Bumper

Posted on June 11, 2019 by d4vid

Saw this on a car in the parking lot at work. Never has a bumper sticker given me more pause.

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Continental

Posted on June 10, 2019 by d4vid

Wandering around the Financial District with my friend Gavin in the (much more Lond0n-like) fog & drizzle, we rounded a corner and I asked, “Is that the Continental?!”

Apparently, it’s known as the Beaver Building or the Cocoa Exchange and the main entrance is currently a sushi restaurant.

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Phoenix

Posted on June 9, 2019 by d4vid

Okay, yes. I saw Dark Phoenix in the theater. More out of resignation and for a sense of closure more than anything else.

However, this Chinese poster almost makes up for the movie itself. Hope that’s a comfort to Chris Claremont after two botched adaptations.

“X-Men” is translated as X战警 (X zhàn jǐng) which translates to something like “X war police”. “Dark Phoenix” is translated as 黑凤凰 (hēi fènghuáng) which much more ominously means “Black Phoenix”.

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Taste

Posted on June 4, 2019 by d4vid

I was complaining to a non-geeky friend about the Amazon adaptation of Good Omens and kept coming back to the idea that, as much as I adore a lot of Gaiman’s writing throughout his career, a lot of things he chooses just aren’t to my “taste”.

I realized that in genres where there is a lot of world-building, my criticisms are much less technical & craft-related and instead mostly come down to “That just didn’t work for me” or “That just isn’t my thing.”

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Brand

Posted on June 1, 2019 by d4vid

Walked to a bookstore, bought a book. Then walked to a movie theater, saw Booksmart.

Because I like to stay on brand.

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Handbook

Posted on May 17, 2019 by d4vid

Harmontown turned me on to a comedy podcast called Hollywood Handbook which I’m quite enjoying.

As a throwaway sideline in one of their interviews, they started going off on the idea of “Chop wood, carry water.” (Apparently there are two self-help books by that name.)

One of the guys asked rhetorically, “What does the monk do before enlightenment? Chop wood, carry water. And, if I may ask a follow-up question, what does the monk do after enlightenment? Chop wood, carry water.”

It’s the same work. Just do the work.

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Insight

Posted on May 17, 2019 by d4vid

Back at USC, I took an entertaining and aphorism-packed television writing class taught by a real character, Stanley Ralph Ross. (He wrote about a third of the original Batman episodes!) One of his many, many, many tips & tricks that he taught was to “Learn astrology and then forget it.” He didn’t believe in astrology, but he found it useful when he didn’t quite have a handle on a minor character to assign the character one of the zodiac signs and use that to at least give the role something of a default personality and perspective.

These things should all be considered pseudoscience…

And probably even systems with studiability and reproducibility problems like…

None deserve belief or faith, but all may be instructive and insightful. Whether intended as a con or a genuine delusion, a I think a well-performed “cold reading” might be as insightful as a good therapy session.

Human biology and culture has a lot of common substrate. So it’s unsurprising that it can reveal itself in various guises.

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Quantified

Posted on May 6, 2019 by d4vid


The last week of every year, I try to reflect and make new plans.  At the end of 2010 (my annus horribilis), I decided to start tracking my mood in three categories:  pleasure, calm, and energy.  In 2013, I added a fourth:  focus.

A little crazy?  Admittedly.  But I was doing it before the Quantified Self was cool.

Whenever I remember to, every two hours or so I try to “check in” with myself and evaluate how I’m feeling in those four categories using a Lickert scale from -3 to 3.  Averaging out all the data (like rare data points from 4am) I’ve been able to graph how I tend to feel throughout the day.  For example, the graph above is an Average Day since I started working at Blue Sky.

Recently, it occurred to me that I could plot all the data since I started to see if I could discern any long-term trends or patterns.

In the very middle of the Pleasure and Calm charts, you can see the rise and fall of my time in China. You can also see that I’ve generally been more happy and relaxed since moving back to the U.S. than I used to be.  On the Focus chart, you can see that I’m more focused than scattered, but that might be a bias from when I was focused enough to remember to add data.  On the Energy chart, I noticed that the first couple of years I had much more energy than I seem to have had in the last couple of years.

