LOTR and Ruby
Posted by Jim Jagielski on Thursday, December 9. 2004
Previously, I wrote about the Lord of the Rings Symphony and promised (or threatened) a review. Although scheduled for 2 hours, the event itself ran closer to 2 1/2 total, including a relatively short intermission. Even so, at no time did the concert drag. The structure was pretty nice, with 6 movements, matching the books themselves, with the intermission after the 2nd movement. While the music was being performed, drawings and sketches from the storyboards were displayed on a large screen, matching the music to the events of the movie. The 3 soloists performed quite well, but one, Susan Egan, was exceptional.
The selection of music was perfect and enjoyable, even to those (like my wife) who have never seen the movies. Even if you didn't know the story, the music described the moods associated the LOTR, and was complete in itself. If you have the opportunity, by all means, see the show.
And now for something completely different; despite my best intentions and my true desire, I simply can't get into Ruby. It's just laziness on my part, I know, because it is in many ways a much better language than my usual choices, but I still find myself doing more and more with Java/PHP/Perl/Python and less and less with Ruby. Most of the times I find myself starting development in Ruby, but before too long redoing it in Python. I'm still a proceduralist at heart, but dang it, sometimes OOP is just the right decision.
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The Music of Middle-Earth.
Posted by Jim Jagielski on Tuesday, December 7. 2004
I'm a big Tolkien fan. Now I'm not a loon about it; I don't go around speaking Elvish, or wearing fur on my feet, but I am a voracious reader of anything Tolkien related, I greatly enjoy the History of Middle-Earth volumes and can debate with the best of them the significance of a wizard's staff. And I love Bored of the Rings as well.
So you can imagine my joy to learn the Lord of the Rings Symphony was coming to Baltimore. This symphony distills 11 hours of music from the movies to a ~2 hour concert, providing a very cool "review" of the work. Here in Baltimore, the BSO is handling the music, with help from the Baltimore Choral Society and The Maryland State Boychoir (MSB). The latter is especially cool since my middle son Tim is in the MSB and is one of the selected members of the MSB chosen to sing.
Last night they had the orchestra rehearsal, and it was impressive to say the least. Tonight is the dress rehearsal and a performance, with another performance tomorrow night. A full review will be coming.
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Tech Hanks
Posted by Jim Jagielski on Monday, December 6. 2004
Reading Steve Loughran's blog entry about Polar Express 3D got me off my duff to finally write about a topic which I've been hesitating to bring up. The reason is because it makes me sound very cranky.
First and foremost, I have nothing at all against Tom Hanks. I think he's a good actor, but I can also think of several other actors who are much better masters of the craft than Tom, yet have no awards to show for it. So this isn't a rant against Mr. Hanks at all.
But couldn't they find somebody else, anybody else, to put those shiny little stickies on their face and be Santa. Or the young boy? I mean come on now, 5 parts? I had hopes that CGI and other movie related tech would expand the opportunities for struggling actors, not tighten the noose. Of course, maybe Looker had it right all along... So maybe every actor out there better watch out. 
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Still a lot of cluelessness out there
Posted by Jim Jagielski on Thursday, December 2. 2004
I feel saddened when I read the so-called "Technology Columns" in local papers and business journals. Now I live in Maryland, not exactly a hot-bed of technology, but I think a pretty technically savvy location. Yet in the popular press we are still subjected to "experts" who characterize Open Source as "software created by hackers and then given away for free" and that Linux is an "operating system, like Windows, but mostly for developers."
Is it that they simply don't care to actually really research it? Or is it that they think their "descriptions" are enough for their audience? Either way, there's still a lot of work to do.
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And so it starts
Posted by Jim Jagielski on Wednesday, December 1. 2004
OK, I admit it. I was always someone who considered blogs as both the biggest waste of resources (storage, bandwidth and, even more importantly, time) as well as a pretty lame exercise in soapboxing. "Who cares what some of these people have to say," I would think. And so I would refuse to start my own, even though, as those who know me well can attest, I'm never at a lack for stating my opinions.
And then I attended Wil Wheaton's talk at ApacheCon.
Wil's talk was surprisingly open, candid and refreshing. It also made me relook at my thoughts regarding blogs. Yes, they are yet another communication mechanism to use, when it seems like I can barely handle my Email much less keep up to date on the various irc channels, IM's and Wikis I really should be reviewing and contributing to. But blogs are something else: they are exercises in soapboxing. But not lame ones. They have power, and elegance and they provide those qualities to anyone who has something to say.
And that's pretty noble stuff.
And so, I'm starting my own. And I hope everyone enjoys the journey with me.
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