This is probably a no one but me cares post (or may be an everyone already knows, but I'm guessing more of the former).
It just occurred to me that when you tune your radio to your favorite FM station and instead of hearing music and/or talk you hear silence it is not that they're not transmitting. If they weren't transmitting then you'd hear static like when you tune to an empty station, as your radio tries to pick up any little signal out on the air (or even the internal electrical noise of the stereo). But rather you are getting silence which for FM means that the radio is picking up one dominant signal, but the frequency of that signal is not changing (or changing too quickly - the key is none of the change is in the 20 Hz to 20 kHz range). So it is not that the station's transmitter is broken or turned off, it must be an earlier stage that isn't working.
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Saturday, August 08, 2009
The Wounded Hawk
Finished up The Wounded Hawk a couple days ago. This is the second book in the same series as The Nameless Day.
Still going to wait to finish the whole series before saying much. But this book definitely kicks up the action and the heresy a notch.
Thanks again to Julie for letting me borrow the series.
Still going to wait to finish the whole series before saying much. But this book definitely kicks up the action and the heresy a notch.
Thanks again to Julie for letting me borrow the series.
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Three Cups Of Tea
While I was in Tahoe I read most of Three Cups Of Tea and then finished it up a bit after getting back. My Mom introduced me to the book and let me borrow it. The book is about Greg Mortenson who has spent about 16 years building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The book starts out talking about his attempt to climb K2 and some of his life story. I really enjoyed reading about his attempt at K2. The life story stuff is good build up to understand where he is coming from, but not the most interesting part. Then when it really gets into his work building schools in Pakistan it is very cool. It has a great message about the power of small contributions to education. Also some cultural info and a look into the life of the mountain villages. There is a bit of back and forth over if people who live in small mountain villages have a simpler better life or if living in tough conditions with minimal money isn't so great. I actually almost wonder if that's some natural back and forth or perhaps the voices of the two different authors coming through. And there's some good adventure. Just getting from place to place is a bit of an adventure, but the peak is when he gets captured and held for 8 days with minimal explanation.
This is far from the main point of the book, but often times when I hear about adventurous travel or outdoor adventures I think, oh that would be so cool to do (even if it is far beyond what I'd really do). But this book showed me someone who takes risks beyond what I have any interest in taking. So that was kind of cool to bound my interest in adventure by reading the book. (Note, just because that is an upper bound doesn't mean something far less adventurous would not also be an upper bound).
Not that I've read a lot of biographies, but I think this may be the first that was about someone who is still alive. It doesn't make a big difference, but it is a bit different. I found myself sometimes questioning how well he remembered all the details and feelings, but I think that was one of those MST3000 "It's just a show, I really should just relax" moments. And I do get the sense that the main author did a lot of interviewing and fact checking on all the important stuff.
Unlike a lot of what I read which tends to have a more focused audience, I'd really recommend this book to basically anyone.
The book starts out talking about his attempt to climb K2 and some of his life story. I really enjoyed reading about his attempt at K2. The life story stuff is good build up to understand where he is coming from, but not the most interesting part. Then when it really gets into his work building schools in Pakistan it is very cool. It has a great message about the power of small contributions to education. Also some cultural info and a look into the life of the mountain villages. There is a bit of back and forth over if people who live in small mountain villages have a simpler better life or if living in tough conditions with minimal money isn't so great. I actually almost wonder if that's some natural back and forth or perhaps the voices of the two different authors coming through. And there's some good adventure. Just getting from place to place is a bit of an adventure, but the peak is when he gets captured and held for 8 days with minimal explanation.
This is far from the main point of the book, but often times when I hear about adventurous travel or outdoor adventures I think, oh that would be so cool to do (even if it is far beyond what I'd really do). But this book showed me someone who takes risks beyond what I have any interest in taking. So that was kind of cool to bound my interest in adventure by reading the book. (Note, just because that is an upper bound doesn't mean something far less adventurous would not also be an upper bound).
Not that I've read a lot of biographies, but I think this may be the first that was about someone who is still alive. It doesn't make a big difference, but it is a bit different. I found myself sometimes questioning how well he remembered all the details and feelings, but I think that was one of those MST3000 "It's just a show, I really should just relax" moments. And I do get the sense that the main author did a lot of interviewing and fact checking on all the important stuff.
