Judas Unchained

I started listening to an unabridged (47 hour) audio version of this book since I enjoyed Hamilton’s first series.  It was really boring and I put it down.  2/5 stars.

Children of Men by P.D. James

I disliked the film but I enjoyed this book a lot.  The writing is superb.  The characters are delightful, multi-dimensional, and compelling.  The workable plot almost doesn’t matter.  Her judgments about our society (mostly British sensibilities) at the end of the 20th century and in modern day UK are sharp and spot-on.  4/5 stars!

The Cobbler

Sunday 4/26 we watched the Adam Sandler movie

It was charming and good, despite the awful ending  3/5 stars

Snow White

The Harvest (2013)

Tonight we watched a dark film from 2013 called "The Harvest."  It is well-directed, well-acted, and worth watching  --  3/5 stars.

A Talent for War

I read Jack McDevitt's book based on many recommendations.   It's a fun future history and has a great mystery setting.  Although I enjoyed the book, I was disappointed with many elements of the characters, story line, technology, pacing, and sudden plunges into minutiae.  The opportunity cost of the reading time is not worth it.  2/5 stars.

Antarctica a Year on Ice

Tonight we watched the documentary

"Antarctica: A Year on Ice."  It was interesting but got a bit boring.  The psychological portraits of the people who spend the winter there was interesting.  If you like documentaries, see it: 3/5 stars.

The Wedding Ringer

Last night we watched “The Wedding Ringer.”  It has a lot going for it:  The acting is pretty good; the dialog, timing, cinematography, post-production are all very good.  The story line is excellent and many of the B stories are wonderful.  Even the quirky guest-stars and co-stars are cool.  Why does it fail so miserably?  The film concentrates on stupid, silly “spectacle” elements instead of the arc of the story.  2/3 stars.  Miss it.

commit logs from last night

I am (seriously) considering sprinkling these comments into my code reviews on github.  Thanks, Randal!

 

The web site from this post’s title is http://commitlogsfromlastnight.com/.  It scans for bad words and posts them to twitter here:  https://twitter.com/CLFLN

Analyze This! && Analyze That

Before we went on spring break we saw "Analyze This!" and "Analyze That" with Robert Deniro and Billy Crystal.  They hold up despite their age and we enjoyed them a second time 3/5 stars

The Immortalists

Tonight we saw "The Immortalists."  It was very disappointing!  Miss this one; I was hoping for more Grossman and Goldberg and some Ray Kurzweil; instead it was two twits --  2/5 stars.

Napoleon: A Life

Despite it's length and tedious Empereur des Français  tone, I enjoyed this book.

It spends a long time attacking all 1,800 previous biographies and debunking many myths about the life and times of the Emperor.  The book is sometimes dogmatic and hyperbolic.  But the analysis and new facts shine gloriously and the centuries give readers a sangfroid perspective. 3/5 stars. Worth reading.

Spring Break 2015

G+ Photos is cool.    The spring break “story” it created:

http://goo.gl/mlOZpQ

. . . from 2,000 photos it stole backed up:

http://1drv.ms/1HkEa0g

. . . minutes after I arrived home is amazing.

BBC "Life Story"

Last night we finished episode 6 of 6 of the beautiful BBC "Life Story" series (2014) narrated by David Attenborough.  It is nearly content free and very light in science.  But it is breathtakingly beautiful and the "making of" behind the scenes stories at the end of each episode are great.  3/5 stars.