JFred's Ramblings

Lightning seen from space shuttle. Very cool.

2009-02-14T10:31:44-08:00

Lightning seen from space shuttle. Very cool.

David After Dentist... awesome!

2009-02-12T19:06:57-08:00

David After Dentist... awesome!

This place is awesome...

2009-01-11T15:06:10-08:00

This place is awesome cause now I can finally get Hepatitis!

Accepted

The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) - 3/5

2009-01-03T00:35:31-08:00

For those who haven't seen the original, this is a remake of a 1951 sci-fi classic. I was attached to the original and am going to be harder to win over than most.

Let me start off saying I didn't dislike the movie. I think I see a lot of potential in the movie, and small changes could have made this a great movie. I probably wouldn't be as critical if it was just another ID4-a-like.

The character development was hokey or in a few places absent completely, and while Keanu Reeves pulled off the part of the alien, some of the acting is not on par with the actors abilities (some of it is the writing, but not all of it). The story line follows along a similar path to the original, with moments that serve only as homages to the original. There are a few additions that merely acted as momentary detours or forced plot points.

Without giving anything away, if your a fan of sci-fi and aren't to cynical, you'll have a good distraction but do yourself a favor and see the original - at the very least on google video.

Flaming Hot Munchies

2009-01-01T23:22:52-08:00

Was going vegan today, till I remembered we had 1/2 a bag of Flaming Hot Munchies!

Not all non vegan items are out of the house yet, so our current stance is eat what is left, so I finished the Munchies and we both had a big bowl of ice cream. Almost there.

Write Badly, Write Often

2008-12-20T12:05:14-08:00

Candace was looking over my shoulder when I had the new version of this site up and asked if my ramblings were all coding/computer posts or would she be interested. So I told her I couldn't say yet, as I got rid of what little I had and started over (again). She asked a simple "Why?". Why do I start the blog over and never write in it, why do I never leave the same setup for more than a few months, why do I think anyone cares? (Don't worry that last one isn't as depressing as one might seem.)

My answer was a pretty wishy "I always do." She's much better than I about the whole blogging, and online community building. I just haven't have the stamina to maintain a persona online.

This got me thinking about a few conversations that were happening at work about agile methodology, which we've been using for a while. The reason for the successes of the process can and have be argued (transparency, team work, product involvement, etc...), but one of the foundations that allow the rest of the process to succeed is the acceptance that a project can fail. More specifically, that you should expect to fail fast, fail often.

Fear failure can cause overly cautious and sometimes mediocre effort (and at worst complete stagnation). Perfection is impossible, and expecting perfection will only cause heartache. The benefit to the workplace of accepting failure as an option can be obvious, but the gains in personal life might be easily overlooked. This isn't a great life altering epiphany, and similar thoughts have bubbled up before but... what better place than this, what better time than now.

I will try to write badly, and write often. Just to clarify, by writing badly this is more about the content and less about the normal calamity of spelling, grammar, and syntax mistakes which litter this site. My posting goal will be at least one text post a week. See if I hold myself accountable. If there was a blog-gevity prognosticator, the odds would look pretty strongly against from historical performance.

Buckle up!

Feed Moved...

2008-12-13T16:50:01-08:00

So moving things again... and I'm going to move the feed to feedburner so next time you guys won't get jacked.

I'll leave the redirection for a while... but all 0 of you should move sometime.

Here you go.

Starting Countdown to Vegan Day

2008-12-13T15:18:34-08:00

At the end of the year, Candace and I going to make the transition from lacto-ovo-vegetarian to vegan.

Not that we eat much cheese at home, and I can't remember the last time we had eggs in the house, but eating out is going to be more difficult. Being in Southern California makes it easier, since we are living in the land of fruits and nuts, but going to common locations with friends will make it challenging to find 'acceptable' foods that satisfy. The number of consumables that would not intuitively suggest but actually use animal products in their production is sometimes staggering. It's hard to keep track of them when your paying attention, let alone expect someone else to know.

Wine, for example, often uses animal products in the refinement process.

The most common animal ingredients used in wine making are isinglass (a very pure form of gelatine from sturgeon fish bladders), gelatine (extract from boiled cow's or pig's hooves and sinews), egg whites (or albumin) and caseins (a protein from milk). Very occasionally blood has been used as an additive - "sangre de toro" means "bulls blood" - but rarely literally any more. This ingredient was declared illegal for use in European wines in the aftermath of the outbreak of BSE (mad cow disease).

from: Vegans are from Mars

There isn't a way to tell from the labeling (well sometimes you know that a winery is vegan friendly like Frey), so how are friends who don't care going to know without being 'one of those' vegans. That will be something that will get flushed out over time.

Going to have to be a little more picky and plan food out more. Candace is definitely going to make this easy for me, and it does have us looking at new gadgets like the SoyQuick soy and rice milk maker, but that's another story.