Primer

[movies]

A couple of days ago, I saw this movie called Primer.

The official web site avoids mentioning it, but I really don't think it's too much of a spoiler if I say that the two main characters discover that their latest experiment is a time machine.

Time travel stories are often poorly done. Star Trek, in my opinion, consistently makes a mess of them. But Primer is a good time travel story. I think there's a certain level of technical savvy, and the story is not a contrived problem of how to "repair the timeline" or some such thing, nor does it provide neat and tidy explanations of temporal mechanics. No, this film is about the effect that the discovery, and its subsequent use, has on the characters and their relationship. It's acted and shot in documentary style, so it feels almost hyper-realistic, and that really heightened the queasiness I felt as the characters started toying with causality.

For me, the last act of the film quickly descended into incomprehensibility. It's obvious, in broad strokes, how the two friends' relationship is affected by the whole episode, but I must admit to being a little frustrated that I couldn't grasp any of the details.

A friend had advised me to "pay close attention," but it might have been just as well, in the end, if I had just let the details slide and gone with the flow.

Frickin' Freezing, Mr. Bigglesworth

[diversions]

It's cold. -44 with the windchill. I haven't been through a winter with my car, so I don't know how well it does in frigid temperatures. I hadn't plugged in the block heater this year, until today. I haven't had any problems so far, but I'm not taking a chance today.

I'm reminded of the time in Waterloo when the windchill hit -48. I called home and mentioned how cold it was. I was mocked; it was -56 with the windchill in Ottawa. I was suitably chastened.

Slog

[personal]

"Slog" stands for "Swim Log." Heh.

So it's just my second time out. Plant was closed for maintenance, so I went to Brewer. That brought back memories - although I'm not sure if they were from when I was with Kingfish (swim team) or Glebe (high school).

Anyways, I did: Warmup 100 free, 100 breast, Workout 250 free, Cooldown 2x100 free, 100 breast.

Winter Wonderland

[photos]

I just went for a walk this morning and took some pictures. This kind of beauty only presents itself a couple of times a year, and it never stays around for long.

Updated Dec. 31 11:12PM: I'm just trying out Flickr, so I've changed all the links for the images.

Mothercard

[computers]

This is from the cool-but-useless department. Can you guess what it is? I acquired it a few months ago when my employer was getting rid of some old hardware, in exchange for donations that would go to a local public school.

It's a PC. Really. The only things it's missing are a hard drive to boot from, and a power supply to feed it. And this particular one, as you can see on the top right, doesn't have any memory in it at the moment. But otherwise it's a full computer packed onto a card. A mothercard, if you will.

Turn it on its edge and you'll see sound input/output, a VGA port, USB port, a serial port, and a parallel port. Cool, eh? But useless. Because there's one more thing missing: a Sun SPARC computer. The card looks sneakily like PCI, but it's not; there's an extra notch. This card allows Sun users to run Windows without having to get a second box. It's just slightly crazy, if you ask me.

Actually, I'm not sure how this card accesses its hard drive. Probably, you plug one into that giant white plug on the upper left. Or it might piggy back on the Sun's hard drive controller -- in which case, I imagine the Sun machine would need some kind of extra software to drive this card.

So the only reasonable possibility I can see for me to use this card is if it is serendipitously PCI-compatible (meaning I can plug it into another PC), and the great big white plug is an optional feature (meaning it uses the hard drive controller on the motherboard), and I can find the required software, free on the internet. I have Solaris 7 for x86, so if the software is out there, I might actually be able to run it.

But I'm not holding my breath.

Swimming, Again (The Aftermath)

[personal]

Well, that was not so bad... mind you, I was expecting to be wiped after a few lengths. I did a 50 free to warm up, a 200 free, 100 breast, and then a 100 free to cool down. I must admit that the cool down was still a bit of a work out. Those figures are in metres, of course. I hope I'm not too stiff tomorrow; I didn't do any stretches, as I should have.

