Analog-Theater 2.0

I saw Terminator Salvation yesterday.  It was okay, like the previous movies.  The special effects were good.  Christian Bale’s acting was about average, but Sam Worthington gave a good preformance.  I’m curious now as to the direction that they are going to take the franchise if they do go ahead with the plan for a trilogy. 

 Word has come out that Fox is offically not renewing the TV series Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles.  They decided to keep Dollhouse (a show with lower ratings) instead, hoping that Josh Whedon will turn the show around in the second season.  However, I have heard a rumor that Sci-Fi Channel might pick it up.  Everyone should email or write to the Sci-Fi channel to show them the fan base for the series to convience them that picking up the series is a good idea.  You can email them at feedback@scifi.com or write to them at:

SCIFI.COM
30 Rockefeller Plaza, 21st Fl.
New York, N.Y. 10112

I am not sure how many of you, our reader(s) still watch television using the old fashioned meathod of actually turning on the Tele, then switching to a channel, and  sitting down to watching a show all the way through.  I know that for the most part I don’t, and it now seems that the networks are not too happy about this.  NBC, ABC, CBS, and I guess Fox have a point though.  They try to build strong brands backed up by content and then supported by advertising revenue generated by airing commercials every few minutes.  But now we don’t watch those annoying commercials, and on two different cable televisions systems I have watched new commercials overlay the ones broadcast by the network (Thank you Verizon and Cox).  So now they aren’t getting paid.

On the other end of the spectrum this new world of television viewing has provided us, the consumers of content, with a plethora of new avenues by which to enjoy our favorite shows.  We can watch them when they air, DVR them, watch them on our computer at sites like Hulu or the networks own site, buy the DVD/BlueRay of the entire season after it runs, watch the entire season on Netflix’s Instant watch service, buy or rent the episode or season on iTunes or Amazon and download it, and probably a half dozen other means both legal and illegal (Bit Torrent).

This now brings me to the point of my post.  Kevin Wassong, a former television development executive who worked on Golden Girls has decided that this brave new world of television viewing, specifically Hulu, is a”…massive destruction of media value…”.  His argument is that the real value of a network is not in the shows that they produce, but in their history and I love his words here: “The years that it has taken the network to train consumers to expect a level of quality that can’t be matched”.  I am honestly unable to craft a short rebuttal without resorting to profanity.  Has he not turned on his television in the last decade?  Obviously he has, he talks about it, go read this for yourself if you like.  The link is here.

Over the past several years I have been forced by the networks to have no expectations of anything other then more reality television that I can not stand.  Every time ABC, NBC, CBS, and even Fox have aired a show that I am in the least bit interested in, they have then canceled it within the Season with only a few notable exceptions.  These shows have then been replaced with content that I can only believe is aimed at the Lowest Common Denominator.  Look at our current crop of winning shows like NBC’s The Biggest loser, Great American Road Trip and Celebrity Apprentice, ABC’s upcoming Reality Hit Wipeout and the Bachlorette.  This season she gets to service 30 different guys in her search for fleeting fame, money, and I guess maybe some kind of non-physical Love.

Our good friends on Cable aren’t much better.  MTV which was the channel we all wanted back in the 80’s and early 90’s, the one our parents hated, and which good little rebellious teenagers watched, has turned into nothing more then a playground for scripted reality and mainstream manufactured pop stardom.  Can anyone out there explain to me how Paris Hilton needs a new BFF.

There is no longer any expectation of quality from any network except possibly Discovery, National Geographic, and maybe a few others. (Note: TLC “The Learning Channel” does not make that list.  The only thing that you might, possibly, learn on that channel is that John and Kate now have 8 children and it isn’t easy to be a little person in a big world.)  The only value left to any produce of content is in what they produce, and today they need to wake up and realize this.  Nobody cares if the show runs on ABC, NBC, or PAX so long as they know which channel and what time to set the DVR for.  And after this past season, you need a computer in order to figure that out

Services like Hulu are essential in the modern world.  They drive viewers to shows and garner revenue with each viewer.  Claiming they are destroying a value that no longer exists is asinine.

Stop fighting the consumer.  Stop trying to block our access to content.  If I choose to DVR a show and watch it next week, pause it while it is live to go get a soda, or watch it on Hulu, be thankful I am at least taking the time out of my day to sit down and view it.  If I have paid the $2 per episode fee to purchase it, be even more thanful because that means I didn’t download the torrent.

I guess that is it.

No, this is not our 1000th post, nor did we just make $1000 off the site. I found an article in an old fitness magazine I had lying around. It was about doing 1000 reps of a single exercise (push ups, sit ups, bench presses, etc) in one work out. I am interested in giving it a try, however I know that I can’t do that many push ups in one work out, and doubtful even in one day. The idea crossed my mind to challenge you readers to see how long it takes to do 1000 push ups. Feel free to post below how many push ups you do as you do them.  Kevan, Chad, Robert, Dad, Greg, Alan, I dare you all to compete.  First person to reach 1000 wins.

