While not actually a board, my favorite is actually Dominoes, which (if you’ve never played) is like playing cards, they’re a million games you can play with one set. As actual board games go Scrabble is probably my favorite regular old board game.

It’s trivia, has a board and requires a DVD player: Scene It? It’s the best trivia game out there, games are fast and it’s easy to learn.

From Tuesday’s Tales via The Daily Meme.

TiVo is giving away a free movie called Red Trousers. It’s only for Series 2 DVRs with broadband (but not the DirectTivo). This is just to test the new “TiVo Video Download” service. Here’s the thing, it’s downloading the movie via your high speed internet! It’ll be interesting to see.

I’ve always thought there would be a market for showing the first 15 minutes of a movie (or even 30 minutes). Let me pick some movies I’m interested in from a list, it downloads the first fifteen minutes, in exchange I answer a few (5-8) multiple choice questions for them. (If you don’t answer all the questions, you can’t delete it, which means you can’t download another).

They’re calling it an advanced screening, but it’s out on DVD (click the image), I think it’s more of an advanced preview of the new system.

In this dazzling combination of documentary and short film directed by and starring Robin Shou, star of MORTAL KOMBAT, and which Los Angeles City Beat called “a must-see for Hong Kong action fans” and the LA Times called “pure delight,” the death-defying feats performed by the world’s greatest stuntmen (nicknamed “red trousers” for the pants they wear during their training at Chinese opera schools) are profiled through interviews and clips that showcase their work. Intercutting with the documentary footage is the short film LOST TIME, a futuristic martial arts adventure in the style of Alex Proyas’ DARK CITY, where one can appreciate the stuntmen’s extraordinary achievement in their final cinematic form.

So my buddy is in the hospital for the week (or maybe two). He’s under observation for some concerns revolving around his brain misfiring. I’m not going to get into the specifics of the “brain issues” but it involves some memory lapses (so if I ever murder anyone, I’m going to pin the whole thing on him). The thing is he’s wired up (see photo) 24/7 on a 20-30 foot connection and under video surveillance. And to top it off, he has no internet access :(

So he’s probably bored out of his skull, they’ve weaned him off his medication, have sleep deprived him and he hasn’t had any problems. No problems mean nothing to measure, which means nothing to solve. And to top it off the other five people under observation have all had occurrences of whatever problems they are “in” for…

He’s got a DVD/VCR but the remote is missing and without the remote you can’t pause it or skip/fast-forward. So this means he’s got to watch a show straight through or if a Doctor or Nurse comes in he has to ignore it and start it over later (ignoring the parts he’s already seen).

No complaints about the food but everyone brings him food/snacks/cookies/pie/etc…

I’d be going crazy but he seems to be doing okay so far. It’s another sleep deprived night for him :(

So everyone everywhere has been saying the VCR is dead. TiVo sent out an e-mail last week, I’m sure you got it (you do have TiVo don’t you?). It said:

Did you know…?
• Many manufacturers have halted production on VCRs forever!
• 2006 will be the last year for VHS movie releases.

But here’s the thing, so many people still have VHS tapes, they won’t be going anywhere soon. Who has ditched their cassette players if you still have cassettes? CDs were clearly better and more convenient. But the problem was that you couldn’t record CD (way back when, we could only play CDS, not record) and it’s still pretty hard for many people to make mix CDs. And most people can’t record anything to CD for something casual (off the radio, a recital, etc). The same goes for DVDs.

So they did a mock funeral in New York and if you brought a VHS tape you could trade it for a TiVo (as long as sign up for at least a year’s worth of service).

There are a lot of CD and DVD recorders but they’re just not that for the normal consumer yet. Actually, it might be easier for most people to make DVDs of home videos than CDs of home audio. The software is out there for that and it’s semi-easy to use, the TiVo recorders (and I’m sure the competitors) will do that quite easily.

Once TiVo and the other DVR companies get out there with more DVD recorders I think it’ll really end it. People will still have those old 8 track tapes, I mean VHS tapes, and need to play them but I can see them not making any more.

