing - the awareness of being part of a larger whole. All summed up in a single word - mindfulness. Of course, that is what it means to me - the difficulty of language is that even within a language, words will have different meanings and contain different sublteties for different people. So, when the opportunity arrises, it is nice to have the chance to explain what you mean when you use a word that can be open to different interpretations.

Take care & I hope everyone is enjoying their new year. By everyone, I mean xsixtyeight & darkeangel (and anyone else that happens to stop by, but I don't really expect that).

-bunraku
Comments (0) | Permalink

Sunday, January 4, 2009

   Language & Words I don't like
My wife and I have been watching a series this week about the 7 deadly sins. It is a great show to spark conversation. Most of what I find interesting is the language & how different people define the words.

Envy by one definition was when Someone wanted something someone else had & would be willing to destroy that thing or the person just so the other person could not have the desired object. I wholeheartedly agree that is a negative and possibly self-destructive attitude. Not very good for society. On the flip side, the desire to want something someone else has can be a very good thing if it motivates you to push yourself and achieve your potential. Is that still envy? Is it still a sin? I am going to have to rewatch that episode for one segment. The muslim culture has a phrase that equates to "it is as Allah wishes". This is used after complimenting someone else's successes or possessions to indicate that you appreciate what they have, but there are no negative feelings of jealousy surrounding it. I would like to incorporate that into my vocabulary because I like the sentiment.

These shows led to more conversations surrounding language. One of the words we discussed was "upset". For me, I don't use this word too much because I generally feel that it is a vague word that normally does not accurately describe how I am feeling. Does this mean I never get "upset"? Doubtful - many times I feel emotions that could be classified as upset, I just feel that there are better words to describe my feeling. When I hear people use the word upset, they can use it instead of the words: disappointed, sad or angry - or any combination of those. If I was feeling those emotions, I would probably use those words instead. The angry one is the toughest for me - sometimes I might want to say that I am indeed angry, but for fear of the person reaction to anger, I might demote the status in the sentence to "upset".

Now for my pet peeve - "got". I really dislike that word. First of all - I don't like how the word sounds. It is just an ugly word. Second - similar to "upset", I feel there are other words in every situation that are going to be more precise in describing the action. Take the sentence "I got a 20" for example. How did you get the 20? Did you buy the 20? Did you borrow the 20? Are you simply stating that you do indeed currently own 20? Did you earn the 20? Was the 20 a gift? I simply feel that the word "got" really is not the best word for any situation. If you ever catch me using that word, please slap me.

Take care & Happy New Year everyone!

-bunraku
Comments (0) | Permalink

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

   Religion and politics
There was an election yesterday to modify California's state constitution to define marriage as only being between a man and a woman. It looks like the vote passed 52%-48%. First off, I would like to say there needs to be some changes to make the constitution at least as difficult to change as the state budget (which requires 66% of the legislature)

I am not a christian, so the bible is not something that I have any reason to follow. That does not mean that I do not value any of the messages in the bible or that I wish to stop christians from worshipping according to their beliefs. As far same sex-marriages go - I believe that they should have the same rights to marry as anyone else from the perspective of the law - not your church. If it is part of your religion that homosexuality is wrong, then I would not want the government forcing any church to perform those marriages. I also don't want to see religious doctrine written as law. Should pork be outlawed because some religions don't believe it should be eaten?

I also disagree with arguments comparing same-sex marriages and polygamy to bestiality and under-age marriages. The main difference I see there is with consent. It is our society's standards that both parties must consent to sex (or marriage) as a protection for those who are determined not to be able to comprehend the consequences enough to make an informed decision. The age of 18 has been selected by our society as the age of consent. Legally, animals are not able to consent, so it could never be considered consensual.

I choose to follow man-made laws because I believe it makes for a better world. I do believe however that the main purpose of those laws should be to protect people for one another - not to protect them from themselves. I do not believe same-sex marriages threaten anyone outside of the 2 consenting adults involved in the relationship. The only reason I see to prevent them from calling it "marriage" is to keep them separate. The supreme court determined long ago that separate but equal is not equal (Brown V. Board of Education). I understand supreme court decisions can be overturned, but I personally feel that was an incredibly powerful and just decision. I hope that this country can continue to move in a direction away from discrimination. Of course, I think everyone reading this actually lives outside of "my" country, so I am not certain how much influence religion has in your respective countries & how far along the road to tolerance the countries are but I would love to hear your thoughts.

ok - enough of my political rant. Take care.

