The Fortress of Solitude

Reading World War Z

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:18:23 PST

By the way, this happens to be my 300th post here at the Fortress of Solitude. I didn't think much about it when 100 and 200 posts passed by but 300 is a major number, especially for a blog that started out mostly to fulfill a class requirement.

I actually read World War Z when it first came out in Hardcover and then again when it was released in Paperback. I enjoyed it enough that I even got the audio book version to listen to on my way home from work. (FYI, the audio version is abridged; whats there is well done, by a very good voice cast but its still only most of the book and not all of the book.) Overall its an interesting take on a zombie story; its told a couple years after a worldwide zombie war has finished, w/ the author going around conducting various interviews about the before, during, and after of the conflict for a UN commission. The interviews in terms of tone and in terms of the feel the author is going for is basically a zombie rerun of World War Two.

I'm not a big fan of zombies but I do enjoy reading alternate history so the book really sucked me into it. The scenery and the characters are well done, giving a very realistic feel to the events. The characters sound like real people who are reacting to the whole world basically going to hell around them. If there is any one real major distraction to this book, its how heavily the author lets his personal politics get involved in the storyline. Its not just an apparent nostalgic fetish for the New Deal but bits here and there that pop up and shock the reader out of the feeling that the world the book constructs is realistic. Its how completely he allows his very clear left wing political tilt shine through in the book. For instance, the wartime administration of zombie occupied America is suggested to be Colin Powell and Howard Dean. Really? The country falls apart and the secret to its salvation is a bipartisan administration w/ those two in the top two spots? This book was originally written when those two men were still somewhat politically relevant but even at the hight of that time, this was still just absolutely silly. Another major plot in the book is that the threat of a zombie apocalypse suddenly brings a speedy end to the Arab Israeli conflict, complete w/ a reconciliation between Israel and the Palestinians. Not only that but the terms he lays out to get that (Israel completely abandoning the entire city of Jerusalem AND inviting not just every Jew on Earth but also every Palestinian to resettle in the country as it placed itself under isolated quarantine) are so beyond the suspension of disbelief that you can see the politics well up in the author as he wrote it. Believe me, even w/ a zombie apocalypse no Jewish government in Israel is ever going to give up sovereignty over Jerusalem; hell, Israel is largely made up of two clusters of population, one around Tel Aviv and the other around Jerusalem. The situation as the book lays it out is something only someone ignorant of the situation on the ground would put together. (Same goes for his "Israeli Civil War", apparently between the secular and religious over the abandonment of Jerusalem; there'll sooner be Hasidim at the Wailing Wall having an all pork banquet before that ever happens...)

Its a shame too because he does put up some interesting developments as the book goes on; the lengths that the surviving governments go to stabilize their nations and hold on power, the adoption of the South African Redekker Plan (and the fate of the actual Redekker character which was an interesting twist, especially in the audio version), the developments in Russia and the Iran/Pakistan Nuclear War are all elements that draw a readers attention. But even then the author can't help but let politics spill in; the idea that an America that is half overrun w/ zombies is going to play nice w/ Cuba to the point that it can become an economic powerhouse rather than just take the place over outright is silly. In the end, I'd recommend taking this out from a library rather than buying it but that if you are looking for a zombie story to pass the day away w/, this will certainly meet your needs.

Backups and Considerations

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 08:30:08 PST

Yesterday I decided to spend some time backing up the Fortress; I've known for the entire time I've had my blog up here, that essentially anyone who uses Blogger is at the tender mercy of Google, which can at any time block and delete any blog w/o any sort of reason or explanation. Now if the Fortress ever did disappear, I would basically just start something new for myself somewhere else; but I've invested some time and effort in creating all the posts that are available here and I don't want to see that work completely disappear because some corporate suit suddenly gets miffed at random. In fact, I would suggest that anyone who maintains a blog through a free service such as Google or Wordpress, should BACK IT UP. That way they don't have to live w/ the frustration and regret of not having done so. I have saved an xml copy of the Fortress as well as keeping a backup copy of the site on Wordpress so that I won't be banging my head against the way in case of the worst. (Of course in my case I'm being prepared or paranoid if you prefer since the Fortress generates little traffic and is basically off on the region of the map labelled "There Be Dragons Here"... Still better safe than sorry.)

