A perfect daily diversion: Art of the Title on the end title sequence in WALL-E.
via Daring Fireball
WALL-E: Art of the Title
June 30th, 2009On Newspapers and the Printing Press
March 31st, 2009via Daring Fireball.
Book review: Murakami’s Running Book
February 21st, 2009
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
My review
rating: 5 of 5 stars
If you like Murakami, you will love this. I think the thing I like most about reading Murakami is that I feel like I get to live in his brain and see the world through his eyes. The book tells alot about Murakami’s life – how he ran a jazz bar, and starting writing and running, so if you like his books and just want to know more about him, this is wonderful. But the entries here are about running, and reading this fired my commitment to start running again. Thanks, Murakami.
7 Miles in Rancho
February 1st, 2009Rancho Run
January 25th, 2009On Breakthroughs
December 4th, 2008A very interesting article by Greg Huang on a talk by Rick Hanauer, an early Amazon investor, on what to look for (and why Amazon was so interesting). Highlights:
- Value creation (”the ratio of benefits to cost, divided by those of the alternatives”)
- Social disruption
Word Press Upgrade Problem
September 3rd, 2008I just noticed upgrading Word Press blew up all of my categories. Managing some repair. I think it’s time to go back to Tinderbox.
Mark Bernstein on Roger Ebert
August 28th, 2008I regret not having spent more time reading and re-reading Mark Bernstein’s writings. The more I read, the more I want to read.
This article (Tinderbox agent-generated, probably) caught me eye, and it’s wonderful. Great editing: Mark introduces Ebert, explains why he’s so good, then gives a little dose. Have you ever made a decision about something, not really examined completely why, then later found something that articulates and deepens your understanding of your decision? So it is with Mark’s highlighting of Roger Ebert’s writing. I’ve really, really like reading Ebert about movies, sometimes (often) even if I didn’t really like the movie.
I rediscovered Mark thanks to an email notice about a new upgrade to 4.5 of Tinderbox. I have to upgrade now. I had set aside Tinderbox looking for some way to organize Japanese text, but I had really used it alot in capturing daily thoughts and actions. Coming back to it after a few months of trying to use “standard tools”, I see immediately what I’ve been missing. I’ve been spending 80% of my time doing the formatting and 20% getting the ideas down. Tinderbox inverts this; I spend 80% on the ideas and 20% on arranging and organizing them.
It’s hard to describe but easy to grok.
The sparkline addition is brilliant.
Technorati Tags: great ideas, movies, reading, tinderbox
Great iPhone Software
August 26th, 2008I recently bought an extremely useful and well-built application for the iPhone called the Wisdom English-Japanese/Japanese-English Dictionary. A very cool company called Monokakido (with an interesting etymology for those who read Japanese) has made a work of art. The Sanseido dictionary is excellent, and so is the presentation on the iPhone/iPod. It has that perhaps uniquely Japanese blend of being both functionally succinct and visually elegant.
Very, very, nice.
The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Alone 1932-1940
July 27th, 2008
The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932-1940 by William Manchester
rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book, second volume of a never-finished three volume biography of Winston Churchill, is simply the best biography I’ve ever read. That’s hardly a fitting review of the book, but it’s both true and a good place to start. I stumbled onto it completely by accident on vacation in Buenos Aires, already committed to another book to read. Serendipity works in odd ways; a year ago, I’d found Manchester’s engaging Death of a President on a bookshelf in Rio and couldn’t put it down. The same was to be true of this work, too.
In three layers, the book excels: it describes an unusual and amazing man, in extreme and unusual times, in unusually well-written language. The 689 pages just roll away. The first 34 pages — “The Lion Caged” — describes a typical day in the life of 60+ year old Churchill, and are unstoppable. Reading this day in the life account, you simply can’t put the book down. Churchill’s traits are revealed one by one as we learn how he spends his day (reading the papers in bed til noon, entertaining guests at lunch, feeding the goldfish, enjoying a 2 hour nap, then holding court at the grand dinner, and finally, after all guests have left, starting writing in his ancient study at 11, only to retire at 4 am).
The book would be worth it if it catalogued simple days at the end of a brilliant political career, but the start of volume 2 is 1932. Before a backdrop of war fatigue, economic depression, and the bitter peace of Versailles, Hitler is on the rise in Germany. Churchill’s incessant calls in the House of Commons to stop the rise of Nazism appear to a pacifist and Bolshevik-fearing country as war-mongering. Over 600 pages and 2 Governments, we learn of the many opportunities England (and France) had to stop Hitler’s rise, and how repeatedly the British Government appeased, conceded, and in some cases, colluded to avoid any confrontation with Nazi Germany. The book closes on May 10, 1940, the day Hitler invaded the Low Countries and Churchill was made Prime Minister.
All in all, it’s an amazing tour through the accomplishments, methods, techniques, speeches, views, and mistakes of Churchill during the years leading up to the Second World War. Sublime!
