Some Kind of Action

• So here is, finally, the story behind the aborted move. This shall be even more spare than the Cliff’s Notes version because really it is old news and you probably know already anyway. Just days after we had put our Holding Deposit down on the new apartment, Nikki ended up quitting her job in the area due to some previously brewing issues with the management—relating to acceptable compensation for services rendered—which came to a head in the short days following our decision to move. Since we no longer needed to truncate her commute, we cancelled the move in what we thought was a temporary timeframe. Since then it has become more clear that it may not be in the cards for us to move out that direction after all. It is still something I hope could eventually happen, but in an immediate sense is becoming less likely as the days progress.
• For reasons I cannot disclose I was recently required to take a rather intense JavaScript test. I think I completed the test successfully, but I realized that coding JavaScript from scratch is not something I enjoy nor in fact do I think anyone should have to do it unless perhaps they are being punished for some heinous act. Seriously, JavaScript is teh suck and why anyone would mess with it when nearly anything that can be done in the language could be just as easily (okay, okay… infinitely more easily) done with a pleasant, well-designed and executed language like PHP boggles my mind. And as much as you might think you do, trust me: You don’t want to see my mind boggled.
• In my absence from updating ironSoap I have instead continued to do the miniatures wargaming thing. Specifically I have delighted in the thrill of abstracted battles via proxy-by-toy using the Warhammer 40,000 system. My army is now 2,000 points large (without additional wargear beyond that which is modeled physically) including a Rhino transport, a wicked-looking Defiler spider-like walker and a Dreadnought which resembles an evil ED-209 of Robocop fame and is fully metal (making it both a nice addition to my army and an effective paperweight). I have slowed my acquisition now that I’ve reached this plateau, now focusing on addressing some of the overwhelming need these models have for paint and creating some terrain. Kublacon is coming up in two weeks; I would very much like to participate in some games without enduring the raised eyebrows of fielding a force painted the awe-inspiring color of primer.
• The television season is winding down and my final assessments are thus:
  1. Alias: This show has disappointed me all season. The system reset was (in my opinion) an abysmal failure, the focus on one-off shows made it bland and uninteresting and the supposed return to serial form near season’s end has been a complete yawn-fest. I will give JJ Abrams and crew a last chance if they decide to make another season, but it will be on a short leash and if I start to get bored next year, it will no longer be a TiVo staple.
  2. Lost: Curiously, JJ Abrams’ other show is possibly my favorite on TV right now. I fear revelation because I have a sensation that each resolution will bring disappointment (last night’s comment about the island monster being a “security system” stirred the cauldron of mistrust I hold toward shows which thrive on mystery), but the thrill of the speculation has been worth the price of admission thus far. Still, this is season one and while I eagerly await the finale, I suspect that there is one more good season in this show and after that the writers are going to have to try extra hard to keep it from the minefield of possible plot traps they could fall into.
  3. Grey’s Anatomy: I was sort of pleasantly surprised to find myself more or less enjoying this show, especially since it plays out almost exactly like someone found a copy of the outline for Scrubs and wrote a show exactly like it only using a more dramatic tone. I mean, even the presumptuous voice-over narrative is intact.
  4. CSI: I’ve followed this show less closely than I have others this season, sometimes going for a couple of weeks without catching an episode. The shifted dynamic hinted at by the “shocking” season premiere has seemed to have little actual dramatic impact; are the teams now in different shifts not working together any longer? I didn’t notice. The show was never really about the characters (witness William Petersen’s press-based whinging over his successful show and comfortable paychecks), but recent seasons seem to have replaced a focus on the act of using science to solve crimes with a “gruesome and implausible murder scenario or gleeful examination of particular subset of society” motif. I’m not terribly impressed, but I am looking forward to the season ender which, as I understand it, Quentin Tarantino had his blood-stained hands on.
  5. Eyes: It may have been a good show, but they either cancelled it or simply stopped airing it in our market for the last four weeks because we haven’t had TiVo catch an episode of it since mid-April. It’s a shame, too… it was kind of interesting.
• I have yet to install Tiger on either the laptop or the Mac mini, but I did just install Windows XP for the first time at work. Fundamentally there is no difference once you turn off the ridiculous Luna theme and make it look less like a Fisher-Price toy, but Office 2003 includes an update to Outlook (which my work hatefully requires me to use) that is interesting in its 3-pane presentation. I’ve heard that Tiger’s Mail.app is absolute pants and I wonder if for once Microsoft has produced a superior product to Apple.
• Speaking of disturbances in the Force, Episode III has begun and I suppose it is my duty as a fanboy and geek to go see it. Unlike some people who hold nothing but contempt for the other prequels, I actually didn’t mind parts of Episode I although I thought as a whole it was too uneven to be classified as good and Episode II was enjoyable if flawed SF fun. The article about the prequel trilogy and George Lucas in Entertainment Weekly recently sheds some interesting light on the problems: Apparently Lucas’ original outlines included about 80% material that is dealt with in this one final installment and the other 20% was used as the basis for the other two. I think you can see where the math fails in that particular equation but hopefully Episode III will be sufficiently awesome to if not make up for, at least pave the road to forgiveness for Lucas. I do so want to like these movies.

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