The Gift of Learning... :-)

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:54:09 PST

Since I work as an Academic Librarian, I've never had to visit a public school and do a book talk but I just found this little short to be hilarious... :-)

A Review of Pixar's UP

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:26:35 PST

Normally I put in a spoiler warning but given that I just saw this on DVD, its been out for a long while, and the title to this post says "A Review of Pixar's UP", I'm gonna say that its pretty obvious there are going to be some spoilers ahead.

Anyway, Best Buy opened up a new branch in Union Square this weekend and while I was there checking it out, I saw that they had UP on sale. Since I hadn't seen it but heard great things about it and since Pixar has only really failed me utterly once (Ratatouille) in comparison to the total failure that the rest of modern day Hollywood is, I decided to pick up a copy. And I have to say right now that I was not disappointed. This is an awesome movie that I heartily recommend to everyone.

The story in short is about an old man named Carl Fredrickson. As a boy he was obsessed w/ adventures and particularly w/ one of the famous adventurer of his time, Charles Muntz. Walking home one day he meets a girl named Ellie who is equally focused on finding adventure and has the same hero as him. They become friends and later on, fall in love, get married and build a life together. Unfortunately for all their dreams of travel and adventure, real life always seemed to get in the way. In this way time passed and they never got around to having that grand adventure; and in time Ellie got sick and died, leaving Carl alone w/ only the house they lived to hold onto. As the movie starts, a developer has his eye on Carl's house and he refuses to sell; so the developer, after an incident between Carl and a Construction Workman, has him declared a menace who is in turn ordered by the court to move to a nursing home. Carl, on his last night at home, decides that he is going to take that adventure he and Ellie always meant to have, and float the house down to South America, to set it up where Ellie always dreamed it should be. So he attaches hundreds of balloons to the house and floats it away. And in the usual 'Odd Couple' tradition, he gets a stowaway in the form of a chubby boy scout named Russell who is desperate to help him out to win his merit badge for, well... basically helping out an elderly person.

The bulk of the story is the development of Carl and his contrast against all those who are surrounding him. He starts the movie off, broken, old, and driven out of all he has. The memory of failure haunts him, failure in that he thinks he held his wife back from having her adventure, that he didn't help her have it. As the movie goes on, he remains physically old, but his spirit begins to really get younger w/ every step. He discovers that Ellie had no regrets about her life and that she saw the life he had w/ her as an adventure; her last written thought wasn't about regret but thankfullness and a desire for him to continue on to his own adventures even if she couldn't be there with him. Russell, the chubby boy scout, is driven through the adventure he shares w/ Carl by his desire to win his absent father back into his life. But he helps to bring a child's innocence to the atmosphere and make Carl recognize that there is adventure in even an ordinary lived life. The movie draws the two of them together, making Russell into the grandson Carl never had and Carl into the grandfather/father figure that Russell lost.

In contrast to all this is the figure of Charles Muntz, the adventurer, who spent his life fruitlessly searching for a bird so that he could redeem his tarnished reputation. (He brought a skeleton back home but was accussed of fraud; he vowed not to return w/o a living specimen to show he was telling the truth.) He lives surrounded by his dogs but is essentially a madman, driven insane by his quest. He murdered and attempts to murder in the course of the film, all so he could capture a bird that nobody really cares about. Outside of Carl, after all, nobody even remembers him. He's an excellent counterpoint to Carl, a man who has lived his life completely devoted to adventure, to the point where he has nothing. The ultimate fate of Muntz was just given what was happening when he finally did meet it.