-bunraku
Comments (0) | Permalink

Friday, October 24, 2008

   Random ramblings
I have been meaning to do a post, but I haven't been able to really coalesce my thoughts into a coherent post. I decided to finally just start typing & post what comes out.

This past weekend, I went to a wedding that many of my old friends attended. That was definitely weird. I have not seen any of those people in the past 4 years (since the last wedding we attended). Several of them have children now. It is definitely strange when people you knew when they were in high school are now responsible parents. I’m already plotting how to embarrass them in front of their children when the kids get older.

This led me to join Facebook. A number of them were active on that site, so I decided to join. It is definitely a different experience when it is with people I know in real life. It makes it even stranger since I have not had regular contact with any of these people in the past 8 years. I would assume it would be like going to elementary school with a group of people then going to different middle and high schools then meeting again in University. You feel you should know these people because you spent a lot of time with them in the past, but a lot of time has passed since then, so – do you still know them? Are these people that you would want to know if you were just meeting them now? Kind of weird, but I am not spending that much time there, so I will just play it by ear. If it is anything like the other web sites I have joined, participation will drop significantly once the initial rush is over.

Last week, I went to a special showing of the live action Death Note II – the last name. That ending was soooo much better than the anime. I am still buying the anime DVDs – I’m not sure why. It is somewhat of a compulsion – I have the first 6 volumes, so I must get the last 3 (along with the figures – can’t forget those). They actually did the English language voice-overs for the anime in… Canada!!! I guess there are 3 places for anime voice-overs – Los Angeles, Texas and Vancouver.

Halloween is coming up & I have decided to dress up this year. I was invited to a party on Saturday, but I doubt I will attend. It is about a 2 hour drive & the parking there sucks. If nothing else, I will wear it while handing out candy on Halloween night. I have all of the costume components, but haven’t tried them on yet. I chose… Dr. Horrible. If you enjoy Joss Whedon’s work (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly), you should check out Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog at DrHorrible.com

I guess that is all for now. I’m sure there will be more randomness to follow – just not sure when.

Take care.

-bunraku

Comments (0) | Permalink

Saturday, August 23, 2008

   Actually going to talk about anime today
One of my favorite anime series is Full Metal Panic & Full Metal Panic TSR. I found out about a very amusing fan service in FMP TSR. In the episode where Sousuke goes to a salon for a harcut, when they cut to the street scene after he atacks the hairdresser, they have Light and Misa from Death Note on the street. Immediately after - L rides by on a bicycle. Quite amusing.

I once again found out that memory is fluid and not static. I have watched the FMP series multiple times. I should know it pretty well by now. Unfortunatley, I have also read the manga and the first 3 novels multiple times each. There are minor differences, but apparently some of those differences get blurred with the anime. For example, in the giant AS episodes, they hide out at a neighboring high school and get the assistance of a janitor there. Well, that is how thought I remembered it from the anime. Turns out, in the anime they were at their own high school & there was no janitor. I could have sworn I saw it, but apparently, it was one of the times where my imagination stood up to the challenge and made a pretty good image from reading the novels & basically overwrote the original memory from the anime series. Weird, but interesting.

Another animated series I enjoy is Avatar on Nick. Or more appropriately, I should say that I enjoyed. They had the series finale this summer with a 2 hour special (ok - 4 1/2 hour episodes shown back to back). I think it was a very suitable climactic battle. I have the first 2 seasons on DVD already & the 3rd is due out in Septmeber. I would prefer if the box set was a little cheaper though. $60 for a season is a little high for just over 20 1/2 hour episodes. I prefer my animation to cost less that $2 per episode. Not sure why, I just kind of came up with that figure & it seems reasonable to me.

ok - That's it for today. Take care everyone.

-bunraku
Comments (0) | Permalink

Thursday, July 17, 2008

   Priorities
Just some brief self-awareness ramblings today.

I have been thinking about what people think is important. For me, I think my actions reflect what I truly find important. Unfortunately, I sometimes get sidetracked with smaller immediate things instead of focusing on the larger important things.

So - I am wondering - for the things that you feel are most important - do your actions consistently work towards those important things or do you find yourself tied up in things that you see as unimportant? If that is the case, do you get angry at yourself for the decisions you make?

What is most important to you & what does that mean? For me, my wife is one of the most important things in my life. What I think that means from a priority perspective is that I need to do what it takes to help give her a livable environment and make time to share my life with her & enjoy her company. House payments, car payments, medical bills, scheduling, home projects, and shopping are some of the specific tasks related ot that priority. Of course, many of these tasks are not specific to that priority, I also have other priorities that necessitate that I.. you know - eat, have someplace to sleep, etc.

