The Niño

Tuesday, 19 January 2010

The weather here in LA has definitely taken a turn for the worse. While it's definitely dampened (no pun intended) my ability to enjoy the beach, I've had plenty of other distractions to focus on.

American Psycho

For Christmas, January and I splurged and got ourselves a Kindle e-book reader to share. So far we absolutely love it and we're rediscovering our love of reading. On the drive out, we bought Donald Miller's "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years," which January read aloud to me. We both really enjoyed it and recommend it for a nice, casual read. The Kindle is also nice because it will read any PDF formatted document, so if you know where to find books in that format on the Internet, your possibilities are almost endless.

After finishing up "A Million Miles," I decided to give "American Psycho" a shot. I'm a little more than midway through it, and I'm beginning to regret my decision. Not because it's bad, per se, but because when I read, I'm really susceptible to the mood of the material I'm reading. My favorite books are the ones that are kind of introspective and moody, which kind of keeps me in a neutral place. If you've read "American Psycho," however, you know that it is downright disturbing. And what's worse, it doesn't really just dive straight into the insanity, it's a gradual process that sucks you in. The first third of the book really just details the monotony of the main character's life and it's only in the middle of the book that his psychosis really starts to come through, and in very sudden and graphic ways. As a completionist, I hate the idea of not finishing the book, but I'm wondering if I really have anything to benefit by sticking to it. Maybe I'll just watch the movie.

24

I'm also ridiculously excited that some of my favorite shows are back in action this month. I've seen every episode of 24 since it first aired eight years ago and, like most fans, my opinion of the show has been all over the place. The first couple of seasons were bold, groundbreaking television and since then the show has slowly begun to be little more than a parody of itself. Really for the past five seasons I've been saying over and over again how it needs to stop rehasing the same old plots (virus outbreaks, assassination attempts, nuclear bombs), the same writing devices (There's a mole in the government! CTU headquarters is breached! A character we thought was dead is alive!), and come up with something new to reinvigorate the show. Well, I've changed my mind.

What 24 needs this season is more of the same, but done well. Let's face it: 24 is a show about government corruption, torture, stuff blowing up, and Jack saving the day and almost dying in the process. I'm resigned to enjoying the ride, as long as the writers don't give us anymore bullshit subplots about Jack's "nephew" being kidnapped, his daugher being stalked by a cougar, or Tony Almeida still being alive somehow. Assassination attempt before a peace treaty is signed? And the whole thing is just a distraction for something even bigger? Sounds great, let's do it!

So that's how I've been whiling my time away during these pacific storms. Looks like it's going to keep up at least two more days, any suggestions on other books or TV shows I should be looking at while the sun's not shining?


Tags: LA 2010  daily 

Recent photos

Recently Listened

Wishlist

Search

Profile Information

Application afterLoad: 0.000 seconds, 0.44 MB
Application afterInitialise: 0.056 seconds, 4.78 MB
Application afterRoute: 0.076 seconds, 6.24 MB
Application afterDispatch: 0.248 seconds, 16.86 MB
Application afterRender: 20.528 seconds, 26.11 MB