There were three particular parts that deeply moved me in this movie; the first was the opening flashback to Carl and Ellie's life together. They meet, marry, and love in the most touching way. Several moments definitely bring a tear to my eyes, including the moment its revealed that Ellie can't have children, and in particular when she collapses walking up a hill. That second moment, where its clear that she can't go on anymore, and Carl runs to her, his hat flying off his head is deeply moving. The section eventually ends w/ him at her funeral and then entering their house in darkness. And all this is only the first ten minutes of the movie. The second part that moved me was later on, when Carl has finally gotten the house to Paradise Falls. He sits inside and looks through Ellie's scrapbook w/ tears in his eyes. The animation in particular caries the emotion though, as the watery eyes are not particularly noticeable but slowly catch your attention. At that moment, its revealed that he only looked in the book up to the first couple of pages and never at the rest because he had assumed they were blank, since they were meant to catalog the adventures Ellie had planned on having. Here he finally does, and sees that she had filled it w/ pictures of them together throughout the years. At that moment, he realizes she looked upon their whole lives as a great adventure. Its then that you could see a cloud lift from his heart and his whole tone and demeanor change for the rest of the movie. He becomes alive again, animated in a way that he hadn't been since Ellie had died. The final part that really moved me was Dug the Dog. He appears in several parts and unlike normal dogs, he is able to talk thanks to a collar invented by Muntz. His dialog is hilarious as he's a particularly friendly dog and to be honest he sounds exactly like you'd think a friendly, loving dog would sound. There are several great parts w/ Dug but my particular part is after Carl begins to have his change of heart that I mentioned above. Carl sets out to save Russell from Muntz and as he gets his house airborn again, he hears a knock on the door. When he answers it, he sees Dug who has returned after Carl had earlier shouted at him and called him a bad dog. Dug looks up, so cute and vulnerable and loveable and tells Carl "I hid under porch because I love you! Can I stay?" The voicework is so well done and sounds so innocent and kind and gentle, that it can't help but touch your heart. If I ever get a dog, I would like to have one like Dug.

Overall I found this movie to be touching; its about the redemption of lost souls, about how even a life of ordinary pursuits and pleasures can be as important as a life spent wandering the world, about how important it is to remain connected to people you care about, how important fathers and sons (technically here grandfather figure and grandson figure but you get my drift) are to helping each other stand strong and straight... Definitely recommended.

The Problem W/ Time Machines

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:55:03 PST

Given the title, I thought this was be a little more of an active video but honestly by the end I was pretty much cracking up... For the record, I'd probably be the friend witnessing all this go down... :-)

Anniversaries This Week

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:48:11 PST

Well, as promised, here is a major update for the Fortress. Enjoy! :-)

This week has been a major one for anniversaries; more specifically we have the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street, the 71st anniversary of Kristallnacht, the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, and the 91st anniversary of the end of World War One. (Its the 90th anniversary if you count the end of that war from when the US Senate declared it over which was sometime in 1919 rather than when fighting in Europe actually stopped on November 11th 1918.) I was going to post on each of these events separately during the week but I just couldn't find enough time to do so. What I'll do instead is have a short comment on each of these events here:

Kristallnacht - This event which in English translates to "Night of Broken Glass" was the 1938 state sponsored and sanctioned pogrom against the Jews of Germany. You can click here for the specific details but the important thing to keep in mind is that the reason to remember this event is that it was a major tipping point on the path to the Shoah. These days, outside of the Jewish community, the world tends to associate the date of Kristallnacht w/ an event that fell on its 51st anniversary - the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

Armstice Day/Veterans Day - Armstice Day is just that - the day that fighting stopped on the Western Front of the First World War. This happened on November 11th 1918 at 11am. Its was celebrated as such in the United States until 1954 when the celebration was expanded to cover all veterans. That was when the day was renamed Veterans Day. I stopped by the Veterans Day parade in NYC after my shift ended today and I just want to give a shout out to all the veterans who have fought and died to protect this country and the great ideals and Constitution that give the it meaning.

1989 Berlin Wall - On the anniversary of Kristallnacht in 1989, the Berlin Wall was breeched and people from East Berlin were finally able to freely cross into West Berlin. The event is more significant though, in that it marks the fall of the Communist Bloc and ultimately the beginning of the end for the Soviet Union which folded up shop a year later. I remember actually watching the Berlin Wall come down on TV but at the time I didn't think much about it. Looking back on it its simply amazing that the Soviet Bloc would collapse in such a largely bloodless manner. Most empires that close up shop like the Soviet Union did usually do so in a very bloody manner; in this case we, meaning most of the world, got off pretty lucky.

