A Second Post about Second Posts
Interesting samples and commentary by Dan Phiffer on second posts of some of the most prolific and coolest bloggers out there.
Now that we’re on the subject, my second post is one of the things -one of the many things- that I thrived to on this blog. When I read the thing I get a tinge of foolish earnestness, but I should try as hard as I did there.
via DF
The Elements of Math
If you’ve always been embarrassed about how bad you are with numbers, do yourself a favor and add this series to you’re feed reader or bookmarks. Steven Strogatz takes you through the elements of math.
I’ll be writing about the elements of mathematics, from pre-school to grad school, for anyone out there who’d like to have a second chance at the subject — but this time from an adult perspective. It’s not intended to be remedial. The goal is to give you a better feeling for what math is all about and why it’s so enthralling to those who get it.
Manual Status Update
Movies
I saw Inglorious Basterds the other day. I thought it was ok. Christoph Woltz played an absolute brilliant son of a bitch as Col Hans Landa(The Jew Hunter). Not Tarantino’s best film though. Being that Tarantino films are pop culture spit balls of movies within a movie, I missed most references in this one. Maybe it’s because I haven’t seen as much World War II movies as I’ve seen Kung Fu or crime movies.
Books
I’m reading 2666 by Roberto Bolano and following people’s impression over here and here. I’m reading the original Spanish version and it’s a little bit longer, but surprisingly I’m ahead of schedule and finished with the first part. So far so good. It has a very Lynchian ambience.
I’m also reading Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert. This book could either make you insecure about your feelings about past, present, or future events or can turn you into meditation.
Music
I’ve been listening to Vampire Weekend’s Contra, though not as much as I listened to their debut. Still spiffy and quirky, but whoever produced this album didn’t give too much thought to track sequencing. It’s a slow starter.
The other one is Spoon’s Transference which makes sense because people who bought Contra bought this one. I haven’t listened to it much, but my first impression was “where are the tunes man?”. Spoon has always been kind of minimalist with their song structures, but is more monochromatic. It kind of teases you with a great chorus soon to come, but it never comes.
Other
I’m probably buying an iPhone. I’ve been in a serious need of a new phone for a while. People who sometimes call me know what I’m talking about. Let’s see what all this hoopla about mobile computing is all about.
Lost Pilot vs Lost Re-Pilot
A side by side comparison of Lost’s pilot episode and Lost season six premiere “re-pilot”.
via Fuck Yeah Lost
Dude, You’re Such a Blogger
Nicholas Carr over at Rough Type points to a recent Pew Study that found that most bloggers today are in their 30’s and very few of them are teens or young-adults.
I remember when it was kind of cool to be a blogger. You’d walk around with a swagger in your step, a twinkle in your eye. Now it’s just humiliating. Blogging has become like mahjong or needlepoint or clipping coupons out of Walgreens circulars: something old folks do while waiting to croak.
Bootstraping
Let’s see if I can kick-start this up again. I’ve lost the momentum a bit. I finally landed a job so I’ve been readjusting. Now I can pay bills on time and stuff. If you’re still there, I thank you for sticking around. Expect the regular ad hoc posting schedule.
Heaven Can Wait [Music Video]
Charlotte Gainsbourg, an actress I only knew from the film The Science of Sleep, but also happens to be a singer- songwriter, collaborated with Beck on this song called “Heaven Can Wait”. The song is from Gainsbourg soon to be released third album, which Beck has been producing.
Forget Rule No. 1
The film Fight Club is celebrating its ten year anniversary. A special collectors Blue Ray edition was released for the occasion. People have reported that it comes with a Project Mayhem-like prank. The Ny Times article takes a look at how the film has maintained its cult status for all these years.
The secret to the enduring allure of “Fight Club” may be that it is, as Mr. Norton put it, quoting Mr. Fincher, “a serious film made by deeply unserious people.” In other words, a film as willing to take on profound questions as it is to laugh at and contradict itself: what is “Fight Club” if not the most fashionable commercial imaginable for anti-materialism? A movie of big ideas and abundant ambiguities, it can be read and reread in many ways.
It’s OK to Eat Fish Because They Don’t Have Any Feelings
New Yorker profiles Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals.
Foer was just nine years old when the problem of being an “eating animal” first presented itself. One evening, his parents left him and his older brother with a babysitter and a platter of chicken. The babysitter declined to join the boys for dinner.
“You know that chicken is chicken, right?” she pointed out. Foer’s older brother sniggered. Where had their parents found this moron? But Foer was shaken. That chicken was a chicken! Why had he never thought of this before? He put down his fork.