Memory Usage

27507928

19 queries logged

  1. SELECT *
      FROM v2_session
      WHERE session_id = 'caba908eba5b9f80ed5427d32dd4af4f'
  2. DELETE
      FROM v2_session
      WHERE ( time < '1328542966' )
  3. SELECT *
      FROM v2_session
      WHERE session_id = 'caba908eba5b9f80ed5427d32dd4af4f'
  4. UPDATE `v2_session`
      SET `time`='1328543866',`userid`='0',`usertype`='',`username`='',`gid`='0',`guest`='1',`client_id`='0',`data`='__default|a:9:{s:15:\"session.counter\";i:78;s:19:\"session.timer.start\";i:1328539142;s:18:\"session.timer.last\";i:1328543804;s:17:\"session.timer.now\";i:1328543834;s:22:\"session.client.browser\";s:48:\"CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html)\";s:8:\"registry\";O:9:\"JRegistry\":3:{s:17:\"_defaultNameSpace\";s:7:\"session\";s:9:\"_registry\";a:1:{s:7:\"session\";a:1:{s:4:\"data\";O:8:\"stdClass\":0:{}}}s:7:\"_errors\";a:0:{}}s:4:\"user\";O:5:\"JUser\":19:{s:2:\"id\";i:0;s:4:\"name\";N;s:8:\"username\";N;s:5:\"email\";N;s:8:\"password\";N;s:14:\"password_clear\";s:0:\"\";s:8:\"usertype\";N;s:5:\"block\";N;s:9:\"sendEmail\";i:0;s:3:\"gid\";i:0;s:12:\"registerDate\";N;s:13:\"lastvisitDate\";N;s:10:\"activation\";N;s:6:\"params\";N;s:3:\"aid\";i:0;s:5:\"guest\";i:1;s:7:\"_params\";O:10:\"JParameter\":7:{s:4:\"_raw\";s:0:\"\";s:4:\"_xml\";N;s:9:\"_elements\";a:0:{}s:12:\"_elementPath\";a:1:{i:0;s:69:\"/var/sites/teamsoell.com/root/libraries/joomla/html/parameter/element\";}s:17:\"_defaultNameSpace\";s:8:\"_default\";s:9:\"_registry\";a:1:{s:8:\"_default\";a:1:{s:4:\"data\";O:8:\"stdClass\":0:{}}}s:7:\"_errors\";a:0:{}}s:9:\"_errorMsg\";N;s:7:\"_errors\";a:0:{}}s:13:\"session.token\";s:32:\"48d5bcedf3f53d6c32e1bfb80346fe41\";s:23:\"gantry-current-template\";s:12:\"rt_juxta_j15\";}BF________com_tag|a:1:{s:7:\"default\";a:14:{s:4:\"page\";s:1:\"1\";s:5:\"limit\";i:10;s:6:\"filter\";s:0:\"\";s:10:\"boxchecked\";s:0:\"\";s:12:\"hidemainmenu\";s:0:\"\";s:4:\"task\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"total\";s:0:\"\";s:4:\"view\";s:0:\"\";s:8:\"returnto\";s:0:\"\";s:32:\"4922f8d610dcf1a2bd203ec6f0f4578e\";s:32:\"caba908eba5b9f80ed5427d32dd4af4f\";s:6:\"option\";s:7:\"com_tag\";s:6:\"Itemid\";N;s:3:\"tag\";s:25:\"things that annoy me.html\";s:9:\"lastModel\";s:7:\"tag_map\";}}'
      WHERE session_id='caba908eba5b9f80ed5427d32dd4af4f'
  5. SELECT *
      FROM v2_components
      WHERE parent = 0
  6. SELECT folder AS type, element AS name, params
      FROM v2_plugins
      WHERE published >= 1
      AND access <= 0
      ORDER BY ordering
  7. SELECT *
      FROM v2_redj
      WHERE ('/andy/229-thenino' REGEXP BINARY fromurl)>0
      AND published='1'
      ORDER BY ordering
  8. SELECT m.*, c.`option` AS component
      FROM v2_menu AS m
      LEFT JOIN v2_components AS c
      ON m.componentid = c.id
      WHERE m.published = 1
      ORDER BY m.sublevel, m.parent, m.ordering
  9. SELECT *
      FROM v2_rokcandy
      WHERE published=1
  10. SELECT template
      FROM v2_templates_menu
      WHERE client_id = 0
      AND (menuid = 0 OR menuid = 56)
      ORDER BY menuid DESC
      LIMIT 0, 1
  11. SELECT `option`
      FROM v2_components
      WHERE parent=0
      AND iscore=0
  12. INSERT INTO `v2_rokuserstats` ( `user_id`,`ip`,`session_id`,`page`,`referrer` )
      VALUES ( '0','38.107.179.208','caba908eba5b9f80ed5427d32dd4af4f','/andy/229-thenino','' )
  13. SELECT a.*, u.name AS author, u.usertype, cc.title AS category, s.title AS section, CASE WHEN CHAR_LENGTH(a.alias) THEN CONCAT_WS(":", a.id, a.alias) ELSE a.id END AS slug, CASE WHEN CHAR_LENGTH(cc.alias) THEN CONCAT_WS(":", cc.id, cc.alias) ELSE cc.id END AS catslug, g.name AS groups, s.published AS sec_pub, cc.published AS cat_pub, s.access AS sec_access, cc.access AS cat_access 
      FROM v2_content AS a
      LEFT JOIN v2_categories AS cc
      ON cc.id = a.catid
      LEFT JOIN v2_sections AS s
      ON s.id = cc.section
      AND s.scope = "content"
      LEFT JOIN v2_users AS u
      ON u.id = a.created_by
      LEFT JOIN v2_groups AS g
      ON a.access = g.id
      WHERE a.id = 229
      AND (  ( a.created_by = 0 )    OR  ( a.state = 1
      AND ( a.publish_up = '0000-00-00 00:00:00' OR a.publish_up <= '2012-02-06 15:57:46' )
      AND ( a.publish_down = '0000-00-00 00:00:00' OR a.publish_down >= '2012-02-06 15:57:46' )   )    OR  ( a.state = -1 )  )
  14. UPDATE v2_content
      SET hits = ( hits + 1 )
      WHERE id='229'
  15. SELECT *
      FROM v2_tag_layouts
  16. SELECT count(id)
      FROM v2_tag_hideshow
      WHERE scope = "com_content"
      AND idnumber = "229:thenino"
  17. SHOW FIELDS
      FROM v2_tag_category_map
  18. SELECT m.tagid AS id, tag_tags.tagname AS tagname
                   
      FROM v2_tag_category_map AS m
                   
      LEFT JOIN v2_tag_tags AS tag_tags
      ON m.tagid = tag_tags.id
                   
      WHERE m.contentid='229'   
      AND tag_tags.published='1'
                   
      AND access <= 0
      ORDER BY tagname
  19. SELECT id, title, module, position, content, showtitle, control, params
      FROM v2_modules AS m
      LEFT JOIN v2_modules_menu AS mm
      ON mm.moduleid = m.id
      WHERE m.published = 1
      AND m.access <= 0
      AND m.client_id = 0
      AND ( mm.menuid = 56 OR mm.menuid = 0 )
      ORDER BY position, ordering

Language Files Loaded

Untranslated Strings Diagnostic

None

Untranslated Strings Designer

None