I've been playing with Channel 4's human footprint calculator and the one factoid that stood out is:
The average person will know 1,700 people in the course of their lifetime. Of the 1,700 people we know, 305 will die of heart disease, 179 by stroke, 99 of lung cancer and 32 of breast cancer. 10 people will take their own life, 9 will be killed in road accidents and 1 will die in a fire.
Yikes! If you know me, I hope I'm in your other 1065.
Better late than never, I guess, but this sure would have helped when I was having problems with Java's security manager.
Forgot to mention that I found Layang Layang through Restaurant.com.
They sell gift certificates to restaurants at reduced prices (typically $25 certificates for $10). They're also having a 50% off sale right now using the discount code "SPRING". It's nice in that it makes it a little less risky to try out new restaurants.
Update: The "SPRING" discount code has been replaced by "APRIL", which is 60% off + a $10 credit.
I can't describe how excited I am over discovering Layang Layang, a new, good Malaysian restaurant.
I've only been there once, but everything we tried was good and authentic. We started with the lobak and roti bhuddist, and they're definitely the best I've had in the US. The entrees didn't dissapoint either. The kari lamb and belacan okra were perfect, and the ikan bakar was decent. For desert, we tried the fried ice cream and banana. Not too shabby, but when I hear fried banana, I'm thinking goreng pisang, and I've not had any really authentic ones in the US.
You can bet that we'll be going back!
Did my taxes today. I've been using TurboTax for the past few years but decided to look for something different when I realized that they've raised their rates. A bit of Googling found me a very informative blog entry that compared the various tax prep companies and lead me to TaxSlayer.com.
Silly name aside, it did get quite a few good reviews, and was the cheapest at $9.95 to e-file both federal and state returns. As a sanity check, I entered my numbers into both TurboTax and TaxSlayer, and TaxSlayer actually gave me a bigger refund (some 15% more).
I have to say though, this does come at a cost -- their UI is definitely not the most user friendly. There really isn't much in the way of help, and they don't provide any overview pages to see all the numbers you've entered. You just have to trust that they're doing the right thing until the end, when they present you with the completed forms.
And so is Voss. I've been seeing their distinctive cylindrical bottles everywhere - in more and more restaurants and tv shows, everything from Dirt to Top Design.
They're marketing themselves as high-end water and they are only allowing their products to be sold in exclusive bars, clubs, hotels and restaurants. The water comes from an aquifer in Iveland, Norway, and to protect their exclusivity and supply, Voss is actually trying to stop the local townspeople from using their water source:
Ole Christian Sandberg of "Voss of Norway" confirmed the company wants to preserve Voss' supply and said his company is "in a dialogue" with township officials that he hopes will end the practice of local residents literally bathing in the precious water.
Don't drink this water because we want to sell it? Puh-lease. Don't even get me started on the travesty of bottled water.
Speaking of water, March 22 is World Water Day.
Saw two completely different movies yesterday: 300 and Bridge to Terabithia.
I was fairly excited to see 300: I'm a Frank Miller fan, they'd managed to pull off the movie adaptation of Sin City perfectly, and I'd heard some good rumblings on the net. Alas, I came away fairly disappointed.
First off, I don't think that this was as close an adaptation to the original 300 as Sin City was, and it wouldn't really matter except that I felt that something was lost in the translation.
Let's start with the visuals: everything looked absolutely gorgeous, but after two hours of that limited color palette, my eyes were crying for something different. And while the long battle scenes may have worked on the page with Frank Miller's succinct visual style, it too just became excessive on the screen. Perhaps I'm just getting older, but it felt like there was too much fighting, too much gore -- much more than necessary for the story.
Even more disheartening is that Frank Miller's distinctive, stilted dialog rang a little hollow from the actors. There were a few moments where it became very obvious that the actors were just posing to hit a specific frame from the comic. The combination of these two issues seriously undermines the emotional thrust of the movie -- that the Spartans sacrifice was worth something/meant something.
Like I said in the beginning, there's no denying that the movie looks good. It just works better as an extended trailer than a feature length movie. The one scene that stole the show for me was the Oracle's dance.
I have no clue how they shot the scene, but it was just breathtaking.
I'm a little torn on how to rate the film, but in the end, I can't give it more than 3/5, and a 2/5 for those who are gore averse.
And for something completely different, I also watched Bridge to Terabithia. About the only thing I knew about it going in was that it's targeted at kids and has some fantasy elements in it. Unlike 300's trailers, which accurately depict what you get in the movie, the trailers for Bridge to Terabithia are totally misleading. This isn't a Narnia-wannabe. It's a story about friendship and the power of imagination.