95% of my VHS recording was generally TV shows that I taped over later or lent to friends who missed the show. Now I can just save a copy to DVD for me or them but it’s slightly pricier and I generally don’t get the DVD back or I can save a copy to watch at friends or on my laptop. I’ve been renting movies on DVD for years so that’s not an issue. I’m not even sure what the other 5% was: Duplicating home movies/parties/weddings? Taping friends/me/family on TV? Both of those were pretty rare.

I just noticed that .Mac expanded their storage from 250MB to 1GB (as of August 2007 it’s now 10GB!) which makes it even better! If you have a Macintosh, you’ll love this (especially if you have a laptop or more than one Mac). It’s a remote backup / synchronization / virus checking / file sharing / training / web publishing software service rolled all-in-one! I was going to post an update and I realized I’ve never posted about it before (I’d swear I had, I can’t believe I hadn’t). Here’s a few details:

Plus they give you web space to very easily publish photos and movies (just click a button from iPhoto and iMovie).

I love my TiVo!!! I’ve seen other digital recorders but this is so easy to use with it’s excellent interface. I think it’s a great product. You can watch stuff when you want or start a show late and catch up to it by fast forwarding through the commercials. If you’re just watching TV live you can pause it or even rewind. It’s got season passes, wish lists, automatic suggestions (based on what you want), fast forward at 1 minute per second, on screen directory, you can schedule shows via the web and all sorts of other stuff. They have got to save shows to DVD. If you hook it up to your home network (you do have a home network, don’t you?) you can play MP3s and view photos that are on a computer somewhere else. You can share shows between TiVos in your house (if you have more than one). It really is a great tool to have for your TV watching (even if you don’t watch a lot).

If you’ve considered it, you should try it. At the TiVo web site they offer a 30 money back guarantee!

You can also enter to win a TiVo and portable video player. It looks like you can (and should) enter daily.

So why am I talking about TiVo today? I’ve spent a chunk of today upgrading my home TiVo to have more space (bigger is better). And trying to fix another old broken one (still working on that).

So I know I’ve mentioned Scene It? several times before. I’m going to plug it again? Why you ask? Because I’ve seen a few new editions and some old ones released differently. Personally, I own the Junior, TV and regular refill pack (the board is the same for them all). I’ve bought at least a half-dozen of these as gifts (maybe a dozen).

Why is this game so great? It’s fast and easy to play; plus you can even fold the board in half to play an even shorter version. It’s got fun questions and about every third one is multi-media via the DVD player. Go directly to the Scene It? web site for more info and samples. Plus they give away a Scene It game a week.

The different editions are:

A Music Edition is now out too (at least I haven’t seen it before and I can only find it at Target so I guess that’s new).

I just found a HBO Expansion Pack too!

FYI – I saw all these at Target today (just the refills for 007 and TCM but not the Sports or HBO).

So I picked up an HD TV cable box today. But I don’t have an HD television. “Why?”, you ask? The better to see it with! My picture for the HD channels are beautiful!!! I feel like I just bought a new TV! My HD cable TV box will work fine on most TVs; probably any TV that will let you hook up a DVD player will hook up to this and give you a much better picture.

Here’s the thing: it’s got regular “video out” connectors on it (the yellow video or s-video), the same connectors that you use to hook up your DVD player. If you think your DVD picture is better than your regular TV, I’d say you should try this out. I’ve got Comcast in the Detroit area, I just walked in to get the box and came home and hooked it up instead of the old one. It’s only $5 more a month than the regular digital cable box.

How good is the picture do you ask? It almost as good as my DVD player !!! I’m using the s-video connector (the one that looks like the small round keyboard connector for your computer) and I’d say it’s way better than my old digital cable box. I’m sure you’re wondering why and the answer is simple: The television standard that we use has ben in use for over sixty years and that was black and white (color wasn’t tacked on until a dozen years later).

