May Goals: Summary

Just a quick summary of how things in May went. Basically, I’ve failed on several fronts, but I can’t allow myself to dwell on it all too much. I have to pick myself up for next month after all!

I had three goals this month. The first was to wake up before 6.30am every day. I failed on four days, all on the weekends. This is a disappointing result, because I didn’t pay enough attention to my sleep needs. On the plus side, waking up is definitely a little easier than before this month. My energy levels haven’t been that great. I’ve slept a lot in the morning. So, I’ll try to continue this for next month.

The second was not to use the Internet in the apartment. This went great until one day last week, and then in the last three days I grew frustrated and turned it on again. As soon as I did that, my productivity fell apart, and it was easy to see how much of a time sink the Internet is. Ultimately, being without the Internet is much better for my life than having it, and the obvious decision is to continue with the restrictions, although I will almost certainly revise them.

The Provoc is the only goal that I managed to complete. I’m forgetting words very quickly, but with the system in place, I know very clearly that some of the words are sticking. It might not be the best method for incorporating the words I’ve learned into my everyday conversation, but as I remember the word writing, I’m also remembering the English definitions, that’s for sure. It’s doesn’t take too much effort, but being able to do that tiny little bit of Chinese every day is something positive to take from a month in which I failed many of my goals.

The Big F***g Goal was to complete 50 hours of programming. This was definitely possible, but I left myself a mountain to climb in the last week. As I closed in on 35 hours, I completed the Hillegass book on Cocoa at the same time, and didn’t really have any clear goals after that. In contrast to being able to follow the tutorials for an hour at a time, I procrastinated because I didn’t know what I ought to have been doing. I never managed to set up a clear goal, so I finished only on 35 hours. It’s a lot fewer than I’d hoped, but finishing the book is a decent start and should leave me with a decent foundation for continuing learning Cocoa development. So I’m not as upset as I might have been.

In conclusion, setting the goals for May was definitely a good exercise, even though I didn’t manage to hit them. Just writing out my summary makes me feel less annoyed about not completing them for some reason, but the Provoc alone was something I might not have done at all had I committed it as a goal. I’m not sure if I’ll publish out my goals for June after this public failure, but after I revise my goals, I should still be able to get much benefit from the exercise. I’m tending towards publishing it, because I think it will help me to have to account for my actions. I want to look forward to writing a more positive post in June

Indiana Jones and The Crystal Skull – A Review

The following review contains spoilers.

I came away from Indiana Jones 4 feeling only a sense of disappointment.

It started off pretty well, though the opening action sequence is not a patch on the previous movies, even the much maligned Temple of Doom. A grave disappointment considering the budget. However, after the unmistakable outline of Jones in fedora comes onto the screen, my eyes widened in anticipation. After Jones is punched in the face, accompanied by the classic ‘biff’ sound effect of the previous movies, nostalgic memories from my childhood came flooding back, and my hopes for the movie rose even higher. Hearing that sound was like hearing an old friend.

However, it soon became clear that the rest of the movie was always struggling to live up to the previous movies’ legacy. There’s nothing particularly bad about Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, but it remains merely watchable throughout, and never really grips the audience. There are a couple of decent action scenes, a race across the university campus is a throwback to the light-heartedness of the previous movie, and the tank chase across the jungle also shows brief moments of creative genius from Spielberg.

However Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull is marred by the implausibility factor. As an example, the invincibility of Indy compared to the previous movies is similar to that superhero quality John McClane inherited in Die Hard 4, only taken to a higher level. Maybe that’s old age for you. This change is immediately apparent after Indy survives none other than, wait for it, a direct hit from a nuclear blast, by hiding in a fridge, that is, for no particular reason I might add, lined with lead (like that’s going to help.) I’m no nuclear physicist, but it’s not only radiation that makes those nukes such a bitch! In an adventure movie, I’m completely prepared to suspend my disbelief, but only to a point. And aside from this, the fact is, whilst the scene is admittedly a memorable one, it does nothing to advance the story at all. Unfortunately, the entire movie is made up of such moments; Indy escapes only to become captured again; and he fights tribal warriors straight out of Apocalypto, who have presumably been hiding for centuries waiting for Jones to show up.

The patent invincibility of the main characters began to bother me after a while. After driving off a cliff, and then tumbling hundreds of feet over three waterfalls, none of the characters shows any sign of injury. Such events occurred throughout the previous movies, but never to so many characters simultaneously. In this movie, Indy may be hit plenty of times, but he never really seems hurt. It brings to mind the recent King Kong movie, where the main characters ought to count their lucky stars and call it a day. The result is that no real tension is built up – the characters don’t seem worried about one another’s safety, so why should the audience?

