I spoke with the vet and she confirmed that this was a good sign but urged me to continue to keep him very calm and on the anti-inflammatory drugs for the remainder of the course to prevent re-injury. As much as he’s bored to tears and getting frustrated I’m just glad it’s something he will be over soon as opposed to a life time of pain and aggravation.

The good news is that if the vet is correct he will be much better in a week or so. The bad news is that this kind of injury can be a very early sign of canine arthritis - certainly something I hope is not true. I don’t need to see poor Skype endure pain like my grandmother did through much of her life.

As strange as this sounds it does make sense - insurance and health care is expensive these days, and the lower salary ranges tend to have more physically oriented jobs. Not having the money required to fix the root cause of a particular pain leaves the sufferer with two choices: dull the pain with inexpensive drugs (read: over the counter drugs), or suffer onward enduring the pain. Neither option really strikes me as an ideal long term solution, but until a national health care plan with reasonable reach and plausible economics exists do we have another option?

Admittedly due to the rain the parades attendance was down from what the organizers would have hoped for, but worse was the cross section of society that showed up. A good half of the attendees had the stereotypical stoner look - not what you want showing up on the evening news though. When people see the B roll footage that is likely to make the media what will they see? Certainly not sickly looking patients desperately needing marijuana to survive. Certainly not professional and trustworthy looking people - just stoners through and through. It presents the public with a rough image composed of stoned hippies drenched in patchouli eating chips rather than doctors and businessmen giving credibility and weight in the public eye.

What the marijuana legalization campaign really needs is a true spokesperson. Someone professional and educated with a sharp tongue and an even sharper suit. A spokesperson to show up on TV and talk to the American public - not show up at a hemp rally and talk to stoners. The kind of people who attend rallies marches, and events are already swayed - the movement needs to broaden its focus and broaden it’s message to the other 99% of the public.

As Abraham Lincoln once said “With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.” To enact the same kind of broad social change that Lincoln once did the movement needs to sway public sentiment, not stoner sentiment.

Update: My friend Shae just pointed me at this article. It would seem Rick Steves has stepped up to the plate to hopefully be just the spokesperson I’m looking for here. Go Rick!

I have to say - I’m stunned. Hotel Rwanda is a fantastic movie - a beautiful portrait of humanity in the worst of circumstances. It’s the rare kind of movie that can be depressing and uplifting to the soul at the same time. Seeing Paul Rusesabagina’s courage and compassion in the face of such an brutal genocide reminds the viewer that the human race just might have a chance of making it after all.

After my initial experimentations with personal aggregation basically failed I’ve decided to take another stab at it, but this time with a DIY bent. I registered metaspark.net and am working a complicated series of Wordpress plugins to attempt to create the functionality I want.

Unfortunately it’s not entirely baked yet, but keep your eye on that domain - once I get a few RSS aggregation, twitter update, and posting date issues sorted out it should be ready to go fully live, and with style no less.

Stay tuned!

A quick glance through the collection shows I have 8 of these movies unopened in my collection so those will be first up on the viewing list:

Barry Lyndon (1975)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Hotel Rwanda (2004)
Juno (2007)
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Magnolia (1999)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
The Shining (1980)

Which leaves 168 remaining movies to select from, listed in the full post. If you have a suggestion of a favorite movie from below that you particularly like and think I should prioritize onto the list leave a comment and let me know!