I correlated my energy level against a metric I’ve been tracking since all the way back in 1999:  my weight.  (I’ll spare you that roller-coaster chart.)  Turns out I have more energy when I weigh less.  Who knew?

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Cyclothymia

Posted on May 5, 2019 by d4vid


A wise therapist I saw for many years once mentioned—almost in passing—that I was “cyclothymic”.  I didn’t really grok what he was saying at the time and I’m not sure what made me think to look it up now, but I think he was right.

From the Greek, κῦκλος (“kyklos-” meaning “circle”) and θυμός (“thymos” meaning “mood” or “emotion”), cyclothymia is marked by periods with symptoms of depression and periods with symptoms of hypomania.  In retrospect, that must have sounded too much like bipolar disorder (formerly called “manic depression”) for me to have identified with it, which is probably why I didn’t give it much thought.

But hypomania is distinct from true mania in that it doesn’t negatively impact someone’s ability to socialize or work and lacks psychotic aspects like delusions or hallucinations.  In fact it can provide “increased mental, physical, and social behavior that typically enhances overall functioning”.

In the context of depression, I often reference what I think of as my Antaean ability to “bounce back”.  And I’ve recognized that I periodically have bursts of organization, productivity, and creativity only to falter or feel derailed or discouraged or demotivated after a time.

I think I may have been blindly identifying the contours of my cyclothymia.

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Gangsters

Posted on April 29, 2019 by d4vid

I keep forgetting this so I’m writing it down.  Congress has had more than one “Gang of Eight” over the years.

There was a Gang of Eight in 2012 to deal with the “fiscal cliff”:

There was a Gang of Eight who drafted a border security and immigration act in 2013:

Arguably, the most important Gang of Eight, however, comprises the Congressional leadership, the leadership of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence:

  • Senate Majority Leader
  • Senate Minority Leader
  • Speaker of the House
  • Minority Leader of the House
  • Chair of SSCI
  • Vice Chair or Ranking Minority Member of SSCI
  • Chair of HPSCI
  • Vice Chair or Ranking  Minority Member of HPSCI

Currently, that means the Gang of Eight looks like this:

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Assemble

Posted on April 28, 2019 by d4vid

Much like recent Oscar nights, I can trace what I was doing in recent years by where I saw each Avengers movie.

  • The Avengers (2012) in Banff, Alberta.
  • The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) in Shanghai on my first terminus adventure.
  • The Avengers: Infinity War (2018) in Seattle with Eric, Jessica, & their friends.
  • The Avengers: Endgame (2019) here in Stamford.
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Monger

Posted on April 21, 2019 by d4vid

Watching Game of Thrones, I realized there are really only four kinds of -mongers you ever hear about:

  • cheese
  • fish
  • whore
  • war

Such an odd, specific collection.

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Syzygy

Posted on April 18, 2019 by d4vid

Every so often, things align perfectly.

NBC’s Thursday night schedule for the 2009-2010 television season was a Golden Age of comedy.  Community, Parks and Rec, The Office, and 30 Rock were all on the air, back to back.

