My Hand At Poetry

I met a man the other day coming from the other way.
In a voice that wasn't nice, I tried to give him my advice.
"Good sir," said I to fix his plight, "the way you're going isn't right."
He smugly grinned and waved his hand and bid me turn and join his band.
The nerve of him to think me wrong, when thus far I'd journeyed long
Down this road of sweat and tears, failed hope and realized fears.
I shared with him my trail of woe and what would happen should he go
Back the path whence I had walked. Yet, how he argued, fought, and balked!
In the end though we fought long and I was right and he was wrong,
He thought I was out of line so he went his way. I went mine.
When within me cooled the righteous fire I had kindled in my ire,
I thought perhaps I'd been unkind to this poor man I'd left behind
For though he was a stupid clod, I was traveling ground he'd trod.

TRON: Legacy - Yet Again

My previous to posts covering the movie TRON: Legacy may have been a bit unfair.[1][2] Having not yet digested the backlash of disappointment, I was eager to condemn its every facet. Now, having absorbed that crushing blow of having waited 20+ years for a sequel only to be let down, I've decided to append to my observations of the movie's religious references.

It wasn't necessarily complete sacrilege.

** POSSIBLE SPOILERS **

The first movie revealed the inner world of Encom's network and the programs that lived there. They were bound by the Master Control Program.  Flynn's arrival from the realm of the creators mirrored the story of Christ coming into our world.  He broke the power of Satan (MCP) and returned to Heaven. Great story.  A story most of us not only know and love but love to see played out in allegories like TRON.

Given that, TRON: Legacy could reflect our world after Christ's departure.  Flynn came back into the world and lived with the programs.  He had chosen special programs that he intended one day to take back with him.  The story centers around one remaining female variant of these marked programs.  Flynn has assigned himself as protector of her and has taught her about his world.  This could be taken as an allegorical reference the the Holy Spirit—that other comforter mentioned by Jesus upon His departure.

When Flynn's son came into the world, things changed.  A young version of Flynn (CLU) gathered his forces for a final battle.  How similar is this to end-times when a false Christ will rise and deceive many? Does it also mirror the prophesied battle of Armageddon? Who knows? But it does show that the setting of the movie is not the first coming of Christ, but the second.

In the second coming, the Bible tells us that Christ will come and take His Bride away. His Bride will be pure. His bride will be chosen—marked. After the catching away of His Bride the church, God will bring final and permanent judgment to the world. (How and when depends a lot on your understanding of what is written.)

In the movie, that is exactly what happened.

I love the word obverse. I have flipped the coin labeled TRON: Legacy and seen its obverse. I have seen the Christian perspective that can be found in it. In my first reviews of the religious aspects of the movie, I saw the reverse.

It makes me wonder now, does every story have the seeds of both?

Advice to Computer Users

My cousin's computer was recently infected by Koobface.  Her system is now down and unusable until we can find a trustworthy source for removing it.

Some time ago, a company with which I worked was hacked through a phishing scam.  This event cost them about $750K in actual banked money.  Beyond that, they lost about a week of productivity from their accounting, legal, and IT support staff.

Both of these events could have been avoided by following a two simple rules when surfing the Internet:

1. Never click on links in unsolicited messages from anyone.
2. Never click on pop-ups.

Following those two rules religiously will go a long way toward guaranteeing safe surfing.  But, as stated, they are at the same time too rigid and not cautionary enough.  I presented them that way for ease of memory.  If in doubt, follow them religiously.

Added Cautionary Warnings
Unsolicited messages are messages that you receive by e-mail, twitter, chat, or any other form of Internet communication.  Chat can be on Facebook, AOL, Microsoft Live, Skype, etc.  Messages can come through your social network sites as well. These messages can appear to be from friends, from your bank, from some service you use on the web; they can come from sources that appear trusted.  They might ask you to click a link to go verify your account. They might ask you to watch a video.  They might appear very professional or very personal.  Resist the urge to trust them.

Relax
So what if your friend really does want to send you a link to a video with you in it?  What if your back really does have  a problem with your account?  Following that above advice to the letter will cause you to miss it.  There are never exceptions. Follow the advice.  But, if you get a message from a professional organization, call them.  If they're not a brick & mortar organization, navigate to the website directly, using the links that you normally use and not the links in the e-mail.  You will most likely find that there is no problem.  If the message is from a friend, send a separate e-mail back.  (Don't reply to the message or send a copy of the link!) Ask if they sent you a link.  If they don't respond, or if they say they didn't, then delete the message.  If it came in chat, strike up a conversation, ask them to send it to you via e-mail.

