This is not your practice blog

Oscars and the Personal Film Festival

My wife and I love movies, but with work, raising kids, living life, avoiding housework, and other responsibilities, we don't get to see too many movies in theatres. So every year when the Oscar nominations are announced, I get the urge to spend some time during the 6 weeks or so before the winners are announced actually seeing the leading candidates. And sometimes, we really do get out to a couple of them. So, cowboys in love, wacky novelist, interconnected LA people, legendary reporter, and Olympic terrorists, here we come!

Oh God

A man in Florida registered to vote and signed his name as "God".

When TV goes off the rails

I love when mainstream network prime time TV shows go insane. Lost, a show about plane crash survivors on a mysterious island, has crossed that line this year. The show, now in its second season, has gone through three distinct phases: (1) when it started, it hinted at weird business on the island, including polar bears and dinosaurs. Then, (2) it got agonizingly slow with new revelations, taking (for example) several months of TV time to reveal what was going on with a strange door that seemed to lead into the ground. And finally, this year (3) the show has crossed into multiple levels of wonderfully reckless bizarreness that I won't spoil for you here in case you haven't caught it yet (the first season is on DVD, and both seasons are available at the iTunes Music Store).

The king of insane TV was Twin Peaks, especially the first season. Yesterday I picked up the latest (and last) issue of Wrapped in Plastic, a magazine about Twin Peaks, David Lynch, and everything related. Wrapped in Plastic ran for an astonishing 75 issues over 13 years.

Following politics

I don't understand otherwise intelligent people who dismiss any interest in what our government is doing by saying "I don't follow politics". The problem is that even if you don't get involved in politics, what the government does still has an enormous effect on your life. It's really not like saying "I don't follow football" or "I don't watch TV". It's more like "I'm not interested in air".

Macworld Expo wrapup

Here are a few random thoughts about Macworld Expo, because I was too lame (and busy) to get it together and post last week:

• Great weather this year for Macworld! Thanks to whoever arranged this.
• Sure, Apple loves secrecy and surprises. But the most amazing thing to me is, how do they change dozens of street ads just in time for the end of the keynote?
• I'm impressed that Apple got the MacBook Pro ready so soon, but it's not the one for me. I think I'm going to wait for something else, although I'm not sure what.
• By the way, I'll disagree with everyone else I've heard and say that MacBook is a great name. Of course it sounds weird now -- so did PowerBook the first 500 times we heard it. A new name takes time to slip into familiarity. Getting Mac in the name is exactly the right thing to do.
• Every year Macworld Expo reminds me that I basically hate trade shows as a place to see products. I love trade shows because I get to hang out with friends I never get to see otherwise.
• It's still worth getting up at 5 AM to see Steve Jobs deliver a keynote (watch it here).

Hockey Day in Canada

If you're a hockey fan, one of the greatest events of the year is Hockey Day in Canada, an incredible 13.5-hour TV broadcast next Saturday, Jan. 7th. Hockey Day in Canada showcases the game from Newfoundland to British Columbia and almost everywhere in between. The show features half a dozen live locations, and an all-Canadian NHL triple-header.

If you're in Canada, you can watch Hockey Day on CBC. If you're in the U.S., you need the NHL's Center Ice package.

Christmas week off

The Silicon Valley tradition of giving people the week off between Christmas and New Year's Day started decades ago with the semiconductor companies. Nowadays many companies are officially closed that week, and at many more, lots of people take time off. This year, for the first time in many years, I took a big stay-at-home Christmas vacation: 11 days, from Dec. 23 through Jan. 2 -- three of those were vacation days, and the rest were weekends and company holidays.

I had big plans for the vacation: family outings and personal projects. The day before vacation, I listed what I wanted to do and planned out each day of the break. And how did that work out?

Hahahahaha.

We ended up doing only a fraction of the tasks and events we had planned. Most days ended up with lovely lazy unplanned gobs of quantity time with my wife and kids. We stayed up very late, and slept in the next day. We watched movies and TV shows. We celebrated Hanukkah and New Year's, and saw a few friends. We went to a couple of hockey games. We ate too much and exercised too little. We hunkered down and looked at the rain, of which there was plenty. I celebrated my 46th birthday. And yes, we accomplished a few tasks (set up Devi's new computer, installed a new backup system, reorganized my office, caught up on postal mail, changed that very hard-to-reach light bulb) and completed a few fun outings. Barbara's theory is that after months of highly programmed work, school, and puppy care, we just rebelled and let go. It was pretty sweet.

So, happy new year! How was your vacation (if any)?