I arrived into Scotts Valley this afternoon in a bit of a daze. I didn’t sleep during the 14 hours from Sydney to LA, then didn’t eat in LA while waiting for my connecting flight to San Jose (which in hindsight was a mistake, even with airport food. I should have forced myself to eat something. Sitting in the lounge, my head was spinning like when you lay down to sleep while still drunk. But my eyes were open and I was sober. Freaky!)

Fell asleep before the little prop-jet took off and woke up an hour later as the wheels touched down in San Jose. Chalk up 1 hour sleep in 24, woohoo!, and for the next hour or so while I drove up 17 to get to Scotts Valley and checked into the hotel I felt pretty good. But then I saw the bed and the reptilian brain took over, driving me under the covers.

Fortunately, I had the foresight to organise a wake up call for 6pm, as I really wanted to go listen to Rudy Rucker talk at the Capitola Book Cafe. As hard as it was to drag myself up after only 3 hours sleep, it was worth it. He read from Mathematicians In Love for 30 minutes or so, then took questions.

While answering the questions, I noticed a few times he was talking about the characters in the book as if he was an observer, and not the author. He’d say things like “That character was really cool” or “she’s really funny”, as if these characters weren’t his creations.

When I asked him about this, he basically said that when he’s writing and really firing, that’s what it’s like. That when you are really focussed and working on the absolute limit of your capabilities, it’s impossible to predict what’s going to come out. Impossible because by definition, if you are working at the edge of your capabilities, then you don’t have the spare cycles to look forward, it comes out the same moment you think it. (Hmmm, his explanation seemed to have more poetry than this paragraph. Guess that’s why he’s the author)

This struck me as such a great explanation for the zone you get into, if you’re lucky, when writing code. Have you ever come up for air after some intensive coding and had a moment of almost-surprise at something you’ve created, some algorithm or pattern or structure, almost as if you didn’t realise that you created it? It’s in those rare moments, the “narcotic moments of creative bliss” as he called them (quoting from some movie I must now try and see) that all the frustrating, boring, repetitive parts of software development fall away and I’m reminded why I’d still write code even if I won the lottery.

My soul is somewhere over the Pacific, I’m tired (and will be for a few more days yet) and have a dull headache, but sitting here in my hotel room unable to sleep, that thought makes me smile.

Update : Rudy blogged about the reading here, including photos (you’ll recognise me by the suitcases under my eyes).

We were in Canberra on Saturday, and amongst other things, we popped in to the National Museum to see the Behind The Lines exhibition.

David Hicks – Jonathon Bentley – Courier-Mail, 3 August 2006
This is an exhibition of the best Australian political cartoons of 2006. The best of them were funny and thought provoking and it was quite an enjoyable way to review the year’s events in 30 minutes or so, via the medium of cartoons.

Tomb of the unknown soldier – Mark Knight – Herald Sun, 28 April 2006
You can see them online here, but if you’re in Canberra I’d recommend you go along to see them. Even though in the paper you might glance at them and move on, it seems like the minute you put them in a frame and hang them in a gallery, you pay them more respect and attention.

Lifeguard on duty – Mark Knight – Sun Herald, 13 December 2005

This isn’t a terrible film, but it’s a long way from being a good one.

On the plus side, it’s sumptuous to look at: the costumes, the locations, even the food are all dazzlingly beautiful. Also, the soundtrack works pretty well most of the time. The Banshees’ Hong Kong Garden somehow seems to fit during the masked ball in Paris, even the opening bars played on the Harpsichord. Further, the footage of Kirsten Dunst wondering around the fields of wildflowers in the fading sunlight I think captures the feeling of New Order’s Ceremony quite perfectly. You could cut this out and release it as a music video as is.

On the negative side…well, where do I start? To follow from the last point above, too much of the film is edited like a music video. There are so many quick-cut shots of shoes, clothes, wigs and food that it felt at times like an advertisement for a shopping mall.

Even worse, whole sections of the plot are developed and not taken anywhere. One section in particular, which I won’t go into detail of for fear of spoiling what little enjoyment there is in the plot, is built up quite skillfully and you really feel that this is heading to a major point in the film, then it just stops and doesn’t get used further.  

While I was glad when the ending came, as I was getting quite frustrated with it, I was surprised that it ended when it did. The story wasn’t finished by any stretch, but even what little plot they had developed had not been taken anywhere. There was a real feeling of confusion amongst the people I saw it with when the credits suddenly appeared. I heard more than one person say something to the effect of "Oh, is that it?".

So, get the soundtrack, but only see this for the visuals, and even then, see it on DVD so you can pause\rewind sections of it for a better look.

Back at the end of October I was in Japan for work. One morning I was reading one of the English language newspapers over breakfast when I came across a story written by Neil Gaiman for Halloween. I’ve enjoyed a number of his novels and Sandman is one of my fave graphic novels, so I ripped it out of the paper, intending to read it on the flight home.

Of course, I never did, and while sorting out my expense claims today I came across the article tucked in amongst various receipts. I read it tonight and loved it. It’s an odd mixture of seemingly non-fiction memories of childhood Halloween nights, mixed in with mini-fictions. The story of the suicidal blogger gave me a chill, and it’s only a few paragraphs long.
I’ve searched around tonight and I think this link should work without requiring you to login. It’ll only take you a few minutes to read, but I recommend it.

I saw the tail-end of this video on Rage awhile back, but missed both who it was and the name of the song. I’ve just stumbled across it again. Pure pop wonderfulness, I can feel my teeth rotting each time I listen to it. Perfect!

One of my colleagues sent this through to me, thinking he’d discovered my secret, after-hours identity. I have to admit, the photo on the first page looks scarily familiar, but the others aren’t so close.

I mean, c’mon, how different can two chubby, bald, white guys with goatees really look?

I’ve been eyeing off one of these since last year at Borcon in the US when Jason Vokes spoke so glowingly about his. There are other Network Music Players around, but as well as the usual features, this one is just so damn pretty.

Well, finally it arrived yesterday 🙂

I’m on holidays from later this week, so am looking forward to getting this set up. Looking forward less to re-ripping all those CD’s at higher quality, but it’s a small price to pay I guess.

Our Tivo has totally changed how we watch TV, I’m hoping this will have the same effect on how we listen to music. I’ve got boxes of CD’s that I rarely listen to, this will hopefully change that.

And hey, you’ve got to love a new toy that comes with an SDK 🙂

Getting in the mood of the season, so thought I’d post my favourite Christmas song of all time. It was always sure to bring a tear to my eye when played late on a drunken Christmas Eve, probably more so since Kirsty McColl was killed.

Probably one for after the kiddies have gone to bed though

http://www.contactmusic.com/new/home.nsf/webpages/thepoguesx12x12x05

People have been putting short messages, and even images, in their instant messenger display names for awhile now, but the last week or two is the first time I’ve seen poetry.

One of my Borland colleagues in China is obviously enjoying autumn in Shanghai as he has been waxing poetic via his IM sign-on name. Yesterday’s was my favourite:

"leaves are golden, I drive over them carefully. sky is blue, I drive under it happily" – Dali Xue

Nice one Dali, made me smile all morning.