This is the website of Abulsme Noibatno Itramne (also known as Sam Minter).
Posts here are rare these days. For current stuff, follow me on Mastodon
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 Earlier today we decided to watch a DVD. According to my current system, it was time to either watch a Doctor Who, or one of the DVDs I actually own but have never watched. Since Cynthia is here though, I let her pick from all the available DVDs in the house that I haven’t watched yet including all of the other Netflix ones besides the categories I mentioned. But she ended up picking one in the “Own but haven’t watched” category anyway. Not the one I would have watched next on my own, but that is OK. She’s a guest and all. :-)
Anyway, she picked Donnie Darko. Years ago I had seen it at a midnight showing in a theater with Rebecca and company in DC. A few years later it was given to me on DVD for Christmas or my birthday or some such, and I watched it fairly soon thereafter. I remember assuring Brandy that it was a family safe movie, but then five minutes in two of the main characters start using some highly amusing, yet not 8 or 9 year old safe language and Amy started hiding her eyes and covering her ears. Oops.
A little later they released a Director’s Cut version. I bought it as soon as it was available, but then it sat on shelves and in boxes for two and a half years until we watched it today.
First lets start with I liked the original quite a bit. The Director’s cut adds a LOT. The Donnie Darko page on Wikipedia has a listing of the differences. When we finished the movie I was saying that they must have added “about half an hour”. I was close. Turns out it was about 20 minutes of new scenes.
For the most part I like the additions. There is an argument that can be made that some of the appeal of the original version was just how confusing it was, whereas some of the things added are attempts to clarify what is going on… especially the places where the text from the time travel book is shown… and that this takes away from the “WTF just happened?” feelings that leave you talking and wanting more when you are done. Like too much explanation spoils it.
Having said that, it isn’t like they end up spelling it out cleanly. You still get some of that effect. And for the most part I liked the additions. But I think I am glad I saw the original version first.
Cynthia saw it for the first time in extended form. I’m thinking it was still odd and disturbing, but perhaps not quite so odd and disturbing as if she’d seen the original version.
Oh yeah, right as the dramatic tension was building near the end, Roscoe started baking uncontrollably from the back yard. He had treed some sort of animal that hissed back from above. We couldn’t see it because it was dark, but we had to pause for about ten minutes to get him back inside and stuff. Threw things off a bit. But not too badly. Then the sound got messed up (by my needs to be replaced A/V system) right at the end when Mad World was playing. Hated that. HAd to keep getting up to kick the system to fix the sound. Grrr…
About 13.5 hours ago Cynthia arrived. Now we have to figure out what we will do for the next week or so.
I’ve noticed a trend lately that seems to be most prominent about “blogs” that get big. What would that be? Really crappy redesigns that add more crap to the page, and detract from the primary content. I could list a bunch of them, but instead I’ll just tick off some of the features that really annoy me. Now, many of these may just be me, and other folks may love it, but…
#1) “Click to read more”. Yeah yeah, you get another click and more page views, and you can fit more on your front page. But these really piss me off. I want to go to your front page, scan down for new things, and read any postings I am interested in. I shouldn’t have to go anywhere other than your front page unless I want to dig into your archives and find something old… or perhaps if I want to read the comments and discussion. But not to read the primary content. That just annoys me. But more and more places are using it more and more often. Too many to list. But I hate it everywhere. This is a big deterrent to me, but if the content is good it hasn’t yet stopped me from going to a site. But it is close. I don’t care if you right something long and I need to scroll a bit to read it… or to see the stuff below it. If I am coming to your site, it is because I like your content and want to read it. Don’t make it harder for me.
#2) More and more columns. People. No more than three columns. Come on. I’ve seen sites recently with four or more. You need one big one for your main comment. You need one for secondary navigation. (Primary should probably be up top.) And I can even buy a third one for an ad bar or some additional interesting feeds or something if there is a compelling reason. I’ve considered adding a right hand bar to this site for a few things I want to put there. But no matter what your main content column should be prominent and none of the other columns should distract from it. One of the big advantages to a blog is the clear and central chronological organization. There are several sites I go to that appear to be going for an old fashioned newspaper layout with several columns, all of which get new content through the day. Sometimes not always with the newest at the top. It makes my eyes hurt and confuses me. Stop. Talking Points Memo just did this. I think they are imitating Huffington Post. With HuffPost I just can’t stand going there the layout is so annoying, doesn’t matter if they have good content or not. TPM was one of my regular daily stops. It may not be any more. The main content column is now less than half the width. No. Just to give both sides of the political spectrum some time, Michelle Malkin did this recently too. Only three columns, but two of them are content columns. Lead story on the left, other stuff on the right. WTF? JUst give me one column with the new stuff on top please.
