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September 5th, 2009
02:33 pm - New Twitter Account
I've been very busy with moving, family, and starting a new job.
However, I've found the time to create a second Twitter account: @ProfShonle. This one is aimed at my students. Anna made my awesome profile picture there.
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July 27th, 2009
10:31 pm - 1901 - Phoenix
I heard this on 91.X on the way home from Pet People. When it was over, I switched to 94.9... which was also playing it.
Counting all different ideas drifting away
Past and present -- they don't matter.
Now the future's sorted out
Watch, you're moving in elliptical pattern
Think it's not what you say
What you say is way too complicated
For a minute thought I couldn't tell how to fall out.
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June 13th, 2009
08:06 pm - Getting Hooded
From earlier today...
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May 20th, 2009
07:30 pm - Facebook killed the LiveJournal Star
Of course, most of you are also following me on Facebook, so you have an idea of what's been going on. (Confidential to TR: Why are you dragging your feet on this?)
But, those of you not on Facebook can now follow "the best of" my Facebook status updates on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mshonle.
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April 1st, 2009
11:24 am - Recommendations?
Later this year, I'll be looking to buy a new tablet PC and a large monitor. Do any of you have recommendations or counter recommendations? I'm looking on the mid- to high-end in terms of pricing.
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March 30th, 2009
07:35 pm - News
The chair of the computer science department at UTSA has recommended to the dean that I be hired as an assistant professor. When I receive the offer, I will accept it.
My start date is August 18th, and I'll be teaching an object-oriented systems course.
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March 27th, 2009
04:51 pm - Review: Save the World on Your Own Time
You may not agree with all of Stanley Fish's viewpoints, but it's well-worth reading Save the World on Your Own Time. Fish says that the duty of an academic is to only teach the direct subject of study.
This view is nicely encapsulated on page 81:
"The moment a teacher tries to promote a political or social agenda, mold the character of students, produce civic virtue or institute a regime of tolerance, he or she has stepped away from the immanent rationality of the enterprise and performed an action in relation to which there is no academic freedom protection because there's nothing academic going on." Here is another good quote:
"A university's obligation is to choose things worthy of study, not to study only things that it finds worthy" (p. 37). This new book has some timely references that may not hold the test of time, so read it sooner rather than later. I particularly agreed with his discussion on censorship, which echoes what I've felt all along:
"No one is silenced because a single outlet declines to publish him; silencing occurs when that outlet (or any other) is forbidden by the state to publish him on pain of legal sanction; and that is also what censorship is" (p. 89). Fish's discussion on how the far-right has hijacked the left-wing rhetoric on political correctness (forming their own "intellectual diversity") is spot on. There is also a particularly pointed attack on the nuts who want to promote "intelligent design."
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March 20th, 2009
09:40 pm - One Season Wonders
Let us mourn the loss of some science-fiction one-season-wonders that aren't Firefly. In chronological order:
Space: Above and Beyond (1995). Known as the "stay alive, I will find you!" show, this had the elements for great space drama: Humans fighting a strange alien race ("Chigs"), robots that have turned on humans ("The Silicates"), replicants ("In Vitroes"), and psychic abilities ("anomalous intuition").
Missing would be: time travel, ancient alien species, hybrid species, terraforming, and forces so powerful they could only be described as God-like-- We'll call this the Star Trek Space Drama set. And we'll never know what happened after the cliffhanger ending, but this show, like most such space dramas, could have made a fine five season arc with a satisfying ending.
Crusade (1999). Being a spin-off of Babylon 5, this show automatically inherits the full Star Trek Space Drama set. (It was a major credit to Firefly that it came far short of anything near this set, containing only psychic abilities and terraforming-- and not even having FTL travel!)
Babylon creator J. Michael Straczynski got a raw deal from this one, as the network aired the shows out of order and required several overhauls in the process. The show was supposed to follow a five season arc, which would have been great. However, given the episodes of Babylon 5 taking place in the far future, we already know that our heroes ultimately won.
Surface (2005). This short lived show managed to lay out all of its cards on the table, revealing almost everything in the last episode. Wishy-washy writing (can he communicate with his missing brother, or is he dreaming?) and a large set of characters you couldn't care about doomed this one. It involves a "perfect" water creature (was it "evolution" in the incorrect Heroes abuse of the term, or was it genetically engineered?) rising from seeming nowhere and taking over the planet.
