I Served Serial Joe a Slushie

What I've Been Up To

So what has gone in in the last month I haven't posted? Mostly school stuff, but there was also two weddings in there. Weddings are strange beasts. Inevitably, unless you are either the bride or the groom, you only know a small fraction of people there. All ages and all types of people are there, and most of them have consumed some alchohol. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, it's just...different than, say, a usual party where one knows everyone.

I gave a talk in the @cat seminar, which was pretty well-received. It was regarding my ideas about trying to find a good categorical generalization of normed linear spaces. Coincidentally, that day someone had just posted a question on the categories mailing list asking about the very thing I was interested in. This was great, as it lead to some emails back and forth between him and I, all giving me some other good ideas to work on.

I've realized the main purpose of a talk, from the speaker's point of view, is to elicite interesting and new ideas from the audience that perhaps the speaker themself hadn't thought of. At least, this is what I think. But this leaves one with a strange question - why are so many (math in particular) talks so bad? It seems like most of the time, the speaker doesn't even bother trying to get the audience interested or understanding what they are doing. I just don't understand it.

Two Documentaries

I've seen very few documentaries which I've really liked. Most go on too long, have little direction, and are poorly produced. But recently I've seen two documentaries which I think are probably the best I've ever seen; one of which I think may be one of the best films of any kind I've seen.

Let's consider that one first: Mr. Death: The Rise of Fall of Fred A. Leuchter. It's hard to describe without getting into what a twist it takes, but I can talk about how it starts: we are introduced to Leuchter, an engineer who by some turns of fate, ends up designing execution devices. At this point, the film is already quite engrossing; there is quite a tension between one's disgust for Leuchter's job mixed with fascination at what a strange person Leuchter actually is. And he is actually helping, in a twisted sort of way; he is attempting to ensure that prisoners don't go to their death in extreme pain, which was the case with previous out-dated equipment.

But then, as I mentioned above, we are introduced to something quite different; it ends up almost being completely unbelievable - but it's all true. The main point is that Leuchter starts trusting his own engineering abilities far, far more than he should, and ends up with something truly horrifying. The way it is all introduced, brought together, and directed, is brilliant.

The second is Capturing the Friedmans, a documentary about a father and son accused of the rape of their students. The film is similar to the Leuchter one in that both are about self-deception. Here, though, the main tension is with the collapse of the Friedman's family, mixed with absolute bewilderment about what actually happened, which absolutely no one is sure of. The accusations levelled at them are absolutely ridiculous, yet...there was something that happened. We as the viewer find it almost as hard as the people in the film to sort out what went on. The director deliberately cuts from a shot of one person stating that definately, X, happened, to shots of another person flatly contradicting what the previous one said.

There is, perhaps, only one moment of truth in the whole film: if you watch it, make sure to listen to what the son is saying as he is driving to the courthouse for the last time.

I highly recommend both films.

Final Fantasy XII

As M mentioned, I bought FFXII last week. Of course, it was inevitable. I've always had a soft spot for the battle system, the music, and the sheer melodrama of the FF series. Playing FFIV after the non-existent drama of the Dragon Quest games was like a revelation back in my early teenage years. FFVI, of course, was incredible; I recently played it on an emulator and it's still good. I tried to play VII again recently, and it did not hold up so well. FFIX was great (until it started to suck, of course). FFX is forever bound up with my fond memories of 208 Dawson, lying on the couch playing, or watching others play for far too long.

Enough nostalgia. How is this one? I'm loath to gush over much, as it could still go downhill, but....so far, it is the best FF since VI. Two reasons: the battle system is the best of any of the series, and the story is actually, well, well-written. It's maybe the first in the series which has real, honest situations rather than wild love stories and melodrama. Of course, this means that it isn't quite an emotional, but it's far more interesting, overall. The down-side, of course, is that it is just too distracting....good thing I'm not trying to work too hard :)