Bătăi de cîmpi

După cîțiva ani de tăcere (e păcat că s-a terminat cu "Pe scurt, Romania!"), iată-mă implicat într-un nou podcast. De data asta e vorba de un produs dedicat inițiativelor antreprenoriale din ceea ce, pe la întîlnirile specialiștilor, cu mare pompă se numește "online-ul românesc".

Am găsit cartea la o librărie din București și-am citit-o în drum spre Blaj. Se poate comanda și de la Okian.

Are 370 de pagini. Mi-a atras atenția prin numele autorului -- căruia pînă acum nu-i citisem decît biografia lui Douglas Adams -- așa că am cumpărat-o. A costat vreo 30 de lei cred.

În carte e vorba de o Londră paralelă, denumită London Below.
Și o fată care deschide uși.
Și un marchiz de Carabas.
Și un agent de asigurări, sau investiții sau așa ceva.
Și un înger pe nume Islington.
Și mai ales the Tube, metroul londonez.
Ah, și o piață plutitoare.

Romanul e deosebit de vizual, fiind scris după un serial BBC omonim al aceluiași autor. E captivant, plin de umor în stilul inconfundabil al lui Douglas Adams, deși nu abundă în surprize. De fapt dacă stai să analizezi povestea, după ce-ai terminat cartea, o vei găsi destul de comună și previzibilă.

...she began to cry, in low, raging sobs, that sounded like they were being tugged from inside her.
"There. There," said the marquis de Carabas, awkwardly, patting her shoulder. And he added, for good measure, "There." He did not comfort well.

Limbajul folosit e destul de simplu și accesibil. Gaiman chiar vrea să fie citit (nu, să zicem, ca Frank Herbert). Romanul e o plăcere de lecturat.

Așa că luați-l și citiți-l!

Parcarea Kaufland, 4 octombrie 2009. No comment.

I've been waiting for 15 months for this. I have 2 monitors so I'm blogging while I watch, for the first time, the SGU premiere, "Air". It's a 3-part pilot, the first 2 are airing now, the last one will follow next week.

The starting credits - very 2.0, very Battlestar Galactica. Not like any SG credits ever. Very different, but good.

Opening scene, long shot, ends with Stargate dialing up on an incoming traveller.

First actor ever to appear in SGU: Brian J. Smith as Lt. Matthew Scott.

First minute of action -- brilliant, electric, filled with adrenaline and unanswered questions.

First 5 minutes into the show -- one of the main actors dies!

One thing's certain: these are all high-class actors. No more playing "let's go to Canada to shoot a SciFi and have fun". We're talking real talents here. Every last one of them.

RDA appears in minute 8. Boy, he's looking old, but certainly still got it. Robert Carlyle is right up next. Boy, is he a brilliant actor.

RDA does one of his usual excellent O'Neill renditions, but... boy, is he looking old.

"Welcome aboard the Hammond" -- wonderful, wonderful touch. And David Blue grows on you in, like, 10 seconds.

Much classic Binder-esque and Mallozzi-esque humour.

Ah, here's Daniel Jackson giving new Stargate viewers a brief on the past 12 years of the show. Not bad for less than one minute.

People complain about the pace of the show. It remains to be seen, but so far it's not slow at all.

We're beginning the expected introduction of the characters (we've been living in a flashback for the past minutes). Here's Chloe Armstrong, played by Elyse Levesque with just a small touch of Princess Leia.

Flash-forward again, more about Dr. Rush now. Sko'esh accent, but nothing like Trainspotting.

We quickly meet Tamara Johansen (played by beautiful Alaina Huffman) and the title of the pilot is explained: we're running out of air on the Destiny.

Flash-backs and flash-forwards are aplenty. Time for Col. Everett Young, absolutely wonderfully done by Justin Louis. Ok, he didn't quite die just then.

Ah, there's a sex scene. First one in Stargate, ever. Yes, very BSG.

Here comes senator Armstrong, the experienced Christopher McDonald. Plus some more background on the Stargate, for new viewers.

I've really been looking forward to see how Lou Diamond Phillips pictures Col. Telford (he's also a pilot). So far, 10 out of 10.

First outwards dialing in SGU. Looks much like the rest of SG, except now there's a difference between encoding a chevron and locking it (they come in that order).

Camera's of the shaky BSG sort again, which must be annoying to long-time SF fans. But it does work nicely. Steadycam operators with Parkinson's disease must be getting filthy rich these days in Vancouver.

Yes, there's no life support. Ah, and here's Brody (Peter Kelamis).

David Blue and Robert Carlyle really do make a great pair.

5 or 6 different angles for the same take (Dr. Rush at the whiteboard). Yes, that's a lot of work!

And... here comes the scene in Rush's bedroom that's supposed to break our hearts. And... yes, it's good, quite good, it works. But it's short! Still, I don't mind the pace of the show so far.