Threshold (2005). Excellent casting, starting with Peter Dinklage, Carla Gugino, and Brent Spiner, this show was kind of like "Andromeda Strain: The Series." The premise of a fractal pattern taking over brains and computers was a bit weak in terms of the science, but it at least gave more plausible Monster of Weeks than The X-Files could have hoped for. Based on the DVD interviews with the shows producers and writers, they also were going to take it into some interesting areas.
The Dresden Files (2007). An amusing show about a magician detective and a quirky ghost that helps him. It was worth watching, but not a show that you end up missing. Given the premise, it could have extended for an indefinite number of seasons (as I believe it goes with all detective shows done right).
Journeyman (2007). A Quantum Leap for a post-9/11 world? Maybe. It was interesting how making changes to the past could have devastating consequences in the future, but each episode lacked tension. If the journeymen are to "follow their instincts" to solve the problem, where is the drama? We know it will work, or otherwise that mysterious force wouldn't be doing it.
Moonlight (2007). A rip-off of Angel, but with only vampires and no other kinds of demons. The vampires aren't inherently evil and instead are shades of gray.
Cavemen (2007). I was never a fan of the commercials, so I thought this show was a bad idea from conception. However, I watched it and found out why it worked so well: It's a show about nerdy people (graduate students, accountants) doing nerdy and pompous things (think "Frasier") but with the twist that they all have beards and thick foreheads. It did cover issues of racism, but always at the level appropriate for a sit-com. How this one got canceled and the lame "The Big Bang Theory" stuck on for another season is beyond me. (Nerds shouldn't like "The Big Bang Theory" because it makes fun of a rather outdated stereotype of nerds; and non-nerds shouldn't find it all appealing either, because it doesn't make fun of them in the right way, like "House" would with his clinic patients in the earlier seasons of that show.)
Bionic Woman (2007). A reboot of a franchise that looked great on paper. Any sci-fi about "women kicking ass" is already off to a great start: None of that militaryesque testosterone getting in the way, and it's satisfying to see her win. (This is why Joss Whedon shows are interesting.) Unfortunately, an "attractive but plain looking by TV standards"-female lead lead to sagging ratings.
New Amsterdam (2008). Think of this as "The Man from Earth: The Series." A non-vampire who has lived for centuries is now a street/culture/science smart cop. He will become a mortal once he finds his true love (in New York), and so it is a bit like "How I Met Your Mother" too: Will he ever find her? Was that her in the train? Naturally, we'll never know because the show was canceled. It was very promising; although, for someone so accomplished, he sure held a lot of uninteresting jobs in his past. (Coach driver? Really?)
My Own Worst Enemy (2008). Christian Slater plays an everyday man who just so happens to boot into a superspy when he believes he's on business trips. The premise never seemed quite so clear: Why exactly fabricate an "everyman" for this purpose? Why not just keep the spy undercover? Not experiencing anything at all can't be an improvement over being in some secure, undisclosed location? This one ended early and yet the writers could have neatly wrapped it up: Toward the end, his regular guy side and his spy side were rapidly switching, and each were coming to terms with the existence of the other. It could have ended with the team merging their personalities, into a superspy who loves his family, "and they lived happily ever after."
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March 16th, 2009
09:05 pm - If fonts were programming languages
If fonts were programming languages, this is what they'd be...
Helvetica - The C Programming Language. It's completely overused, and yet also the best choice for many tasks.
Times - C++. This is also grossly overused, and is the second best choice for any large tasks.
Courier - Fortran. This font is old and reliable and we're going to be stuck with it for a long time.
Chicago - Lisp. It's quirky, old, and used in many surprising places.
Computer Modern - Fortress. A mathematical and beautiful font, but pedantic.
Garamond - Java. This font sure seems a lot like Times. Not used as much, and has some new flaws and quirks of its own.
Palatino - C#. This font is like Garamond, but some things like that uppercase-P just aren't connected. This makes it attractive for some users, and appalling to others.
New Century Schoolbook - Smalltalk. Initially, this font looks like it's for kids, but it's both serious and playful.