Now, back to my goals. People who know me know that I am really into chess. In fact, one of the first ten goals was about chess. When I started putting together this list, I had several goals about chess. I ended up getting rid of a few because they were repetitious. Like playing in the US Open (I’ve listed a couple different tournaments already) and playing against Hikaru Nakamura (I’ve listed enough different people I want to play with). I think that the seven goals I kept are enough to represent that facet of my life and my dreams.

11) Win the Virginia Open – The Virginia Open is a chess tournament that I have gone to a couple times. It happens every January. Both of the times that I played, I lost every game. While I did learn something from those loses, I also realized that losing sucks. After the last tournament I decided to quit competing until I got better at chess. I plan on attending the one next January. By doing what I mentioned in goal 6, I should have improved my skills considerably and might be able to win some rounds, if not all of them. It will be my triumphant return to the world of chess.

12) Play a game against Gata Kamsky and

13) Play a game against Susan Polgar – I’m going to talk about both of these goals together. Gata Kamsky is currently the highest ranked chess player in the United States and Susan Polgar is one of the highest ranked players in the world. Both of them have competed in various international tournaments, included the World Championship. It would be an honor to have a chance to put my soon-to-be-improved game up against their championship level game. I don’t expect to beat either of them, but it should be a learning experience.

14) Play a game against Josh Waitzkin and spar against him – Josh Waitzkin has been a hero of mine. He was a chess prodigy. He was the US under 18 champion three years in a row and was on the verge of becoming a grand master when he quit playing chess professionally. The movie Searching for Bobby Fischer was a dramatization of his childhood. He has since started practicing pushing hands tai chi and has won several tournaments. I would like to be able to test my skills both over the board and on the mat against him.

15) Get a grand master norm in the Gibraltar Open – I have read about the Gibraltar Open several times in Chess Life (a monthly chess magazine). It has been something of my dream tournament. It happens at the end of January or the beginning of February and it seems that everyone goes there to get grand master norms (a grand master norm is a requirement to become a grand master in chess. You have to play in tournaments against grand masters from different countries and receive favorable results). Many of the prominent chess players compete there, including Irena Krush. Which leads me to my next goal…

16) Go on a date with Irena Krush – if I’m lucky, I will have a chance to meet her at the Gibraltar Open. Irena is a rising star in the chess world. The twenty-five year old international master first got a name for herself on the message boards during the Kasparov vs. the world match where she demonstrated considerable analytical skills as everyone discussed the next moves. She’s been on the cover of Chess Life a couple times. The last issue I saw her in was about her earning a grand master norm in the Gibraltar Open.

17) Become a grandmaster of chess – if I can achieve goals 10-15, this one should be easy. Of course, I probably will have to be a grand master or at least an international master before I can consider playing seriously against Kamsky or Polgar.

18) Play in the World Championship – I think this goal might be one of the hardest to achieve and I’m not sure I should even include it on the list, but it does give me something very high to shoot for. To play in the World Championship you have to be one of the best players in the world. I would have to be able to beat Kamsky and Polgar and any other player I have mentioned. I will keep practicing my game and see how far I can go. Maybe you’ll see me on the cover of Chess Life after I beat Anand.

As it does every year, my birthday is soon approaching.  So, it preparation for that day, I have prepared this:

In addition to the cool stuff above, I will also accept cash, gift cards, and a new dvd player.

Well now, we do have a lot to cover but I can’t remember half of what I wanted to talk about now.

Lets see.  Betty Crocker!  You buggers.  I bought your Chocolate Chip cookie mix, and wow did that not work out right.  The directions are fairly simplistic, but what came out of the oven wasn’t work the $3.00 for the bag.

Silk Soymilk.  Dear WhiteWave, I have enjoyed your Organic product for years.  This sudden shift to all natural is nonsense.  At least let me know you are going to change the formula and mark up the one I’ve been buying.   I’ve spent hours trying to nail down exactly what is required to call food “All Natual” and have had no luck.  I’ve scoured the FDA website to no end, but it turns out that no one really regulates it.  So, guess what, I am now buying the cheaper Organic store brand.  Thank you.

Lets see, what else is going on.

I went to see Star Trek.  I highly recommend this.  Very good movie, but did they need to kill 6 Billion folks to break the story line?

