oceans 13, google maps, apple, music mix, obama

oceans 13 - I caught oceans 13 a couple days ago. The film was better than the second, but not better than the first. Although the movie has an all star cast, the quality of the plot is mediocre. The exchanges between Pitt and Clooney are very witty. It's fun watching the team as they work on the caper together, but the movie is easily forgettable.

What bothers me about the plot is that it contains a deus ex machina. The deus ex machina was not as improbable as the d.e.m. in oceans 12, but it still took away from an ending that had the potential to be the last part of a well-scripted screenplay. Deus ex machinas in caper films are utterly unsatisfying.

rating: 3.5/5

google maps - I use Google Maps daily. It's a great web-application that allows me to figure out where the closest Starbucks is, get directions instantly, and figure out what a place looks like before I get there (with Street View).

For some unknown reason I have an affinity for navigation tools/software. I used to have a PDA with a Bluetooth GPS receiver in my car, but after I installed Google Maps on my Blackberry the PDA lost its functionality. When traveling/backpacking, I frequently rely on paper maps, and always wish I had access to Google Maps.

I integrated Google myMaps into my last post. The fact that I can use it to plan out itineraries is groundbreaking for me. Here are some thoughts on features that I wish MyMaps had:

1. The ability for other Google users that I approve of to tag up my map with notes/comments. When I am traveling to a region that I am not familiar with, I generally consult people that grew up in the region or people with prior travel experience in the area. It would be much easier for me to send a link to this "expert" and allow them to make comments on my planned route.
   
   
2. Distance-measurer when myMapping. When you create your own map on Google Maps, you can draw lines on the maps, but the distance of the length of those lines is not given. This would really help when trying to estimate distances.
   
   
3. The maps should be blogging friendly. It was took some searching around to figure out how to embed the map. I am sure that there are plenty of users of MyMaps that would love to embed a map they have created into their blogs, but lack the ability to know-how.
   

I think the product has an incredible amount of unrealized potential with the tech-savvy backpacking community. Recently I booked a flight and the reservation system on the airline's website showed the flight's path on a map built using Google Maps. Also, Jet Blue recently announced that they are going to provide in-flight tracking using a Google Maps mash up. Every airline should do something like this! I believe that Google Maps has the ability to increase one's knowledge of geography, and I would love to see how children interact with it.

I'm excited to see what Google does with it.

apple
Steven Jobs is incredibly smart.

Apple is a great company that always seems to nail the UI thing; which as Bijan Sabet points out is something that is not easy.

The company recently sold it's 100 millionth iPod. This means that at an average cost of $200, the iPod has contributed an average of $4 BN in revenue per year for the past 5 years.

It's sales in personal computers seems to be growing but it is still at a flat or slow-growth 3-4% market share.

But I'm not sure I understand what Apple's core business is. Will iPods be trendy forever? And what would happen if visionary Steve Jobs ever left (although it is very unlikely)? I do not feel like the company is self-sustaining without Jobs, unlike the self-sustaining empire that Bill Gates built. There is a lot of buzz about the iPhone, but it is fairly expensive for the average consumer. I think the firm is going to experience an incredible amount of growth over the next 3 - 5 years, but I'm very curious to know where it will be in 20 years.

That being said, I have faith in the innovative genius that is Apple.

music
here are some songs that have been playing on my ipod.




obama

The Economist has a great article on Barack Obama this week.

enjoy

Australia/NZ/Fiji 2007: Itinerary

I just figured out how to embed Google Maps into the blog. Very exciting!

In September, Ross Miller and I are planning to backpack through Australia/NZ/Fiji for a month. Here is our itinerary so far. We found a cheap flight from LAX to Cairns for $630 and jumped on it! We have not purchased our flight from NZ to LAX, but we found one that stops over in Fiji. Ross and I are currently toying with the idea of staying two nights in Fiji.

movies

Movies that I'm itching to see:

Eagle vs Shark



Knocked Up

funny + wine

Funny:
(Stolen from Peter Vu's blog)

1. Here's a prime example of "Men Are >From Mars, Women Are From Venus"

offered by an English professor from the University of Colorado for an
actual class assignment:

The professor told his class one day: "Today we will experiment with a
new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person
will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right.
As homework tonight, one of you will write the first paragraph of a
short story. You will e-mail your partner that paragraph and send
another copy to me. The partner will read the first paragraph and then
add another paragraph to the story and send it back, also sending
another copy to me. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and
so on back-and-forth.

Remember to re-read what has been written each time in order to keep
the story coherent. There is to be absolutely NO talking outside of
the e-mails and anything you wish to say must be written in the
e-mail. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached."

The following was actually turned in by two of his English students:

Rebecca and Gary.

THE STORY: (first paragraph by Rebecca)

At first, Laurie couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The
chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home,
now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times,
that he liked chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep
her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she
thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So
chamomile was out of the question.

(second paragraph! by Gary)

Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron
now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about
than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with
whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. " A.S. Harris to
Geostation 17," he said into his transgalactic communicator. " Polar
orbit established. No sign of resistance so far..." But before he
could sign off a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and
blasted a hole through his ship's cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent
him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.

(Rebecca)

He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt
one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who
had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its
pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4.
"Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel",
Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously
excited her and bored her. She stared out the window, dreaming of her
youth, when the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no
newspaper to read, no television to distract her from her sense of
innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her. "Why must one lose
one's innocence to become a woman?" she pondered wistfully.

(Gary)

Little did she know, but she had less than 10 seconds to live.
Thousands of miles above the city, the Anudrian mothership launched
the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dimwitted wimpy
peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty
through the congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the
hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race.
Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anudrian ships
were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the
entire planet. With no one to stop them, they swiftly initiated their
diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere
unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret mobile submarine
headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the
inconceivably massive explosion, which vaporized poor, stupid Laurie.

(Rebecca)

This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My
writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic semi-literate adolescent.

(Gary)

Yeah? Well, my writing partner is a self-centered tedious neurotic
whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium. " Oh,
shall I have chamomile tea? Or shall I have some other sort of F--KING
TEA??? Oh no, what am I to do? I'm such an air headed bimbo who reads
too many Danielle Steele novels!"

(Rebecca)

As*h@le.

(Gary)

B*tch!

(Rebecca)

F**K YOU - YOU NEANDERTHAL!!

(Gary)

In your dreams, Ho. Go drink some tea.

(TEACHER)

A+ - I really liked this one.

Wine
2. At UCLA I am a member of the Purple Tongue Society. PTS is the wine club at UCLA. We meet biweekly for tastings. At our last tasting we tested out a handful of Zinfandels. The one I enjoyed the most was "7 Deadly Zins."

The Facts:
Wine Type: Zinfandel
Varietals: 100% Zinfandel
Alcohol: 14.8%
Price: $13-15 per bottle
Story: The grapes to make the wine come from 7 growers in Lodi, California (which Wikipedia calls the Zin capital of the world). The growers contribute their best grapes from vines that are 50 years old.

Thoughts:
This was a great full-bodied Zin. You can taste spices and fruits. It also had a reasonable amount of tannin; but relatively less than the other Zins we tasted. It was also considerably quaffable (which means you can drink it by itself, without a meal). The finish was easy. It makes for a nice inexpensive table wine.