Notes In The Margin

Through a rather odd series of events, someone thought that we'd like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

I can't honestly say I enjoyed Jane Austen's original. It was one of those books that I read because it's a classic, and everyone should read it. Much like War and Peace, and Anna Karenina, both of which I slogged through, and finished, although it was mostly work.

Well, I think that I may have discovered a way to enjoy Jane Austen, although I seriously question whether it would make any sense to anyone who hadn't read the original. I *might* even consider reading some of the others.

The books were clearly written by taking a copy of the original, and going through it replacing various boring sections with zombie attacks and discussions of the Bennet sisters' skills with the oriental arts of killing. While there are indeed many hundreds of boring parts, there are also lengthy parts that are left almost untouched, with the occasional mention of trips to China, training with zen masters, and Japanese food.

In all, very odd.

It was very hard to get into, but once I caught the cadence, it was a quick read, and mostly enjoyable if you can put aside the fact that it's exceedingly silly.

Recommended. A little. If you like that sort of thing.

I've been using beta.bloglines.com for several years now - since Paul worked there. It's a great product, but remains designated "Beta" despite being vastly better than their main product. Why? I can't imagine.

But lately, I've been seeing 500 Internal Server Errors more often than I've seen the actual UI. And they're still running Apache 2.2.9, which seems to indicate to me that they haven't touched those servers since Paul left.

So I've finally moved over to Google Reader, which is vastly improved over the last time I looked at it, apparently borrowing ideas from beta.bloglines. And there's a wide variety of iPhone apps for it, so that I don't have to mark things read two different places. That's pretty sweet.

For several weeks before Elise was born, I had been writing her short letters, and compiling them in a book for her to have when she is old enough to appreciate it. This one is a response to the Sunday Scribblings post from a few weeks, ago, "Mantra".

Letters to Elise

June 12, 2010

XV. Don’t Postpone Joy
(“Mantra” - SundayScribblings.blogspot.com)

Your great aunt,
for whom you were named,
my beloved daisy,
adjured us daily
by her actions and her smile:
Don’t postpone joy.

And so I pass on to you
this wisdom,
and will show you every day:
Don’t postpone joy.

There is joy in everything,
if you just look, expecting to find.
Not that we close our eyes
to suffering and sorrow,
but that even there, we search
for the joy.

I just read GeekDad's review of the new Karate Kid. We're looking forward to seeing it, and in preparation, we FORCED the kids to see the original, which they declared to be a waste of their precious time. The Gril, in particular, claimed that she just couldn't relate to a movie that was set *SO LONG AGO*.

Oy.

Speaking of not being able to relate, last night we watched War Games on NetFlix. Everything about it is outdated, from the technology, to the political situation, to the lack of security at NORAD, where folks can crash a Jeep through the front gate, run into the facility, and not be immediately either shot or thrown into custody, and then permitted to take the reins of a major international crisis. Nice.

I remember seeing this movie in the theater when it came out and being absolutely horrified by the language. I believe I was 12 at the time, and I believe it was the first or second movie that I had seen in a theater in the USA. I went with my parents. I can just imagine, in retrospect, how they must have wanted to crawl out of their skin as I was exposed to foul language that I had probably never heard before outside of whispered giggled conversations in the dorm room late at night.

The notion that a teenager could simply dial a phone number and enter a single-word password, and get into NORAD is ... well, actually pretty plausible. Except now it's even easier, since you don't need a modem, and you don't need to spend all day test-dialing numbers. It's really a marvel that nothing of this scale has happened in real life. That we know of.

What I like about War Games, the second time around, is how the hacker aspects of it are presented realistically, and the tools of the trade aren't over-geekified, but just presented as they actually were at the time.

Um. No. I never broke into any computers. At least, not that I'm willing to tell you about. Except that one in Australia. Once.

Elise Marguerite was born at about 2:30 this morning. She is 6lbs 3oz, 22 inches, and perfect. She had some trouble breathing at first, but that cleared up quickly.

I'm sure that I will write more about this event later, since the joy was mixed with a considerable dose of frustrations, but for now I'm trying to get a little sleep and spend some time with her.

Photos forthcoming shortly, I'm sure.