I'm ridiculously swamped right now, so can't blog much, but I just wanted to make a note about the weather (I know, I know!). I'm freezing my butt off! The temperature here in Phoenix has actually dipped below freezing. I spent a good hour trying to locate my boots - sandals and flipflops are part of the uniform here, but it's just too cold. I might even break out my parka from Iowa. I wore a sweater to go to Trader Joe's last night, but it didn't provide much warmth (and there were still people wearing shorts and shortsleeves). It's kind of annoying. Earlier in the week it was the standard 80 degrees, now it's freezing, and there didn't seem to be an inbetween where one could wear "fall" clothes.

I may even have to turn on the heat - but I hate to do it in the same month that I was still using air conditioning. The electricity bills are ridiculous in the summer, and winter provides a respite - so I am loathe to do it.

I successfully avoided being invited over to anyone's place for Thanksgiving this year to awkwardly consume turkey amongst people I barely know (or care to). I always seem to be the "orphan" that everyone feels sorry for during the holidays, and I'm generally too polite to turn down an offer of free food. I hate the holidays, and would prefer to just chill out or go to a movie. This year, as my best friends are off on a Carribean cruise (the holiday pressure has finally gotten to them as well), I'm dogsitting at their place. I'm not fond of dogsitting and feel a bit displaced out of my routine, but it's still more relaxing and less stressful than any Thanksgiving dinner I've ever been to. I didn't get to see a movie, but I did get to go for a fantastic hike in the Superstitions - it's finally cooled off enough to get in a decent hike without feeling that you're at risk for sodium deprivation (believe me, this happens in Arizona - you can actually sweat out minerals that much and not realize it until the heart palpitations hit you continuously).

Since I was so chilled out, I decided to write an article on the physics of cranberry sauce.

Well, I've somehow fallen into a stint of dogsitting once again. I swore I'd never do it again, but how can you turn down a dog that needs to be shot up twice a day with insulin and another that needs antibiotics? I get to play nurse to a pair of sweetheart dogs (Griff & BBG) while Sam and Steve and their kids are off on a Thanksgiving holiday cruise. Actually, I don't blame them. They got sick of the pressures of the holidays and decided just to blow the whole thing off. I personally loathe the holidays - if they came around once in four years it would be a different story - but it's so annoying to have them annually for what seems to be a full quarter of the year. I'm glad to be spending Thanksgiving this year with just two dogs - though I've already gone through all the episodes of Battlestar Galactica that they had Tivo'd for me (I was planning a marathon for that day). Now I'm stuck with the Antiques Roadshow and Rachel Ray (not to mention the looming pile of online work I ought to tackle).

Anyway, in the midst of dogsitting, I've finally tapped into my friend's highspeed network, and everything is fine with one exception. I can't send outgoing email. I can get it, it taunts me, then I can't send replies. I still have to drive home just to get a clean hardline to send my freakin emails. I even set up my own SMTP server on my localhost, but no soup for me. I'm either going to have to put on my gray hat and juryrig something to the chargrin of Cox (their cable provider), or write a web app to take care of it. The latter would be easier, but I'd hate not to have a local copy of my sent emails (yeah, I can cc then manually move the message to the sent folder - but come on, there has to be a more automated solution).

I've had to drive back and forth, and what should happen, when I have the life of a diabetic dog in my hands, but my car battery dies when I go to get a mocha at Starbucks, a pit stop before heading across town to pick up a video camera. I thought - briefly mind you since I don't panic about little emergencies anymore (having Hawaii on the brain does that) - crap - this is going to be expensive. This is happening because I'm about to make a major purchase, and this is going to blow my budget. Then I realized, wait, Everett interpretation, I get to choose my universe (okay, it probably doesn't work that way, but it's still tremendous fun to imagine).

I called Sam because I didn't want to have the death of BBG on my hands, and I hoped she could line up her mom to give BBG her shot. Sam was just about to leave on the boat, so this was good timing (freaky good timing). Sam called her mom (Camilla) and told her about my break down. Camilla called me, and offered to help. She runs a body shop with Sam's dad, so she was a conveniently good person to help out. I had to wait a bit (not complaining at all), fending off angry drivers from the neighboring parking space with a rickety shopping cart, but Camilla finally came with a rather imposing piece of professional equipment, a buzzing generator that can jump a car in about 2 seconds (my thoughts immediately ran to images of dank subterranean rooms, puddles of water and other substances, and sweaty, humorless interrogators). The jump was enough to get me to the parts shop, and I thanked Camilla profusely.