The fact is, bar a couple of the action scenes, Indiana Jones hits a level no higher than, say 1999’s The Mummy. In fact, it even seems to borrow directly from this movie, particularly with scenes involving a swarm of blood sucking ants with supernatural intelligence (granted for no other reason than it makes for a ‘cool’ special effects moment). Were it not for the undeniable charm of Harrison Ford, I can’t help but feel like taken on its own terms, The Mummy is perhaps the superior movie, but it’s difficult to say, since I love Indy so much.

I was looking forward to the return of Karen Allen, but she’s reduced to a completely peripheral character, with woefully short screen time. She has barely any dialogue and seems a completely different character from the feisty, sexy Marion from Raiders. I would have liked to see her smack the crap out of Cate Blanchett, for example, but all she does in this movie is drive a jeep. I was not impressed upon hearing the casting of Shia LeBoeuf, but despite being a character straight out of the wisecracking rogue stereotype manual, he is one of the brighter points of the movie, not that that counts for much, compared to the dullness of the others.

I guess Cate Blanchett does okay, but I never really expected her to be the main villain of the piece, and ultimately became disappointed when she turned out to be just that. As a villain, she doesn’t have the ruthlessness nor the wits to be Indy’s equal, and that is to the movie’s detriment. She simple doesn’t come across as evil enough, and as a result, the movie was lacking a strong antagonist throughout. Ray Winstone and John Hurt’s characters are tiresome and contribute nothing to the plot. Honestly, their only purpose seems to slow down Indy and crowd the action scenes, especially WInstone’s character, who is neither lovable as an ally, nor has any sign of intelligence or ambition to make his mark as an antagonist of any note.

I also felt that many of the jokes fell a little flat; there was no real quality in the dialogue, nor indeed was any emotional connection between them built up across the movie, a connection that might have been developed had the characters been in any real danger.

With recent movies such as the afformentioned The Mummy trilogy and National Treasure not being able to hold a candle to the original Indiana Jones movies, it became down to the master of film, Steven Spielberg, to show them how it’s done best, but for all the promises of good old fashioned action sequences, as is too often the case with the summer blockbusters, the special effects take precedence once again.

The real star of the movie is undoubtedly Harrison Ford, who has lost none of his charm over the years. I had my doubts over Ford’s ability to carry the role at 65, but Ford is in incredible shape, and whilst the hair is greyer than before, he is no less agile.

With nearly twenty years since the last adventure, one would hope that some of that time would be spent on the script. However, the shoddy, disjointed plot is exemplified early on in the movie; after Mutt takes great efforts to have his beloved motorbike flown over to Peru. Fair enough, you might say, were it not for the fact that said motorbike plays no role WHATSOEVER in the rest of the movie. I’m no action choreographer, but a bike chase, preferably one with Indy on horseback alongside would have made the movie for me, not to mention actually making some sort of sense.

That’s not to mention the two ‘twists’ in the movie’s plot. The first, Shia turning out to be Indy’s son was something I really hoped wouldn’t happen. I even believed the quotes from the producers beforehand, trusting them to know best. However, it was pretty clear from the beginning that this was what was going to happen. I actually have no real problem with the character of Mutt himself, but Indiana Jones shouldn’t have a son in the first place. Honestly, they already did the father-son thing about ten times better in Last Crusade! Give me a break! The rumours that another series of movies will star Shia Leboeuf is worrying news. There can be only one Indiana Jones.

Still, it could have been worse, as I actually quite liked Mutt’s character. The final ending however, is where you could feel the collective gasp of horror from the entire audience, as Indy discovers that the Crystal Skull belongs to none other than…. aliens from outer space. Great, so Indiana Jones is now facing his future adventures battling aliens. What’s next, Indy in 1970, working with NASA and going out into space?

Jones is an archaeologist, and the writers should have kept him that way. The sight of the mile wide UFO coming out of the ground makes a complete mockery not only of the entire movie, but the entire series. It not only abandons the traditions of the previous movies, but the whole situation is so ridiculous that it makes the events no longer take place in a possible historical universe, but in a world that is so completely unbelievable that the writers are free to determine explanations for archaeology that make no possible sense.

Just as in his previous alien movie, War of the Worlds, I was left cheated, thinking you son of a bitch, Spielberg, don’t you dare end this movie now! An action movie doesn’t have to end with an explosive, thrilling finale, as Spielberg proved in the first and third movies, with ending full of mystery and intrigue, especially, in my opinion, the third movie, which has one of the most touching and sweet moments in movie history in that incredible final scene where Indy turns down the chance of claiming the Holy Grail and listens to his father’s judgement – a more perfect ending, I cannot imagine. It is this sort of moment that is sorely missing in Indy’s latest adventure, and whilst it could have been worse, the huge budget would have been better spent on some writers.