Pop Ups
Use your judgement here.  Some pop ups are not only fine, but they are required.  (It annoys me when a professional website requires them, but it happens.)  Use careful judgment.  When in doubt, don't allow the Pop Up.  If you are ever told in a Pop Up that you might be infected with a virus, do not click anything on the window.  Look at the task bar. You should see an icon related to that window.  Right click on it and select close.

There is so much more I wish I could tell you.  Maybe I will over time. For now, just follow this advice and you will avoid most problems. Every blogger should have a post like this or a link to a post like this.

2, 4, 6, 8 Time for me to Provigilate

I think I found my soliloquy. It comes in a white pill dosed at 200mg twice daily. Its title is Provigil. Nine out of ten monkeys prefer it over cocaine.

A few months ago, I quit taking it because I didn't like the idea that I was becoming addicted to it.  I needed it. Even though the documentation says it isn't addictive, I was exhibiting behaviors similar to that of an addict when it came to using it.  Besides, my copay went up and I wanted to save a few bucks.  Those few bucks have ended up costing me hundreds and have potentially made significant scars on various relationships in my life.

Shortly after stopping, I became more lethargic than usual.  I became frustrated because I was unable to think clearly or maintain focus on my work.  But I suffered through, assuming that my body was adjusting.  It wasn't. I became frustrated and despondent. Finally, after about three months, someone important to me initiated a reverse intervention. She told me to get back on my drugs, because I was ruining my life.

Yesterday I spoke with my doctor. He indicated that while Provigil is not considered addicting, we may become dependent on it. Because it isn't addicting, the industry is attempting to refer to it as an alertness medication and not a stimulant. Apparently, drug dependence is not always a bad thing.  He pointed out that diabetics are dependent on insulin. Postthyroidectomy patients are dependent on Synthroid. Apparently, some of us just need Provigil.

I took my first dose shortly after seeing the doctor.  If ever there was a way to convert Eeyore into Tigger, this is it.  The clouds parted, my mood lifted, the accelerator hit the floor and I was cranked! Score one for Provigil.

I don't feel bad about my choice anymore.  I've lost a lot as a result of my down time.  It is now time to get it back. (If you want to help the giant, click the advert links.  Charitable donations will also not be refused! If everyone who's on the Internet just sent me a little bit... Okay, never mind. I can dream, can't I?)  Part of the recovery process involves instituting personal changes in my habits, which I now have the energy to make.  Maybe someday, with the help of an increased focus on gratitude, a more robust prayer life, and the development of a pattern for living, I will get off the Provigil again.  For now though, Rock On!

Eeyore Or Tigger

Just finished reading The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.  It's a good book containing good life lessions.  Read it if you get a chance. It will make you think, laugh, and cry.

One particular chapter talks about how you get to choose whether or not you go through life as Eeyore or as Tigger.  I don't think we get to choose.  I think for some of us, it is easier to be Eeyore and for others it is easier being Tigger.  Neither type tends to like the other.  But, it's always the Tiggers saying you get to choose. Something to think about.  Depending on which one you are, you'll spin it a different way when you think about it.

Not that it matters.

Depression Hurts Everyone

I may have destroyed a budding friendship yesterday. It's hard to know. I was depressed and frustrated by life events and ended up behaving in a way unbecoming of both a friend and a professional. My new found friend did not deserve the treatment I gave him.

You know those commercials that say depression hurts everyone?  They're true.  Depressed people hurt people. It's what we do. Trouble is, that knowledge only makes me more more depressed. I guess they have a product to sell.

I'm a jerk. I suck.

Sorry Ben. If I could fix it, I would.

Chris.

My Soliloquy - Part II

So I really have been pondering this soliloquy thing a lot.  It has been brought to my attention indirectly that a good, self-motivating soliloquy would be one that expresses gratitude for what I have and perhaps some self-praise. It is amazing to me how difficult that really is.  My gratitude muscle really needs some development.

Emboldened by a recent, positive exercise in thankfulness, I'm making it a personal goal to actually come up with a thankfulness soliloquy.  I have some skill in writing haiku, rap lyrics, and other forms of useless poetry, so I may be able to hammer one out.  Shakespeare's soliloquies seem neither to rhyme nor have any metered rhythm.  What a hack.  But still, they are cool.  So I think I want to model mine after his.

