Tron: Legacy

Watched Tron's sequel. It is quite good visually and has good production design. The plot has several interesting questions, but is nothing special.

Tangled

Watched Tangled yesterday.
Yup it has singing :) although it not a deal-breaker. It is quite enjoyable.

Did It Again

Yesterday I went to indoor top rope climbing, again.
I definitely like it.

Maybe I should buy some gear and start going each week; will see.

Afterwards went for some nice soba noodles and short stroll.

It was nice evening.

Climbing

Went climbing an artificial wall over the weekend with friends. Got the mandatory belaying class, given that you are responsible for yours and somebody else's safety it a prudent idea.

I really liked it.

Megamind

Watched "Megamind" it was funny. Plenty of cliches, predictable and quite entertaining.

Catch Up

It looks that I haven't written for some time.

Lets see what I missed.

Finished "In Defense of Food". It was interesting and expands on Pollans previous book "Omnivore's Dilema".

Also read Stross's new short stories collection "Wireless".

Saw "RED".

Despicable Me

Despicable Me is just pure fun. Something is constantly happening also a lot of slap stick comedy.

Toy Story 3

It is wonderful movie. I greatly enjoyed it and I am glad that Pixar is continuing to outdo themselves each time.

FlashForward Cancelled

I just learned that FlashForward is canceled. Pity I really liked the show. I liked the concept the mystery and the race against time. It had good ensemble cast and it was unfolding quite well.

Iron Man 2

More of the same; still it is nice action movie.
I was a bit disappointed by her resignation as CEO at the end, but I guess that Mr. Stark needed his company back.

The Revolution Business

"Merchant's War" and "The Revolution Business" continue Storss' Merchant Princes series. I had some reservations when started reading the first book of the series. For some reason I thought that the medieval and modern would not mesh well together.

I should have known better :)

A mental note to myself: Never judge a book by the cover and never doubt Charles Storss' mastery ever again.

The story actually benefits from the stark contrast between the cultural and technological differences of those worlds. A gentle reminder that most of the ordinary folks during the medieval ages were bound to a piece of land to serve their master; with no choice or control over their lives. Only limited few actually were actually free and there was almost no social mobility. Most of the population was submerged in poverty and misery that is impossible to imagine in the developed world this days.

Not to mention the lack of clean water, sanitation, basic medical care and etc.

The Black Death which killed about 50% of the European population 14th century is preventable and treatable bacterial disease.

In short it is no fairy tale.

Kick-Ass

It is quite funny and quite violent movie. I find it amusing that they censured the name on the movie tickets to "Kick-A**"! It is also strange that some people are more roiled by the fact that 11 year old is swearing on screen than her act slicing and dicing bunch of baddies and being exploited by her father and etc.

How to Train Your Dragon

How to Train Your Dragon is quite delightful animated movie. It is quite classical story for how people fear the things that they don't know and how with the knowledge come understanding. Pretty much all vikings in the village are too pre-occupied with killing dragons; their explanation is that we do it because we did it before. One of them has time to think about it and figure the things out. Finds a dragon helps it and studies it also discovers that trust goes both ways.

Stross' Merchant Prince Series

Finished "Hidden Family" and "Clan Corporate". The story is definitely picking-up. I was thinking about more then one worlds; voila second locket. Then about actually transferring inventions and manufacturing those locally; checked. It is actually quite amazing how much time and effort those simple everyday things took to invent. The now ubiquitous zipper; it took 20 years from the initial clumsy idea to perfection. Or the paper clip; or electricity and light bulbs and etc, etc.

Also there were plenty of surprises and nice plot twists. It is pleasure to read.

The Family Trade

Just finished The Family Trade. It is interesting to see the culture-shock, when faced with feudal society and inequality associated with it. Also quite predictably the technological innovation in such society is quite low. It would be interesting to see how Miriam (the main character) would remedy it.

I really like how Stross explores different ideas.

Alice 3D

Watched Tim Burton's Alice it is quite nice. It is re-using the original Lewis Carroll work; although is done like a sequel and it is visually quite interesting.

Hunter Mountain

Went skiing with friends at Hunter Mountain. It was quite crowded; still it was quite nice. I guess everybody wanted to take advantage of the 6 feet snowfall :)

New Camera

I finally got a new camera. After my 5 year old one started playing tricks on me during the summer heat (yeah yeah... I know that it is winter now; I tried to wish it away, but it was getting from worse to worst and I finally got to terms with it). It is Canon again and I really like how they managed to keep their camera control design consistent over the years. I didn't even have to look in the user's manual.

I went on a stroll and took some pictures; let me say I am definitely pleased with the results.

Olympian Gods

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief was ok. Quite teen movie; nothing special... still enjoyable.

Cirque du Soleil

I just watched Quidam on DVD. It was absolutely amazing.
I don't have words to properly describe the sheer mastery that those guys showed; nor my deepest and absolute respect for it!

My only regret is that I can't watch this show live!