Sesame Street - Google has been celebrating this all week and I did enjoy Sesame Street a lot growing up. Plus the whole thing inspired me to look up some clips on Youtube which was a lot of fun. And of course how could I not go on record as saying that I most identified w/ Grover, looked up to Cookie Monster, thought that the Count had rhythm, and that Oscar is a part of my mafia. Seriously. :-p

An Overdo Update

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:47:16 PST

An substantial update is planned for later today. (I haven't been meaning to neglect the Fortress but as everyone knows, life can sometimes get in the way... If you're interested in daily material, check out my Twitter account.)

Happy Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:39:10 PDT

Happy Birthday Ma!

Nook

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:05:34 PDT

I've written about e-readers, specifically Amazon's Kindle on previously here at the Fortress so its only fair that I make a mention of Nook, Barnes and Nobles new e-reader. I haven't actually gotten my hands on a Nook yet so I can only really go on online reviews and non-active demo versions I've seen on display in Barnes and Noble but so far it looks pretty good.

The main pluses for Nook are the color display, virtual keyboard, SD Memory Slot, 3G/Wifi, native PDF support and the streamlined iPhone look. The main minus (and this is true for all e-book readers) is that it is just an e-reader and not a true tablet computer. For anyone looking just to read books, this device looks like it could give the Kindle a run for its money, especially since Barnes and Noble can easily market and sell this in-store, which gives customers a chance to actually hold and see the device. In comparison the Kindle is mail-order only which gives it a disadvantage in a competition w/ Barnes and Noble.

Right now though the major problem for both the Kindle and Nook is price point; you could just as easily get a netbook or a iTouch for a couple dollars more and they provide much more than just the ability to read e-books. 260 dollars is still way too expensive for e-readers and they won't hit the real mainstream (i.e. be as common as iPods and iPhones are today) until they come down in price. For a 100 or 150 bucks I'd probably get myself a Nook; for 260 plus tax it can wait. And in that case it might get wiped out by the promised Apple Tablet...

Blogging and the FTC

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:19:57 PDT

This popped up and was big on in the blogosphere a while ago but I wanted to throw my two cents in too. Here's the gist of matter: "The Federal Trade Commission will require bloggers to clearly disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products." (Link) Now, I have never received any freebies or payments from anyone for anything connected to this blog. And it looks like I never will either... :-) But I do happen to review books and movies and such here at the Fortress so I wanted to make this point absolutely clear in the highly unusual and unlikely event that the FTC ever decided that I was worthy of notice. Unless otherwise noted, all reviews of anything are of things I have directly purchased and are my pure, unadulterated personal opinion of said products.

*Sigh*... You know there was a time when people trusted their judgment and relied on common sense when doing anything, including reading a highly opinionated review of anything. Instead nowadays everyone has to be a goddamn lawyer and the government has to stick a finger in everything. Its the iron rule of bureaucracy; unless kept in check by a vigilant and free citizenry, the damn thing just keeps on growing and growing until it looks like a cross between the DMV and the Post Office. You could power a small city with the amount of spinning James Madison and Thomas Jefferson are doing in their graves.

Simchat Torah 2009

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:07:01 PDT

Here's a link to what I wrote about Simchat Torah last year. In that post I mostly describe what the holiday celebrates and generally how much fun it is. Along with Purim and Hanukkah, Simchat Torah has always been my favorite of Jewish holidays.

Its also one of those holidays that anyone who intends to preserve a Jewish identity should make sure to observe regardless of their level of learning and understanding of Hebrew. My speaking Hebrew is atrocious, barely useful and my ability to read Hebrew is pre-school level at best. (I comfort myself with the knowledge that I did learn the alphabet and know how to write in Hebrew. But fluent is not a word I'd use to describe myself.) But there's something about Simchat Torah, about not just the idea but the visable action of having gone through reading the entire Torah over a course of a year, finishing it and then starting over again. Its a connection to the long line of Jewish History, to the countless ancestors who lived and studied the Torah and even died rather than give it up. Thats what you can feel when you celebrate this holiday; the understanding of being a link in a chain stretching back to Sinai. The Torah is a foundation of an identity. It is a more than just law; or even a collection of memories and hopes and promises. It is the story of a family. And by going over it endlessly, we remember where we came from, what we were, what we hope to be, and what we could be if we keep at it. Simchat Torah is where we finish one cycle of remembering, celebrate what we have spent the year doing, and then immediately rededicate ourselves to starting over again but always from a different angle so that we can alwaysfind something new among the completely familiar.