Two famous ones are Tomorrow and Tomorrow from Macbeth and To Be or Not To Be from Hamlet.  While a soliloquy (also known as an aside) appears to be a subset of the monologue, I don't think I'm interested in monologues.  What good is a monologue if nobody is around to listen?

The TV mini-series Dune had several soliloquies in it.  I should explore that.  Lots of plays have these. I wonder if there are already some good ones on thankfulness?  Most seem centered around despair and death; worthy topics to be sure, but not likely to pull me onto the correct path.

While I was poking around, I found this.  Funny!

Magnetic Balls

I have just discovered magnetic balls! These things look fun! Definitely adding to my wish list. At $25 per cube, it could get expensive quickly. But it looks like there is plenty of fun to be had with just one.

I digress. Watch the video. Explore the terms neocube, bollies, nanodots, BuckyBalls, and desk dots. I promise you won't be disappointed. Can't wait to own!

Watch And Explore

Maybe somewhere there is a review of which magnetic balls are better than others...

Geocaching Revisited

For Christmas in 2005, a Garmin eTrex Legend GPS receiver.  Shortly after getting it, I registered with Geocaching.com and got started looking for caches.  After finding a few, I never looked at the world the same again. It seemed that somewhere, lurking out there under every rock, in every tree, there was a cache waiting to be found.

So why am I bringing it up now?  On one of my early trips, I took my brother-in-law.  He is a pragmatic guy, but he's also an outdoorsman.  He was skeptical.  Why waste money to buy a device that helps you find dumb stuff? On our trip, we happened to find a cache stashed in the burned out remains of an old log home.  All that was left was the stone basement.  The idea that this tool could take you places you've never been before hooked him hard.  He became a regular fanatic!  Long after I had given up on the hobby, he still contacted me, telling me about his latest GPS purchase, all the cool maps he's downloaded, caches he has found, etc.

He came up to visit this weekend.  Naturally, we were compelled to go.  We tromped around in six inches of snow looking for small canisters containing baubles that nobody wants.  But we were in a graveyard that has got to be the coolest graveyard around!  I love graveyards.  Someday I hope to spend a lot of time in one.  But, alas, I can only dream.  Anyway, I'm hooked again.  I've fired up my obsolete unit and expect to go on hunts at every opportunity.

It really is fun.  Give it a try!  ... But who am I talking to?  LOL!  I might as well be talking to the dead.

Tooth Fairy

Yep, I missed a day yesterday.  Got caught up in being busy going to the doctor, writing in my physical pen & paper journal, watched a movie, and got a haircut (yes, all of them).  Actually never took the time to blog anything.  I'm surprised nobody noticed.  Bwahhahahaha!!!

Oh man.  That was funny.

So was Tooth Fairy!  I actually laughed out loud at that movie.  Rent it. Watch it, but please, disengage your brain. Let it idle quietly while your emotions have a hearty laugh. The movie is fun, and it is meant to be fun.  It provokes heart-felt thought but not deep thought.  The story is standard fare for this kind of movie.  It's funny to me that this movie exhibited some of the same story characteristics as TRON: Legacy, but I forgave them.  I guess there are different kinds of expectations.  I expected that Hollywood would screw up the TRON sequel and they didn't disappoint me.  But, I expected more from the TRON: Legacy story than a template script with light emitting vehicles.

In the words of the Dread Pirate Roberts, I guess I'd "better get used to disappointment."

My Soliloquy

I like the idea of having a soliloquy that sort of defines me.  When I get discouraged or misguided, I can go stare at a wall somewhere and quote the soliloquy as if looking off-stage.  It's a kind of cool concept that playwrights use, and I want to adopt it for my life.

Anyone know of a good one I could adopt?  I'm thinking Shakespeare has several from which I could choose.  Maybe I could pick one as a model and change it to fit me.

Any ideas?

Oh, I forgot. This blog is a soliloquy.

Parking Ticket Sends Man to Jail in Cadillac

Hard to believe isn't it? That's the story I got from a friend of mine.  He was riding in the car with his girlfriend in Cadillac, Michigan.  She was pulled over for speeding.  The police asked him for his ID.  (To me, this is a problem. He had committed no infraction. How many times do they ask the passenger for the their papers?)  When the police checked, they found that his home city had a warrant out for his arrest.  The reason? He had an unpaid parking ticket.

