http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/ "A tradition of excellence for ___ years, and a tradition of mediocrity for even longer." en-US Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:28:47 +0200 Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:28:47 +0200 Blog.com http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3359574/ http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3359574/ For awhile I thought I was losing my edge. I was making too many mistakes in sudoku puzzles. Occasionally I can fix them but usually I give up. So I wasn't finishing a lot of the daily puzzles, even relatively easy ones, due to carelessness or sloppiness or a combination of the two (if they are in fact different). But last night, everything changed. I took on the Globe Magazine puzzle which, on the face of it, looked quite difficult--only 22 of 91 boxes were filled and I've never completed a puzzle with fewer filled boxes though there are other measures of difficulty as well. I started it late and didn't have time to finish. Normally I don't carry a puzzle over from one day to the next owing to my chronic Sudoku backup problem but this time I did. And tonight during Nightline, while Barack Obama toured Iran and was asked to concede that he was wrong about the surge, I had a surge of my own and knocked off the Globe Magazine puzzle. After this triumph, I've stopped worrying about my IQ. Or rather I'm now worrying that it might be too high. Snake Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:05:26 +0200 http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3357288/ http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3357288/ Last week I saw the acclaimed caper flick, The Bank Job. As the name suggests, it's a familiar kind of tale--one that's been done in many different ways but usually to similar effect. The thing that got me about this movie [SPOILER ALERT!!!] was that it had a surprisingly happy ending that I didn't see coming and was totally unearned. The so-called "hero" (played by Jason Stratham) brings his friends and buddies in on this sweet deal, and gets a couple of them get killed--at least two in brutal fashion. The hero gets to have an hour-and-50 minute flirtation with Saffron Burrows (who had a thing with James Spader in an elevator once upon a time), make off with all kinds of bootie, make up with his wife and kids, and take them off on a yacht in a warm sunny place. Good for him, but what about the rest of his gang? Note: If a friend like this ever calls you, just say you're busy. Make sure you're out of head-butting range. And then call in for the reward. Snake Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:01:55 +0200 http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3347599/ http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3347599/ Granted, I did not see the movie under ideal conditions. For one thing, I started it really late because I worked really late and by the time I started it I was already quite tired. Also I was working on the Globe sudoku at the time, which is generally rather difficult on Saturday and given that I was tired to start with, I had to work even harder than usual to finish the puzzle. But casting all that aside, I didn't like what I say in the first hour of I'M NOT THERE. Frankly, I couldn't see the point of having all these different people playing different aspects of Bob Dylan (and poorly at that), including a little boy who, frankly, looked like a littie boy but talked like he was a man who'd been all over. Then there was Cate Blanchett who supposedly played one of the Dylans too, but wasn't fooling anybody. Nor was anybody else. (Fooling anybody, that is.) I did not make it through much of the movie, but in the little I did see I did not see anything that held my interest, anything to recommend itself, including Blanchett's celebrated turn. Snake Sun, 20 Jul 2008 23:41:22 +0200 http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3337657/ http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3337657/ I recently saw part of Nightline, which I sometimes end up seeing when I don't turn off the TV fast enough after the sports and weather come on at about 11:30. For once, Nightline was not doing a story about how expensive gas had become and what people were doing about it (i.e., installing extra-large tanks in their pickup trucks and driving to Mexico to fill up their vehicles). This time they had a segment on a guy called the "Sound Tracker"--one of the world's premier recorders of nature's sounds and a champion for what's called "quietude." I wrote a couple of articles on the subject, and about the Sound Tracker, for Omni Magazine about 15 years ago; we'd talked over the phone many times but I'd never seen him before, as he's based in Washington state, so that was kind of interesting. Even more interesting was the fact that this guy, whose whole life revolved around sound, became deaf for a brief period due to some sort of viral infection. But fortunately he regained his hearing and is back to doing what he does best--capturing rare sounds and trying to protect quiet places. Snake Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:01:44 +0200 http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3332242/ http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3332242/ By chance I happened upon an article called "Fishing in the Norton Rings" that I'd forgotten all about. I wrote it 11 years ago for a long-defunct magazine, Omni, about a wild artist and his band of scientist friends who planned to search for life (in the form of microbes from human waste products) in outer space. A fan of Omni took it upon himself to create a website in homage to his favorite magazine, which is where the article (and many others I penned) can be found. It was only 11 years ago but--dating back to before my children were born--it seems much longer, almost a lifetime ago. Snake Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:39:48 +0200 http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3329589/ http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3329589/ It's not often I laugh out loud while listening to the radio--especially during work--but a clip I just heard from Chris Rock did get to me. "Who's more racist, black people or white people?" Rock asked. "Blacks, because we hate black people too." Snake Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:33:17 +0200 http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3327054/ http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3327054/ Physicists and mathematicians will go to great lengths to avoid talking to me about the book I'm currently working on, and I'm gettting pretty much used to it. But today a geometer pulled a stunt I haven't seen before. Midway into our conversation he got kind of quiet and was fumbling around. A few seconds later I heard a loud beeping sound. "That's the fire alarm," he said matter-of-factly. "I gotta run." Snake Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:37:16 +0200 http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3324094/ http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3324094/ For years, a friend used to ask for my top 10 movie lists. He stopped asking, but I haven't stopped making lists. So here are my top 10 movie selections for I'm not sure what year. I'm pretty sure all these movies came out in 2007 but I didn't see them until 2008 when they came out on video. So let's call it the 10 Best of 2007/2008:

Once
Away from Her
Margot At the Wedding
Broken English
The Savages
Starting Out in the Evening
Juno
Into the Wild
Talk to Me
Broken Trail Snake Sun, 13 Jul 2008 13:09:59 +0200 http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3322296/ http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3322296/ Most people who get to a place as beautiful as Martha's Vineyard stick around if given a chance. But I'm not most people. I left after a fews days to get back to working on my book plus another short-term project that's due soon. Twenty hours after returing to Boston, that's seeming like a dumber and dumber move.

Most people relax on a place as beautiful as Martha's Vineyard. But I'm not most people. I went from biking to swimming to blading to swimming and kept it up all day long. I was moving so fast, I almost didn't make it off the Island. First I decided to try to get from the house we were staying in in Edgartown to the Oak Bluffs ferry in 20 minutes by bike, & my bike was weighed down with gear. But I was racing so fast along the bike path, I didn't realize until it was too late that I had missed the the turnoff for Oak Bluffs and was instead heading to Vineyard Haven. So I missed that boat by sheer stupidity but caught the next one. Upon leaving the boat, I could have waited 12 minutes for the bus but instead decided to ride three miles to the bus stop in Falmouth which I figured I could do in 12 or 15 minutes. But again I was moving so fast that I went clear past the bus station and only realized my mistake when I reached the satellite parking lot. I then raced back to the bus station and caught the bus. But there was no room for my bicycle and the driver said I should have gotten on at Woods Hole when the bus was empty. Somehow I managed to squeeze my bike into a compartment that was too small for a bike and I got back to Boston, safe and sound. I took my time on the bike ride to Cambridge.

Now I'm here working (and not getting much done) while the rest of my family is enjoying the beaches of Martha's Vineyard. And I only have one person to blame for that. Well actually three people: me, myself, and I. Snake Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:50:42 +0200 http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3295060/ http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3295060/ It's that time of year and Call Me Snake will be taking a brief siesta as I go off to Martha's Vineyard and hobnob with fellow "Deciders" like myself. (I might even say hi to Bill Clinton if I'm not too busy working on the old suntan.) Years ago, when I was a mere youth, I used to go to the island with little more than a bike, swimsuit, and a sleeping bag and camp out for a few dollars a night near a tiny airstrip in the middle of nowhere. Well, the times have changed. Now I'm going with little more than a bike, swimsuit, and a sleeping bag and this  time I'm going to camp out for free in someone's back yard (or living room floor). That's what Deciders do. Snake Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:14:36 +0200