I have to say though, I'm not sure how many kids out there who will actually appreciate the underlying themes of the movie. I guess that's for the parents. It's sort of a coming of age movie dealing with loss. That's about all I can say without giving anything away. It's a gentle, subtle movie that's (amazingly) carried by the performances of the children. When I was watching, Bailee Madison, who plays May Belle, consistently got all the "Aaaaw"s from the parents.
Worth watching: 4/5.
I called Continental's reservation line tonight hoping to change a seat assignment and was told that the current wait time was 174 minutes. Umm... I guess some warning is better than none at all but that's a little insane.
Update: I used Skype for the call and just left it running. I woke up this morning to find that it took 6 hours and 40 minutes before someone responded!
Highlights from Saturday included:
For the past few days I haven't been able to speak properly. I can swallow, as long as it's a liquid or close to it, and even then it hurts. Coughing is just a study in pain. I know my throat's getting better because I no longer wake up as often at night because I need to swallow and it hurts too much. How's that for a sign of how painful it is -- that even your subconscious doesn't want to deal with it and forces you to? (That's my theory anyway.)
Anyway, the fever's no big deal, I've dealt with fevers before, but this sore throat is just kicking my ass. About the only thing interesting I can say about it is I now know what it feels like to cough up blood, and what it tastes like as well.
It basically follows the adventures of Artemis Fowl, a thirteen year old criminal mastermind who has discovered the underground world fairies that relies on advanced technology. If that doesn't make any sense, trust me, it will.
These books are fast, fun reads. The closest comparison I can make is probably to Harry Potter, minus all the high school drama. The writing is certainly better.
The short version is: I liked the story, I liked the characters (they were all unique and very well defined), and I loved Gong Li and Chow Yun Fat. That said, I also have to say that it does not hold up to the high standard set by Hero. I can't pinpoint the problem, but I did leave the theater feeling like something was missing.
The one thing that really surprised me was the colors. Instead of the strong color theming I've come to associate with Zhang Yimou, Curse of the Golden Flower had this lollipop rainbow swirl thing going on which I found rather distracting.
Two final points: I liked the pomp and circumstance and the sheer spectacle of it, and I found the underlying message of the movie rather novel, cynical as it may be -- power is everything.
It's just too darn bad that watching this movie is like eating a great meal where you're still hungry when you're done. 3/5 - worth renting.
Charity and I decided to set up a website for our wedding that our guests could use to RSVP. It's all very basic stuff and I pretty much had it up and running without too much problems... Until I tried to deploy it.
That's when I ran right into Java's SecurityManager. The web hosting provider we're using runs Tomcat with security enabled, which makes sense, but it's something I've never had to deal with in the past.
I've been banging my head against the wall for a few days now and it looks like I finally have everything working. My three biggest problems were/are:
ServletContextListener that calls OgnlRuntime.setSecurityManager(null).These aren't solutions so much as dirty hacks to side step the SecurityManager. It just shouldn't be this hard...
Of course I couldn't leave NY without watching something on Broadway, so I went to see The Producers last night, with Tony Danza playing Bialystock. I'd seen the movie first, so I was constantly comparing Tony Danza to Nathan Lane. I prefer Nathan Lane; Tony just didn't seem all that comfortable on the stage, looking a little too rehearsed. That aside however, I did enjoy the production. I especially liked the actors playing Ulla (her accent was perfect!) and Carmen Ghia (totally hilarious exits).
As an added bonus, I got to meet Liza Minelli. My mom recognized her first in the lobby, and we went up and shook her hand. She was nice!
Had lunchner (there really needs to be a word for a combination of lunch that goes into dinner) with the extended Woon gang and had a blast. I'd brought my Wii with me and I think it's safe to say that we had a ton of fun playing with it. Benjamin and Kingsley were both complaining of sore muscles afterwards...
I made out like a bandit when it came time to open the presents: two more Wii remotes and nun-chucks, along with Rayman: Raving Rabbids and Metal Slug Anthology.
We ended the night with a Scrabble match with my mom, Jeanne and George, and wonder of wonders, both George and I finally beat my mom! My win was mainly due to an early seven-letter word (hothead). George took second place, a mere two points behind me.
It's been a good day.
I'm back in NY/NJ with my family this year. I'm in complete disarray as far as my gift giving plans go since not all my gifts have arrived (one of the perils of buying online) and of those that have arrived, I seem to have managed to leave them back home in CA. *sigh*