Movies: Saw "The Thirteenth Warrior" with Antonio Banderas. The movie was interesting but I thought the prologue should have been developed more to flesh out the Banderas character and develop viewer identity with him. I think this was especially important since he didn't really portray the "action" hero of the film. Buliwyf, the Viking leader, was the hero to his people when he destroyed the evil priestess and commander of the "Eaters of the Dead". Banderas' character provided intellectual guidance to the group at several key points in the story but essentially played a supporting role. However, the screenplay was centered on his character so it seemed a little off balance. The two warring cultures were portrayed vividly, however, making it an entertaining piece nonetheless.

Finally had a chance to see "Beloved". Although the acting was excellent, I found the story weird and disjointed. I couldn't imagine an innocent toddler becoming such a malevolent spirit or being condemned to a "dark place" upon her tragic death. Also, with my love of animals, I was appalled by the opening scene where the spirit slings the family dog against a wall, knocking one of it's eyes out of its sockets and breaking its leg. It was all very graphically portrayed, of course, with the poor animal gasping in paroxysms of pain. Intellectually, I know an animatronic replica was probably used but I simply can't stand to watch abuse of an innocent animal.

One of my favorite actors, George C. Scott died. "Patton" is one of our family's all time favorite movies so we were saddened to hear of his death. He was a remarkable actor. Although the movie "Firestarter" was not particularly outstanding, Scott's role as psychotic government assassin, John Rainbird, was chilling.

Readings: I just finished "White Shark" by Peter Benchley. Although Benchley kept the writing taut, I had problems suspending disbelief around the development by the Nazis of a water-breathing subhumanoid with stainless steel claws and shark teeth that survived in a brass container on the ocean bottom for 50 years until it was released by unwitting divers. Benchley would have been far better to introduce a modern villainous scientist who created the creature and dispensed with the stainless steel add-ons. It made the thing sound like Edward Scissorhands or something. I was thrilled to discover a website where I could read Caesar's Commentaries online. I want to develop a web-based recreation of Caesar using ALife, Inc's Web Guide 1 software and I had been researching Caesar's life and accomplishments. I do wish Caesar had written more directly about his thoughts and feelings, however. I was reading his description of his African campaign and it retold the events but gave only hints about his own perceptions. I also found an online archive of Cicero's letters, and hope to glean some knowledge of Caesar's personality from them as well.

Software: I finally found a copy of the CD-Rom Nile:An Ancient Egyptian Quest by Simon & Schuster, on Ebay after almost a year wait. But now that I've had a chance to begin reviewing the software, how disappointing! (at least so far) The user interface is absolutely maddening. The title uses a "rat in a maze" type of navigation. Instead of a smooth 3D navigation like most current titles it offers only the ability to click in the direction of the arrows. Even if you see a passage way, you can't choose to enter it unless the arrow permits you to and when you click on the arrow the screen may swing 90 degrees or even a full 180 degrees. The map view does not let you click into another area. You are forced to endure the maze. Even my $19.95 Carnivores game by Wizardworks has better navigation than this title still selling retail for almost $50. Thankfully, I didn't have to pay even 1/3 that price on Ebay.

You find objects that you wish to pick up to add to your inventory and the narrator's voice booms out that "The time for that has not yet come". When you finally find an object you can pick up it takes you to a gameplay exercise that is so simplistic a six-year old could do it even though the game is advertised for ages 12 and up. Then the object is not removed from the environment so you might encounter it again and if you click on it again you have to replay the silly exercise again. I'm determined to make it to the next disk to see if the game improves even though I can only tolerate it for no more than 30 minutes at a time. (especially with the repetitious music track) My son says "Mom, life's too short to waste time on poorly designed games - just throw it back up on Ebay and get rid of it." I probably would if I wasn't such a history buff.

I have been experimenting with the PoolMenu applet. This applet, designed by David Griffith lets you provide the illusion that an image is at the bottom of a pool. When you touch the image with your mouse, the image ripples as if you had touched the surface of the water. I hope to incorporate this applet into my web page featuring my photo essay of Cabela's aquarium in Owatonna, Minnesota.

Technology: Apparently, Microsoft, lusting after the success of Ebay, has joined with a number of other technology product vendors to form an online auction center called FairMarket. I think they are overlooking the real reason Ebay is so successful. Although there are a number of regular companies that sell products through Ebay, many of the sellers are just regular people. Furthermore, many products on Ebay sell for a fraction of their retail price. I am a regular Ebay buyer but when I investigated the auctions advertised by Egghead I found the starting bid price on many of the items was barely below full retail. Auction buyers are typically bargain hunters and there's no bargain there. I don't even bother to check their auctions any more. If Microsoft follows a similar strategy, they'll be missing the point all together. I don't care how many items are offered for sale, if it isn't a substantial bargain or an item I can't find anywhere else I'm not interested.

Science: I was watching "ApeMan", an A & E special documentary, and was surprised when a scientist proposed the theory that bipedalism was an adapative mechanism to dissipate the heat of the African savannah. He pointed out that bipedal animals expose 40% less of their bodies to direct sun than a quadriped and demonstrated the effect with infrared photography. I have studied human evolution in both college coursework and through my own interests but had never heard that theory before. I'm afraid I'm a bit skeptical about it. Many species have adapted over millions of years to hot climates but bipedalism is extremely rare. Furthermore, animals like bears display occasional bipedal behaviors but they do not typically inhabit hot climates. I would tend to think that improved heat dissipation is a biproduct of bipedalism but not necessarily an adaptive trait.