Speaking about pace, action picks up now. "Base is under attack!"

Pace is picked up in the flash-forward, which is classic Carl Binder.

Greer was locked up, now released to fight the Goa'uld or some such.

Ah, here's Amanda Tapping, so much for the SG1 guest stars.

It's a bit difficult to find your footing amongst the flashes, but that's a bit of what's keeping one tied to the screen.

I really get the feeling Carlyle wouldn't work quite as well without Blue.

Ming Na does a credible Camille Wray, but so far not a very relevant one.

Here's shooting, but it's like watching Firefly. Not as good as SGA battles. (Yes Joe Mallozzi, I love Firefly too.)

Yep. Battle scenes are definitely Firefly only with more light (meaning bigger budget).

Evac scene -- much more credible than the previous SG1 / SGA ones, but shot practically identically to BSG.

TJ, aka Tamara Johansen, tries to establish herself as the next team doctor, in a very different approach from both Frasier and Beckett. We'll see how that works out.

We glimpse the conflict between Rush and Young and it's credible, though predictable.

Holy crap, these are all talented professionals, down to the last one. I can't decide whose acting I enjoy more.

Ok, so now the past and and future are coming together -- it's minute 40.

Camera work and lighting not revolutionary, but do the job nicely and carefully, with no mistakes. VFX looks a bit cheap (sorry but Mark Savela was simply better). Stunt work isn't bad, but I somehow miss Bamford and Shea.

"Hammond, this is Young, come in!" But not that Hammond...

Nice planetary blow-up. Short to keep it cheap, but nice.

Sam Carter talks to Gen. O'Neill :) ah, the good old days! And boy, is RDA looking especially old in frontal shots.

More shakicam.

Scott: "...you're James, right?"
James: "Yes, Lt."
Greer: "How... subtle..."
There, so the entire unit know that James and Scott did the first sex scene in the history of Stargate.

Ah, Bill Dow. He got older too. And better.

Dr. Rush introduces us to the communication devices from the last seasons of SG1. He takes charge.

They're arguing. Works about 50% for me.

Lt. Scott establishes himself quite nicely.

Set's not as bad as some people say. I rather like it. It's different from all ship sets in SG so far, yet looks a little familiar to SGA fans.

The bit with the spherical flying cameras -- they really stole that from me!

1 hour into the show. I'm not sleepy, I'm still very interested in it. So far so good!

Chloe Armstrong just switched from Princess Leia into River Tam.

Rush: "What makes you think I won't try?" Well, how about 15 months of SGU propaganda?

Outside Destiny VFX -- cheap. High-school level. Somebody bring Mark Savela back please!

Parallel story-telling again. Smart shooting, again very Carl Binder.

"Someone's gotta go in there, and close this door." Das Boot, anyone?

Moral dillema, but not a particularly interesting one. And of course Young offers to close the door. You could see that in his face in the SGU promo photos last summer.

And of course he doesn't get to do it, because Joe Mallozzi would hang everyone in the writing department if the solution were THAT predictable. It's still somewhat predictable, though :)

River Tam -- I mean Chloe Armstrong -- cries a river, then kicks Rush. Yes, very Firefly, even Carlyle looks a little like Nathan Fillion in this scene, except for the accent.

Joel Goldsmith really did his best to get a new "aural aroma" for this new series. Like he did for SGA. Very good job writing the score!

Rush and Wallace aren't arguing for once. Doesn't look quite right :)

The observation bay is a nice success. Much like the SGA balcony.

And yes, at 1h21m, we get the main plot device: the stargate will connect itself automatically when it detects a nearby counterpart. And again yes, there's a countdown.

Ah, the White Sands desert in New Mexico, and the first away team in SGU.

And the episode ends on a cliffhanger.


Conclusion:

I liked it. Not as much as I liked the SGA pilot at the time, but SGU is more intriguing. It's darker, it's different. If they manage to pull it off, it'll be excellent. There are hundreds of premises that could be exploited to the show's advantage. The acting force is absolutely top. They have everything on their side, except maybe for the VFX.

I have faith in Stargate Universe. Can't wait for the next episode!

A few weeks ago I've had the first batch of some medical examinations, not the least fun of which included swallowing about 85 km of rubber tube that ended with a webcam, power light and the most delightful set of biopsy pinchers. With no anaesthesia, of course, since we're Romanians, not whiny Americans who can't bear having the Aliens act performed on them with no stuntmen.

After filming a short documentary about my innards in Technicolor, the doctor insisted on keeping some memories (in the form of biopsies) for himself, and further instructed me to puke out the fire hose, to be thereafter inserted into the next patient.

The immediate outcome of this feat was the discovery that I seem to suffer from the Coeliac disease. This is much more preferrable than cancer, but it does involve giving up all food that contains gluten, for the rest of my life.

