Actually, this is a bad summer weekend of weather.
Enjoy your weekend, and good luck finding any new movies of worth.
Ahhhh, Public Relations 101. Start reading at #1, if you haven’t read these already:
- Read ESPN’s Spiked Story About LeBron
- Maverick Carter Rules The Universe, And Other LeBron James Vegas Story Conspiracy Theories
- ESPN’s Statement On The LeBron Story
Seattle took on the World last night. We won. Alright… so maybe we won 1-0 over in the first of two preliminary games against a team that I could have beaten 10-0, playing with one leg tied behind my back. But it’s international soccer in Seattle, and the US team won.
It’s almost impossible to use the “hated” and “Mad Men” in the same article. However, Sunday evening brought with it two ongoing pain points for me while viewing episode 1, season 3 of Mad Men.
2 Things I Hated
- Roger Sterling makes a joke every 3 seconds. Don’t get me wrong… when not cheating on his wife or sulking about Joan, Roger is the most hilarious person on the show, hands down. However, his lines are a lot like the 4-year-old who who realizes they’re doing something cute… they keeps doing it over and over, playing to the crowd until it’s downright annoying. The writers haven’t made Roger downright annoying, but they might well be on their way.
- Joey the art guy. Not only is he annoying (“Mahhhthuhhh”) and unless, he’s distracting. Slapping a sweater vest on someone doesn’t make them appear 1964. His look and haircut imply “season 7 contestant on The Bachelorette.”
5 Things I Loved
- Sally Draper. She’s growing up, a better actress, and important as ever in revealing just how messed up Betty’s anger toward her children is.
- The unspoken. As always the case, the show picks up somewhere in the future, though we have to piece together what’s happened since the last time we saw our pals.
- Don is becoming Don. He’s more vulnerable yet more successful. Less cocky yet cocky as ever.
- The last scene. My goodness, the last scene. In the words of 50 Cent: “if they hate then let them hate and watch the money pile up”.
- Pete Campbell. Hate on Pete all you like, but he’s a go-getter and smarter than his stupid antics imply. It appears hat the ill will between himself and Don is either A) long gone with the success they’ve both achieved at SCDP, or B) still the elephant in the room ready to run amok.
The line outside Paseo, who serves the most amazing sandwich I’ve ever consumed.
I featured this tumblr account a few weeks back.
It features stuff from our childhood. It’s updated daily. It’s amazing and you cannot make it two clicks without smiling.
Blog reader and Jasperian Jody Gambrell met Anderson Cooper last night in New Orleans. Props, Jody. Props.
A few things of want from a fantastic site of sometimes unnecessary and sometimes overpriced goods.
I purchased Rework over the weekend and can’t put my Kindle down. Below I pulled a few of the chapter titles and quotes that struck a cord.
If you’re in a fast-paced, growing company, you’ll love this book. Those in the tech sector will find the book quite appealing due to the background of the authors. The work is the product of the brains behind the business, and the incredible blog at 37signals.
It’s true, Inception has “basically supplanted ‘Lost’ for all your theorizing needs.” You don’t need anyone to tell you that. What you do need is to enjoy this wonderful movie as much or as little as you like.
The problem with Lost was that everyone wanted everyone else to care about the same things. In my mind the Island and the rules attached to it (time/space travel, religious analogies, etc) were, and will always be the most important character of Lost. Jack had daddy issues… so what? Tell me why the Island cares about Jack’s daddy issues. Don’t bring Jack to the island simply so that he can reconcile with his father. That’s what therapy is for.
You know who agrees with me? A lot of people. And you know who disagrees with me? A lot of people. You know how much I used to care about that fact? A lot. Now? Not so much. Lost was a TV show… Just a TV show. Kids in Africa are dying of starvation, people in North Korea are oppressed, and I have a wife to take care of, and a life to live, and someone’s geeky concept about a magical island that moves at the tug of a ship’s helm can’t and shouldn’t become anyone’s obsession. Period.
As I was leaving the theater, convinced I’d just watched one of the greatest Sci-Fi movies (maybe of the best movies) ever, I overheard a snotty 20-something female say: “I thought it was completely stupid. It made absolutely no sense. I didn’t enjoy it one bit.” Now, let’s assume for argument sake that she’s right (even though she’s not). Why should I care? Better yet, if she loved the movie and hated the final scene (I love the movie and LOVED the final scene), again, why should I care?
Enjoy Inception in the way you want to enjoy it. Don’t try to hard to put as much effort into caring about a 2 1/2 hour movie as you did for Lost, which ran 120+ hours. Heck, try to find other movies with Inception may have opened the door to. Ever seen Momento? What? No? You were too busy crafting Lost theories? Watch it. I won’t spoil anything, but what i will say is this: if you even so much as kinda liked Inception, Momento will not disappoint.
Anyhow, if you need answers to Inception like we all needed them to Lost, New York Magazine has a great, aptly titled Inception’s Dileep Rao Answers All Your Questions About Inception article which answers and helps to clarify many of the questions we’ve had since watching the movie. Yeah, that’s right, the people behind Inception are actually answering the questions that their creation prompted people to ask… something the people behind Lost quite never seemed to grasp.
“I bought a doughnut, and they gave me a receipt for the doughnut. I don’t need a receipt for the doughnut. I’ll just give you the money, and you give me the doughnut… end of transaction. We don’t need to bring ink and paper into this. I just can’t imagine a scenario where I would have to prove that I bought a doughnut. Some skeptical friend: “Don’t even act like I didn’t get that doughnut! I got the doc-u-men-tation right here… oh, wait it’s at home… in the file… under ‘D’… for doughnut.”
- Mitch Hedberg
The mighty city of Jasper and the lowly redneck-filled crevasse of Cordova are a mere 15 minute drive from one another. But you mean to tell me that they haven’t played a regular season high school football game against one another in almost 50 years?
(I’m just kidding, by the way. Cordova isn’t “filled” with rednecks… it’s populated by them.)
Via HBR and Cornell (ever heard of it) Chilly Offices Limit Productivity:
Raising the temperature of an insurance company’s offices from 68 degrees to 77 degrees Fahrenheit (20 to 25 C) reduced typing errors by 44% and boosted typing output by 150%, according to a monthlong study by Alan Hedge of Cornell. The higher, more comfortable temperature resulted in a savings for the employer of about $2 per worker per hour, Hedge says.
