A friend of mine passed this on to me. You can tell an impressive story in less than a minute.
The Last Day Dream by Chris Milk.

I recently saw the Art in the Age of Steam exhibit here in KC. Unfortunately, Canada wasn't touched upon, so I was excited to read Berton's account of the CPR's accomplishment in The Last Spike: The Great Railway, 1881-1885. The engineering accomplishments were truly amazing. The book has given me a new appreciation of places that I've visited: Kamloops, Banff, Regina, Calgary, and Sudbury to name a few; all were founded or grew because of the CPR.

I was also surprised by the political turmoil that surrounded the CPR's construction. I had no idea of Sir John A. McDonald's tendency to avoid conflict. Berton has a knack of drawing you into his histories, by making historical figures live and breathe.

I had forgotten that this is the sequel to The National Dream, which I have not read. Regardless, the book stands on its own right. And though this is an early work by Berton, I find his later books to be better, it still is excellently written. I highly recommend his books, including this one.

Just so I have an easy location to find this, since I already posted it on Jack Mangan's Deadpan:

Bruins over Canadiens in 6
Capitals over Rangers in 5
Devils over Canes in 7
Pens over Flyers in 6

Sharks over Ducks in 5
Wings over Blue Jackets in 4
Canucks over Blues in 6
Flames over Blackhawks in 7

Which means I'll probably get it all wrong. Again. :)

And Scalzi had this fun piece to share: Don't date within the division.

While I like The Onion's parodies of news stories, I think I enjoy their non-humorous A.V. Club much more. It isn't as pretentious as many other media review sites, in my opinion.

Plus, Scott Tobias' review of one of my favorite animated movies, The Iron Giant also counts in their favor. ;)

This fabulous movie firmly placed Brad Bird in the spotlight. And his subsequent work for Pixar on The Incredibles and Ratatouille is certainly not shabby.

I know most people don't pay attention to the various viruses and other nasties floating about the internet. Conficker is bad. And it's going to get worse.

Here's a simple test to check if your computer is infected: Conficker Eye Chart.

Help kill these nasties.
That is all.

You can't be a SciFi fan and not know it's coming. May 8th is rapidly approaching and the publicity machine has been working hard for quite some time. I was skeptical at the start. Slowly, with the release of each new trailer, I've slowly been won over.

And what's not to like? Space. Explosions. Sex! Drama! It looks like everything we want a great SciFi popcorn blockbuster flick to be. So, why am I still worried?

Star Trek is the 800lb gorilla when it comes to franchises. Star Wars and James Bond are the only ones that come close, and they are still distant seconds. For a TV show that was canceled in its third season, Star Trek has spun off an animated series, a dozen films, 4 other TV series, books, comic books, and countless pieces of fan fiction. Star Trek has inspired scientist to create new technologies. And has encouraged people to be better than they are. It is hard to appreciate its impact on our global culture.

Gene Roddenberry conceived the show as "Wagon Train to the stars". But that doesn't tell you much about why Star Trek has had such longevity. We can laugh at the acting and effects in the original series (TOS), but if you step back, many of those stories still stand the test of time. Star Trek won people over through its hopeful portrayal of the future. That was a rare sentiment during the Cold War. You need only watch Watchmen for a more cynical take on a Cold War future. The Next Generation (TNG) kept true to that hopeful future, but successive TV installments struggled. There were grumblings that it was hard to tell dramatic stories if humanity was too goody-goody.

And now we are here. J.J. Abrams' version of Star Trek is coming soon to a theater near you. This is the guy behind "Cloverfield", "Lost", "Fringe", "Alias", and "Armageddon". He knows how to create exciting shows. He knows how to make big-budget popcorn flicks. Can he stay true to Roddenberry's vision? Does that even matter?

Paramount would probably say no. The Star Trek franchise has withered. A reboot could make Star Trek more appealing to new audiences, and Abrams is a great choice to do that. He can get people excited to see this movie. Just look at the trailers! Given what I know about his version, he is even trying to stay partially true to canon. It all sounds so promising.

But popcorn flick blockbusters don't stand the test of time. They rarely last past the obligatory trilogy. They really aren't franchises when compared to Star Trek. It has lasted this long because it inspires people. And that's where I'm worried. I have a hard time believing that Abrams can create a movie that inspires people. He hasn't made anything like that in the past. Perhaps I'm overselling Star Trek and underselling Abrams. Maybe I'm too attached to what Star Trek was and not what it could be. But if Star Trek becomes just another blockbuster then that really does defeat what Roddenberry accomplished. And that will be a great loss, in my opinion.

I finally got around to watching the video to Death Cab for Cutie's "Grapevine Fires", last night. I first heard about it via this post over at Boing Boing. You'll find the video there as well.

I didn't like the animation style at first, but as the story progressed, I found I didn't care. It's beautifully done, and a great accompaniment to the song. This is how I think videos should be done.

Making Light pointed me to this heart-wrenching article in the Washington Post: Fatal Distraction. As Patrick said:

I hesitate to say anything to introduce it; just read. But brace yourself first.
It’s not the story you think it’s going to be from the lead.

It is very heart-wrenching.

There's not much to say that the original article didn't cover, so I encourage you to go read it.