Comic Sans - Python. You wouldn't think that this font was serious, but it's used in a surprisingly large number of contexts. And it's a safer choice than it would at first appear.
Zapf Dingbats - Perl. This font is useful for patching things together. If you need that special symbol to make your sub-sub-bulleted list, this is your ad hoc solution.
LED Marquee - Javascript. This font is the unsung hero. Many times it's used improperly, making things overly flashy and distracting, but it's also sometimes the only venue for transferring very important information.
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March 15th, 2009
11:13 pm - A behavioral-based rating system for Netflix
Did you stop the movie before it finished? One star.
Did you stop the movie before the credits finished? Two stars.
Did you watch all of the deleted scenes? Four stars.
Did you see the all of the other bonus features? Five stars.
And there is a gap between two stars and three stars. How can it be hard to determine if you've liked something or not?
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March 11th, 2009
07:05 pm - My first Star Wars memory
Me: "And then the white robots captured them"
Older Sister: "Those aren't robots, those are men in suits"
Me: "Well, I know that they aren't really robots"
Older Sister: "No, they aren't supposed to be robots"
We were talking about the storm troopers.
I might have thought Darth Vader was a robot too, but he wore the cape, and robots wouldn't wear clothes, right?
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March 6th, 2009
07:01 pm - Autobio Slice of Life
I'm in the veterinary office, paying for the preliminary tests done to our cat.
The young Asian woman at the counter notices either the student ID in my cardholder or the credit union's name on my credit card. "Are you a UCSD student?"
"Yes," I say.
"Wow, you don't look like... like someone like me."
I feel old.
***
This conversation was also part of a recent trend, ranging from hair dressers to masseuses: "You're getting a PhD, you?" and "Wait, you want to advice PhD students?" and "You're a masters student, right?"
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Bonus scene:
A mother and father are with their beautiful baby boy, who is bald, and wearing blue pants and a shirt with a firetruck on it. Enter woman: "Her eyes are beautiful!" She then looks at us. "They aren't like either of your eyes."
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February 20th, 2009
08:26 pm - The Mentalist and Lie to Me
This new season of television has a lot of exciting things going on, in particular Dollhouse and the resolution of Battlestar Galactica.
We also got so tired of both Heroes and Lost that we've decided to call "a break," and wait until the DVDs on Netflix.
But amid all of the sci-fi geekery is a great detective show: The Mentalist. Simon Baker is good enough to carry the show alone, which was necessary for the first few episodes. (But, the supporting cast has gotten better and don't have the flaws that doomed Raines. For starters, you can actually care about the other characters.)
Another show with great potential is Lie to Me. Again, Tim Roth is good enough to carry the show on his own. And the supporting characters are also interesting, the best one being Monica Raymund's character.
People are already saying that Lie to Me is better than The Mentalist; but to that I say "slow down." It's like when people said Heroes was better than Lost. In terms of structure, there's a lot more interesting plot devices at the disposal of the Lie to Me writers. In contrast, The Mentalist seems stuck on the "let's explain why this case is in the jurisdiction of the CBI" thing (Writers: Can't we just skip that part?). But that restriction might help the writers in the end.
In the case of The Mentalist, it looks like it can stick to the highly dependable detective show formula. The main character is perceptive, clever, and has a few tricks up his sleeve. But in the case of Lie to Me, the main character's "trick" is telling if someone is lying. How long can that create a compelling story? Sure, they can have the story in any part of the world, involving governments, the military, or private companies, but in the end, if all he's doing is looking at faces, we can't really share the experience. We get much more pleasure out of solving a mystery as we watch it. (Yes, we like to feel clever.)
So, it's very promising, but Lie to Me might fall into the trap that Numb3rs did before it: A formulaic show that relies on a gimmick with limited potential, thus forcing the dramatic elements to focus more and more on the character's lives, and less on the actual mysteries.
And, as far as character's go, Simon Baker's backstory is dark, sad, and compelling. Hopefully they'll resolve the issue sooner rather than later, instead of never being resolved like the murder of Monk's wife (or did they resolve it? We stopped watching Monk after the shows got a little too dumb).
