Inception Imminent

31 Aug, 2010 | Brian |

I finally saw this movie, and I really liked it. The major thing that came to mind was Baudrillard, which rumor says was required reading for the Matrix actors. (I don't know what the truth of that is, but it sounds plausible.) Both films went down that rabbit-hole.

Anyway, I am still processing everything I saw.

Inception Analysis

10 Aug, 2010 | Brian |

Some number of people wrote and asked whether I would be writing about this film. I still haven't seen it! I intend to, and when I do I intend to write up whatever it is I end up having to say about it. I just don't have any good way to predict when that will happen.

God Is a Communist

15 Dec, 2008 | Brian |

Give what you can. Get what you need.

Tribulations of Snow Shoveling

03 Dec, 2008 | Brian |

I am out shoveling snow this morning and someone had already been over the walk with a sled. As everyone who lives in snow-prone regions knows, treading on new-fallen fluff makes it harder to remove. It packs down. You have to scrape at it.

Option number one: I can smile at the early December snowfall, and be happy that the world looks so wonderfully holiday-ish, and be glad for the good folks who, preceding me in their meager vehicle, got to experience the strange bright joy of making the first track across a pristine canvas. Option number two: I can fume about how inconvenient it is that I have to scratch off the packed snow.

Well, what I can say is that I want to be the person who picks Option One, but I am not that person. At least not yet.

Maybe I am a little bit now that I've written it.

Energy gradients

29 Oct, 2008 | Brian |

Here in the U.S. we've got 120 volts of electricity eagerly waiting to course out of any of the dozen or more outlets that typically surround us. A volt is an interesting thing. It's potential. Like water flowing from a high point to a low one, electrical energy flows from a point of high potential toward a point of low potential. That difference, that energy gradient, is what we tap into, diverting the electricity from its intended course through a longer path that runs through a hair dryer or maybe a coffee pot, so that the little quanta tumble over something very much like a waterwheel and provide power for some useful work (e.g., brewing a tasty beverage).

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