question » cristobal's mess

How are you gonna handle the hands free driving law coming up?

Jun 062008

So – I guess in July we need to be hands free on the phone while driving? I hear ads from Parrot Cellular on the radio all the time.

Looking at bluetooth headsets, I’m not sure if I wanna wear one or if it even makes sense. Doesn’t bluetooth on all the time drain your cell phone battery? Is the usage pattern to get in the car, turn on bluetooth and then turn it off once you’re out? Or does one leave bluetooth on all the time and just recharge more often? And with headsets, they need to be charged too?

If you get a car bluetooth adapter, what’s that do? Make the phone call go through the speakers? My car’s kind of noisy – so I don’t think that’s an option. I’m looking at jawbone or blueant headsets which claim to be better at noise cancelling…

How’s everyone going to handle the hands free law?

How many documentaries don’t make it?

Jun 032008

Saw The King of Kong last night. And it is a funny story about nerds battling it out to become the world record holders for Donkey Kong…and the side kick nerd characters that hang around those nerds…and the nerd extras need to round out the nerd ensemble. They talk about Donkey Kong as the first Mario video game and how that gives it a special place in “retro” video games…and how retro video games, because of their clearly defined patterns, make them so much more difficult than today’s games.

I don’t follow that last bit of logic, cause it seems like a random or more intelligent behavior makes games more challenging. Not games that are just a complicated abstraction of a maze.

But anyways, getting beyond the petty arguments that I’d have with the nerds in the movie, the other aspect of the movie that touched me, was how lucky/fortunate/well planned the documentary filming was. I mean, the story didn’t go Hollywood perfect, but it still went Hollywood interesting/engaging, by just being real life. Which is okay – it’s not a stretch of the imagination or anything. But it just made me wonder about all the other documentary crews out there that film for a year or two and at the end of it, just have a ton of footage that leads up to a not so interesting story. Sucks to be them. It’s like the dudes that have bought a lot of Superbowl Champion gear but it’s all branded around the losing team.

Or is every story, after two years, kind of interesting?

I didn’t laugh out loud, but it was amusing, the characters were nice enough and annoying enough that it kept me interested. It wasn’t as good as Mail Order Wife (but then, what is?), though it was still decent.

Drop a note if you still haven’t seen Mail Order Wife. I’ve still got copies floating around.

Give me two words.

Feb 262008

Looking for two words. I’ve read them recently, but didn’t commit them to memory, or even blackberry.

The word for when computers take over the world. Or at least, become more advanced than humans and we have that battle with them, which we should lose.
The word for the movement to remove humans from Earth right now. It’s the ultimate “green” move and there’s a book and possibly a cult about it.

Thanks.

fine dining…

Jun 282007

So we went to a mexican restaurant that happens to be a hole in the wall. In a “flavorful” neighborhood.

The food is good.

Sal was properly dressed.

The clientèle were cheering every time Argentina scored on the US (final score of 4 to 1).

There were a couple of police cars/trucks roaming the parking lot.

As we were transferring the car seat from Catherine’s car to mine, a gentlemen asked me if I could do him a favor. You see, he just caught his woman with another man, and a dollar fifty would get him a biscuit and help him deal with messed up situation he was in.

I had Sal in one arm, his car seat in the other.

I really get worried with the homeless situations now, with Sal. With Sal, I feel a lot more vulnerable. I feel like I have an obvious weakness sitting out in the open. So I end up giving away quite a bit more money, just to avoid anything close to a confrontation. What amount of money is worth risking Sal’s safety over?

Outside of TGIF’s a while back, with Shawn and Kari, Sal and I had to go for a walk cause Sal was antsy and we heard a gentleman’s story for quite a while. It was a sad story that involved his family and going out of business and car accidents with no insurance. Sal gave him 60 dollars that night, to get him a hotel room.

Not sure if it was insulting for the man to bend down and take the money from Sal or not – I only thought of that angle after it happened. In the moment, I was trying to use it as an exercise for Sal in sharing.