There was a year or so that I fell out of practice during university, and this is comparable to how I did when I started up again then. By the end of that term, I was doing 1km workouts. That'll be my goal this time, too.

Updated Dec. 15, 09:42 AM: Actually, I know I did a bit more than 100 free for cooldown.

Swimming, Again

[personal]

My father often used to take me to the swimming pool. Did I ever hate it. The water hurt my eyes. It would get up my nose. And it was tiring, because we didn't just play around. He took me there to swim.

I couldn't have been swimming very well, however, as I soon found myself enrolled in swimming lessons. I recall there were five or six levels, and by the time I'd gone half way, swimming lessons had just become a thing I do. Whether I enjoyed it or not was no longer an issue. At that point, it seemed logical to finish the whole series of classes. So I did.

After that, I joined a swim team. I stuck with it for years; I was certainly not one of the stars, but I did well enough that I never got discouraged. When I started high school, I switched to the high school swim team.

By the time I entered university, I realized that I rather enjoyed swimming. I'd come a long way. No longer part of a team, I continued on my own, keeping myself fit in the pool.

However, since graduating, I've hardly stepped into the water. Actually, there was an interesting camping trip that I might write about one day, but for the most part, I've not done any serious swimming for years now.

That is going to change tomorrow. Wish me luck.

The Three C's

[meta]

In my third year of university, a friend and I were chatting and he noticed that the words "conservation" and "conversation" were identical except for two inverted letters. This excited him to no end, and he resolved that he would have to use the phrase "conservation of conversation" in a song or a poem or something. I've lost touch with him now, so I don't know if he followed through on that.

I myself noticed that there seemed to be many words that fit this pattern; that is, words that start with either "con" or "com", followed by a single syllable, and then ending with "ation." Scanning through a dictionary, I wrote down all the words I could find that fit this pattern. Here, for your reading pleasure, is the list.

Combination, commendation, commutation, compensation, compilation, complication, computation, concentration, condemnation, condensation, confirmation, confiscation, conflagration, conformation, confrontation, confutation, congregation, conjugation, conjuration, connotation, consecration, conservation, consolation, constellation, consternation, constipation, consultation, consummation, contemplation, conurbation, conversation, and convocation.

So now, if a troll stops you from passing a bridge until you can name 32 four-syllable words that start with "con" or "com" and end with "ation," you know what to say. I provide this information free of charge, as a public service.

But wait! If you go up to five syllables instead of four, then you get:

Commemoration, commiseration, communication, concatenation, concelebration, concilliation, confederation, configuration, conglomeration, congratulation, consideration, consolidation, contamination, and continuation.

And if you drop the "a" from "ation," and allow "tion" or "sion," then you can add:

Competition, composition, comprehension, condescension, constitution, contraception, contradiction, contravention, contribution, and convolution.

If you go down to just three syllables, then you get these words. These are fun if you try and read them all out loud as fast as you can.

Combustion, commission, commotion, compaction, compassion, completion, complexion, compression, compulsion, compunction, conception, concession, concision, conclusion, concoction, concretion, concussion, condition, conduction, confection, confession, confusion, congestion, conjunction, connection, conniption, conscription, constriction, construction, consumption, contention, contortion, contraction, contraption, contusion, convection, convention, conversion, conviction, and convulsion.

Finally, here's four more words for you:

Commercialization. Contradistinction. Conceptualization. Compartmentalization.

This is the list from which I chose the name of my blog, "Computation. Contemplation. Conversation."

Believe it.

Or not.

Dubya Wuz Here

[politics]

Having professed at least a passing interest in politics, you might expect me to have something to say about the fact that president George W. Bush was visiting Canada this week. Well, it has been a source of some small amusement to me how the media (well, CBC anyways) and other politicians have gone a little crazy about the whole thing. I mean, really. He was only here for thirty hours: one day in Ottawa and half a day in Halifax. That's not enough time to conduct any business. He was just saying hello. Calm down, for heaven's sake. It's almost embarrassing.