The battery I had was just a year old, by two days. The free replacement warrantly should have run out, which meant I should have paid a couple of bucks for the new battery (which are supposed to last 84 months). But, the computer liked me, and still gave me the free replacement to the surprise of the cashier (it's a good universe). They were going to replace it themselves, but said it would take awhile before they could get to me. I said that I wanted to replace it myself, and the mechanic guy looked slightly perplexed, then taken aback. "Are you sure?" he said.

I replied "Yeah" slightly annoyed, slightly arrogant "I've done it before." He looked me up and down, checking again to see if the lumps on my chest actually were breasts, then went and got a box of loaner tools. I went to work. I replaced the battery no problem. There are many things in life that are harder than working on a car, but most problems can be solved with patience and ingenuity. When I returned the box of tools, I got a big thank you from the mechanic guy. He was clearly impressed, and probably a bit relieved that he didn't have to lug another battery around that evening. It annoys me that so many women just let men do stuff for them - grow some spines! The world will be the better for it.

Anyway, this delay may have caused an interesting side effect. By the time I got to Fry's Electronics, located the camera model I wanted, then located a salesperson (a woman no less - a complete rarity at Fry's), the model was sold out. I had budgeted just for that camera, and I was determined to get a Canon. I guess they must get a commission, because she offered me the next model up for the same price (a difference of $50). Cool. This was my day for inadvertantly saving money.

Since I stuck with Canon, I later found out that the battery pack for the video camera is the same battery pack I have for my DSLR. This is a bonus, since I can take two batteries with me when filming, and have twice as long to film. Again, cool. Thanks for standardizing on a format Canon!

Another thing about the Everett interpretation - at my friend's house, I found a magazine insert lying around (Scientific American I think), that lists the various hypothesese for the structure of the multiverse. One of them is the Everett interpretation - and it was describe quite vividly as parallel universes that were snapshots in time and space. To move forward through time, the observer navigates to an adjacent universe. It's such a cool way of describing Everett.

I just saw "Casino Royale" and I can say that Daniel Craig is by far the best Bond ever (though I might just have been converted with that blue swimsuit). Casino Royale is the definitive Bond movie. All of the changes that the producers made to the franchise work - and they were smart enough to keep Judi Dench as M. No more Q (and I liked Q), no more ridiculous gadgets, no ridiculous villain lairs. There is still the reliance on gadgetry, but it's no longer reflecting the 1960's retro future laser-filled view of technology. This Bond extracts intel from text messages, and M uses Google. There's a cool portable difibrilator, which is a bit of odd equipment to carry around, but since you can find them in many public places, it really isn't that far fetched.

This Bond is clearly a quick-thinking man. He constantly scans his environment for an advantage, and uses found objects in novel ways (very MacGuyver!) In one scene he saves his own life with a salt shaker and a glass of water (ya gotta see the film). The best part is that Craig just acts better than all of the previous Bonds (sorry Sean). I don't know what exactly it is, but Craig makes Bond more human and real - not an iconic exaggeration. The story was written where Bond is falliable - since this is actually the first story in the original series, Bond is a bit of a noob to the double-0 lifestyle. As a result, this movie stands apart from all previous in the series.

When I was 12 or 13 I read the book by Ian Fleming. It was the only Bond book I read, but liked it well enough. I thought at the time that it was very different from the movies. It was rougher, tauter, and far more violent. I don't remember much of the plot from the book, so I can't say for certain how closely the movie follows the book (obviously, cell phones weren't around at the time the book was written). I do remember one section of the book that was so vivid that it was seared into my naifish teenage memory - the nude torture scene. Oh yeah, that scene. I had been wondering for months if it was going to be included in the movie - I thought it would be excluded for the shear violence of it. I was completely floored to see that it was included, possibly to the word. Craig also captured perfectly Bond's mindset in that scene. That's what really sold me on the idea that Craig is the definitive Bond - he just got all the nuances perfect.

The only thing that bugged me about the movie was the opening chase scene at the construction site. Don't get me wrong, it was a complete adrenaline rush, but it seemed like something that belonged in a Jackie Chan movie, not a Bond flick. The atheletic acrobatics were a little over the top - if the actors had simply stopped for breath, it would have been much more believable even with the rapid-fire knee-joint crunching jumps. It's a minor annoyance, because even in that sequence, Bond is shown thinking extremely creatively about how to overcome his physical shortcomings against the guy he's chasing, and this quickly establishes the nature of his character. I love it when that happens in an action sequence as opposed to yakking.

