I am very much behind on movies that I have meant to see. So I thought I would start a running list here. Similiar to my book list.

If there is a movie you think I should see, add it as a comment.

Classics

• The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
• Casablanca – Technically I’ve seen twice, but never managed to stay awake the whole way through.
• The Bridge On The River Kwai
• Taxi Driver
• Metropolis
• This is Spinal Tap

Meant to see it

• Fargo
• Saved
• Lost in Translation
• Momento
• The Deer Hunter

Suggested to me

• Crimen del padre Amaro
• Pieces of April
• Fight Club
• Braveheart – what have I been living under a rock!
• Gladiator
• 21 Grams

Obviously this is an incomplete list. I’ll keep adding on it for a while.

I love voting. Every time I get a ballot I find myself practically overwhelmed with giddiness. I love the idea of being able to throw out “the man” every few years.

I am fortunate to live in a state with very high voter turn out. Still every year, at least 20% of the eligible voters simply don’t show up to the polls. To me this is unconscionable. Who are these people. Is there some way these people can be punished?

With tongue firmly planted in cheek some creative individuals have taken some logical steps to deal with the non-voters among us. (Since this is a little racier than the usual blog material, I’ll put the rest into the extended entry.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Here is a snippet from a recent email exchange I had with a member of my wife’s family. I don’t usually make private conversations public, but this really does represent how I feel.

I recently ran across a great read on Skeuomorphs. It is germane to me as my chosen field is always grasping for metaphors when presenting fairly complicated choice or functionality to users. It’s worth a read.

Anyone want to take a crack at pronouncing skeuomorphs?

IMHO, choosing the right metaphor is the key to the user interface more than anything else. In a complex multi-metaphor product, extending the right metaphor is the key to usability.

I came across the link courtesy of interconnected and Ole Eichhorn.

I’m at home watching the original Manchurian Candidate tonight. It’s good, but watch Frank Sinatra doing karate is just a little too mind bending for me. I wish more movies were filmed in black and white.

Courtesy of x-lmer Dave, Dorkstorm: The Annihilation. It’s this kind of insightful writing that makes the internets so cool.

This made me laugh out loud.

Although I believe technology is allowing people (myself included) to communicate in new and interesting ways, I still think there is a lot of hype about social software.

Joel (a different Joel from the Joel you are thinking of no doubt) sent me a link to the World on Fire Video on iTunes.

Take a look for yourself, it’s a great message that make sense to me.

While I shy away from big government solutions to some of the big problems of the world, I believe motivated individuals acting in concert can really make a difference.

Whenever someone admits they read my blog regularly it shocks me. Even though the server logs show otherwise, it still is an enourmous surprise to me that anyone other than me reads this blog.

Some people, who should read it, still don’t even though I routinely throw in pompous phrases like, “Of course you would have known that if you had been reading my blog.”

I wish everyone had IM on most of the time. I would rather riff over IM than on phone for most casual communications. I do find it strange when an IM goes to a mobile phone.