Amarok 2.0.2

Many of you are likely aware that I don’t always use Windows.  I tend to move around and my desktop of preference is KDE 4.2.2 at the moment.  Recently I went and installed Kubuntu 9.04 and noticed that I was having some serious difficulty in getting the Vocal Trance channel at di.fm to launch.  I’ve never had this problem before, for the last several years it has been simply click the link in Firefox and then point it to the program I want to have open it.  In the past this has always been Amarok.  Amarok has been a wonderful program that played everthing I wanted it to, and has done so with optimal sound quality.  But that was version 1.4 Amarok Fast Forward.  Today  I discovered the bloody aftermath of a bad train wreck on an interstate with a downed international flight that they for some reason call Amarok 2.0.2.

The new process to open steaming audio is to launch Amarok and try to figure out the interface.  This is not easy, to save time I recommend The Right of AshkEnte, but for those of you who aren’t up to summoning death, well your on your own.  Once you have mastered the interface visit your favorite online radio station and download the .pls file.  With Amarok open, click the Amarok drop down menu, open the .pls file, and then double click on the odd looking set of numbers with dots (ip address) now in the playlist field on the right…I think that is the playlist field.  I gave up and simply started using VLC.

Edit:

It appears that you can actually click the play button once you have told it to play the .pls file.  Why you need to download a playlist file, then manually point Amarok to this file, and then after having told it to play this file, click play I have no idea.  1.4 would open the file and play.

Robert and I have not forgotten about all you readers out there.  I have been busy writing.  I was talking to a friend of mine about the list of goals, and way down the list (I think it was goal number 67) was to write a best selling book.  My friend gave me some really good advise.  It was to finish writing a book.  I’ve started and failed to complete countless books.  I have two that I have been working on recently, one is a fiction novel and the other is a nonfiction religous book.  Wanting to get away from fiction, I started focusing more on the nonfiction book.  However, another friend of mine suggested utilizing my talents to the fullest and since I do have a creative streak, I should do fiction.  Now my plan is to do both books and see which one sells more.  I mean, if I publish two books, I am twice as likely to have a best selling book.  I’ll get back to posting my goals soon, even though the first ten alone are enough to keep anyone busy.

 I spoke to Robert the other day about his lack of posts.  He said that he is going to do a post about the new Star Trek movie, but he was waiting for me to see it so that he doesn’t spoil anything for more.  I saw it yesterday and will work on typing up my thoughts tonight.

As far as the good news goes, the vice president of the company (my boss’s boss) called me in for a meeting and decided that he wants me to stay with Lasership.  However, my replacement has already started work.  So, I can stay but I have to keep on management’s good side and they will try to convince the main office that I’m needed here.

If you noticed on the left hand side of the screen we have a nice little subscribe button so that you can subscribe to the RSS feed for our site using any RSS tracker, including My Yahoo, Google, etc.

 And now, here is goal 10:
10) Become an International Master chess player – It’s no secret that I like chess. I started playing chess when I was a kid. My brother taught me how to move the pieces and some basic opening strategy. As a child, I played against my father and my sisters. When we moved to New York, I met my Uncle Doug and started playing against him. He beat me every time. After each game I would swear to myself that I would win next time, but it took me years before that came true.

The first tournament I played in was the 2006 Virginia Open. It was a five round Swiss style tournament. I lost all five rounds and got a rating of 600 (which is low). Since then I’ve played in three other tournaments. I lost my first twelve rated games. Slowly my rating has been dropping lower. I am now rated 584.

I’ve been going over some books for motivation. The two books I’m reading right now are The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin and Hikaru No Go by Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata.

In the Art of Learning, Josh Waitzkin discusses how he became a champion chess player and martial artist. He started his chess training with end game strategies. Then he studied the different styles and tactics of various grand masters. One of them caught my eye because it’s the same style that I’m developing, that was GM Michael Short.

Hikaru No Go is a manga series about a kid who starts playing go, a Japanese board game which is thematically similar to chess. His main rival, Akira, is the son of a champion go player. The series shows both of them trying to become better. Akira plays a game against his father every day. Part way through the series, Hikaru starts playing a game every night against his ghost tutor. Along with that, both of them are part of study groups and review old games.

Having said all this here my plan: I will start with the end game lessons on Chess Master, as well as the other lessons. Josh Waitzkin began his chess education the same way and he became an International Master. Once I run out of lessons on Chess Master, I will start studying GM Short’s games (I like his strategies) and books like “Improve your Chess” and “Midgame Tactics”. After finishing my studies, with the lessons still fresh in my mind, I will play a game against my computer. Chess Master offers opponents rated all the way from 23 to 2980. I started playing against a 600 and I’m working way up. I will play each opponent until I beat them and then move on to the next one. I am currently playing against a 949. Also, each morning I will read a chapter of Hikaru No Go for encouragement.

Doing all of this will increase my ability, but I will also need to play in a lot of tournaments.  I will need to get my official rating over 2400 and get favorable results in major tournaments.  I have more chess related goals a little further down the list.