Family Tree!

My mother's parents have always had a thing for family trees, and they have traced my roots all the way back to Fergus, first king of the Scots, born in 330 BC. My cousin Chandler just developed a Javascript library in order to visualize our family tree, and I must say, exploring through the tree is a lot of fun. Click the “Draw Family Tree” button below to see my personal tree. It will take a few seconds to draw everything out and then you can click & drag around. Drag up and you will be able to eventually see Charlemagne, William the Conqueror, and Henry II. Pretty cool stuff, though I suspect many of us are descended from royalty.

Southern Cooking

Southern cooking, take one. Shrimp, bacon, jalapeno, and polenta with basil garnish. Need to use less water next time for the polenta.

Get ready for 11:11 AM on 11/11/11.

If all goes according to plan, you will be finally able to call me the doctor. Although I don't think I will ever be as snazzy as David Tennant or Matt Smith.

Some Interesting Perspective

Gaza Strip's first-ever marathon was held this past Thursday, with runners trailing the entire length of the coastal enclave. None of the runners had numbers and the roads along the enclave were not closed off. As one of the spectators put it, "The people find it strange -- if they see someone running, they think they are crazy. Usually Palestinians only run when there are air strikes or when they are frightened." This sure puts the popularity and relative safety of running in the United States in perspective.

Source Code: A Very Short Review

Last night, to celebrate the end of classes at the University of Texas, my roommate and I headed down to Alamo South Lamar to check out Duncan Jones' sophomore sci-fi flick, Source Code. Thoughts? I am growing tired of today's predictable and literalist "sci-fi light" films, though, by comparison, I did enjoy Source Code more than Chris Nolan's popular yet flawed blockbuster, Inception. Source Code hinges delicately on two popular sci-fi concepts: (1) transmission of consciousness and (2) the notion of a multiverse. Unfortunately, these concepts are fouled with literalist, unintelligent, and incoherent techno-babble, and the hardcore sci-fi viewer is left wondering why such techno-babble is employed in the first place. Moreover, Source Code's plot is spoon-fed to the viewer, and I was able to unravel the film's mystery within the first 20 minutes or so of the movie. That being said, the movie does not pretend to be a monumental feat of intellectualism, and I was able to partially overlook Source Code's psycho-babble and predictable plot to instead focus on and enjoy Jake Gyllenhaal and cast's acting and character interactions.

Rating: C+

God loves ugly.

I may have missed out on the Railroad Revival Tour featuring Edwarde Sharpe and Mumford and Sons, and I might be missing out on the Arcade Fire tonight at the Backyard in Bee Caves, but I was not going to miss out on Slug and Ant last night at Stubb's. The weather was picture perfect for a hip hop group hailing from Minneapolis, Minnesota - a chilly 47 degrees with a hint of rain. Tough for Austin, but it set the mood. Atmosphere opened up with a collection of songs that were sure to get you moving and put a smile on your face, such as Sunshine from their 2007 EP Sad Clown Bad Summer Number 9. Soon thereafter, Atmosphere unleashed their 2002 classic God Loves Ugly, elicting massive crowd participation. However, before you knew it, Slug had strung together a quieter collection of songs whose lyrics told a story, and the crowd chilled down a bit and began to listen to the spoken words to songs such as Guarantees. Slug's intimacy and crowd interaction really made for a great experience. He kept insisting that we put our hands in the air for our own sake, to forgot about the usual crap we have to deal with day in and day out. In Slug's mind, Atmosphere's show is a celebration of the everyday man, but of course, any casual observer can notice the power Slug has over his audience. Soon enough, Atmosphere began to amp up the volume again, and the show ended with a bang and a whisper.  And all before 10:30 PM.  After seeing Slug and Ant perform twice previously at Emo's, I was worried about seeing them perform in a larger, outdoor venue.  Luckily, they killed it in pretty much every respect, and I left with a smile on my face.  Of course, that might have been due partially to the large amount of gin I ingested last night.  But seriously, fun times were had by all.

William Gibson, you're so cool.

"They sent a slamhound on Turner's trail in New Delhi, slotted it to his pheromones and the color of his hair. It caught up with him on a street called Chandni Chauk and came scrambling for his rented BMW through a forest of bare brown legs and pedicab tires. Its core was a kilogram of recrystallized hexogene and flaked TNT. He didn't see it coming. The last he saw of India was the pink stucco facade of a place called the Khush-Oil Hotel.

Because he had a good agent, he had a good contract. Because he had a good contract, he was in Singapore an hour after the explosion. Most of him, anyway. The Dutch surgeon liked to joke about that, how an unspecified percentage of Turner hadn't made it out of Palam International on that first flight and had to spend the night there in a shed, in a support vat."

I think I am going to enjoy Count Zero even more than Neuromancer.