Hillegass on Sleep

Dragon Boat training has both helped and completely destroyed my sleep pattern. It’s helped me to wake up around 6am, which is great, but it’s tired me out to the extent that after I get back home, I just want to sleep, sometimes for over two hours. That can’t be great. At night though, I still don’t have that much trouble getting to sleep, so my body really needs the rest. That’s how I justify it anyway.

It was interesting for me to read the recommendation by Aaron Hillegass in his book that while you are learning programming, he recommends getting ten hours sleep. Also, while you are in physical training, you should also get more sleep, maybe nine or ten. If that’s the case, how many hours should I get? I have a real time maintaining concentration, and it might be a direct result of muscle fatigue, but I’m also walking around a lot slower than I used to. Unfortunately, this weekend, I slept in until 10am on the Sunday, which is the second time this month that I haven’t woken up at 6am. I don’t know what this will mean for the chances of establishing the habit of waking up early after Dragon Boat. I know that waking up early is getting easier overall, although I’m crashing out later in the day.

Still, we only have three weeks before the races, so I’ll need to just push harder until then.

Thread Number Five: Physical Training

It’s about time I announced my final thread. Unsurprisingly it’s in the area of Physical Fitness.

Many consider health and fitness to be essential to success in life, and also it is supposedly linked to mental performance too. I wouldn’t necessarily agree with this. As an aspiring programmer, I can confirm that the unfortunate geek stereotype does exist, and the extra pounds these guys possess doesn’t seem to affect their ability to think at a level I can’t even imagine myself reaching. At the same time, perhaps if they did take care of their fitness, their effectiveness might grow to inconceivable levels!

Well, for me at least, I do think that taking care of your health is important. However, as I’m not really likely to be a world class athlete any time soon, I don’t consider this as important as the other threads. Most importantly for me is the role that exercise plays in maintaining energy and concentration levels throughout the day. And the most important type of exercise here is cardiovascular exercise. I want to get into the habit of exercising daily, and hopefully I’ll be able to see the results in a few months or so.

Currently I’m training for the Dragon Boat races, and following this, I’ll get into training for a marathon. After that, I hope that regular exercise will be a large part of my life, and I’ll be able to retire this thread.

May Goals: Day 15 Update

Just a quick update to recap on my goals for May.

I guess the sleeping is going okay. Apart from one day when I was ill, I did manage to wake up before 6.30am every day. The day I missed bugs me, but I can’t be too harsh. I think I’m in a good position to establish this as a habit. Even so, I still haven’t been getting enough sleep, and I have a tendency to nap. I haven’t had any trouble sleeping at night though, which suggests that I’m not sleeping too much; indeed, it’s likely the opposite.

Cutting off the Internet at home has done a lot for my productivity, although it has made coming out to the library an explosion of information. I’ll have to cut down on my feeds. There have been times where I wish that I had the ability to email at home, especially now I’m starting to look for jobs, but I think that on the whole it was a good decision for me. I would recommend doing this if you are as addicted to the net as I am.

One of the interesting things I found was that I had this urge to go on the Internet, yet all my reasons for wanting to do so couldn’t be justified. It’s funny how vacuous and superficial a lot of the things I look up are, but it hasn’t stopped me from looking them up later when I’ve had the chance. After May is over, I’ll need to reconsider this goal, so I’ll write more about it later. Sadly, in place of the Internet, I’ve been watching a lot more TV for some reason (I barely watched any of it before.) I’ll try to cut this out for the rest of the month.

Chinese study has tailed off a little in the past week, as we’ve come to the end of our book, and we have little aim. I still believe that going to class isn’t really the most effective use of my time. I have been keeping up the Provoc sessions daily, which is helping me retain the words I’ve learned so far. It looks like I’ll be able to keep this up too.

So far so good, I suppose, and I should be able to continue my progress into June! The Programming deserves its own post, so I’ll do that a bit later, as it was really the priority for me this month.

Enough with the superheroes already

I watched Iron Man last weekend. I have to say that I approached the movie with a few reservations, but I was won over very quickly. And ignoring the giant gaping plot holes, such as the way just about anyone can walk into Tony Stark’s home or why the bad guys didn’t just kill Stark to begin with and grab the plans from Stane, I thought the movie was as good as any of the other recent super hero movies. Like Batman to a lesser extent, Tony Stark developed his own superpowers by himself, which sets him at a more human level right off the bat, and it’s a refreshing change to see a hero work hard for his powers.