I rarely see three movies in a week, but these were all good. Ahh :-)

This post is a continuation of these:

• Part One
• Part Deux
• Part III

Yesterday, Sam and I embarked on a rather epic roadtrip to LA to see the special screening of "A Dog's Breakfast". The roadtrip was epic even though it wasn't long, because we were so constrained by time and it's our last trip together before I head to Hawaii and further points unknown (you know someone is your best friend when you can yak about religion, politics, science, and Duran Duran for 7 hours straight without anyone getting offended).

would be good, but it turned out to be fantastic. It wasn't as glossy as most Hollywood comedies tend to be, but that didn't matter. It's a slightly ineffable characteristic anyway. It was a really fun movie! I'd describe it as both a dark and wholesome comedy - an odd combination perhaps, but it's kind of along the lines of a screwball comedy from the thirties, very "Bringing Up Baby", that fantastic mix of verbalWhen we did get to see the film, I was actually surprised, and I'm surprised to say that. I was already biased in favor of the movie because I absolutely loved "Nothing", in which David Hewlett, the writer and director of "A Dog's Breakfast" shared a story credit. I thought ADB humor and slapstick without any hint of deep seated meanness. Kate Hewlett and Paul McGillion were fantastic. You can tell that everyone had fun making the movie.

The true litmus test was Sam. She didn't have any expectations, and hadn't seen anything by any of the actors. Sam totally dug it, and said the perfect compliment - "We were laughing right out of the gate!" It was true, and none of the jokes fell flat or felt awkward. It was engaging, original, and we didn't know how it was going to end until we got there. At the Q&A, producer and DH's girlfriend Jane Loughman (pronounced LOWman by the way, not luff or lau), said that the success of the film is due to DH's comic genius, and I think that is completely apt. I hope that ADB allows him to develop that further. I also noticed that Jane shares a story credit. I think the two make a really great team and I hope they work on many more projects together.

That said, meeting DH wasn't that great. I mean, he was totally cool and I think he actually met everyone in the long line of fans, which is a testament to just how nice a guy he is, but I was really nervous and shy and couldn't manage anything more than an extremely meek "can I get a picture?" and "thanks." I felt like such a complete dork. That's probably okay though, I just suffer from Parkerism, where I feel that everything I say ought to be witty and intelligent.

Actually I think I would have been fine but I spotted Vincenzo Natali hovering around with a really gorgeous camera filming the whole thing. I couldn't believe he was there! I can't believe I was filmed by Vincenzo Natali! It was really neat to know that he came out to support his friend - but I think the only thing more nervewracking that could have happened was if David Lynch had come sauntering by with an unlit cigarette in hand and casually asked me why the crowd was there. If that had happened I probably would have dropped dead like one of those frightened sheep. When I saw Natali I started shaking like a leaf and just clammed up.

Kate Hewlett was there as well, and after the film I even spotted actor/writer Andrew Miller sliding down a railing - he cowrote and starred in "Nothing". I would have loved to give either a compliment on their work, but at that point my feet were pretty much glued to the floor, and if I could have seeped down into the grout between the tiles I would have.

It's totally embarrassing to be so starstruck, these are just regular people afterall, they just happen to have really cool jobs where they get to share their imaginations. It's the kind of thing that I'm aiming to do, so maybe that's why I felt like that about them. I actually got physically ill from the nervousness, which was NOT FUN on the drive back this morning. I even had to call in sick today and I'm still feeling queasy, though writing about it is finally helping to alleviate it.

I never would have imagined it would have been possible to be that nervous. I've met many actors, authors, prominent scientists, and politicians in the past and never really had a problem - although the second time I met Buzz Aldrin I got really shy as well. Who knows. At least I got a lot of pictures; I still need to download them so I'll post them later. Go see "A Dog's Breakfast" when it comes your way!

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Update 11/25/06: Photos! (scroll down, Blogger is being weird)

Note that the light was pretty poor, and I pretty much refuse to use a flash simply on principle. As a result, most of the photos I took were unusable, but I was able to salvage some with my mad photoshop kung-foo skills (really should have just brought along my ridiculously expensive portable flash unit).

