In an attempt to cut some costs from our monthly bills, I've decided to move to Time Warner cable's DVR service. It's $5 a month, instead of Tivo's $13. So far, I like that I have one fewer component boxes sitting on my shelf. It's nice that the shelf isn't packed to overflowing with plastic boxes. On the other hand, I have to relearn how to use the DVR. I liked Tivo and had no issues with the service at all. So far, I can't seem to figure out how to get a season pass for any shows. Time Warner's site has cool interactive guides, which seem very informative. Unfortunately, the interface they demonstrate in the guides does not match my interface. Not only does mine look different, my interface doesn't seem to function in the same way. That's quite a bummer. But I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually.
If you know, send me a comment with some easy to follow instructions. (Thanks in advance if you know it.)
Over the past two weeks, I saw both Babel and Wordplay. Babel is the Golden Globe winner for best picture drama, starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. Wordplay is a documentary about competitive crossword puzzling. These movies are in no way related except that both titles indicate something about words or communication. I was suprised by my reaction to both. In short, I really enjoyed Wordplay and I was underwhelmed by Babel.
Babel takes place on 3 continents and 6 languages. The storyline follows three seemingly unrelated events which occur around the globe. In the end, all three storylines are connected in some manner. First, a husband and wife in Morocco are accidentally shot by 2 young Berber goatherd while touring the countryside in an attempt to repair their broken relationship. Meanwhile, their nanny takes their two children to Mexico for the wedding of her son. On the trip back, when the US border patrol asks too many quesitons, the nanny's cousin (who's driving them back) attempts to flee. Of course, they are successful, but then the nanny and kids are trapped in the desert. Finally, a deaf mute teenage Japanese girl struggles to win the attention and affection of a man, any man.
Personally, I thought the Japanese girl was the best story line. Exploring how one might experience the world as a deaf mute was really cool. In one scene, she heads out to a dance club. What must that be like, if there's no sound? How would you keep track of the people you came with if you can't speak to anyone? Sure, maybe someone might know sign language, but that seems like a low probability occurance at a dance cllub.
The third story line is tied in when the Japanese girl's father turns out to have given a hunting rifle to the Berber goathers father after a successful hunting trip. Of everything, this seemed like the weakest connection. I thought it added very little to the storyline at all, other than offering a connection between the third plot line.
The message of the movie seems to be something about the interconnectedness of our global world. And how emotion can be communicated without words, or in words you don't understand. While I agree with this message, I just wasn't all that blown away by the movie itself. The acting was quite good, the dialog was good, the story lines were mostly interesting. But I wouldn't say it was a life changing event. I also suspect that my expectations were set far too high by all the hype surrounding the movie.
On the other hand, Wordplay is a documentary about competitive crosswording which stars no one in particular. If you don't know what competitive crossword puzzling is, neither did I before I saw this movie. Turns out there's an annual competition in Stamford, CT (of all places) at which Will Shortz, editor of the NYTimes crossword puzzle, presides over a series of timed puzzle solvings. Anyone can enter, but most of the people are REALLY good. The people who do crossword puzzling competitively are astonishingly good and geeky. As someone who's worked online for 10 years, I feel like I have a pretty good handle on the geek spectrum, and these people are WAY on the edge. But it was fun to watch them do it. These are people who solve Sunday NYTimes crossword puzzles in less than three minutes. Diana and I do crosswords, and we're lucky if we _finish_ at all! Sure we can do Monday and Tuesday, but from then on, it's no sure thing that we finish. And forget about Sunday. Sometimes we can get like 3 entries.
In the movie, they interview famous people who are crossword addicts - Bill Clinton, Jon Stewart, etc. But their fame is really incidental. All the questions and discussion is around how they do the puzzle and why they do it. It was really cool to see all these folks who do puzzle and hear why they like it. Most said things like they like the way it forces you to play with language and how you can escape your surroundings for a while. This is almost certainly why Diana and I do them.
Also, the movie has interviews with crossword puzzle creators. I've never known how people make crosswords. It was fascinating. Turns out that all crossword puzzles are symmetrical. I never noticed that in years of looking at them. Also, there's never more than one-sixth of the puzzle that's black squares. I'm sure these aren't life changing factoids, but they are fun factoids which I never knew before.
All in all, I really liked Wordplay. It showed some interesting insights into a habit that lots of people have, including Diana and me. It explored why people seem attracted to it, and what happens when you take that attraction to an extreme.
