January 2005 Archives

This is the second installment in a series, Be Your Own Geek. (I still haven't figured out how to show content by category.)

One of the nice things about being married to someone in a different field than yourself is he or she can keep you abreast of what's going on in that field without you having to do any extra reading. This is especially nice in the field of technology because there is so much going on and so much of it is boring. But some of it is genuinely interesting and worth knowing. And it's nice to in turn being able to drop bits of technological trivia and gossip yourself at parties (or at least nod knowingly when someone else does). So here are some of the websites I've begun reading regularly in order to replace the internet flotsam that used to come to me as pillow talk.

Slashdot, the motherlode. Here I discovered that much of what previously struck me as obscure and arcane is actually being fiercly debated by thousands of nerds. And they're kind of sexist. I would never post there in 1 million years, of course, although I'm kind of tempted to ask them to run this particular topic as an "Ask Slashdot," (e.g.,: "if you broke up with your girlfriend/wife, what 5 sites would you suggest she visit on a regular basis to replace what you formally told her over the kitchen table?"). In any case, I can feel well girded for any geek party I attend if I've at least glanced at it -- not that I'm invited to geek parties anymore.

Think Secret, an apple rumor site -- I gather there are many, but this is the one whose editor is being sued by Apple, so that was good enough for me to add it to my bookmark. Ours was and remains a Mac household, so talking about potential Apple releases was kind of like what I imagine sports fans might say about their favorite teams and the players they might get. I'm using this site to keep up on the all-important world of what might or might not be happening at Apple.

Gizmodo, a gadget blog. Lot of cute little expensive things that I don't particularly lust after but I know someone who does! And it's written in an engaging manner.

That's all I can think of for now. I'd love your suggestions ...

I'm kind of interested in the netflix "friends" option -- partly because it's one of those things I vaguely wished existed and then found out it did a week later, partly because I just think it's a good idea. But I don't know who among my friends has a Netflix account. So if you do, and I haven't already sent you a supplicating email, invite me to be your friend, fer pity's sake. And I'll start actually rating my movies.

I love Perry Mason. I wish the National Association for the Advancement of Perry Mason still existed so I could join it. I would KILL for the Perry Mason board game. Perry Mason is brilliant. It features an incredible assortment of celebrities and wierd plots -- especially in the mid-1960s (which my local affliate is broadcasting now). Perry Mason interiors are lovely! And did you know that Raymond Burr was gay? (apparently this has generated some controversy among some of his viewers -- it's a generational thing, I guess). And he had a vineyard.

Anyway, I was sick off and on over the last few weeks which gave me plenty of opportunity to enjoy Perry Mason -- truth be told, now that I have TiVo, every night can be like those long, lovely Perry-Mason punctuated afternoon I remember from my mispent youth. Perry Mason has been on at noon on Channel 12 ever since I can remember and now it's on twice a day -- 2 hours of Perry! Kids have it so good these days!

What I especially love about Perry Mason while I'm sick is it's really good sleep television. I have a few shows that I love to sleep to: Victory Garden, Nature, any old movies, Masterrace Theater, and, for some reason, Monk -- I like shows that are kind of quiet, not too compelling, and ideally without a lot of commercials -- although the right kind of commercials are okay. Perry Mason features a lot of ITT tech and Western Culinary Institute ads, and court stenographer ads, too, of course -- gentle, optimistic testimonials of employability -- I can sleep to that!

I don't think I'm the only one who likes to sleep to TV, so my idea is that with the advent of digital television and potentially an infinite range of narrowcast channels, we should have a channel called "Sleep TV" entirely devoted to sleepable programming. Now, you might be tempted to say: "isn't that what PBS is all about?" But if you did, you'd be missing the enormous marketing potential for advertising aimed at sleeping or half-asleep viewers who are arguably more vulnerable to marketing messages, and certainly less likely to TiVo through the commercials. The ads would be produced by sleep-advertising specialists. I'm sure they'd do some research on what would be most suggestable to viewers without actually waking them up. Even if it turned out that people were pretty immune to advertising while actually asleep, I'll still bet you could get some pretty desperate advertisers to buy whatever pseudo science you could come up with to sell it -- at least for awhile. But no children's programming.

H&R Block has gotten in the game -- it's like they've been reading my blog

I always wanted to write a dissertation on survival stories. It would have chapters on the following topics:

1) Water Logs: Lost at Sea
2) "So Very Cold": Polar Exploration
3) 48 Hour Adventures: Mountain Climbing Disasters
4) "It's What's for Dinner!": Hunger, Cannabilism and Pee Drinking (may each deserve their own chapters)
5) Pets or Food: Animals in Survival Stories (would have a special section on British survivalists)
6) "Survivor": Broadcast Survivalism

Whip out an introduction and conclusion, and you're done!

Here are some of my favorite survival books to date (I'm going to add to this list when I get home and as I think of them -- I can't remember the names of some of them -- like the one with the jewish girl who gets in a plane crash in alaska with a mormon guy who becomes convinced that he needs to convert her for them to be rescued by god -- that was published by Scholastic, which seems to have put out a few survival stories for kids -- and why not! kids love 'em!):

"Adrift: Seventy-six days lost at Sea," by the fabulous Steve Callahan

"The Wreck of the Medusa The Tragic Story of the Death Raft" by Alexander McKee.

The Worst Journey in the World by Aspley Cherry Garrad.

Alive! by Piers Paul Read (here's a nice site on the Andes survivors).

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing

Long Walk : the True Story of Trek To Freedom by Slavomir Rawicz

I was thrilled when I realized that there was an actual Library of Congress subject heading devoted to these things -- "Survival after airplane accidents, shipwrecks, etc." Some people just call them men and women against nature books.

Let's face it, I'm not going to write a dissertation anytime soon.

But Susan and I ARE going to have a survivalist/cannnibalism book club! We will definitely serve snacks when we meet. Let me know if you want to join in the fun!

p.s. You know what's also really good? post-apocalyptic stories! (not the religious ones) but those are fictional -- so far, anyway. More on those later maybe.