The Evil Eyebrow

Category: Random

  • Terminator Salvation

    We saw the latest installment in the Terminator franchise tonight. Terminator Salvation was an acceptable addition. Much better than the last movie, Terminator 3: What Else Can We Do With Ahnold?

    The movie opens in 2003 with the judicial termination of a criminal. Much foreshadowing abounds. Then it swoops forward to 2018 and we are introduced to John Connor, who is not yet the leader of the resistance. Shit happens, things blow up, and the plot advances. There are plenty of terminator-esque scenes and stock lines; a terminator fan won’t care about numerous plot holes quickly spackled over.

    Except for one.

    Stop reading now. This is a “major” spoiler.

    Seriously, this could affect your enjoyment.

    You’ve been warned.

    In the first third of the movie, it’s revealed that Skynet is searching for Kyle Reese. Searching for him specifically to kill him. In fact, he’s number one on a top 10 list of soon-to-be-terminatees. My question (and what I believe is a enormous plot hole) is how the hell does Skynet know a thing about Kyle Reese? There’s no way that Skynet should know that Reese is Connor’s father. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!

    It’s possible I missed some tiny bit of dialogue that explains this, but I still don’t buy it. It’s crazy.

    But other than that, and the normal inability of a hugely powerful metal robot to kill a human with one blow, it’s a good movie. I’d see it again.

  • Hugo: Best Novel

    Tomorrow is the deadline to vote on the Hugo Awards for this year’s Worldcon. Does this mean anything to YOU? Only if you purchased a membership and are eligible to vote. If you did, hopefully you’re not a big fat procrastinator and have already taken care of this little matter. If not…

    You may recall that I’ve set myself a little project, namely to read the novels that have been awarded the Best Novel Hugo and declare whether or not I like them. My track record has only been so-so. This dovetailed nicely with “real life” because when the nominations for the 2009 Hugos were announced I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I’d already read three of the five nominated novels: Anathem, Little Brother and Zoe’s Tale. Graveyard Book was already on my list to go read, so I just had to pick up Saturn’s Children. Now I have, and I can give you my ineligible vote:

    The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman. Hands down. No question. Best book I’ve read in quite a while, actually. It’s got a spectacular riff off of Hillary Clinton’s book It Takes a Village in the first chapter which cemented my love. This book is everything that Neil Gaiman is capable of.

    Anathem, by Neal Stephenson was exactly what we’ve come to expect from him: Huge, full of cool edgy science fiction and tedious amounts of philosophizing. I’ll keep reading him, but it can be a chore.

    Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow would be my second choice for best novel. It was a great story mixing suspense with action and drama.

    Zoe’s Tale, by John Scalzi was an excellent book but didn’t quite live up to the Scalzi reputation. It suffered from being a rehash of a previous story from a different character’s perspective.

    Saturn’s Children, by Charles Stross had (as usual for Stross) excellent scifi elements but (to me) implausible story and political elements.

    So, that’s my opinion. Of course, by the very fact that I bother to review these books, it should be assumed that they are worthy. For example, I hesitate to criticize Zoe’s Tale because I know for a fact, from reading his blog, that John Scalzi and others regard this as one of his best works. I respectfully disagree, but then I think my reading tastes don’t much march in line with what people consider “best works.” But then, I’m not really criticizing Zoe’s Tale per se, I’m only saying, “stacked up against the other four Hugo-nominated novels, it does not win.” I’m saying the same thing with four of them.

  • Somewhat Accurate IMHO


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  • Today in Pictures

    Well, today in a Few Pictures:

    General Weirdness

    Would you loan this guy money?

    Broken Bag

    Broken Zipper

    Feel free to talk amongst yourselves.

  • Brick Workouts

    Brick

    I did a brick session today! “A what” you ask?

    When training for multisport, it’s important to combine those sports during training. That may sound obvious, but it’s more difficult than you might think. For example, it’s frowned upon to dash out of the YMCA pool and jump on a spin bicycle. Likewise, if you’re going from bike to run, there are logistics involved in making sure your bike doesn’t get stolen, etc. This type of training, moving from one sport to the next with minimal rest between simulating race conditions, is called brick training, or just bricks.

    Brick training1 is critical for acclimating muscles to the sudden switch as you transition from the swim to the bike, or from the bike to the run. Of the two, the bike-run transition is the more difficult. The change from biking to running can be a difficult and painful switch for your legs. Training for this makes it easier to manage, if not actually less difficult. As an example from the olympic triathlon I did last year, I managed a 56:43 10k, which boils down to 9:09 minutes per mile pace. However, the first mile of those 6.2 (10 k) I split in about 12 minutes. If you subtract out that crappy first mile, my last 5.2 were at an 8:36 pace. That is a huge difference in time and it’s all because of how painful that first mile was. Thus, bricks.

    Of course, I don’t think anyone, even elite level triathletes, come out of the bike-run transition and pile along at the speed that will be their run race pace. Warming up those muscles is important, so an ascent up to the target pace is called for. I’ll have to ask around my triathlete friends and see what they think.

