...

I'm going on a cruise next week, and I'd like to take a good book with me. I'm going with some friends, so I don't really know how far I'll get, but I'd really like to try to get some quality reading done.

So what should I read? I'm looking for fiction- preferably sci-fi, although I'd be happy with a some good fantasy. I've read some of the classics- Ender's Game, His Dark Materials, Dune, I Robot- and some of the not-so-classics: Nightwatch, Stardust, Star Wars stuff... does anybody have any suggestions? Stuff they've read recently and enjoyed?

so awesome:


Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue for 2008 Voters

I happened across this single while I was browsing through the iTunes store. After scanning a couple of reviews, I found the song on the musicians' myspace page, listened to it, and immediately bought it.

Before I say anything else, go listen to Kronos Quartet playing Flugufrelsarinn. Honestly, it's one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. I'm no music connoisseur, but this piece... just wow.

Holy Crud.

September 25th. New Foo Fighters album, House begins Season 4, and Halo 3 ships.

I dunno about what anyone else thinks, but for me the 25th could very well top Christmas this year.

31 days to go.

Prerequisites for the University of Florida's MD-PhD program with a degree in Biomedical Engineering:
-3 courses of Calculus
-Differential Equations
-2 courses of Physics with Calculus
-Statistics (for Engineers)
-Technical Communications
-2 courses of General Chemistry
-2 courses of Organic Chemistry
-Biochemistry
-2 courses of Biology
-Aptitude in some programming language

Wow. I don't go to see a movie in theaters often- I'm pretty sure the last movie I saw before tonight was the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie for Wacky Maladjusted Children. It usually works out pretty well for me- I save about $10 every time I decide that I can really wait to see Spiderman 3, or that I'm not really the kind of guy who'd enjoy another Shrek movie.

But Die Hard 4. Wow.

I've never seen a Die Hard movie before. I don't like movies that are heavy on action and thin on plot. But friends were going, and reviews were good. So I went.

Wow.

Action movies depend on exaggerated crisis: explosions, car chases, foot chases, gun fights, knife fights, fist fights, hostages, police chiefs, vault doors that go "schwomp"- lots and lots of pretty movement and color. The trick is tying all the glitz into a story which is both interesting and explodey, and Life Free or Die Hard does this superbly. I'm going to try not to give anything away (mostly 'cause I haven't figured out how to stick stuff behind a link yet), but the story was superb. There was a lot of hacker-speak in the movie, but surprisingly, a lot of the stuff mentioned seemed pretty plausible. I mean, I'm not claiming to be a 'l33t h4xx0r' or anything, but most of the movie made sense to me. I have to wonder how John Q. Public felt, though- probably all seemed like gibberish to people who don't really understand how computers work.

Of course, Justin Long- better known as the Mac in those Apple ads does a pretty good job of filling the audience in. Surprisingly, his acting does not in fact suck- Long turns the cliched hacker sidekick role in a vessel for the movie, pushing plot and character development forward without tripping up the movie. A combination of good writing and good acting- techno-thrillers, take note!

There were a couple of spots where things got a little too implausible for my tastes. Guns and choppers and hackers are cool- but some of the crap that McClane pulled was just ridiculous. Luckily, they stuck it way in the back of the movie, so I was only shaking my head for about ten minutes.

So, in summary: Lots of explosions, fun story, cool (plausible) hacker crap. Well worth watching. Five stars.

Ok, now to watch the last episode of Episode 100 of Red vs Blue. and keel over and pass out. Six hours to sleep and a full day of shadowing tomorrow...