The suit special effects were straight out of Transformers, which wasn’t a problem for me. Plus Iron Man is just so badass.

As a geek myself, I shamelessly admit that there’s something so aesthetically pleasing, almost pornographic, about seeing the high tech GUIs in the movie whether they be part of Iron Man’s HUD, or his humble computer system, just like I loved Minority Report for the same reason.

I thought the whole cast were awesome, Robert Downey Jr was perfectly cast to me, Jeff Bridges was suitably sleazy and always worth watching (although with his beard, just a little too reminiscent of Matthew Kelly), Terence Howard seemed to raise a laugh from me much of the time I saw him; he reminds me of a military version of Turk from Scrubs.

Yet sadly, whilst Iron Man is a great movie in its own right, at the same time, it is sure to become bundled in with the plethora of super hero movies we’ve become inundated with in recent years. This summer, we still have The Incredible Hulk, The Dark Knight and Hancock to come. Since 2002, the year in which Sam Raimi completely revived the super hero genre with the wonderful Spider-Man, we’ve had a continual stream of special effects laden super hero blockbusters, not to mention a TV series. Now, I love superhero movies, but it’s in danger of becoming a bit much. Maybe much of the blame falls on the completely underwhelming Fantastic Four sequel last year, but even with the not-actually-all-that-bad-but-it-seemed-like-it-at-the-time Spider-Man 3, it’s clear that the writing and the plot of these movies needs to be a bit sharper, and often writers seem content to rely on the special effects to wow the audience.

Since X-Men, we’ve already had the following movies, and no doubt there are more to come.

X-Men 1,2,3 + Wolverine Spin Off
Spider-Man 1,2,3
Batman Begins, the Dark Knight
Fantastic 4, and sequel
Iron Man
Hellboy
Hulk and sequel
My Super Ex Girlfriend
Ghost Rider
The Incredibles
Daredevil and Elektra
Sky High
The Punisher
Superman Returns

I count 23 on this list, and no doubt I’ve missed a few besides. That’s not to mention some of the other highly CGIed movies, such as King Kong, 300, Underworld and a TV Series in Heroes. And whilst I, like many millions worldwide will find myself lining up to see these movies, there will surely come a time when the market becomes saturated. Don’t count on it being any time soon though, if the record box office takings are anything to go by.

C6 Speech: Post Mortem

I was less nervous than I was before my previous speeches, but standing in front of the audience, knowing that you have to make your opening count is still a terrifying experience. After the disaster that was my C5 speech, I’m glad that things turned out better this time.

The objective of a C6 speech is Vocal Variety. I’m really happy that I managed to integrate pauses into my speech pretty well, and also changed the tempo throughout. My Individual Evaluator commented that I didn’t really use ‘vocal variety’ in my speech, but I was a little apprehensive about using strange voices in my speech, especially since I did it in my C5 speech to no great success. Even so, I did do a few role plays in my speech, so I do think that I fulfilled the objectives.

I’m glad that my joke came off in the middle of the speech. The audience were great that evening, and when they split into laughter, I found myself saying ‘thank you’ to quieten them down, or maybe it was a mark of gratitude to thank them for laughing. It was a strange instinctive response, one that I feel a little embarrassed about. I think it lacks a bit of class.

I had some criticism about my speech, mainly that I can’t seem to keep that still, a problem I’ve had since I started, and that my eye contact is not quite there yet.

I know what needs to be done on that part, and I hope it will get better as my confidence builds. I tend to look around the entire room, trying to make eye contact with everyone, but the perceived effect is that I can’t really seem to keep my head still..! I’ll take the advice of Rory Vaden and choose a few points around the room to focus on from time to time.

Well, I’m really looking forward to my next speech. I think I need a little break from Toastmasters for a while though. I’m still on course to get my CC done by June, especially if I speak at a couple of upcoming Speech Marathons. I’m not too keen on doing any more speeches at my club though. Being at a new club last night was a world of difference. There was a lot of laughter all through the evening, and that really helped to break the ice before my speech. It’s not that I can’t speak at my own club, but I’d have to change my speech a lot to win the crowd over, not something I’d like to do while I’m still building confidence in my speaking.

Anyway, I’ll be using Keynote for my next couple of speeches. Having some slides makes me feel a lot less nervous during my speech, because I’ll be able to fall back on them, so to speak. I feel it doesn’t develop my speaking skills quite as much to do this, but I know that I’m going to have many chances to speak without slides in the future, so it doesn’t bother me too much.