If family or friends are the most important thing in your life, what does that mean in your day to day life? How do you spend your resources?

A couple of the priorities that I logically believe are very important, but somehow don't spend the effort to actually do - diet and exercise. I am overweight & have high cholesterol, so I know these things are important to extend my lifespan - which I think is important, but I have not had the passion and focus towards those things to stick to them. The more I think about these things, the more likely I am to stick to it. Unfortunately, taken to the extreme, I am most successful when I am obsessed with it (to the point where other people really get sick of hearing about it).

ok - enough rambling for today. Gotta get back to work. I hope everyone is doing well.

-bunraku
Comments (0) | Permalink

Friday, June 13, 2008

   It's all sooo confusing
Hello everybody - Just some random musings today. I have recently had some very good experiences with some customer care departments & some not as good experiences with tech support. I got what I wanted, but somehow it still felt unsatisfying. My wife and I bought a Mac Mini in late March. I had to re-install the OS twice before bringing in to the shop. I got some conflicting information from tech support while they had my machine so that I am not completely confident that I actually know what they did. We started having additional problems with Photoshop and internet connectivity, so we just wanted to be done with our little mac experiment. I checked their web site & it clearly stated that there were no returns after 14 days & there would be a restocking fee if the box was opened. My wife asked me to call anyway. Doesn't hurt to ask, even if I already know what the answer is going to be. I briefly recapped the situation & said I wanted to retuen it. The answer was - sure - no problem & we'll waive the restocking fee. Umm... thank you.

Encouraged by this, I decided to call Adobe. We had spent $650 on a mac specific Photoshop that we would no longer be able to use since we were returning the Mac. Their website specifically said they do not have a program to swap out their software for the same item on a different platform. So - I call up & their response - sure. Just send us a letter of destruction stating the software is uninstalled and the media is destroyed & as soon as we receive it, we'll ship out the windows version but they did charge me $6.41 for shipping. I would much rather be out $6.50 than $650.

So - as a result, I am happy that my personal issues were addressed, yet somewhat unsettled that I cannot rely on the policies posted by these companies. I wonder how much of what happened was dependant on the agent that I was routed to? If I was routed to a recent trainee, would they have been as helpful or would they have restated the policy published on the web? If one agent says no, should I call back and ask a different agent? (My general thought on that one would normally be "no", but I also would not have called in to ask for a refund if the policy said no refunds after 14 days. So - I don't know.

The moral of the story - It doesn't hurt to ask. Generally. Also - I ask that when you do call in - be courteous & don't take it out on the agent if you don't like the company's policy. I'm pretty sure management didn't check with the rep before writing the rules.

More random musings - Canada!

A couple of months ago, I saw Canada for the first time. ok - I didn't actually cross the border. That was a good hundred yards away & the person I was with did not have a passport, but did have the keys to the car we came in. No - it wasn't some road trip gone awry. I went to western New York for work & a co-worker and I decided to see Niagara Falls while we were there.

The power of the falls was impressive - no doubt about that, but I don't really see this place as a destination - more of a place to stop if you happen to be driving by. That & the natural beauty is somewhat diminished by the large casinos on the Canadian side of the river.

I will say that being that close to Canada, made me think of the arbitrary nature of borders. What makes that side of the river different than this side? How much are the people on the far side different? Was the border drawn because that is where there wa a significant change in the attitudes of the people, or just a random line drawn to keep people from killing each other? How much are we shaped by our government and our culture? How different is it for those people a few miles away? Has their educational system drilled different thoughts into the heads of those "foreigners" than were drilled into our own heads?

A question for you - do you feel that your country's government is the country in this world that most closely matches your beliefs? And a follow-up question - how many countries have you visited? I am curious to see if the answer to the first question will be significantly different for people that have experience travelling internationally.

ok - enough ramblings for now. I hope everyone is doing well. Until next time.

-bunraku
Comments (0) | Permalink

Thursday, March 27, 2008

   Statistics, Skepticism and Bias
Put on your thinking caps - it's time for a stastistics lesson. Try not to fall asleep, if this is not all review for you, I think it is very important.

I recently read an article from a conservative web site that throws around a lot of numbers. If you are really interested, I can send you the link or later post a URL to it. One important thing I noticed was there was no reference to the source of the statistics. This is an immediate red flag for me. I prefer to see the actual numbers referenced to verifiable sources, like the US census rather than tossed about with the assumption that they are trustworthy.