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08:23 pm - Conversation, over Facebook status messages
Macneil is excited about getting his fourth interview, and about going to his first on Monday.
Sxxxx at 2:14pm February 20
for?
Macneil at 2:49pm February 20
I'm on the academic job market...
Sxxxx at 2:53pm February 20
i didnt know you were abd
Macneil at 3:57pm February 20
I'm abd to the bone.
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February 15th, 2009
08:27 pm - Conversation
Between two guys and one young woman.
Guy 1: "I want to be a barista for a summer."
Guy 2: "I think it's only called barista if you're a woman."
Guy 1: "So what's it called when you're a dude?"
Guy 2: "Then you're a barrister."
Girl: "No. That's a lawyer in England."
Guy 2: "Yeah, for the English it means you practice law. But in America, it means you serve hot beverages."
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February 14th, 2009
08:42 pm - New word...
When new episodes of Dollhouse, Battlestar Galactica, and Terminator are all on? Geekgasm.
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February 11th, 2009
08:26 pm - Trips
I've posted the beginnings of my interview schedule on my research page.
It's a tight job market this year, but fortunately many schools are looking for software engineers.
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February 6th, 2009
10:14 am - Slice of Life
I wait in line at the La Jolla Village Square Pet People. A short, middle-aged woman buys a large bag of dog food.
A hunky looking, mid-20s man rings up her order. His badge says "Manager." He says "Would you like help carrying this out to your car?"
"Oh that would be absolutely wonderful," she says.
The hunk closes his eyes and snarls a little when he says "NATALIE!"
A young woman with dark hair in a pixie cut looks up from stacking inventory, and approaches the manager.
"Never mind. If she's going to carry it out... I'll do it," the middle-aged woman says. She hefts the bag, and walks out.
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February 4th, 2009
08:11 pm - The Supplements
My evening mixture:
- Omega-3 DHA derived from algae - EFAs are something we get in our diets, but it's so important that you might as well play it safe. I will also supplement with EFAs from drinking flax oil or other seed oils (with my nose plugged).
- Calcium and Magnesium Citrates + Vitamin D - Apparently in order to absorb the calcium properly, you need the other stuff. I take it at night because it also relaxes the muscles. (I also get calcium supplements from fortified OJ and soy milks.)
- Zinc - Apparently with this one you need the right ratio of copper for it to be effective. Zinc is great for getting your digestion in order and is the first thing you should try. I also believe it helps the immune system.
- Ester-C - This is a non-acidic form of vitamin C that is easily absorbed. When people get sick I tell them to take some vitamin C. When they say "yeah, I have some OJ," I tell them that's not enough. And then I recommend Ester-C. They read the label and say "woah man, that's 833% of the daily value!" and freak out. When, in fact, if they are sick, they should probably be taking 10 times that amount. It's just not something you can overdose.
- Deva Vegan Multivitamin and Mineral Supplement - This one is least essential in my box, but I'm going to take it once a day until at least the bottle runs out. It contains iron, which you must be very careful not to take too much of. This is one I'll be taking on the road, when the local vegan options might not be so hot and I need to supplement the empty calories.
My morning mixture:
- B-12 or B Complex - The sublingual forms are supposed to be the best. I take it anywhere from daily to weekly, depending on my mood. The body stores B-12 so well, it isn't much of a problem.
- Some DHA again
- Ginko Leaf - This is supposed to help with something, but I forget what.
- Japanese mushroom (Lion's Mane) - This is supposed to improve focus. We'll have to see. I've also considered Flavay, does anyone know if that works?
- GoodBelly Probiotic Fruit Drink - I believe this has helped my digestion. You want to take some kind of probiotics. In the future, I may take some homemade keifer instead.
- Almonds - These probably give me the most benefit. I eat them instead of eating cookes, and I've lost 10 pounds in as many weeks.
Overall, the theme I see is improving the mind, the colon, and the immune system. Of course, they are integrated, so helping one can help the other.
I also have a morning and evening technique for stopping my craving of coffee, and yet getting some of coffee's nutritional benefits: Teccino. It's a pre-biotic too, which I guess helps give your probiotics a boost. It also brews like coffee, so many of the same aesthetics are there. It's delicsh, so do try it. You can get it at Whole Foods.
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