Unlike a lot of what I read which tends to have a more focused audience, I'd really recommend this book to basically anyone.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Ted and Bruno
First of all - I've been slow to recommend Better Off Ted because in some surface way it seems like it's not a great show. Maybe one of the ads just hit me wrong. Although I think there's more - one example is there are times when characters are supposed to be really mad, but they still seem like they are smiling. But the show is awesome! I'm laughing the whole time and they do a great job ripping into the questionable morals of corporations. And it has a bit of an Arrested Development feel (more than just because Portia is in the show).
Bruno SPOILERS coming up.
I saw Bruno recently. I was laughing the whole time. I can't recommend it since there may be stuff you just don't want to see. I've only heard/read a few reviews, but I really think they are missing something. Obviously a big part of it is that Bruno is an outdated gay stereotype and a certain portion of the movie is about how people react to him. That seems to grab most of the attention. Although I think the movie dedicates just as much if not more time to making fun of the search for celebrity.
What reviewers seem to miss is how self-referential the movie is. Fairly early on Bruno shows a TV pilot he made to a test audience. The test audience absolutely hates the pilot and can't imagine anyone watching it. First of all - when you watch the movie you see the pilot. Second it is a rough approximation of the rest of the movie (think Terrance and Philip in South Park). So right up front you're watching people tell you how bad the movie you are watching is. Later on one of the strongest comments on society is when Bruno asks parents what they would be willing to let their kids do in order to be included in a photo shoot. He then proceeds to do similar things with a baby. So now he's also making fun of the parents that let him use their baby in the movie. Now given those two scenes think about the fact that to make a movie that makes fun of what people will do to be famous Cohen goes off and does very crazy, dangerous, and disgusting stuff.
I'll admit I have a tendency to reach too far on these things, but I really think that buried in there is Cohen making fun of himself.
Ok, even if you don't buy all that, you have to admit that the wrestling scene and the scene with Paula Abdul were hilarious.
Hm - seems I posted a bit too soon. Dana Stevens's review makes a similar point.
Bruno SPOILERS coming up.
I saw Bruno recently. I was laughing the whole time. I can't recommend it since there may be stuff you just don't want to see. I've only heard/read a few reviews, but I really think they are missing something. Obviously a big part of it is that Bruno is an outdated gay stereotype and a certain portion of the movie is about how people react to him. That seems to grab most of the attention. Although I think the movie dedicates just as much if not more time to making fun of the search for celebrity.
What reviewers seem to miss is how self-referential the movie is. Fairly early on Bruno shows a TV pilot he made to a test audience. The test audience absolutely hates the pilot and can't imagine anyone watching it. First of all - when you watch the movie you see the pilot. Second it is a rough approximation of the rest of the movie (think Terrance and Philip in South Park). So right up front you're watching people tell you how bad the movie you are watching is. Later on one of the strongest comments on society is when Bruno asks parents what they would be willing to let their kids do in order to be included in a photo shoot. He then proceeds to do similar things with a baby. So now he's also making fun of the parents that let him use their baby in the movie. Now given those two scenes think about the fact that to make a movie that makes fun of what people will do to be famous Cohen goes off and does very crazy, dangerous, and disgusting stuff.
I'll admit I have a tendency to reach too far on these things, but I really think that buried in there is Cohen making fun of himself.
Ok, even if you don't buy all that, you have to admit that the wrestling scene and the scene with Paula Abdul were hilarious.
Hm - seems I posted a bit too soon. Dana Stevens's review makes a similar point.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Tahoe
The week leading up to the 4th of July my parents, brother and I headed out to Tahoe. My family was nice enough to work around the shutdown week at the company I work for and to head somewhere in driving distance for me. We stayed at a huge house with a great view of the lake in south lake Tahoe just on the Nevada side.