I love Subway

I’ve been in Taiwan for over a year now. I can’t say that I’ve ever particularly liked the Taiwanese cuisine. Maybe it comes from being brought up in the West, but much of the food here is too greasy and sweet for my delicate taste buds, especially that found in the Night markets. In any case, I find myself preferring Thai and Indian food more than the Taiwanese cuisine, although they can be expensive.

These days, as I try to pay more attention to my health, it’s difficult to find much in the way of healthy food in Taiwan. It particularly applies to breakfast, with 蛋餅 and various other sandwiches packed with oil. My favourite food here used to be 鍋貼, pan fried dumplings, but I hadn’t eaten them for a while until last week. For some reason, I’d been avoiding them, but I’ve become a little nostalgic recently. Upon chewing into them and tasting the oil and grease oozing out, it struck me how much my diet appears to be changing, ever so slowly, for the better. It was hard to believe that I would have occasionally willingly wolfed down twenty or more in the past, since my body immediately felt the ill effects within minutes.

The king of foods, as far as I’m concerned in Taiwan, apart from the wide variety of fruit, is Subway. Unlike much of the other Western food, it’s a lot healthier, and though I never ate much of it back in England due to its cost, it seems pretty identical to what I’ve been used to before. The best thing about Subway, especially compared to Taiwanese food is its convenience. The price is only slightly more expensive than night market food and about the same as most budget restaurants here. But you can eat it on the go, it’s fresh, and extremely tasty. I’m not sure it’s quite as healthy as they propose, but it beats Taiwanese food any day.

One of the things that is different about Subway compared to in London is the amount of meat that they give you. You get around twice the amount of meat, for about a third of the price, if you get the special offers that they have now. An 6” Italian BMT is only 69NT here, whereas back home it would be around £2.99. As the six people in front of me went for the Italian BMT, I found my mouth watering. But I went for my usual, a 12” Veggie Delight with everything. I’m not sure if I’m quite ready to become a vegetarian yet, but part of me really wants to try eating as healthily as I can.

More on Chinese Speeches

I’ve been advised by many to join a Chinese Toastmasters club to improve my Mandarin. Going back to Spring Convention, my inability to understand any of the speech at all really seemed to bother me. I asked a friend about it, and she told me that the words used in Mandarin speeches typically use vocabulary out of the reach of normal people in Taiwan.

It’s a very interesting topic area for me, concerning culture. If I were to use English words in my speech that non native speakers would be unfamiliar with, it would be my failure as a speaker to adapt my words to my audience. The same would apply to native speakers for that matter. In any case, English culture generally frowns upon over complication of language and jargon. Indeed, the word jargon has rather negative connotations, if my understanding is correct. Just look at the frequent parodies of workplace jargon in Dilbert, for example.

These same rules don’t seem to apply so much in Mandarin speeches, according to my friend. There’s a sort of language elitism (for want of a better term to describe it), that sort of entails that giving a speech is an opportunity to show your mastery of the language. And furthermore, a speech with more complex language is deemed to be better in some sense – to be artistically superior? Maybe this is also true in English to a degree, but on the whole, the message and the delivery of the speech is more important.

I’m unable to comment first hand due to being unable to understand the speech at the time, but for me, this mirrors the intellectual competitiveness that seems to play a big role in East Asian culture. And the loss of face means that no-one would freely admit to not understanding the speech fully. This is a situation that I can’t ever imagine happening in an English speech contest. And personally, it makes me a little uncomfortable to be in such a culture in which everyone is trying to outdo their peers; especially on such a superficial level.

Thread Number Four: Programming

My fourth thread at this point in time is Programming. Although I come from a technical background, my practical skills are next to none. I couldn’t program an application to save my life. But if at all possible, I’d like to get into the land of Indie Mac application development, the mystical land where the likes of Wil Shipley, Cabel Sasser and Allen Odgaard reside.

It’s not looking good at the moment! I recently bought a book, Cocoa development for Mac OS X by Aaron Hillegass, which came highly recommended. I’ve been following the tutorials in the book, but Toastmasters, Dragon Boat training and Chinese homework sort of got in the way. It’s hard to find time, especially since I like to work in the morning, and after class, I feel a little too tired to really do the programming thing. But it has to be done.

Anyway, I thought I’d just commit this next thread down. As I mentioned yesterday, I’m going to try to put 50 hours towards programming hours. It will require a lot better time management, especially sleeping, than I’ve currently been doing.

For the past few mornings, I managed to put together one solid hour towards following the book. I know it sounds really easy, but programming is definitely something that’s easy to procrastinate on. It’s going to be hard to keep going, but that’s a good start for me.

I’ll write a lot more in the future. This goal seems like a tough one, probably harder than the other three threads put together now I think about it, and I’ll need to commit a lot of resources if I am to succeed.