In general, I have been seeing more and more statistics being thrown around with the intent to pursuade. Unfortunately, I do not believe the american masses understand even some of the basic terminology that becomes very important when trying to understand what these statistics mean. The most important thing when trying to understand any statistic is understanding what is really being represented by those numbers. By making a slight change to the definition of what you are looking at can change the numbers and initial impact significantly.

The first terms I would like to address are Average and Median. These are both generally accepted as ways to measure the middle of a group of numbers, but they do so in very different ways. Depending on what you are looking at, this can be a huge difference.

Average: This takes the total sum of the numbers and divides by the number of items. So, if you have a shopping cart with 3 items in it priced $1, $2, and $3 your total cost is $6 for 3 items. $6 divided by 3 is $2. Your average cost per item is $2.

Median: This takes the middle number in a group. You should have an equal number of items greater than the median and less than the median. With the same shopping cart, the median price of the items you bought will still be $2, since that is the price in the middle.

If the numbers are evenly distributed, these numbers can be the same or very similar. They begin to represent very different things when the numbers are heavily weighted to one side.

Example: There are 10 people in a room. 4 people have $10 each in their pockets. 1 person has $15. 3 people have $20 each and 1 person has $785. The total money in the room is $900. You can then say, the average amount of money a person in the room has is $100. The median amount a person has in a room is $15.

So - for the above example, if someone said that the average person in the room can easily afford to buy a $50 book. That could be considered a true statement since the average amount of money each person has is $100. Unfortunately, the reality of it would be that only 1 of those 9 people could afford to buy the book with the money on hand.

The article I referenced earlier was trying to persuade people that the richest americans were paying more than their fair share of taxes. "The top 1% of american are paying 37% of the income tax". I have seen similar statistics referenced as a standalone statement trying to persuade people that it is unjust that 1% of the people should pay 20% or more of the taxes. The immediate question that should be asked is "How much of the income does the top 1% of americans make?" The answer according to the conservative web site was 19% - no reference given. According to the Tax Foundation for the year 2005, it was 21.2%.

The big question now - Is the conservative web site numbers wrong? Well... no way to tell. They don't say what year their statistics are determined, so we can't even go back to reliable sources to double check. The other item that should be noted in that statement is it is only referencing "income tax". So, other taxes - sales tax, property tax, city and county taxes - all not included. Would that make a significant difference in the amount of taxes paid? Probably, but this was a persuasive article, so, being a skeptic, I would assume that the income tax figures are going to be the most favorable to represent their point of view.

The other quote from that article I would like to analyze is this: "The upper income bound for the middle class is now roughly $68,000—some $23,000 higher than in 1967. Thus, a family in the 60th percentile has 50 percent more buying power than 30 years ago."

Sounds pretty good doesn't it? There is a slight of hand done here. The article was written in 2007. They give an income comparison to 1967 (40 years) and then follow it with a "buying power" comparison to 1977. Their use of the word "thus" implies that it is a logical conclusion when they do not provide any supporting data for their claim. They also do not provide a definition of "buying power". The other item I would note is that they chose the 60th percentile. I don't care for the use of the word percentile here. The percentile term could be for a family exactly AT the 60% mark similar to median, or I believe it is actually revferencing everybody at or above that level (the income most likely averaged) - including the top 1% of people making over 20% of the money.

Instead of researching both 1967 and 1977, I decided to find some statistics for just 1967. Was there a bias on my part to choose that year instad of 1977? Absolutely, the math is easier based on the stats I found for my definition of "buying power".

First off, to determine "buying power", I will use the Consumer Price Index (obtained from the US Dept of Labor) and compare that to the median income for 1967. The median income for 1967 was $7,143 (US Census). The median income for 2006 (most recent data I found) was $48,201 (US Census). This is an increase of about 575%. The consumer price index for the price of all goods in urban areas for 2006 (that's what dept of labor uses) was 603. That means you will need to spend 6 times as much to buy the same stuff as you would have had to pay in 1967. 1967 was the old standard for CPI, so it's CPI is 100 (which is where the easier math part comes in). So - to determine comparitive buying power, I will to compare the median income to the cost of stuff.

(insert nasty math stuff here)

So, when I did my comparison for median income compared to CPI, I did get an improvement of 11.9%. That is however, a far cry from the 50% improvement that they want you to believe. Is their number false? Possibly, but more likely just very misleading.

Be skeptical. Be informed. Be a force for good in the world.

If at least one reader get's something useful from this, I'll be a happy guy. Take care.

-bunraku
Comments (0) | Permalink