Yeah, I know I haven't been posting much. It's amazing how much of your soul and motivation work can suck out of you. Still, I've been managing to survive so far, mostly by doing some fun things outside of work.

Lately, I've been playing "Fallout 3". It's a fun game, though it is too much like Oblivion--I really didn't like that game--for my tastes. So, I thought it was really cool when I saw these glow-in-the-dark Nuka Cola T-Shirts. Unfortunately, they are really expensive at $45.

Here's hoping 2009 will be better than 2008. :)

Sometimes it's best to take the Internet in small doses. It is sad to see how people get incredibly bent out of shape over the simplest things.

The other day, I saw a great web comic that touches on my line of work: usability. Awesome comic. Some of the comments, however, were... well, read them and see what I mean.

One of the best, however, sums up my feelings pretty well:

Dear Internet,

We used to have such a fun relationship. You would show me a picture of a fat guy in a motorized wheelchair pulling through the drive-thru doughnut shop. We would chuckle. You would give me multiple videos of men getting hit in the crotch by their sons with various objects. We would laugh. We would sometimes even cry thinking of our own twig and berries having an apple or an orange hurled in their direction. Then, instead of those apples and oranges you gave me the kind that attempts to break down a relatively clever internet comic into a failed productivity analysis of imaginary software. Where did you go so wrong? Did you simply grow up and lose all your giggles? I understand that we’ve all had a little piece of our soul killed by cats with bad grammar and poor sentence structure. I certainly know the trauma to our lighter side caused by the abomination known as Goatse. Don’t we still have a little bit of humor left in us though? Let’s try to find some more barely clever letters written in the 1st person towards some inanimate entity and have a giggle. I miss you fun internet. Come back please.

Your formerly pleased and entertained partner,
ME

It's the end of the world as we know it
and I feel fine

What's playing in your head?

Obligatory political addendum: No matter who you vote for, exercise your right to vote.

It seems that xkcd, aside from being popular, is inspiring YouTube to add new features. I don't think Audio Preview will completely deter the moronic comments, but it's pleasing to see that it does work. :)

One more quick note: Yep, the season officially starts today. Yep, the Leafs will probably be crushed by the Wings in their opener. Yep, the Leafs will probably suck this year again. *sigh* Still... I can only hope that management is being honest about rebuilding.

Update: OK. I'm pleasantly surprised that they didn't loose. :)

I've been too busy to comment lately, but I had to share this. Via Gizmodo, there is bad news for certain gamers: Scientists Find Gene That Makes You Good at Halo Also Makes You a Premature Ejaculator.

I wonder how long before they use this on Big Bang Theory? ;)

I like the concept of electric cars. They are a good idea, but they bring their own host of problems.

At this point, they aren't in widespread use. According to Wikipedia, in 2006 there were about 53,500 in use in the US in 2006 with a total of about 250 million registered cars. That's about 0.02% of all registered cars.

So it begs the question: what will happen when, or if, electric cars become overwhelmingly popular? The major issue is that they would strain an already overburdened and aging electrical grid.

Switching all the cars to electric would greatly reduce CO2 emissions from cars, but we'd need more capacity from the electrical grid. And, at this moment, that means more coal plants which also emit CO2. Overall, it would still be a net reduction, but it's nowhere near the win situation that some people wish for.

Electric motors are more efficient than gasoline motors, but cars are heavy. So, cars have to be made lighter in order to truly reap the benefits of electric motors. This creates issues with traffic accidents. A lot of work is being done on improving materials and safety, but it is a definite risk for highway driving.

And, finally, what would happen to all the batteries? They aren't exactly bio-friendly. We'll need a better recycling program than we have now.

Despite this, electric cars are a good alternative to gas, and they are getting better. So, I'm looking forward to seeing how this works out.

It looks like Dodge has been paying attention to Tesla. They've unveiled a sweet looking all-electric sports car. I bet it is still way way to unfordable for me, but it is still cool. :)

Last night, the St. Louis Blues played a pre-season game against the L.A. Kings here in KC. Neither is a favorite of mine, but I'll root for the Blues over the Kings any day. Plus, I got to see Paul Kariya in action. He's a great player, but overall, the Blues played poorly last night, loosing 2-1 to the Kings.

Anyway, it was my first time visiting The Sprint Center. It's a great venue. I managed to find some decent beer on tap for an unreasonable $7; expensive, but that's still less than some venues.

What I was surprised by was a BBQ place. I don't remember it's name--no, I didn't drink that much--but they served a ginormous BBQ hot dog. This monstrosity was 1/2 lb!, with beef brisket and onion rings on top, and covered in BBQ sauce. Low calories, I'm sure. ;) It was very good. At least I didn't feel ripped off for paying $7 for the hot dog, even if I couldn't eat the whole thing.

Despite the supposed controversy, Mass Effect was a fun game. BioWare does have a knack for storytelling in their games, even if game play isn't always fun. Mass Effect is certainly one of their better games, and one of my favorites from them.

So, it's interesting to see that EA is optioning the movie rights to the game. There's a lot of good material to work from: The complete script clocks in around 400,000 words and there are two stand-alone novels--no, I haven't read them. So, it's a pretty rich world.

I know there hasn't been a good game-to-movie adaptation, but you never know, this could be the first.