So tonight, I had to convince our new acquaintance to give me a moment, since my hands were full, and once I had a chance, I would help him out. I knew where he was sitting – under a tree, next to Catherine’s car. He had in fact, followed us from Catherine’s car to my car.

So we walk Catherine back, get her into her car, and we give our buddy 5 bucks. I mean, did you hear what happened with his lady? Sal and I said good bye and good night to the guy and we were off.

Anyway, how do others cope with the homeless and their children? How protective do you get? Should you get?

As for the dollar amount, it made me remember to call up DirecTv and ask for my customer loyalty discount. 20 bucks a month for the next 6 months.

How does this language thing work?

Jan 262007

So last night, one thing lead to another and two people were faced with the possibility that they had heard a common phrase and had completely misunderstood it.

At the end of G.I. Joe cartoons, there would be a little PSA type message. Some kid would be doing something and a G.I. Joe character would come along and give them some advice. It would conclude with the line “Knowing is half the battle“.

One way of interpreting this message was that G.I. Joe was reminding its audience that this knowledge wasn’t enough to win the battle, but one must act on this knowledge as well. Remembering and follow through are key to win the battle.

Another interpretation is that G.I. Joe has helped you get halfway through the battle. That before the PSA, you were a lost cause. But now, after being exposed to their educational PSA, you are much further along. In fact, halfway through the battle.

Both sides were shocked that there was another interpretation – as they had grown up seeing only their interpretation of the tagline.

Is one right? More correct than the other? Or do we all, as individuals, find within the G.I. Joe messages, what we each really need to hear?

what we got after the first viewing of Primer.

Aug 062006

So after I saw the movie, I asked Brian about it. This is what we got:

The time machine allows objects to bounce between time A and B. A is when it is turned and B is when the object is put in.
Things need to sit in the time machine for a while, to bounce between A and B. And actually, there are several trips back and forth, so things age fast in there too.
They could easily go back a day and make a killing in the stock market. Which they did.
They were afraid of what would happen when they ran into their “doubles”. They called them doubles, but I think they are really the “originals”. But no one asked me.
They would go turn on the time machine (time A – say monday morning) and then spend the day in a hotel without contact with the world. Then check the stock market, pick a stock, and go back into the time machine (time B – say tuesday morning).
They would pop out at time A (monday morning) and then play the market and make money. They didn’t need to worry about running into their doubles/orginals because their doubles/originals were in the hotel.
Then they started to think about what would happen if they ran into their double/orginals.
They started to carry their cellphone while in the hotel room, which was kind of not keeping with the whole “don’t contact the world so that when we live this time out the 2nd time, we can act normally” routine.
Then they started to not trust each other so much – “What is worse – being paranoid or finding out you should be paranoid?”
Then the guy had to use the “failsafe” time machine. I really loved that part. This was a separate machine that he turned on before any of the other stuff happened. So that if anything went wrong, he could go back to it’s time A which was before any of the other stuff happened…and maybe fix things?
Then someone’s got some party with someone’s ex-boyfriend and there’s a shotgun and things unravel from there.
Lots of cool drama going on that I was only aware of in a meta sense. In that – I knew something good was going on, I just wasn’t understanding it.

The movie is only about 1:15 long. Watching it a second time has helped.

Hopefully this little blurb will convince you to watch it and to discuss.

————-

Oh – and some try to scare me about the hills of Portola Valley. And there are some hills, but I figure they can’t be that bad, we’re not doing the La Honda hill. Twain is nuts. I think he’s got helium instead of bone marrow too. I might have cookie dough. Or some deep fried sausages – like the kind they serve at Shoney’s…

But after finding out last week’s ride was only 250 feet up and I was pretty much wasted after it – and this weekend’s got 700 or so up (3rd page) I would start to second guess myself and my overflowing blind self confidence except for the fact that the 700 feet happen in the first 8 miles. So we’re done with it fast. I can deal with that. And that since we start at 100, it’s only 600 feet! Math is my friend. Math can be your friend too…it helped the dudes in Primer.

Older Entries Newer Entries