rants: keeping myself busy (sane)

Although for a while I've had trouble concentrating hard enough to read the ebooks I've got (http://project05952381.blogspot.com/2011/01/rants-so-many-books-yet-nothing-i-care.html), I've been able to read the Guide to Divinity (http://www.themonastery.org/jcontent/training/12-guide-to-divinity) a little bit at a time.

I've also been holding whatever's left of my sanity (http://project05952381.blogspot.com/2010/11/my-sons-first-ever-seizure.html) by writing system documentation and cleaning up some code. As a matter of fact, my pet project in the past three days has been changing a website from ColdFusion (CFM) to PHP. All this work's actually for a temporary step to move the website to a new hosting company as soon as possible. Then I'll start working on the brand new site using WordPress. For me this is lots of fun although I still have about 136 bugs as I'm writing this entry. Of course, the best part is finally moving this site back to a much more reliable Unix environment.

Watching TV is another thing's that's helping me -- especially comedies like Two and Half Men (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369179/) and science fiction like Doctor Who (http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/).

Sherlock (Holmes)

I've been watching Sherlock (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t4pgh) on channel 13 (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/sherlock/). I actually knew about the program before being aired in the US and I was looking for it on DVD or any other medium. I'm trilled that it's now aired in the US -- without commercials no less, just like in the BBC One (UK; http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcone/).

The show's got that sort of witty, silly, cerebral, dark and wicked humor that I enjoy from directors like Guy Richie (Locked, Stocked and Two Smoking Barrels, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120735/; Snatch, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0208092/; RocknRolla, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1032755/, etc). Further more, the new Sherlock Holmes serial's from the same group of producers and writers as the new Doctor Who serial (2005-present; http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/ & http://www.bbcamerica.com/shows/doctor-who/).

I can partially identify with the main character who gets easily bored due to his high intellect and hence risks his life solving crimes. In my case at least, I'm no hero, but I tend to do stupid things when I'm bored that at times have put my life and/or health at risk. Maybe this is why I enjoy British crime dramas like Wire in the Blood (http://www.robsongreen.com/wire/, http://www.itv.com/drama/copsandcrime/wireintheblood/ & http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/115/index.jsp).

Nonetheless is this serial appropriate for me as a Christian? I believe so.
http://project05952381.blogspot.com/2010/11/questions-tv-music.html

foreign TV & music

In the past several years, my liking of British drama and comedies has increased. It turns out that lots of the shows I grew up with are British (Doctor Who, The Avengers, The Saint, etc) -- not American I thought then.

I've always listened to American rock & roll like KISS and The Ramones, but lots of my favorite material is also from other lands like Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, The Clash, Motorhead and Black Sabbath from UK; Rammstein and Wumpscut from Germany; Blood from Spain; AC/DC from Australia; U2 from Ireland.

religion, science fiction, real science

What does me smile is the hidden meaning while using the word "Babel" (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2011:1-9&version=KJV) its or concept in science fiction and computer science. In "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (BBC, 1981; http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers/ & movie, 2005; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371724/), the Babel is a fish that people would put in their inner ear that would translate what others would say. In "Doctor Who" (BBC, 1963-1986 & 2005 to present; http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/ & http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/) the TARDIS (the character's space-time vehicle, practically a secondary main character with an intelligence and life of its own; http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/characters/TARDIS) can translate languages directly into the mind of those who travel in it and are its proximity. In the computer field, Babel Fish (perhaps more of a reference to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" than to the Tower of Babel, http://babelfish.yahoo.com/) is a translation service that has a fish as its mascot and as part of its logotype. Maybe I'm too much of a nerd mixing religion with science fiction and "real" science.