3:10 to Yuma (2007)
8½ (1963)
A Christmas Story (1983)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
All About Eve (1950)
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
American Gangster (2007)
American History X (1998)
Amores perros (2000)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Annie Hall (1977)
Battaglia di Algeri, La (1966)
Belle et la bête, La (1946)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Boot, Das (1981)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Brief Encounter (1945)
Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
C’era una volta il West (1968)
Cabinet des Dr. Caligari., Das (1920)
Casablanca (1942)
Casino (1995)
Chinatown (1974)
Cidade de Deus (2002)
Citizen Kane (1941)
City Lights (1931)
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
Crash (2004/I)
Diaboliques, Les (1955)
Dial M for Murder (1954)
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Du rififi chez les hommes (1955)
Duck Soup (1933)
Ed Wood (1994)
Fargo (1996)
Frankenstein (1931)
Gandhi (1982)
Glory (1989)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Goodfellas (1990)
Grindhouse (2007)
Harold and Maude (1971)
Harvey (1950)
Heat (1995)
High Noon (1952)
His Girl Friday (1940)
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Hotaru no haka (1988)
Ikiru (1952)
In Cold Blood (1967)
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Into the Wild (2007)
It Happened One Night (1934)
Jaws (1975)
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Ladri di biciclette (1948)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Leben der Anderen, Das (2006)
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Lola rennt (1998)
Léon (1994)
M (1931)
Manhattan (1979)
Metropolis (1927)
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Modern Times (1936)
Mou gaan dou (2002)
Mystic River (2003)
No Country for Old Men (2007)
North by Northwest (1959)
Notorious (1946)
Notti di Cabiria, Le (1957)
Nuovo cinema Paradiso (1988)
Oldboy (2003)
On the Waterfront (1954)
Once (2006)
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Out of the Past (1947)
Paths of Glory (1957)
Patton (1970)
Per qualche dollaro in più (1965)
Platoon (1986)
Quatre cents coups, Les (1959)
Raging Bull (1980)
Ran (1985)
Rashômon (1950)
Rear Window (1954)
Rebecca (1940)
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Roman Holiday (1953)
Rope (1948)
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Salaire de la peur, Le (1953)
Scaphandre et le papillon, Le (2007)
Scarface (1983)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Shichinin no samurai (1954)
Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
Sjunde inseglet, Det (1957)
Sleuth (1972)
Smultronstället (1957)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Stalag 17 (1953)
Stalker (1979)
Stand by Me (1986)
Strada, La (1954)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Taxi Driver (1976)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
The African Queen (1951)
The Apartment (1960)
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
The Big Sleep (1946)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
The Conversation (1974)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
The Deer Hunter (1978)
The Departed (2006)
The Elephant Man (1980)
The Exorcist (1973)
The General (1927)
The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather: Part II (1974)
The Gold Rush (1925)
The Graduate (1967)
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
The Great Dictator (1940)
The Great Escape (1963)
The Green Mile (1999)
The Hustler (1961)
The Kid (1921)
The Killing (1956)
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
The Lost Weekend (1945)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
The Pianist (2002)
The Prestige (2006)
The Searchers (1956)
The Sting (1973)
The Third Man (1949)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Touch of Evil (1958)
Umberto D. (1952)
Unforgiven (1992)
Untergang, Der (2004)
Vertigo (1958)
Vita è bella, La (1997)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Wo hu cang long (2000)
Yojimbo (1961)

Update:Removed Amelie and Spirited Away from the list as I didn’t recognize their non-translated titles. Bad Sparky - BAD!

Aside from spending my day prepping the 101 in 1001 list and designing the page for it I’ve been resting - I was sick the last couple of days and it’s really nice not to be knocked on my ass any more.

Side thought - the older I get the more sick I get when I become ill. Trend, inevitability, or side effect of a desk-job lifestyle?

Next off I met David, one of the sweetest men on the planet. I’ve spent practically the entire last week and a half with him and I couldn’t be happier about it. It’s one of those intense whirlwind relationships that seems to go at a million miles an hour - fun stuff while it lasts and heres hoping that it will last a very long time!

Finally Skype got to meet David’s roommates 12 week old pit bull puppy Porter. The two of them have been beating up on each other every other day or so and having a blast at it. David is a really active guy and thanks to his influence Skype’s activity level has roughly doubled. He seems happier for it and I hope to keep him active like this as long as he can keep up.

Without further ado: http://sparktography.tumblr.com/

Update: Tumblr ended up being close to what I want, but not quite it. Tumblr will only allow short form content and won’t import long format blog posts. I also noticed it copies Flickr photos locally and re-compresses them which adds a slight color cast and loses the tack-sharpness that so much effort goes into on the front end.