Anyway, that's my view. :-) Have a Happy Simchat Torah!

Its not a Boy! Its not a Girl! Its a... Car!

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 08:28:44 PDT

Last month, I turned 31 years old. I lamented that fact here in case you're curious in rereading that masterpiece... :-) Anyway having aged into the prime of modern adulthood :-p I decided that it was time that I changed some things about the way I live. To be more specific, I decided that I needed to own a moderately sized car. And as of yesterday when I exited the bureaucratic hell that is the DMV (the desk clerk was very pleasant but waiting on line there feels like being in the waiting room of the damned from Beetlejuice), I now own one!

I've had my license since my late teens (pasted the written test on the first try and the driving test on the second) and while I've driven in the intervening years, its mostly been intermittent and on my fathers car which has varied over the years. I didn't much mind this since it was more economical for me to go without a car given that I live in NYC which has subway service covering most areas and traffic that is a living nightmare but the one constant of life is that it never stays the same. And while on the whole saving money on having to pay for gas and insurance did help me a lot in my twenties, its not the type of life I want to live in my thirties. A car is not just a symbol of adulthood but also of independence. While I wouldn't really recommend driving in NYC (and I plan to limit myself on that - Manhattan is a pain to drive around in) just having the option of being able to get into my own vehicle and transport myself where I want to go without having to wait for a train or limit myself to where the trains are available is liberating.

As for which car I got; over the years I've been behind the wheel of mainly two different cars, excluding the one's I drove while taking lessons at driving schools. The first was a 1986 Cadillac DeVille. It was a so-so car; personally I always felt it was a little to close to the ground for my tastes. The other has been a 2002 Ford Crown Victoria, a bright yellow former taxi. (I've also been behind the wheel (once) of a Lincoln Towncar, the old style one that looked like a tank. I've also had some experience with Chevy Impala and an Oldsmobile who's model escapes me but which had windows in the back that were permanently sealed though I was mostly a passenger in those rather than a driver.) Since the car I was getting was largely going to be for myself rather than for transporting large groups of people and because I wanted to sit higher up and save some money on gas, I decided that I would be well off getting myself a small SUV. Originally I was intending to get myself a Honda CRV, given that those are the most economical cars in America. But I also had a limited budget and was not planning to buy a new car. Thirty thousand dollars did not just fall into my lap after all. But finding a used CRV in the NYC area is apparently impossible. The closest I could get was a 1998 version for about seven thousand dollars which is needless to say, not a very good deal. So I went for the next best thing - a Ford Escape. Its true that it doesn't quite give me the same gas mileage as a Honda CRV would but its a small solid car. The one I bought was a 2002 XLT with a V6 engine for a very reasonable price that I won't be posting up here. Lets just say I got a very good deal for my troubles.

Now obviously being a used car I have to put a little money in checking it out and making minor repairs (probably needs an oil change) but largely its a nice car that fits the needs of a single man. Its got a powerful engine, is in good shape, has cargo space, a good amount of passenger space (as long as you aren't sitting behind the driver - me - every car I get into I always have to move the seat all the way back...), and for a car that I'm going to use to reaquaint myself with driving on, its a great deal. Now if I had a wife and kids, it'd been too small - I'd probably have to get myself either a van (something like a Honda Odyssey or a Dodge Caravan) or a large sedan (a Honda Accord or a Ford Taurus or a Nissan Altima). But seeing as that isn't a question right now (hopefully soon! :-) ) I think I made a good purchase for myself.