I’ve got ABC, NBC, CBS (although somethings up with it, which is unfortunate since I watch a bit of CBS), 2 PBS, the Discovery Channel, INHD & INHD2 (which carries IMAX programming), TNT, FOX and some other HD channel. If they had USA and SciFi, I’d be all set!

GEEK SPEAK: It would probably be a better picture if I didn’t have it running through my TiVo (but it’s inputs aren’t as high as the outputs of the HD box). The cable box has digital optical audio and coaxial audio outputs (it’s gotta have great sound, but the TiVo can’t handle it). Plus component video outputs. Even geekier: it’s got 3 USB ports, 2 firewire, some kind of smart card slot and it looks like a cable modem built-in. They don’t appear to use the cable modem, I’m wondering what would happen if I called in to activate it as if it was one I purchased.

So the SciFi channel started rerunning Firefly and the preview for the Serenity movie (the movie sequel) looks so great I thought I’d try the series again (I think I tried one episode originally and it didn’t take), but I think they (whatever network dropped it) originally ran them out of order. This was part one of the two part pilot (which was never run as the pilot, I’m not even 100% sure it was ever run they actually ran it as the last episode). I really enjoyed it! I think I might pick up the DVD and catch up in higher picture quality and the missing three episodes. And I really don’t need another Friday show; Stargate, Atlantis, Numbers, Monk, and Battlestar Galactica is already more than I watch the rest of the week combined!

I’m really liking the first season of Lost! I never watched it the first time around and I’m loving it. What’s great is most of these people have nothing to do with one another so the stories don’t have to be related at all! Emilie de Ravin, who played the bad alien in Roswell, is growing on me, I didn’t like her much as Tess but her pregnant character is interesting. And Terry O’Quinn (from Alias, X-files and Millenium) is a great character too, they just revealed his secret in the episode I just watched.

It was the season finale, wasn’t it?!? I don’t see any more episodes in my Tivo, either way it was a very busy episode. Poor George, he’s just the butt of everyone’s jokes and all he can do is stammer if it’s an embarrassing situation. At least he’s the new girlfriend (anyone know who plays her?). Every time I see Isobel I just want to reminisce and pull out the old Roswell DVDs, she’ll always be Isabel to me (oh wait, she still is).

I think “cliff-hanger” at the end will be resolved pretty easily come next season…

BTW, whenever anyone questions your relationship with your boss (and it turns out that you started dating him before he was your boss and/or you knew he was going to be your boss) that should be the first thing you say to them!

FYI, there is a nurse blog from the hospital, it’s a little out of date (but aren’t most of them?).

Grey’s Anatomy just keeps getting better and better! I’m not sure if it was a great episode this week, but it had a lot of great sub-parts/scenes. (Sorry no quotes this week)

And speaking of great television Joan of Arcadia comes out on DVD this week!!!! I haven’t been as excited about Joan this season but I’m looking forward to season one again…

Pick one word from each of the following pairs.
1. Laptop or desktop computer? Laptop. Powerbook!
2. When listening to music, headphones or no headphones? No Headphones.
3. CD or mp3? CD. But MP3s or AACs are way more convenient when they are all in my iPod.
4. When watching TV, lights on or off? Off!
5. DVD or VHS? DVD.

From Thursday Thoughts .

So if you’re watching the new Battlestar Galactica on the SciFi channel (several times per Friday night) there is a way to listen to a commentary by producer Ronald D. Moore (like the director’s commentary you can listen to on DVDs). They are marketing these as podcasts but they are really just MP3 files (but of course you can get them with your podcasting client. I haven’t listened yet (I’m a few weeks behind on my TiVo) but I thought I’d mention it…

Also they’ve got the first episode on-line with a few deleted scenes. I’ve got to assume the deleted scenes and commentary will al be available once they release the DVDs…

So I picked up The Beekeeper today. It really does reminds me of her older albums (even the packaging). I’m liking it so far. There seems to be two versions a reguluar version with 19 tracks and a limited edition with the same album, a DVD and some seeds to plant (I’m not kidding). The DVD has a really long interview thing that I haven’t really listened to yet and a extra track (Garland) that appears to be part video / part slideshow (with quotes from her book Tori Amos: Piece by Piece). Most places seem to have the regular for $12-ish and the deluxe for $16-ish (YMMV).