I was suprised that I liked Wordplay so much and Babel so little. I would still recommend that you see both, but don't set your expectations too high and you'll have a great time.
Please, please, please spend the extra few dollars on each airplane and install the little baby changing station in each lavatory. I know most of them are just little flip-down platforms. It couldn't possibly cost you more than $1 or $2 per lavatory. But the difference to a parent is *unbelieveable*.
I had to change Aurelia in a lavatory that didn't have the platform. So I had to lay her on the toilet seat cover. That alone is pathetic. Airplane toilets are already gross enough. So, she's lieing there and I'm trying to keep her from slipping down into the urine splattered floor as she's twisting and squirming. Meanwhile, I'm actually trying to change her diaper. You can't imagine how hard that is. Changing a diaper is easy. Changing a diaper while holding down a baby who's lieing on an uncomfortable plastic toilet seat in an uncomfortable position, who's squirming almost uncontrollably (can't say I blame her for that).... well, that's just plain hard.
In contrast, I had to change her on the return flight. That lavatory had a platform. It was almost as easy as changing her at home. Yeah, the little platform isn't pillowed or anything, but at least it's clean. And she fits on it. And it's at a reasonable height for me to change her. What a difference! Never have I so appreciated such a simple thing.
So, airline owners, spend the extra few bucks. It's a drop in the bucket for your multimillion dollar airplane. Hell, give me a small surcharge to guarantee that each lavatory has one. (You charge me for so many other weird things, I'm willing to pay a couple bucks extra for the ease of changing.) Just gimme the freakin' changing station!
Over the holidays, Diana, Aurelia and I went on a vacation. This was the first big, planned, extended vacation that we've taken all together. So, to make it good, we went to Maui for 2 weeks. And it was completely awesome. We stayed in a little town called Paia in north central Maui. Instead of going to a hotel, we rented a house. We thought this would be better with Aurelia, since she goes to sleep between 6 and 7 every day. So, if we had a hotel room, at least one of us would have to stay in the room from 6 or 7 on. That didn't seem like too much fun for either of us. In addition, we didn't want to worry about bothering other guests if Aurelia screamed or had trouble sleeping. She normally is incredibly well behaved, but we just didn't want to worry about it on our vacation.
So, we rented this house in Paia. If you don't know Paia, it's a very non-touristy town. Most of the people who live there are *very* hippy - lots of organic, whole grain, surfer types. But this was perfect for us. The pace of life there is very mellow. Think of how much more laid back LA is than New York. Hawaii is that much more laid back than LA. Yeah, it's unreal. It's like everyone is fully relaxed all the time. In Paia, one of the small restaurants had a sign in the window listing the hours... 9.30 - 4. Below that was a second sign saying "If we're late to open, don't blame us. The surf must be awesome." That's pretty much how everything was there. Surfers filled the waters every day. And most folks seemed to either surf or watch the surfers. It was unbelieveably relaxing.
Speaking of the restaurants, all of them were terrific. They were all small, like 5 to 10 tables each. Every one was just spectacular. Not expensive or fancy. Just plain good. The kind of restaurants that you look at and think you could probably make the same food in your own kitchen. But every time, we were blown away. The food was awesome. Spicy when it should be. Sweet when it should be. Complex but not fancy-restaurant-foo-foo. I was really pleasantly suprised every time.
Another cool thing was celebrity sightings. I didn't expect to see any, but we had lunch at a table next to Matt Perry, Kevin Pollack, and Hank Azaria at the Ritz Carlton in Kapalua. They seem like pretty normal guys. Hank talked nearly the whole time. And he really is good at doing voices. As if that wasn't enough, we ran into Willie Nelson and Bonnie Ratt at Charley's in Paia. The funny thing about that is that we almost didn't go in. It was our last day, and we were just trying to waste some time before going to the airport. So we went in for breakfast. And there they were. Just having breakfast. And occasionally getting interrupted by someone asking for a photograph. Apparently, Willie lives in Sprekelsville, which is just down the street from Paia. I always figured he lived in Texas or something like that. Goes to show you what I know....
Overall, I totally loved Paia. It really made a great impression on me. It was relaxing, happy, and a lot of fun. After our last trip to Maui (where we stayed in west Maui), I was a bit turned off of Hawaii. It seemed really touristy. Not bad, just like a regular touristy area. But Paia changed that. I was love to live in Paia. Or retire there. It was just fantastic.