This was from the Q/A session. Producer John Lenic is on the far left, followed by producer Jane Loughman, writer/director/actor David Hewlett, and actors Kate Hewlett and Amanda Byram.

I think this was the director of photography, but I'm not sure. If anyone can remember what his name is let me know! *Update* The director of photography is believed to be Michael Lenic. *Second Update* This is Michael Lenic who played "Zero" in the Starcrossed snippet. He was not the director of photography but was David's stand-in. The director of photography was actually Jim Menard, who also works on Stargate.

David Hewlett

Amanda Byram

Jane Loughman and David Hewlett

The luminous Kate Hewlett

More of KH

A really bad photo of David Hewlett; I'm including it because I like the way the blurriness makes his hair look like antennae (sorry DH!)

Vincenzo Natali, one my favorite directors (my favorite being David Lynch - Eraserhead is my rock-top favorite film. Nothing comes close). This is a bit of strange photo. He wasn't looking at me when I took the shot - when I saw what I had captured I thought maybe he might have been surprised that he was being photographed. Andrew Miller is to the left fiddling with the camcorder he brought. I really wish I had the courage to talk to him about his writing. It seemed a little weird that everyone was flocking around DH (he was the center of attention afterall), but Miller, who co-wrote Nothing and is a very good actor was completely ignored. I think he would have been extremely interesting to talk to.

Kate Hewlett signing an autograph for a fan. She later blogged that she was extremely nervous for the screening, and wasn't sure what to do about the fans. She was basically ignored before the screening, but afterwards, several fans went up to her - her performance was truly memorable.

David Hewlett signing autographs after the screening.

David Hewlett posing with a fan for a photo. He was so nice and gracious to everyone there (sure to promote total fan loyalty). This reminds me of my encounter with Leslie Nielsen - he was shooting a film with Olympia Dukakis near my highschool. At lunchtime, a gaggle of us went down to the set and hung out. Nielsen happily signed autographs for every single one of us while Dukakis holed up in her trailer. We just thought he was so nice (and very tall!). That was the only time I ever skipped class before college. My classmates when back to school and I spent the afternoon standing behind the director (who was very kind to do so) watching the scene being filmed.

John Lenic at the Q&A.

For the past several months I've been thinking a lot about the nature of free will. I don't believe in fate, I think that fate is a perspective thing - it's one way of looking at free will. The more that I think about the complexity of it, the more it seems significant and tangible. That probably doesn't make much sense, but since I've been thinking about it, life just seems smoother. Maybe that's just a perspective thing.

Today I went to see the movie "Stranger Than Fiction". I had been wanting to see it, but I didn't set out today to see it. This had some interesting consequences, and I need to go into a little detail to explain it.

I had to mail back some Netflix films (am I a film addict - possibly), but I also wanted a coffee. The mailbox and the Starbucks (in a Safeway mind you), are equidistant from my place, but on opposite sides of the road and right near an intersection. Not wanting to perform traffic gymnastics, I choose to mail the movies and get a coffee later. I hadn't yet decided to go to the temple of flickering light or the temple of rocks and lizards (hiking), so I just took a right at the intersection, moving in the vague direction of the two theatres I regularly attend.

I ended up getting trapped in construction traffic, and moved slowly in the direction of the AMC theatre (not as good as Harkins, but closer). I thought again about hiking, but realized I had put on flipflops instead of shoes. I finally decided on the movie - but I couldn't wait to get a coffee at the Starbucks near the theatre so I stopped at the Starbucks near the Trader Joe's on the way. There were several customers ahead of me, so it took a couple of minutes for me to get my grande no whip iced mocha and get back on the road.

Usually when I pick a film to watch on a whim, I pick the one with the closest starting time. Happily, this was "Stranger Than Fiction", which made me not even mind the newly raised $7.50 matinee price. It's an absolutely beautiful film, and it's about the whole free will/fate thing. I won't give away the plot, but at the end I was moved to tears. The story is about having both significant and mundane moments, and how a single moment can be both. With the way my life has been going recently, it resonated in me.

I didn't want anyone to see my face wet, so I stayed through some of the credits until I looked reasonable. I went immediately to the rest room to make sure. When I was there, a woman fell out of a wheel chair and hurt her knee and back. She had a young boy with her. She couldn't get back up, and she was too heavy for me to help. Her son was really scared and embarrassed, and she kept trying to get back in the wheel chair because she didn't want her son to feel that way. I got help from an employee who then called the paramedics. I let the woman use my phone to let a family member know what happened. I stayed with her until the paramedics came.