    The swim-bike transition isn’t as difficult on the body as the bike-run. When you get out of the water, you may be a big logy-headed from the effort you were just exerting with your upper body, so it’s good to train the actual transition period; jogging to your bike and putting on your gear without falling over or passing out. I haven’t heard of anyone having any serious issues with their legs once they were on the bike.

    Brick training can also give you an opportunity to practice your transition strategy. Making the most of the seconds in transition can save you, well, seconds. Or minutes, depending on what you do in T1 and T2. Personally, I feel that I’ve done a good job making my transitions efficient in the sprints and olympics that I’ve participated in. The only thing I can do right now to make them faster is to not wear socks. I’m not up to that point yet.2

    Ironman training is proceeding apace. I need to concentrate on the pool this week.

    1: Why do we call them “bricks”? No idea.
    2: Once you stop wearing socks, you can also attach your bike shoes to the pedals and get into them while actually on your bike. That shaves a few seconds. First, no socks, though.

  • New Career

    Humid Day

    Jenn thinks that the sweat staining on this shirt is indicative of my new job as Batman. Do you see it?

  • Support the Morgan Falls Bridge!

    The City of Sandy Springs, Georgia, has proposed a pedestrian bridge across the Chattahoochee River between Morgan Falls Park (Sandy Springs) and National Park Service land adjacent to Hyde Farm Cobb County). There is a public information meeting on June 17, 2009 from 7-9 PM at the North Fulton Government Service Center, 7741 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs, GA 30350. If you can’t make it to the meeting, you may comment at their online survey.

    Why should you support this bridge? Because you want to walk or bike across the river without being hit by a car.


    View Larger Map

    If you are not familiar with the geography and road network of East Cobb and North Fulton Counties, then you might not be aware that it is difficult to move from northwest to southeast due to the Chattahoochee River. The Chattahoochee is the primary land feature in this area, forcing roads to conform to its meanderings. Between where US 41 crosses “the Chatt” near Cumberland Mall (just south of I-75) and where SR 140/Holcomb Bridge Road crosses at the Gwinnett County border, there are only three pedestrian- and bicycle- accessible crossings. This is a distance of 19 miles along the river. That’s an average of 3.8 miles between crossings and that’s along the river. It’s much farther by road.

    To make matters worse, all of the crossings mentioned (including the ones at the ends) are pedestrian unfriendly, designed as arterial roads to maximize the amount of vehicular traffic that may flow across the river. I can state with personal experience that of the five crossings, I would hesitate to use two of them (Johnson Ferry and US 41), and downright refuse to use another two (Roswell Road and Holcomb Bridge Road).

    The Morgan Falls Bridge would address these concerns by building a ped/bike bridge which is accessible through low-volume streets on both sides of the river. It would … (dammit, I’ve falling into passive engineer talk! I hate the way I’ve been trained to write like this) … This bridge will make it easier to bike and walk across the river between the parks. From my personal perspective, it will make it easier to travel between Cobb County and Atlanta by bicycle. My route of choice to cross the river on bike is Johnson Ferry Road. Johnson Ferry is unfortunately steep on both sides of the river. It is fun going down, but very much un-fun going up. The Morgan Falls bridge would have less terrain for me to enjoy and that’s fine. If I need to train on hills I’ll go to the mountains.

    The Map above shows the location of Morgan Falls park, which is one end of the bridge or you can use this link to get the Google Earth KMZ file that I hacked together.

    Comment online or show up at the public information meeting! There is a vocal minority (primarily Cobb County citizens) who oppose this bridge and from professional experience I can tell you that the squeaky wheel indeed gets greased. All too often, the people who show up and/or comment on transportation projects are those opposed, rather than those for. Help make this project an exception and support the growth of Atlanta Metro’s pedestrian and bicycle accessibility.

    Here is a quote from the public affairs officer:

    Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (CRNRA) is working with The Sandy Springs Conservancy, City of Sandy Springs and Cobb County on preliminary plans to construct a bridge below Morgan Falls Dam. The bridge would be for pedestrian and possibly bicycle use only. It would be constructed as a free span bridge over the Chattahoochee River and would connect visitors to the Sandy Springs’ riverside parks at Morgan Falls with National Park Service land in Cobb County below Hyde Farm. Funding for the bridge has not yet been obtained, but the planning and public review process began in March 2009. In addition to the bridge, the plan will evaluate possible trail connections to Hyde Farm and the Johnson Ferry North unit of CRNRA

    Link to the Sandy Springs Conservancy
    Directions to the North Fulton Government Service Center
    Google Earth link to the project location
    Chattahoochee River facts

  • Random Note

    Today’s Random Note is:

    OPEC has a nice website!

  • Translation Error?

    I hope that this article I just clicked to was a translation error.

    An article from philanthropist shows that a manipulate after vigorous upbringing crapper support turn hooligan soreness. Several another studies exhibit that unfathomable manipulate helps to attain hooligan injuries ameliorate faster, improves upbringing in athletes and relieves agonized push points in muscles and tendons.

    It goes on in that vein ’til the end. Fascinating, as Spock would say.

  • Illegal Use of Quotes: 2 Minute Penalty

    Snapped in a local restaurant.

    Illegal use of Quotes