Anyone know of a better aggregation service with similar features that I could check out? Leave a note in the comments with a link to it. If I don’t find anything readymade I guess I’ll have to roll up my sleeves and make something.

*wonder, wonderment, and wonderfulness not guaranteed. All Sparky all the time has been known to cause health complications in certain situations. If you experience a Sparky lasting more than 4 hours consult with a physician immediately.

A sunset inspired photo from my downtown jury duty adventures last week. This is from a giant wall of red glass downtown. I’m also a fan of this photo of a very different part of the same building but red point is my favorite of the two.

That is all.

Overall I’m coming away from the experience disenchanted. I love the concept of trial by jury and think that in a perfect world it’s the most ideal way to try people - until of course artificial intelligence becomes advanced enough to be able to lend its services as a truly impartial and objective judge. However in the real world the United States implementation is more than slightly flawed.

The key problem comes from the legal promise of “a jury of peers”. Back when the United States was founded this was possible to provide given that society in general in the colonies was more or less equal. Unfortunately in the intervening centuries our society has been ripped asunder with the creation of four classes: lower, middle, upper, and the ultra-rich ‘ruling class’. As much as some would like to deny that this would effect the judicial system it does - the ultra-rich almost never go to trial thanks to the fleet of lawyers they employ, and the other three classes are unlikely to get a true jury of their peers.

As the social divide increases the concept of a jury of peers becomes more and more diluted. For instance if I was ever erroneously accused of a crime and sent to trial my experiences here have taught me that I would likely not get a true jury of my peers for the trial. I would be far more likely to get a jury of people either too disenchanted to want to serve their civic duty yet unable to get out of it, or too listless and unmotivated to have a good case for undue hardship to get out of the jury pool. Most of the people I see getting selected for juries are unemployed, retired, or from jobs where they are one of many people on a constantly changing team of replaceable people.

Now don’t get me wrong - I’m all for civic duty and want to fully support the legal system, but my experiences here have shown me that change is needed to make for a system that is fair for all that end up trudging through it - guilty or innocent, rich or poor alike.

As far as I can see there are two potential fixes to this flawed implementation of the trial by jury system:

1. Change the term “a jury of your peers” to “a jury of citizens”. To do this properly the rules for jury selection would have to change significantly. Currently a computer selects potential jurors who are then vetted by the judge and lawyers which by definition results in a slanted jury. To fix this the computer should instead pick 12 random people who would be required to serve on the jury - no exceptions, no exclusions. This would result in a reasonable cross section of society with (in a purely theoretical statistical sense) no bias
2. Actually implement “a jury of peers” for the accused. To do this a computer could still be involved in the selection process, but it could by definition not be random. To truly select a group of someones peers their profession, neighborhood, intelligence, financial information race, and general social position. Again once suitable jurors are selected the lawyers likely should not be allowed to reject potential jurors except in extreme cases when a juror could be proven to be overly-biased. Unfortunately this second approach would likely increase bias in the jury panel to acquit or find a verdict of not guilty, but at least that verdict would truly come from a selection of the accused peers.

In either of these cases one key element must also be changed: the compensation. Currently jury duty in Washington State pays a $10 per day stipend. This is unfortunately a valid reason for people to resent their civic duty - anyone making from minimum wage all the way up to the ultra rich has a reason to be insulted by this token gesture.

A more fair approach would be to either pay a percentage of the jurors normal salary (100% is not necessary, but perhaps 50% or 70% would be a fair approach), or require employers to pay for jury duty at a normal rate while removing the state compensation entirely. Both of these would cause financial burden (either to the state, or to employers) but would significantly reduce the bias introduced to juries by financial hardship.

The article also points out that the iPhone is far from dominant with only 2.2% of the total US cellphone market, although if you ask me that’s a pretty impressive feat having not been on the market a full year and costing $500. I find it interesting that the iPhone beats out all Windows Mobile phones (none of which even show up in the top 25), and is rapidly gaining on RIM’s Blackberry devices.