  • Season 1 of Community featured Señor Chang’s Spanish class, the Day of the Dead party with Abed as Batman, the “Man is Good” intramural debate, a new guy (Jack Black) trying to join the study group, the naked billiards game, pottery class with the hippie teacher (Tony Hale),  the chicken fingers Goodfellas episode, and the epic paintball episode.
  • Season 2 of Parks and Rec featured the gay penguin marriage ceremony, the Miss Pawnee pageant, the visit from the Venezuelan sister city, Leslie battling her Halloween nemesis Greg Pikitis, the introduction of Tammy Swanson (Megan Mulally), the hunting trip where Tom shoots Ron, Galentine’s Day, Ron winning Woman of the Year, Andy tackling the possum, the telethon, and the introduction of the state administrators (Rob Lowe & Adam Scott) trying to slash the city’s budget.
  • Season 6 of The Office featured Jim & Pam’s wedding in Niagara Falls, the mafia scare (while the “Coalition for Reason” is dangerously weak with Pam & Jim on their honeymoon), Michael dating Pam’s mom, Jim letting Michael fall in the koi pond, the Southern murder mystery game, Michael disappointing Scott’s Tots, Dunder-Mifflin’s sale to the Sabre CEO (Kathy Bates), Pam’s delivery, and Michael dating a married woman.
  • Season 4 of 30 Rock featured Tracy’s quest for an EGOT, the search for a new TGS cast member, Jack & Liz’s visit to Stone Mountain’s Chuckle Hut, Liz’s “That’s a dealbreaker!” talk show, Jack’s love triangle between his high school sweetheart (Julianne Moore) and a cable host (Elizabeth Banks), Liz’s Valentine’s Day root canal, Liz’s “soulmate” Wesley Snipes (Michael Sheen), Liz trying to reunite her mom with Buzz Aldrin, and Liz falling for a pilot (Matt Damon) who is a TGS fan.

This Golden Age continued into the 2010-2011 season:

  • Season 2 of Community featured Betty White’s Anthropology class, the KFC rocket simulator, the zombie Halloween party, the secret trampoline, Professor Professorson’s conspiracy theory class, Troy being taken to the bar for his 21st birthday, the Dungeons & Dragon’s episode, Pierce bequeathing gifts at his “deathbed”, the election for student body president, the My Dinner With Andre/Pulp Fiction episode, the clips-we’ve-never-seen clip show, and the spaghetti Western paint ball episode.
  • Season 7 of The Office featured Michael hiring his nephew (Evan Peters), Michael’s mandatory counseling with Toby, Andy’s Sweeney Todd, Michael contacting all his exes because he thinks he has herpes, Gabe’s “Glee” viewing party, everyone investing in Ryan’s company Wuph, Michael & Oscar debating China, the return of Holly (Amy Ryan), Michael’s seminar tour, the hunt through town for a lost Michael, the premier of Threat Level Midnight, the warehouse garage sale, Michael handing the office off to his replacement (Will Ferrell), Michael’s last Dundie Awards, and Michael’s farewell to each person in the office.
  • Season 3 of Parks and Rec featured Leslie getting the flu, a father (Will Forte) demanding the Twilight books be put in the city time capsule, the return of Tammy Swanson, the Harvest Festival with Li’l Sebastian, Leslie using adult education teachers to improve her dinner party, Jerry’s naked painting of Leslie as a centaur, and the Li’l Sebastian memorial.
  • Season 5 of 30 Rock featured Jack using the Fabian Strategy on Avery, Liz charming the TGS editor (Paul Giamatti), Jack facing off with the Congresswoman (Queen Latifah), the first live show, Jack “Reaganing”, Liz’s dad (Buck Henry) visiting NYC for a “gentleman’s intermission”, Liz’s perfect pair of jeans, Jacks’ pre-recorded disaster benefit, the acquisition of GE by Kabletown, Jack learning to negotiate from his unimpressed Caribbean nanny, Jack vying with the Kabletown heir (Chloe Moritz), the “Queen of Jordan” reality show, and the plumber (Michael Keaton) finding the gas leak which causes Jack to meet Sideways Jack, 80s Jack, & Future Jack, Liz’s existential crisis over the plastic bag stuck in a tree, Jenna’s kinks getting in the way of becoming the spokeswoman for the wool industry, and Liz learning to “respawn” for a vacation.

Ten years later, I still think back to those fleeting halcyon days.  “Like puffs of hot air from the lips of a ghost in the shadow of a unicorn’s dream.”

TL;DR enjoy HBO Sunday nights with Game of Thrones, Barry, Veep, and Last Week Tonight while it lasts.

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Cog

Posted on April 17, 2019 by d4vid

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Destruction

Posted on April 15, 2019 by d4vid

Tempus edax, homo edacior

“Time destroys, man destroys more”

 

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