The woman had arranged for Dial-a-Ride to pick her up, and she was worried that she would miss her ride. There wasn't anything I could do, so I headed for the Starbucks near the theatre. Normally I'd fret about wanting another coffee (the expense in particular) on the same day, but today I didn't give it much thought. It just felt right to get another. I even chatted briefly with a fellow customer - something I rarely do and certainly never start, but my social anxiety is almost totally gone now. When I left, the Dial-a-Ride bus had arrived, so I went up and told the driver that the woman he was waiting for had fallen. He had been reading a newspaper waiting, parked next to the fire engine, but when I told him, he perked up, and got interested in what was happening around him. I think that there is a good chance that he waited for her.

If I hadn't taken the time to talk to the driver, and spent time on all the other things before, I wouldn't have been able to see the next thing. As I rounded the corner to the parking lot, coffee in hand, I saw a Delorean drive away. There aren't that many Deloreans in the world, so I knew instantly that it was my friend Derrick, who several years ago fulfilled his dream of owning one. I hadn't spoken to him in a couple a years, and had been wondering lately if he was okay. Derrick's one of those fantastic, easy-going people that you always wish the best for, so it was nice just to see him driving off, and I knew he must still be well.

Someone recently gave me one of the best compliments of my life. He said that I "get out and meet the world". Normally I don't take compliments well, but this was much better than "nice shirt", or "I like what you've done with your hair." This compliment meant something to me - he meant that I'm not afraid to be who I am and that I'm not afraid of the world. This hasn't always been true - I've spent a lot of my life wracked with anxiety and anger - I've often felt trapped in a society that doesn't care to recognize me, and I've often felt that I was surrounded by people that treated me like I was completely invisible. Since I've come to the conclusion that the choices I make are my choices not fate, the anxiety and anger have faded away. I still worry, but I wouldn't ever get anything done if I didn't - it's not a worry about others, but a productive sort of problem solving worry, like working a knot instead of tying one.

Even mundane choices can have significant consequences - like my mundane choices today had on the lives of other people. Maybe that woman might have saved herself from having to endure more surgery on her hurt knee. Maybe the guy I talked to at the coffee shop will have a cheerier evening. Maybe the driver will have waited and have a story to tell someone when he gets home. I'm not afraid to meet my choices.

Monica and I went to Freestone Park to shoot some stills for "The Typist". We came across this curious duck with what looks like a stylish bouffant of hair. If it is a hoax, we didn't do it.

Okay, it's kind of official now, so I think I can talk about it. I'm going to be working on the film "The Digital Tipping Point". Specifically, I'm going to be involved with fundraising so that the film can be completed. This is the sort of thing that happens when you blog and comment ad nauseum about alternative methods of film financing. Seriously though, this is exactly what I need to be doing right now, even though until a couple of days ago I didn't know it. I'm extremely excited.

The film documents the open source movement and will be an incredible resource for this important part of history. Sometimes I think about the sixties (before my time), how turbulent it was, and how the boomer generation was changing the world. Everybody knows about it. In contrast, open source, one of my generation's most important contributions to the world, is a quiet revolution. It has gotten very little mainstream exposure, even though it has had astounding reverberations throughout the greater culture. People need to know that "open" gives; it let's us share and be generous; it let's us be more democratic.

If you are interested in the film or would like to make a donation, please feel free to email me to discuss it further.

My life has been a bit of a whirlwind lately - news on that later - and I've been listening to Muse a lot, which might be a tad ironic. The muses have definitely been favoring me a lot this past year - maybe too much because I can't sleep with all the writing.

All of Muse's stuff is fantastic, and I can just put it in and I'm instantly on writing cruise control. When I was writing "Data and Text Processing for Business Intelligence" (which I will no longer be able to abbreviate to DTP for reasons that will become clear shortly), I would put in "Mr. Sandman", the fifties song, on repeat for hours on end and could get the same effect. I never want to listen to that song ever again. I'm glad to have found Muse, hopefully it will take longer to wear those songs out.

I just found out that there is a film being made about open source, almost completely by using open source methodologies - tools, licensing, people. It's called "The Digital Tipping Point". All of the work is being done by volunteers - but I think if this is successful, it might be an indicator of things to come.