My first impressions are mostly positive. The PS3 obviously has a bit more horsepower under the hood than the Xbox 360 and sports a cleaner and more modern UI to boot. Unfortunately Sony seems to have made a few odd user experience choices, but overall I’m highly impressed. I have yet to toy with the PSP Remote Play functionality but I plan to dive deep into that in the coming weeks to see just what my new toy is capable of.

As far as games go I’ll likely still do the majority of my gaming on the Xbox 360 platform, but the Sony Store has a few interesting downloadable games - most notably is PixelJunk Monsters. Monsters is based on Element Tower Defense (which I’ve been addicted to before) but sports high def graphics, open gameplay levels, and even more addictive-like-crack gameplay. I lost a good 3 hours to it this afternoon and will likely spend much of the next few weeks trying to master each of its 20 levels - not too shabby for an under $10 purchase (console not included obviously).

My life is now complete: I have an electronic yodeling pickle on it’s way to my home as I type this. Thanks Shiny Shiny!

It’s Monday morning at 9am, I’ve already spent over 2 hours in my car, and I’m right off pissed off at the way my week is starting off. Hopefully the rest of the week will improve upon my currently dismal mood.

That day has finally come - my Lutron smart dimmers arrived, have been installed, and are now hooked into my Logitech Harmony home theater automation remote with great results. With a little help from Brien the dimmers are installed, and the wiring is now again safely hidden away behind nice looking wall plates.

The Lutron Maestro IR smart dimmer intelligently fades the lights up and down to preset levels at the touch of a button on my Harmony remote. With the track lights dimmed properly and pointed away from the TV screen it bathes my movie goers in soft warm light while avoiding distracting reflections on the TV.

Next up: painting the living room a darker color to help reduce light bounce around the room. The question has become deep midnight blue, or rich royal red?

Unfortunately I’m come to realize just how unorganized my photos were in iPhoto and am being forced to go on a holy reorganization quest - luckily a not quite as monumental now that I have Aperture to help me out. As a bonus I’m finding lots of old photos that with a little tweaking come out great. It’s like finding rough jewels in a mine, only I don’t have to get all dirty and sweaty - I can just dig away at my desk.

A new entry into my series of Two Union Square

I’m a week late with the post, but better late than never. My adult lighting project has finally made a major splash on my living room. The new track lighting offers beautiful even lighting for the seating area without casting reflections on the TV screen thus bringing my home theater one step further to completion (thanks Brien!).

Sadly it’s still not 100% complete - I’m still waiting on Seattle Lighting to deliver on the Lutron Maestro programmable dimmer switch that I ordered. Without the dimmer switch the lighting is somewhat unusable as the full on setting is almost blindingly bright. Once the dimmer switch arrives I can hook it in to the rest of my home theater automation and allow the lights in the house to dim when I go into movie mode with my Logitech Harmony programmable remote.

While on the topic I have a mixed review of Seattle lighting - they have an amazing selection and access to some equipment nobody else in Seattle can get, but on the flip side they have horrible customer service. I placed my order in late December and was told that my whole order would take 2 weeks (3 tops) to arrive. Nearly 3 months late the bulk had arrived, and now over three months later the last dimmer switch is still pending. I wouldn’t have minded so much, but they did a terrible job of managing my expectations - constantly telling me it would be ‘just a few more days’ every time I called in for status updates.

Oh yeah - and the transformer they sold me was bad. Good for them that they replaced it quickly, and not really their fault; but with bad taste in my mouth from the weeks of getting jerked around by their customer service it was really the arsenic and ass icing on the cake.

• There will be blood
• Michael Clayton
• Juno

In particular I need to see Juno - I’ve heard a majority of it was shot with the new motion version of my favorite camera lens, the Lensbaby.

Michael Clayton is already available for hi-def rental on my AppleTV so that should be an easy one. The other two have yet to be released so it may be a short while before I get the chance to see them. There will be blood is still technically in theaters so if I manage to get the motivation and energy up to leave the house this weekend I might still be able to catch it in the theaters.