FYI – I had a hard time getting the CD out of my slot-loading Macintosh Powerbook. I’ve never had such a problem before and I didn’t try to replicated it since it was hard to get out (duh!). Once I got it out I did see that it had a kind of rough matte/flat covering on the label side of the CD. It might have been a fluke but bee (get it?) careful!

Tori has a new CD out tomarrow! It’s called The Beekeeper. I’ve only heard one song (Sleeps With Butterflies) but I think I’m going to like it, it reminds me of a few of her older albums.

She’s also got a new book out called Tori Amos: Piece by Piece. I’ve purchased it but I haven’t read it (today would have been a good day to read it).

FYI – There is a regular and deluxe edition of the CD, not sure of the difference (I’m assuming a DVD in the bonus version?).

I’ve been wanting a LCD monitor for my other computer. Hadn’t seen any great deals since I made the decision. Then I saw an awesome price (read below) on this 15“ Sharp LCD TV with built-in TV (antenna or cable) w/CC and RCA video and S-video and a headphone jack and a remote (batteries included) and built-in speakers…

And did I say it’s got a beautiful picture!?!

Put one of these and a Mini-Mac and you’ve got a nice little setup for computing and watching DVDs or TV in the den, office, bedroom, etc… It’s just such a nice little package I thought I’d share since they are still offering the deal. This article is where I found it and lists a few coupon codes that gets the price (no rebates necessary) down to $215-$218 (depending on if you are a first time customer or not).

I’m not sure if I’m actually going to put it on the computer that I bought it for…

So I was kinda sad when I saw the commercial for the beautiful/sleek m:robe MR-500i (the Olympus MP3/camera). I’ve been raving about my photo iPod and now this thing comes along. But on The Screen Savers they just gave it a pretty bad review (no flash, no shutter button, 20 GB, very slow to download songs, $500). Looks beautiful was pretty much all they had to say that was good about it… And what’s up with the dumb name?

So I still feel pretty great about my iPod Photo (and isn’t that what really matters?).

Lots of walking today at the CES. Saw lots of new electronic “stuff”. Here’s my complaint: I haven’t seen anything “new”. Of course how can that be true there were 500,000 “new” items. Everything was the next generation of things I’ve seen or had. I’m not saying I won’t buy any of the products, just nothing knocked my socks off. Everything was a little bit smaller, a bit brighter, a bit faster, a few more (mega)pixels, longer battery life and a few more devices integrated into one.

Lots of iPod accessories. Lots of HD stuff. Blu-ray DVD (50 GB of storage). Rio Zen is really trying to take the MP3 market.

Sony may have had the best setup. They made you sit through a short show before getting into their area, nice sound and nice images especially for and info-mercial. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that they probably had the best booth I saw today. A beautiful projector for $3,500. HD movies with Blu-ray. Some nice cellphones that play video and have digital cameras. Some beautiful computer displays.

I’ll have to check out “the best of” area, I think I had to cut outside to do that and it was too rainy and too cold!

I did actually look at my Amazon wishlist to see what there is that I “need”…

From FridayQ

Yum! 80 hour Tivo with progressive DVD player and DVD recorder!!! Only $399 after rebates. Gotta get me one (or two) of these.

I love this show, for some reason I only watch it when I’ve got time on my laptop. It’s a show about a bunch of dysfunctional relationships. Dad died and the family is trying to run the family funeral home. The secretive gay brother who dates a cop. The “lost” sister who’s either confused or lost. The mom who feels too much guilt (I can’t give away why). The cool brother who dates the genius girlfriend with a possibly even more dysfunctional family.