I think there is an opportunity here, not just to show off just how much open source film tools have progressed, but to change how films are made - starting with financing. I think that the Kiva model could work here; if you are interested in a film project, you could contribute a few bucks to its budget, leaing creative decisions to the creative people and not the bean counters. If a film project was truly worthy, it would be more likely to find full funding - if it sucked, the filmmakers would know it at the beginning and could spend time doing something else - or they could get feedback from thousands on how to make their glimmer of a good idea better (and the filmmakers would have the luxury of ignoring the input they don't like).

I just think this is all completely exciting. I would never have found out about this if I hadn't started tracking the progress of the film "A Dog's Breakfast" by David Hewlett as a case study in viral marketing using, at least partially, open source. I wonder how many more filmmakers are out there jumping on the band wagon. Man, traditional media is sure going to change.

I took this shot with my DSLR and telephoto lens. Other than that, am very tired.

I hate getting inspiration when my head hits the pillow. I loathe it, despise it, I'm a slave to it, it's my best stuff! Long ago I trained my brain to think about stories too gangly and sprawling (or embarrassing) to write about coherently when I'm trying to fall asleep just so I won't run into the problem, but it still happens. Come to think of it, making myself think about a particular thing is probably the cause of my insomnia (which I don't have much of anymore since I don't even have time for that). Much progress was made yesterday morning on "The Autopsy" - I think I was handwriting a page a minute.

I've been rewriting the beginning of the story several times, I just couldn't get it right (funny how there is a "right"), but I think I nailed it this time. There is common wisdom that a short story should always start in the thick of the action to suck the reader in as much as possible. Previous versions highlighted the characters or the setting without getting to the meat of the story - this revision focuses on the central theme - the angry argument between the characters, and in the process effectively develops the characters to the point where they feel like real people. I left the setting in the background, which might be a bit dangerous since most readers like to know where they are at the start of a story - as a reader I don't care, I like to be surprised - but it prevents a lot of people from engaging. I just need to fold in a bit more exposition, not too much, to establish the setting.

Today Monica (the "lead actress" - that sounds so weird) was bugging me about doing some preproduction work on "The Typist". Essentially, I'm going to take some still photos of her on location to see how I can work out shots. This is in addition to storyboards. I don't want to be making up shots when I'm filming - it's not like it would be a waste of resources or anything, I just don't want to take longer than I need to, I don't want to be accumulating lookieloos. Especially when I shoot the death scene. That could be awkward. BTW, Matt expressed great glee when I informed him that his character was going to be killed off. Actually, I think that's what finally sold him on taking the part. Anyway, I think developing discipline early is going to be helpful. I just saw "Lost in La Mancha" and I was a bit horrified at how wasteful of time Terry Gilliam was (beyond the hail storm delay, and the seriously ill Don Quixote). I'm certainly not comparing my paltry efforts to his work, I'm just trying to learn about this every which way I can. I mean, the man is a film genius, but he spent a lot of time stewing and being angry. That's not really a criticism, I think that same personality trait has shoved several of the best films ever made into being.

Anyway, it was really cool that my enthusiasm for the project has transferred to someone else - I think that it will make it easier for this thing of our own to come into being.

A couple of days ago I watched Frontline World on PBS - again, too much PBS, but with all the obnoxious campaign ads on regular TV, it's about the only thing worth watching on broadcast - and there was a segment on an organization called Kiva (kiva.org - the website is currently overwhelmed). Kiva is a microlender, but instead of being based in the 3rd world, it connects people in the 1st with the 3rd (I've always wondered - who's in the 2nd?) You can pay as little as you like through paypal, and actually communicate one-on-one with the person you are lending to. It's really cool! So far, they have have 100% repayment.

I just think that the concept of microlending could be extended beyond the 3rd world - say, scientific research or film financing...

There is a brief new clip available! But be warned - I defy you not to utter "ewwww". Dog people will utter it with a knowing smile (I think I did this as a kid), but all others will be truly horrified. It also looks like there will be a screening in LA on the 16th - so I'm glad this is going to be seen in theatres rather than just zipping to DVD.

In other news, I received an email out of the blue from a guy in Russia - he called me "Dr. Osborne", which was rather cool but inappropriate since I only got through one semester of grad school (just to be clear it was money not grades that kept me from going further). He read my article on ball lightning and wanted to share his work with me. I kind of know where this is going, but I have to admit a certain fascination with the more fringe areas of science and the people who dwell there. It's much better than thinking about this awful backlash against science that's been going on in recent decades. Okay, okay, I won't get on my soapbox. Sigh.