Now as for anyone I know who needs a lift, I'm always willing to help out a friend but its going to have to wait a while in this case - mostly because its been a while since I've really been behind the wheel of a car that its almost like starting from scratch! :-) I kinda feel like I'm 16 again and sitting down to drive for the first time. Its gonna take a while (at least a month or two of practice) before I'm really ready to say that I'm confident about being on the road. After that... well, I'm thinking about a road trip, maybe out to Vegas... :-)

Confidence is 9/10ths of Everything

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:28:32 PDT

I'm gonna put this up here without any commentary beyond the fact that it really gave me a sort of flashback to my teen/early 20s... If I had only known then what I know now... *sigh*... :-)

A Reflection on 31

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:45:42 PDT

Today is my 31st birthday; I'm not really a fan of birthdays in general unless they include large amounts of food, drink, and friends/family. Sometimes they seem more like markers that remind you that you now have less time on this planet than you did last year. Other times they seem like a reminder that you are now a little bit smarter and a little bit more distinguish, a little more experienced than you were the year before. I suppose I'm suddenly so reflective because its 31; when I turned 30, it was a momentous jump into an entirely new age of life. But it was still close enough to my 20s that I didn't really think about it. 31 on the other hand means that I'm past 30. I'm not a man who stepped out of my 20s into a brave new decade; I'm a man who's now on the countdown to 40... understandably that can be a little depressing.

But I should tell you, my dear single reader who is mostly a figment of my imagination - I resolve not to be brought down my useless angst! I resolve that this year I will live life more fully than I have in the previous years; and if I don't happen to take that train ride across America or see Mount Rushmore, or make the Pilgrimage to Las Vegas or ride in a hot air balloon or so on and so forth, I will still not let the time pass me by! I resolve to improve myself so that when I am truly old (you know fift... hey, I'm kidding, I'm kidding :-) ) I will be able to look back at my life and say that my regrets never ever outnumbered my dreams.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming, already in progress...

iPod Video Recording

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:11:09 PDT

Its been almost a month but the biggest update from Apple on its iPod line has been releasing an iPod Nano with a video camera built in. I haven't said anything about this earlier because I didn't want to comment on it until I had actually tried one out for myself to see how it works. This weekend I finally got a chance and overall let me say that it has its ups and downs.

The up of course is that there is now an iPod with video recording capability. This is a fantastic development; of course the most recent version of the iPhone got this feature as well and has had the ability to take still pictures for a while but buying an iPhone is quite a financial investment, not to mention a two year contract committment to AT&T. Thats something that I'm not really interested in entering into right now. Now that an iPod had video recording capability, you don't need to have a separate video camera on you in case you see something you want to record. Its a fantastic feature to add and expands the iPod beyond simply being a music player, something that most cell phones are capable of doing these days as well.

The down side though is where the video lens was placed on the Nano. Instead of putting it at the top with the screen, its at the bottom opposite the controls. That makes it very awkward to hold the device, manipulate the controls and not block the video. I hope that future versions of the device will relocate the video lense to make use slightly easier. I also hope that soon the iTouch, which is the phone-less version of the iPhone (essentially its a mini-computer) will be getting a camera soon; thats pretty much most of what is keeping me from purchasing one for myself. (I have a netbook but it can be a hassle to carry around sometimes; an iTouch can slip into my pocket in place of the iPod I currently use today.)

Moses as... Indiana Jones!

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 08:14:14 PDT

This was a fun video to watch; its a reimagining of Raiders of the Lost Ark if it had been done in 1951 and had starred Charlton Heston. There are other videos in this series including a 1954 version of Ghostbusters starring Bob Hope and a 1946 version of Forrest Gump starring Jimmy Stewart.

Hag Sameach! 5770!

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:04:34 PDT

This weekend is Rosh Hashanna, the Jewish New Year. I'd like to wish everyone a very sweet, happy, and healthy new year! Remember a person can change the direction of his life in a moment if he only has the will to do so. If you've felt that this past year wasn't what you had wanted it to be, if you haven't achieved what you wanted, found what you were searching for, if you let the drudgery of life distract you from really living the life you want, just remember that it is never too late to change, to strike off on a new path and in a new direction. Though Rosh Hashanna is a religious holiday, it is also an opportunity to make a fresh start. If you need to and if you want to, seize that opportunity.