It’s hysterical. I think it’s still on HBO. Problem with viewing while traveling is that sometimes the funeral home gets a little graphic (minus) and there is nudity (sometimes not a minus). Check it out. The first few seasons are out on DVD.

Found at The Daily Meme.

So I finally saw it! It was really excellent. Kind of a Beautiful Girls meets Lithium… Zach and Natalie were perfect for the parts he had this lost/numb look when needed and she’s hysterical. She seemed really young in the movie reminding me a lot of her character Marty in Beautiful Girls (but that was 8 years). I will need the DVD for the director’s commentary (and any extras). Even the not funny scenes were funny in some way. I laughed lots! Out loud.

I always try to figure out what to say without giving up the movie… If you think you’ll like it, you probably will. It’s really got the gears turning in my head, I need the life altering experiences that some of the characters wen through so I can wake up and get moving with my life. Thanks to the motivators Maya and Jenni and everyone else whose been talking about this… I was halfway there when I remembered tissue, or more specifically that we didn’t have any, but I survived. The funny stuff offset the rest a bit…

A few good quotes (not in any order): A friend’s mom:

Oh… guys? Don’t stay in here all day. I had to take the batteries out of the carbon monoxide detector; it was beeping all night.

Sam (Natalie):

If you don’t laugh at yourself, life is going to seem a lot longer than you want it to.

Andrew (Zach):

We may not always be as happy as you always dreamed we’d be, but for once, let’s just allow ourselves to be whatever it is we are.

Sam (Natalie):

I know it hurts. But it’s life, and it’s real. And sometimes it fucking hurts, but it’s life, and it’s pretty much all we got.

All I can keep thinking of is the scene from that thing you do When Faye (Liv Tyler) says,

I have wasted thousands and thousands of kisses on you–kisses that I thought were special because of your lips and your smile and all your color and life. I used to think that was the real you, when you smiled. But now I know you don’t mean any of it. You just save it for all your songs. Shame on me for kissing you with my eyes closed so tight.

But that’s really kind of a non-kissing scene. Maybe when Craig Stoltz finally kisses the Mary Stuart Masterson character (Watts) in Some Kind of Wonderful. (I need to think a little more on this one.) The first time Max kisses Liz on Roswell (but that’s not a movie…)

I’ll give two answers.

1. Flight of the Navigator (the best Disney movie ever, which finally just came out on DVD last week): Because it always makes me feel like a little kid. Every time I’ve seen it. and that’s worth something.
2. Sabrina (the remake): I’ve always wanted to go to Paris after I saw that movie I kept thinking about it and a day (or two) later I realized “hey! I can go to Paris”, so I signed up for a French class and realized if I really wanted to do it I could, it really changed my perspective on things.

FYI, I never made it to Paris, got fed up learning the language, went to Prague instead. I’ve been to Costa Rica twice and England since, but still no Paris…

You are given a gift of 1 million dollars (kindly adjust for currency in your location). There are some restrictions on how you can spend some of the money, as follows:

From Random Acts of Journalling

No. I’m more of a Dominoes (or recently Scene It? the DVD game) kind of guy. Oh wait, can I count rollerblading?

From Sunday Brunch

From Weekend Wonderings

These questions are from Laura at the saturday-8.

Here’s my 100 things about me page. (If you’re looking for my 101 in 1001 days list go here.) To follow the theme that I’ve found on many other sites, partially to see what I come up with and to let others see what I come up with. I’ve broken this down a bit: I like, I dislike, I am, I’ve live in, I wish I understood more about, places I’ve been and before I die…

It’s interesting how many of these things I’ve blogged about so far…

UPDATE: December 2004/June 2005. I just came here to update this. I can’t believe how much it has not changed. The only other things are I’ve been liking my iPod (and listening to podcasting), the Scene It? DVD games and maybe some additional music groups (Katy Rose and maybe a few others) and I won’t add them until they’ve been around a bit longer. Probably “Two and a Half Men” (I laugh SO hard) and Liz Phair (added).