The good police of Cadillac decided to throw my friend in jail for the day. The plan was that an officer was going to drive from my friend's home town to Cadillac in order to extradite him.  That's a five hour round trip.  Fortunately, my friend was able to arrange to have the ticket paid by a friend while he waited behind bars in Cadillac.  He spent the day there instead of going boating as he had planned.

According to Neighborhood Scout, Cadillac has a crime index of 15.  A crime index of 100 is the safest.  My friend's home town also has a crime index of 15. The neighboring town has a crime index of eight.  Maybe the problem is because the priority is on unpaid parking tickets, especially when it's going to cost a five hour trip to make sure the guy arrives in order to pay the ticket.

Somebody needs to re-evaluate priorities.  But, hey, who cares?  I scream into the storm. My voice is lost in the howling madness.

TRON: Legacy (Part II) (Possible Spoilers)

Continuing my comparison of two TRONs...

Social Relevance
When TRON aired, video game arcades were still everywhere. I went to them and hung out. I dropped quarters in my fair share of them.  The movie brought the games to life; it gave personality to the machine AIs that played against us.  It shows us a weird reflection of present day life.  TRON: Legacy on the other hand seemed completely oblivious to the real world gaming environment today.  What are people doing today?  We play head-to-head on-line.  Console games are prominent.  MMORPGs are huge!  Six guys going at it on motorcycles just don't happen that much any more.  What we have are 8 players going head-to-head in Call of Duty or Medal of Honor.  We have thousands of players interacting in thousands of different ways in World of Warcraft, Runescape, and others.  TRON:Legacy never even touched on that.  There was  brief hat tip to wireless technology, but nothing significant.

Imagine how the cyberscape would have been different if the writers had considered the possibilities of world with digital dragons intermingled with WWII AIs. RPGs and magic.  Human controlled "programs" intermingled with AIs with gaming spanning continents, not confined to a 640x480 game grid.  Instead, they chose to leave it in Flynn's own private little world, isolated from the real world.  It showed.

Age and Sophistication
Let's face it, I'm 28 years older than I was when TRON first appeared.  In theory, I'm more sophisticated. I expect more from a film.  I'm wiser and perhaps understand the world a little better than I did in those days.  It may be just too tall of an order to fill to please my elder intellect the same way they pleased my younger.  I just wish they had tried.

Flaw
Remember, in the first movie, the Master Control Program brought Flynn into the grid without Flynn firing the gun.  That means that the triggering mechanism for the laser can be controlled from within the system.  Flynn's personal little world would not have overlooked this.  He would have been able to turn on the laser at any point and get out.  The whole ticking clock in the movie was contrived...much like the rest of it.

I went into TRON: Legacy expecting to be disappointed.  The movie met my expectations.

TRON: Legacy (Possible Spoilers)

This might take a couple of posts, but I wanted to outline a few of the things that I liked and disliked about TRON: Legacy. It bugs me that I really liked the first one and thought the second one was not worth the toilet paper it was written on.

Frisbee
The first movie seemed to be all about Frisbee battles.  I had never seen that before. The light cycles were cool and all, but I fantasized about the Frisbees.  In fact, I came to love Frisbee because of that movie.  I always imagined myself with blue lines aglow, pitching the Frisbee so hard, so fast, so powerfully that I ripped old Sark's disk right down the middle.  True, they flew with a mind of their own, but that was part of the fun of it.  In the second movie, the Frisbee action was lame and failed to be integral to the movie.  It was all about the light cycle.

Religion
I love it when movies incorporate religious overtones in them.  The first movie had a really strong Jesus Christ savior sentiment.  Even the phrase "Oh My User", trite as it was, spoke to the idea that the users were gods.  As a young budding developer, that really stroked my ego.  However, 25 years later, we see the film painted with Zen Buddhism, the rampant influence of which has infected Hollywood so deeply.  Flynn in robes and beads? Come on.  (Of course, it has been some 1200 years local time for him.)  We see an anti-god mentality in that the programs have developed themselves and are now going to come out and show the gods a thing or two in the form of the Isos.  Bah, what absolute rubbish.

User Power
In the first movie, Flynn discovered his user power.  There always seemed a chance that he wouldn't be able to pull it off.  Would he make it before the evil MCP took him down?  The answer was a definite maybe.  With this movie, there was never a question about what was going to happen.  The heavy-handed "foreshadowing" (more like "forehand pitching of the final scene") by the Iso told us exactly what was going to happen, and there was never a doubt in my mind that Flynn could handle it.