The trip could be described as short hike + work out video, 8 mile bike ride, longer hike, drive around the lake, 20 mile bike ride, kayaking. In addition to the outdoor activities we (well, mostly the other three) spent some time cooking up healthy meals. And generally hanging out as a family. Oh, and can't forget Tiger Wood's golf on the Wii and especially can't forget the frisbee golf section of the game since that was the one part I dominated - my dad clearly had the lead on the normal golf part. The last night we watched the fireworks over the lake from the house. There was a show across the lake we could see clearly and there was a closer one partially blocked by the hill. Oddly the partial blocking of the hill created a cool effect and made the fireworks a bit more interesting.
The second hike was at Emerald Bay which is a bit hilly and next to a little bay (weird to think of a lake having a bay) with an island in the middle. So great place to hike. Oh and I'm purposefully just telling my stories from the trip since I'm publishing this online. The 8 mile bike ride was a fun ride through a historical area. The 20 mile ride was a bit taxing, I'm going to blame a piece of that on the altitude. We rode from North Lake Tahoe to Squaw Valley where we biked around for a bit and got some food then biked back. It was a good ride. The only downside was it was the 3rd so Tahoe had filled up and pedestrians had taken over portions of the bike path. Up by Squaw was great since almost no one else was on the paths. On the 4th we headed to a cove near the house. They only had tandem kayaks left so Eric and I shared one. After we had covered the whole area where we were supposed to go we headed off for a ways. Apparently my estimating the time based on the position of the sun skills need some work since what I thought was about 1 hour turned out to be 2. Oddly the only muscle soreness I felt was some shoulder pain, but the next day my whole back let me know what it thought about those 2 hours. While we were at the cove we watched all the college students roll in and fill up the beach in preparation for the fireworks.
One final thought. It may be tempting to think - oh a biggest loser exercise tape - I should be able to do what a bunch of overweight people can do. However, there are several flaws to that thought. First, this is post competition so they're no longer overweight. Not only are they not overweight, they've been doing so much exercise they were able to lose a ton of weight so they're actually in great shape and very strong. On top of that, they are mostly the ones who did well so they are indirectly selected for a willingness to exercise really hard.
The trip could be described as short hike + work out video, 8 mile bike ride, longer hike, drive around the lake, 20 mile bike ride, kayaking. In addition to the outdoor activities we (well, mostly the other three) spent some time cooking up healthy meals. And generally hanging out as a family. Oh, and can't forget Tiger Wood's golf on the Wii and especially can't forget the frisbee golf section of the game since that was the one part I dominated - my dad clearly had the lead on the normal golf part. The last night we watched the fireworks over the lake from the house. There was a show across the lake we could see clearly and there was a closer one partially blocked by the hill. Oddly the partial blocking of the hill created a cool effect and made the fireworks a bit more interesting.
The second hike was at Emerald Bay which is a bit hilly and next to a little bay (weird to think of a lake having a bay) with an island in the middle. So great place to hike. Oh and I'm purposefully just telling my stories from the trip since I'm publishing this online. The 8 mile bike ride was a fun ride through a historical area. The 20 mile ride was a bit taxing, I'm going to blame a piece of that on the altitude. We rode from North Lake Tahoe to Squaw Valley where we biked around for a bit and got some food then biked back. It was a good ride. The only downside was it was the 3rd so Tahoe had filled up and pedestrians had taken over portions of the bike path. Up by Squaw was great since almost no one else was on the paths. On the 4th we headed to a cove near the house. They only had tandem kayaks left so Eric and I shared one. After we had covered the whole area where we were supposed to go we headed off for a ways. Apparently my estimating the time based on the position of the sun skills need some work since what I thought was about 1 hour turned out to be 2. Oddly the only muscle soreness I felt was some shoulder pain, but the next day my whole back let me know what it thought about those 2 hours. While we were at the cove we watched all the college students roll in and fill up the beach in preparation for the fireworks.
One final thought. It may be tempting to think - oh a biggest loser exercise tape - I should be able to do what a bunch of overweight people can do. However, there are several flaws to that thought. First, this is post competition so they're no longer overweight. Not only are they not overweight, they've been doing so much exercise they were able to lose a ton of weight so they're actually in great shape and very strong. On top of that, they are mostly the ones who did well so they are indirectly selected for a willingness to exercise really hard.
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