I like:
1. Riding on the train

2. Driving with the top down
3. The Internet
4. MSU
5. Ice cream (Cookie Dough from QD)
6. Rollerblading
7. Sunshine
8. My family
9. Kids
10. Babies
11. Picnics
12. Coca-Cola
13. Gadgets and gizmos
14. Taking pictures
15. Tori
16. Sarah
17. Indigo Girls
18. Liz Phair
19. Jewel
20. 80’s music
21. _Joan of Arcadia
22. Sports Night
23. Roswell
24. The American President
25. The Cutting Edge
26. A Christmas Story
27. Flight of the Navigator
28. Narnia
29. Time Travel
30. Reading
31. Movies
32. Dominoes
33. Scrabble
34. Euchre
35. Sitting by the river
36. Learning
37. Volunteering
38. M & M’s
39. Smarties (the chocolate kind)
40. Prizes in Cereal
41. Soda Pop in a bottle
42. Fun Size Candy
43. Macintosh
44. My i500 Palm Phone
45. Tivo
46. WiFi
47. The Ocean
48. Maps
49. Luggage
50. Books
51. Ice Skating
52. Sleeping
53. Building a fire
54. The Moon
55. Stars
56. Laughing
57. Holding hands
58. Crushes
59. Traveling
60. Smiles
61. Showers
62. Clean sheets
63. Surprises
    
    I dislike:

64. Pickles
65. Mayo
66. Mean people
67. Sauces on my sandwiches
68. Country
69. Being stuck at airports
70. Traffic
    
    I am:
    
71. An only child

72. Smart
73. Tall
74. Curly
75. Goofy
76. A night owl
77. Was born on September 11th
    
    I’ve lived in:
    
78. Royal Oak

79. Berkley (21 years)
80. Southfield (a 1/2 year)
81. East Lansing (7 years)
82. Haslett (4 years)
83. Southgate (1 year)
84. Dearborn (4 years)
    
    I wish I understood more about:
    
85. Astronomy

86. Women
87. Art
    
    Places I’ve been:
    
88. United States (all over)

89. Canada (Toronto 5 times; all over several)
90. England (3 times)
91. Prague
92. Costa Rica (2 times)
    
    Before I die I want to:
    
93. Have kids

94. See Paris
95. Take a cruise across the ocean
96. Find out what is out there
97. See the pyramids
98. Write a computer book
99. Live happily ever after
100. Find out “Why?”

I’ve seen this one everywhere but never found the original source, but I’ll try it anyways… (Can anyone tell me the original source?)

1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4. Write down what it says: “But our role is to be cautious. We have the welfare of”

2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you touch first? A coffee table with 5 remotes (DVD, TV, a non-so-Universal, TiVo and one for the lights) and the book I just grabbed.
3. What is the last thing you watched on TV? Kim Possible, she’s way cool.
4. WITHOUT LOOKING, guess what time it is: 3:30 PM
5. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time? 4:40 PM
6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear? My Tivo and a (different) computer that runs my CD changers as a jukebox.
7. When did you last step outside? what were you doing? An hour ago. Checking the (snail) mail. Just a bunch of spam.
8. Before you came to this website, what did you look at? My E-mail. Sigh, nothing new. Somehow I liked it better before I filtered my spam. It was never empty!
9. What are you wearing? While t-shirt and boxers (blue-ish plaid).
10. Did you dream last night? Not that I recall.
11. When did you last laugh? Today at Target (store), laughing at some teenage girls trying to convince a little girl/sister that she didn’t need both toys. The older girls lost.
12. What is on the walls of the room you are in? East (the way I’m facing) – is four windows and a bookcase (with photos, CDs, DVDs, college degrees and a shelf for remotes) . South – some photos I took in Praha (Prague) and a mirror (housewarming gift) and a staircase. West – I I don’t really have a wall there, it’s kinda open and eventually you hit the sliding glass door to the balcony/porch. North – a book case and about a bjillion post-it notes of various colors as I was trying to kind of map out a history of technology and implementation.
13. Seen anything weird lately? A lot of weird web sites dedicated to marshmallow Peeps…
14. What do you think of this quiz? Pretty good so far…
15. What is the last film you saw? "Butterfly Effect"! I thought it was excellent. Off to see "13 going on 30" tonite.
16. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first? Cruise tickets for friends and family. FYI, this would be two separate cruises! I might be slightly mean and make it educational – buy them all PowerBooks and digital cameras and make it be a MacMania cruise.
17. Tell me something about you that I don’t know: I’ve got a birthmark that my mom thought was dirt when I was little and she says she used to scrub it and scrub it..
18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do? Make everyone the same shade of blue and all speak the same language (Esperanto?) with no accent. I’m also thinking about a book I bought (but haven’t read) about an invention that makes all gunpowder on the planet turn inert. Or maybe just turn the top 10% of “bad” people on the planet inert…
19. Do you like to dance? Yes, when I get enough encouragement.
20. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her? a boy? Nothing that I’m concerned about about at this point.
21. Would you ever consider living abroad? Yes! Every time I go to another country I mull it around for a while. The one that really sticks is Costa Rica, I couldn’t tell you how often I think “sell it all, pack up and move”.