Shana Tova! Happy Rosh Hashana! Happy 5770!

Moods, Music, and AMV

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:36:19 PDT

In case anyone's curious, this is kinda the mood I'm this second. (I'd embed the video but apparently the band has embedding disabled.) Its a pretty good song by the way; I first heard it in an anime AMV that I found on Youtube:

I'm not really a Bleach fan but the mix of video and music was very well done... Oh, and since I'm already posting this one up, I might as well post another extremely well done Bleach anime AMV; this one is a bit sorrowful but the music and video also really fit well together. The music in this one by the way is all instrumental - 'Merciful Dwelling' by Dax Johnson.

Update

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:44:27 PDT

My posting has been pretty light this month mostly due to lack of real life free time to stop by and put something substantial up. I plan to put up some material if not later today than sometime this week; I don't think a month has past by since I created the Fortress that I haven't had at least a couple of posts a month. I don't plan to change that.

By the way, if you happen to be dying to read anything that I happen to want to put out on the Internet :-) and the recent lack of material here at the Fortress has deeply disturbed you :-), please feel free to check out my Twitter account on the sidebar or here. Since its only 140 characters, I tend to update this at least once a day. Though its usually mostly me complaining about my commute on the NYC A Train... :-) :-)

September 1 1939

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:39:14 PDT

Today is the 70th anniversary of the invasion of Poland by Germany that signaled the start of the Second World War in Europe. Given the date, it seems appropriate for me to link to the famous W.H. Auden poem titled September 1, 1939.

Some Shakespeare in Art

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:01:08 PDT

I haven't posted much art here recently and figured that it had been way too long since I had done so which is what lead me to crafting this post. I've really been on a reading kick recently on a variety of subjects, including Shakespeare; that made posting the work to the right stand out as a great idea. This artwork is Miranda from The Tempest by John William Waterhouse. I'm not going into a great analysis of the character or of the play except to say that it is among my favorite of Shakespeares' plays.

And since I'm on the subject of Shakespeare, besides the plays I have been trying to work through some of his sonnets and other poems. Its a bit of an off and on attempt as I'm not a great fan of poetry (and I do have other things to do and other books that I'm reading besides) but one of the poems has to do with the story of Venus and Adonis. That is the title of the painting to the left, by Bartholomeus Spranger. There isn't much information on the artist online (though admittedly I didn't spend that much time searching... :-) ) but what caught my attention (well besides Venus naked... :-) :-) ) was how well the painting captures the feelings of lust and infatuation between the two characters. It fits in well with the nature of Shakespeares poem about them (and also with the story of the two of them as told by Ovid).

Commodore 64 LAPTOP!

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:32:30 PDT

I stumbled onto this video a while ago but it is so awesome that I just had to share it here at the Fortress. Behold, the awesome might of a Commodore 64 LAPTOP! I almost couldn't believe it when I saw it; Commodore 64 was the very first computer I ever had (this was way back in the day) and while it is absolute junk against today's machines, thinking about it still gives me a large nostalgia kick. So, seeing a laptop version of the '64 is like, ... Wow... :-)

The Station is Here...

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:17:05 PDT

Despite the fact that its summertime, I have actually been pretty busy at work; that combined with the laid-back schedule I have for posting here has pretty much kept me from updating for what has been longer than a seven day period. Anyway, much apologies for that and since I'm here, let me put up a comedy video off of Youtube:

"The Station" is a collaborative effort by some very funny v-bloggers on Youtube. This "episode" is more of a preview/trailer than an actual episode but I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more...

Oh, and here's a short teaser that popped up a while ago:

Responsibility and Character

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 07:44:22 PDT

You know, its eerie when you find something that so clearly fits you and whats on your mind...

As for this one, well the punchline is something I've been asking myself all my life... :-)

There Be Dragons Here...

noreply@blogger.com (MZ) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:48:54 PDT

Obama Axes Tank In Shape Of Dragon
Now this was just plain wicked awesome! That is what my taxes should be paying for! :-)