Author: Isaac

    I’ve done some things to my website. Hopefully I’ve
corrected the huge amount of space at the top of my gallery for those
of you running internet explorer on windows. Why would anyone use that
piece of trash anyway? If you must be on Windows, please download
Firefox, it’s the best thing you can do… I’ve added a few links and I
put up a picture of my father with his brother Mark on dad’s sailboat.
I hope to make some real improvements over the weekend.

Isaac

    I had heard that the old series had been revived but
I had never seen any of the new episodes, until last night. I stumbled
across it while channel surfing the other night and it hooked me enough
to watch the entire episode. Gone are all of the Mormon overtones, gone
are the cheesy effects, and gone are the goofy characters. The thing
that impressed me the most was that I didn’t quite understand the
episode. Granted, I think I was watching the season finale and I had
zero backstory, but I was happy to see a network show that made the
audience think a little. No, this is no Bergman or Goddard work, but
for network TV it’s awfully good.
    This version is darker, dirtier, and more violent
than the original. There is some sort of wild polytheism thing going
on (possibly with the Greek gods of all things), Starbuck is a woman
(that took me almost 10 minutes to figure out), and the cylons look
like beautiful asian women apparently. They have kept the egalitarian
vision of women as equals in the future. When there was an important
mission for a crack pilot, a woman (Starbuck) was the first choice.
When she flaked and did something that was important to the plot (I
think, I have no idea what the character is up to), the next crack
pilot in line was another woman.  Still, the unrelaibility of
these women would cause a gender studies person to go crazy (the
successful crack pilot came back and shot the commander for an
unspecified reason). The chances of me being able to watch this series
as it happens is almost nil. Maybe I’ll go rent it when it comes out on
DVD, so if an of you watch it, don’t tell me what happens… It’s nice
to see sci-fi that is story (and dare I say it action) driven instead
of relying on FX to carry the show.

Isaac

    I had 54 unique visitors to my site today. That
seems like a lot for a random homepage. Granted, most of them didn’t
stick around long, but it is flattering to see so many people take a
look for whatever reason. I’m hoping to add some stuff to the “Art and
expression” page soon. I’ve decided to rewrite that short story and
also to write a few essays on expression too. God only knows when I’ll
get that  stuff up… Speaking of God, I am also going to start a
religion page one of these days. Writing is much more difficult than
you think. Well, writing well is much more difficult than you might
think… I’ll get there one of these days…

Isaac

    It was really really nice. First off, I got to see
Mark for the first time in years. It’s always good to see him and the
visits have been rather few and far between. There was no traffic to
speak of going to and coming back from Dad and Butler’s. Once I got
there, there was nothing but good food and relaxing. We went sailing on
sunday. It was my first time out in a boat in 15 or so years. Incredible
weather, nice surroundings, good company, I recommend it highly:-)
Today I went out in a kayak for the first time. Dad and I went up
Cobb’s Creek a ways taking in the scenery and enjoying the continuing
beautiful weather.
    This was the first time I really understood dad’s
aversion for motor boats. We used the inboard motor to get out of the
marina and into the river. Once we cut off the engine and were under
sail, it was remarkable. There was a huge difference in the mood and
enjoyment of the passengers. I’m not used to the mode of transportation
not making any noise. We were all able to chat and enjoy the trip out. I
couldn’t believe how loud the motor boats were, even the jet skis were
annoying. The sailing seemed so civilized in comparison to the wake
inducing, loud motorcraft out on the water. I noticed this with the
kayaks too. The only noise we made was with out paddles and talking. We
had to wait for the occasional motorboat to pass by to pick up the
conversation again.
    Having said that, I have come to several
conclusions. As enjoyable as the sailing and the kayaking were, I don’t
particularly crave a repeat. I really really do not enjoy the salt air,
salt water, and the sun beating down. I feel nasty, dry, chaffed, and
tired at the end of the activities. Over the years I have instinctively
avoided most activities around salt water like sailing, swimming, going
to the beach, etc. There is something about the salt that really
bothers me at a very deep level. I wonder if my aversion to seafood is
connected to this somehow? Anyway, this realization might partly
explain why I’ve never felt overly comfortable in Gloucester or VA.
Beach. Even when we vacationed at Cape May as a kid, I spent most of my
time in the arcades… I love the deserts I’ve been to, and I really
enjoy swimming in pools, I just don’t know what’s up with the salt
thing. In any case, the company was nice, but I would have been as
happy enjoying them inside…
    My second class is tomorrow, gonna be a long day so I probably won’t post. I’ll get back on wed.

Isaac

… you’re bringing on the heartache…. Sometimes
you just have to listen to old Def Leppard songs… Damn Angel anyway,
he put this song in my head around 1:30 this afternoon and I’ve been
singing it all day. Hope I’ve spread the disease…

Isaac

    With this last paycheck, I was able to pay off my
student loan! I was able, but they wouldn’t let me pay the entire
thing. Appearently thay have some sort of maximum I can pay within a
certain amount of time So I still owe them 37 cents. That’s a little
silly, but I consider myself out of debt.

Isaac

    I’ll be going down to dad and Butler’s for the
fourth. My Uncle Mark will in town, haven’t seen him in a long time.
He’s also bringing his “lady friend” along, Ive heard nothing but good
things about her. So, another weekend of relaxing and good food, hope I
can handle it:-)
    Did really well with spiffs this month. If there
weren’t any taxes taken out, I could buy my Mac Mini. As it stands,
I’ll just put a little more into the Egypt fund. It’s kind of strange
to be working to make enough money in one year to live off of for two.
If all goes well, I’ll go over there with more than 3 times the average
Egyptian’s annual salary, I should be OK over there…

Isaac

    They seem like a bright bunch. I threw a bunch of
dry, technical stuff at them the first class but they seemed to take it
without a problem. Equivilent exposures, stopping motion, ISO stuff, I
even went into the whole diagonal of the film format to determine the
normal focal length routine. Things are looking good, they all seem to
want to learn and I was more comfortable than I thought I’d be in front
of them. One thing I did learn, 2 hours is a long time to talk to
people, I’ll need to have more on my lesson plans from here on out.

Isaac

    I’ve been winding my days down with Bach again. I
don’t think I’ll ever get to the bottom of his stuff and run out of
wonder. Just finished listening to the first disk of Glenn Gould’s
“Well Tempered Clavier vol.1” and I’m blown away again. Take a listen
to “Prelude and Fugue No.10 in E minor” (track #19 and 20). The thought
occurs to me that there really hasn’t been any progress in music since
this was written. If you’re only going to own one “classical” (God, I
hate that label) album, it should be this one. Gould playing Bach is
always worth a listen…

Isaac