I wish I hadn’t gone to see this. I wish I had waited for the DVD. Why? Because if I had waited for the DVD I could replay the few scenes I had questions about over and over again. And more importantly I could see the deleted scenes; I’m certain there are at least two and they would answer my other few questions. Why? Becuase the movie takes care of all the little details and I’m sure they didn’t forget these few, I figure they were editied out and I have to know the rest because I enjoyed this movie so much. BUT it’s not even out on DVD yet! This was a great flick.

You need to understand two things: Chaos Theory and Time Travel (both relativly simple concepts, not).

1. Time travel – If you travel into the past don’t interfere with anything you may screw up the future. I.E. don’t go to watch your parents meet for the first time since just being there to observe you may do something to influence the outcome. (Almost a Heisenberg/Schroding dilemma which is you will influence the outcome).
   
2. Chaos Theory – It is said that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in Chicago can create a hurricane in Peking. I.E. If you stop and buy gum on the way to watch your parents meet, it may be the last pack of gum that your mother-to-be can’t buy and now when she meets your dad-to-be she has bad breath and he doesn’t ask her out and you vanish in a puff of smoke.

It’s a great movie, it’s my favorite movie concept, time-travel, and as such it offers many what ifs. The only downside, it was kind of violent and I almost want to say it was in an unnecessary way, but I’m sure that without it, it might have changed how I viewed the movie.

I have to also say I laughed the absolute hardest I’ve ever laughed in a movie in my life. One scene was so ironic it hit me all the way to my funny bone. I hope I used ironic correctly (I think it’s ironic that most people use the word ironic incorrectly, I hope I used it right the third time too).

A quick evaluation on whether a technology is good or not. That is a pretty short evaluation and I like it (it’s short, it’s powerful and it meets my 3 second attention span requirement). I got this from a Mike Rohde blog entry that was referring to a Howard Rheingold article quoting an Amish person as to why cell phones are okay for them. It’s got to be causing some conflict for them, remember cell phones are a lot more these days than just phones they are e-mail, web browsers, PDAs, video games, calulators, cameras, mp3 players, etc… and some of those functions are standard these days. The Amish aren’t the focus of my entry but they are the round about source of the quote.

Back to the quote: “Does it bring us together, or draw us apart?” – While it is a nice short evaluation on technology, the continuum between the two ends of the spectrum leaves a lot of grey area. But I’ve been thinking about it every since I read the entry. Computers (sans Internet) can take people away from the people they know. The Internet can bring them the world but also take them away from people they know. But for some it could be a creative outlet – photography, music, movies, art design. This could be what brings them out.

My question is what are some very clear technologies that fit at one end of our spectrum or another?
There is no research here, I’m just making it up as I go along (so don’t get upset with me).