#3) Little side blocks with summary information about the post. Gawker just did this with all their sites. Instead of putting the little “Posted by bob at 5:15” thing at the bottom of each post, they are putting it at the side, thus creating huge blocks of wasted white space. This won’t stop me from going to engadget or lifehacker, but it is just stupid and annoying. It takes up more space this way. It wastes space. It makes the main content column narrower than it needs to be. Again, please put it back how it was.
#4) Too many links to yourself. There are places that in a post make some words links. For instance they mention President Bush or the Whitehouse or the iPhone or something. When I see links like that, I expect to be sent to the actual website of the thing being mentioned. Or perhaps a wikipedia entry or some such. If you link these words to a listing of your own posts that you tagged with that word it pisses me off. If such a thing is really useful to the post, have a feature with a list of tags that people can click on that is clearly marked as such. Don’t use inline links for this.
#5) Inline Ads: Yeah, yeah, I know, you want to make money and these are more effective that ads in the sidebar or whatever. But they are annoying as hell. Keep your content bar where your content bar goes. Keep the ads somewhere else.
OK, I could probably pick more things to rant about, but I need to finish up a few things and then get to work. So I’m done.
 The sixth CC of the year, released late yesterday, is entitled “Law, Law and the Law”. Ivan had technical difficulties this week, so this week Greg Haverkamp joined me, and we spent the first half or so of the show discussing his response to last week’s podcast. Then we moved on to another legal issue Greg has been researching recently.
So this week Sam and Greg discuss:
- The Apostrophe in the Title
- First Amendment Incorporation
- 14th Amendment Due Process Clause
- Literalism in the Law and in Life
- 4th Amendment Protections on Email
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Earlier today we went to a Moody Blues concert. This is becoming an annual tradition in the Minter/Donaghy/Roney household. This time it was outdoors at a winery. Some hot air balloons floated overhead during the concert. I think I liked them a bit better in the enclosed sort of venues from previous years. But it was still fun. Amy brought one of her friends from school as well, and a good time was had by all.
Especially at the end. Amy and her friend had gone to the designated “dancing area” near the stage for the last few songs of the concert. Then when the band came out and got on their bus, the kids happened to be right at the closest spot you were allowed to be as the bus turned and started to drive away. Nobody else seemed to be paying any attention at all. But Amy and her friend started waving frantically at the people in the bus. John Lodge saw them, looked straight at them and started waving back at them. Then suddenly other people around the area noticed that the waving was going on and started waving too.
But the girls (and Brandy) were very excited that they were waved at, and that they had been the only ones waving at first, so he was waving at THEM. :-)
Anyway, it was a fun time.
 Given the week, we thought it was a good time to watch this movie. Um… OK, that’s not true. It just happened to be the next Netflix movie on my queue, and I’d had it on my desk for quite some time. But earlier today we decided to watch it. I had never seen it before.
I’m not sure how exactly I went more than a decade without actually seeing this, but I did. As it turns out, I enjoyed it. It was fun for that sort of movie. Amy also had never seen it and was getting quite into it and very animated. Thus, it was a good family movie night over all.
Brandy needed to point out all the inaccuracies about the planes of course. I refrained from mentioning the whole virus into an alien ship with a couple of hours of analysis thing. But it all really doesn’t matter, cause technical accuracy is certainly not something this film was interested in at all. You don’t need to in order to have an aliens attack, they are winning, then we fight back movie.
Worth a watch. Fun. Will probably never watch it again.
Oh yeah, we watched the Special Edition, which had something like 10 minutes of extra footage, apparently mostly character background development near the beginning.
My father is currently in the midst of a 64 hour visit. About 31 hours into it at this point actually.
On Tuesday he arrived and the day ended as we were driving home from the airport.
Wednesday we did the tour of the house, the four of us went out to dinner (Mexican) and then chatted for a bit at home before everyone turned in. After sleeping, we went to a National Forest and drove around a bit looking at mountain scenery and even dipped our toes in a stream. After that was just lounging around at home.
So far today while Amy and Brandy went to see 4th of July fireworks (which for some odd reason is happening early on the fifth – shrug) my dad and I went for dinner (Chinese) then chatted a bit about one of the projects he is involved with.
Now he has turned in for the evening and I am waiting for Brandy and Amy to return. After sleep, the plan for the rest of today is to show him where I work, then explore downtown Seattle a bit, then maybe take a ferry somewhere in the afternoon.
Then Friday we’ll probably do the Space Needle around dusk, then after sleep it will be an early wake up to get him to the airport and then I’ll head to work as usual.
In any case, it is good to have my dad visit. He never got a chance to visit while I was in Florida, which was a shame, but here we are now. Good visit so far.
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