Gluten is made of a couple of proteins which are typically found in the likes of wheat. That means I can't eat regular bread, cookies, pizza, biscuits, noodles or touch "The Catcher In the Rye" -- something for which I'm actually quite grateful.

However, life exists without gluten, and websites and stores abound to sell us gluten-free flour and gluten-free ready-made products -- mostly replacing wheat with rice. (Yes, about two billion people on this planet have never seen bread and they're doing just fine, probably outliving you and me.)

That brings me to the secondary outcome, which is that my wife and I invested today in a home bread-maker.


This is an electric device which will take some ingredients, swirl them around rather a lot, and then cook up the concoction (pun intended) into something hopefully warmly edible.



The one we chose has "gluten-free bread" among its menu choices, and it can also make baguettes, by employing some suitably pornographic trays.

We therefore proceeded to look up recipes for gluten-free bread, only to be scared away by things like "Xanthan gum", "Ener-G egg replacer" or "Crisco shortening". Or vinegar.

So we simply took the recipe for regular bread -- which came with the bread-maker, and merely replaced wheat flour with rice flour. (We also replaced white sugar with brown sugar, and milk powder with its soy counterpart.)

Then we deposited the ingredients into the belly of the machine, and set it loose.


2.5 hours later the smell was quite enjoyable, and the porthole displayed something almost completely -- but not entirely -- unlike any bread we'd ever seen. Still it was smelling friendly, so we pried it out and cut it.








The inside of the bun looked a steamy light yellow -- quite puffy and uniform, not gooey but still very soft.



It tasted great. We abandoned the rest of the meal -- which my wife had prepared in case our bread experiment went wrong and left us starving -- and ate the bread with a bit of cheese, tomatoes and onions.



You can program these machines so they'll finish the bread for you by the time you wake up, which sounds like a great idea as long as it doesn't set the kitchen on fire.

So, the bad news is, if you and I ever go out together, I can't have pizza. The good news is, from now on I'm eating my own bread, and it's GOOD!

Complete set of pictures: here.

11:35:52 PM kingsely20067: i will get off but remember yiou are not going to find peace in your life for me waisting my pleasure time for a fucking old man who doesnt have any manners so let me tel;l you this i wuill send you to the greatest gods in the world to chat you so that you will die

11:36:39 PM Alex Deva: good to see at least you got manners

11:37:06 PM Alex Deva:

8:50:52 PM kingsely20067: IF U CANT HELP ME FUCK U UR MOTHER VAGINA SMELLING ASS OF UR MOHER

8:51:15 PM Alex Deva: oh, that definitely makes me want to help you.


11:37:11 PM Alex Deva: yes, those are good manners

11:37:23 PM kingsely20067: i will kill you today

11:37:37 PM Alex Deva: you got 23 minutes left

11:37:39 PM kingsely20067: when you sleep you will not wake up agaim

11:37:43 PM kingsely20067: so die now

Only 18 minutes left now... let's see. If only I can decide to whom to leave my Stargate collection!

Din seria "Locuri de respirat", azi voi vorbi despre salina din orașul Praid, oraș în care îmi petrec o microvacanță.

În perioada asta stațiunea e aglomerată, mașinile-s parcate atît de aproape una de alta că se simte efectul Casimir între ele, o grămadă de lume fumează și asta nici măcar nu descurajează miile de viespi.

În contrast cu starea de-afară, la 140 de metri sub munte se află o mină de sare, unde e răcoare (cam 15 grade) și fumatul e cu desăvîrșire interzis.

Aici poți savura un Tiramisu la restaurant ori la cafenea, poți să te dai pe net ori să privești liniștit ultimul episod din Eureka, poți să joci tenis ori badminton ori, dacă ești prea tînăr ca să citești acest blog, să te destrăbălezi într-un parc baban de distracție pentru copii.



Alte opțiuni: muzeu, băi termale, galerii de artă ori chiar o cramă.



Mai poți să intri într-o capelă originală și să zici "Doamne, îți mulțumesc că m-ai adus într-un loc unde pot respira liniștit cît vreau eu" sau, dacă te duce capul ceva mai puțin, să lingi pur și simplu pereții (probabil acolo unde i-au mai lins cîteva mii de turiști).



Accesul în salină se face cu autobuzul, dar în rest este loc destul și e plin de semne cu "fumatul interzis". Aerul e deosebit de curat și încărcat de săruri sănătoase sărate și saline, astfel că între două linguri cu ciorbă nu ești obligat să respiri scurt și rar pentru că la masa alăturată două fufe au ajuns la a 8-a țigară. ("Vai, bietul antifumător, cum nu poate el respira!")

După cum se vede, abia în fundul pămîntului mai este loc pentru noi, cei (normali) care nu sugem fum în mod voluntar din tuburi de hîrtie.

Ar fi o idee: pentru o zi, să scoatem toate semnele împotriva fumatului, și după ce se umple mina cu fumători, să închidem poarta...