Trivial Things

• Where was Bit? I missed Bit.
• I always liked CLU.  It was hard to be his opponent.  Remember this line, "Forget it, mister high-and-mighty Master Control! You aren't making me talk!"  Ah, that stuck with me.
• I really do like the new graphics. The new Recognizers are cool!
• The "Light Jets" are a fabulous new concept for video games.  I want to see that in some real-time PVP action. A three dimensional light cycle grid is a cool concept too.  (And sure, why not have a four wheeler?  Dumb for the movie, but great "upgrade" for VG play.)

Yeah, definitely going to be multiple posts.

END OF LINE

Dr. Mr. Armstrong

From childhood I practically worshipped Neil Armstrong.  Yeah, I get that he was part of a team and couldn't have done what he did without the backing of thousands of other individuals and millions of dollars of tax payer money.  But I appreciated the event.  Neil Armstrong was synonymous with space travel.  The idea that a man placed his boots on the soil of  a celestial body other than that on which he was born thrills me.  Neil was the right man for the job. He was a near perfect specimen of mankind. He deserved to be first.

Later, however, as I came to realize that Mr. Armstrong is a recluse, despising the lime-light, I realized that it might have been better if Buzz Aldrin had been the first man to walk on the moon.  Neil is a celebrity. Neil's name is known.  More people recognize the name Neil Armstrong than recognize the name Buzz Aldrin.  (I applaud Toy Story for attempting to change that.)  They only do so because he made the first bootprint on lunar soil.  But Buzz has the passion for space.  If Buzz had been first, he could have run with the First Man image and maybe made the American mindset stick to the image that, yes, we can, should, and will walk on other worlds. Neil could have gone off and hid in his schoolhouse somewhere without any impact on society.

Mr. Armstrong, I'm disappointed in your failure to keep the dream of space travel alive.  You had to disappear. You had to become a teacher somewhere.  (Or so they tell me.)  You let us down.  You were privileged to walk in a place that only eleven other men have walked. You blazed a trail for a dozen special guys.  The rest of us are stuck here on this mud ball we call earth.  You ruined it for us.  Why didn't you continue to sell the dream, carry the torch, lead the charge, and make a way for the rest of us who are mere mortals?  You have done a selfish thing.

Thanks.  Thanks for nothing.

There. I said it. I said it in a nice safe place where nobody will ever read it, but at least I said it.

John Truby on Genre

Just finished reading an article in Script Magazine that talked about the importance of genre in writing a movie script¹. Since I always thought genre was just a setting, it really opened my eyes about how it can help the writer build his story.  The article is by John Truby, a recognized screenwriting instructor in Hollywood.  Basically, the article points out that genre helps the writer:

• Develop the main character by providing a desire line with which he must be aligned. (What is my motivation?)
• Categorize the relationship between hero and villain, or even define who is the villain.
• Develop the plot by providing standard story beats around which to build the story.
• Provide a deep thematic question that the story attempts to answer or express.

Truby then goes on to say that once you've established the core genre, transcend it by making your hero unique and human and by twisting the story beats ever so slightly.
Since nobody really reads this blog, I thought it was a good place to record that I liked this article.  Someday when I'm scanning through all depressed, maybe I'll remember how cool the article was and read it again.
¹Script Magazine, Volume 17/Number 1, January/February 2011; Genres: The Secret to Your Success pp 22,23; John Truby

That Old Writing Bug

Friend of mine asked me to hold him accountable to his new year's resolution of writing 1000 words per day, every day.  Can you believe I have a friend?  Anyway, it has me digging through all my old writing projects.  Some of them I really like.  Kind of itching to start again.

Like anyone would actually want to read something I wrote.  I'm my own biggest fan, and even then I don't always like it.  The Giant needs to keep his head in reality.

Repent

It's really good advice.  The derivation of the word seems to indicate that it means to feel sorrow or regret.  However, there are places in literature where the Greek word metanoeite has been translated to English as repent. However, metanoeite indicates a change in one's mind or purpose.

So, the advice is to change the way you think.  I suppose if you feel sorry or regretful about a particular mindset, it would indicate that you intend to change the way you think.  But, in general, the word repent doesn't carry that connotation.

Change your mindset. Think success, not failure. Think good, not bad.  Think positive, not negative.  Then let your actions follow your thoughts.

Look at me being all positive, talking like someone can hear me...and cares.

Ah Chooo

So sick of sneezing, running nose, itchy-watery eyes.

Like you care.

Happy New Year

Yeah, Whatever.  Like you have time to read my blog posts.

Hope this year is better for you than last year's was.