What is more surprising than the fact that Ray’s films are universally accepted with open arms and considered timeless, is that a large part of the west is able to relate only to works of Satyajit Ray whenever cinema of India is discussed. Similar to how Satyajit Ray’s phenomenal body of work eclipses all other commendable efforts from the country, his own Apu trilogy overwhelms his other worthy films. Case in point – Mahanagar (1963).

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Seriously, if you were in grade school, middle school or High School at this time...was there anyone who didn't hang tight to their significant other during a "relatively" slow dance to this hit from the Thompson Twins?

Enjoy the video and enjoy reminiscing about your middle school sweetheart! ;)

When I saw that this was the randomly chosen issue for this week, I laughed. This is one of the rare instances where I actually have read the issue, and while it is certainly far from the ordinary, this is what makes it memorable. It has a seemingly normal opening; the Surfer is being watched by a mysterious figure as he travels to Earth to meet with the Avengers. While there, he discusses with Captain America the story of the being called Thanos. We learn of his past goals of ultimate destruction, and how near he came to attaining it. Surfer explains that Thanos has returned once more, and is plotting again, and Captain America advises him to go to Titan to discover more information.

While starting on a somber tone, the issue quickly “lightens up” as Norrin, en route to Titan, discovers his mysterious watcher: the Impossible Man. This issue was my first introduction to the Impossible Man (I’ve since read his first appearance in FF), but I found impossible not to like this zany character. Much of the issue is simply him trying to get Norrin to appreciate a sense of humor. And while his attempts seem futile, Impossible Man finally gets Norrin to at the very least see the value of humor, even if he doesn’t actually use it. (Or does he? The last two lines made me laugh the most.)

Of course, it helps that Ron Lim’s art really fits the tone of the book. He is able to both capture the nobility of the Surfer, and the crazy antics of Impossible Man. Somehow, he manages to allow the overall look to be both serious and cartoony. While this issue was undoubtedly a filler at its time of publication, it managed to be something rare: a filler that was thoroughly entertaining in its own right. I definitely recommend reading this if you ever get the chance.

Next week: Avengers 324

-LOTRKing

Yes. It's happened again -- another pump has gone down.

And I knew it would happen. Not because I have ESPN HD, but because yesterday my boss said "Wouldn't it be nice if you came in tomorrow and nothing broke down?!"

I have no doubt that BECAUSE he said that, something broke down. So again, I'm filthy, at the shop, rebuilding a pump.

I still hate those pumps.

One feature that has the potential to be particularly useful where I work is "Oracle Total Recall". It provides the facility to automatically capture all changes to any tables you choose, in a "secure, tamper proof" manner. This enables all changes to be easily tracked and viewed for historical, auditing, security control, etc. purposes.

Thought I might "introduce" Total Recall to those of you that may not have seen it in action and to offer an initial word of warning of a little trap one can easily fall into ...

One nice aspect with it all is that it's very easy to setup and configure.

To begin with, you need to create a storage area called a "flashback data archive" where all the historical changes can be stored, e.g.:

SQL> CREATE FLASHBACK ARCHIVE bowie_archive
        TABLESPACE total_recall_ts QUOTA 500m RETENTION 1 YEAR;

You simply specify the tablespace you wish to use, how much space within the tablespace you wish to allocate for archiving purposes and a retention period to specify how long to keep the archived data.

To create a table with the "Total Recall" change tracking capability, simply specify which flashback archive area to use:

SQL> CREATE TABLE bowie_recall (id number, text varchar2(20), hist_date date) FLASHBACK ARCHIVE bowie_archive;

Table created.

All changes to the table are now automatically tracked and archived and can easily be accessed as necessary. To illustrate, I'm just going to simply insert a row into the table.

SQL> insert into bowie_recall values (1, 'Bowie', sysdate);

1 row created.

SQL> commit;

Commit complete.

Sometime later, I perform an update on the row:

SQL> update bowie_recall
  2  set text = 'Ziggy', hist_date = sysdate
  3  where id = 1;

1 row updated.

SQL> commit;

Commit complete.

OK, so the current row basically looks like thus:

SQL> select id, text, to_char(hist_date, 'dd-mm-yyyy hh24:mi:ss') hist_date
         from bowie_recall;

  ID TEXT     HIST_DATE
---- -------- -------------------
   1 Ziggy    06-10-2008 10:09:55

However, if I want to see what the row looked like at a previous point in time, I can use the AS OF TIMESTAMP clause such as this:

SQL> select id, text, to_char(hist_date, 'dd-mm-yyyy hh24:mi:ss') hist_date
         from bowie_recall
         as of timestamp to_timestamp('2008-10-06 10:07:00',
                     'yyyy-mm-dd hh24:mi:ss')
         where id = 1;

  ID TEXT     HIST_DATE
---- -------- -------------------
   1 Bowie    06-10-2008 10:06:15

This is what the row looked like when it was initially inserted.

If I want to look at all the different versions of the row between any specific times of interest, I can write something such as this using the VERSIONS BETWEEN clause:

SQL> select id, text, to_char(hist_date, 'dd-mm-yyyy hh24:mi:ss') hist_date
         from bowie_recall
         versions between timestamp
         to_timestamp('2008-10-06 10:07:00', 'yyyy-mm-dd hh24:mi:ss')
         and sysdate
         where id = 1;

  ID TEXT     HIST_DATE
---- -------- -------------------
   1 Ziggy    06-10-2008 10:09:55
   1 Bowie    06-10-2008 10:06:15

It lists all versions of the rows between the two points of time ...

Like I said, very easy to setup and very easy to subsequently query.

One of the disadvantages however of enabling the tracking of changes to a table is that it prevents a number of subsequent operations on the table. For example, you can't simply drop a column:

SQL> alter table bowie_recall drop column status;
alter table bowie_recall drop column status
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-55610: Invalid DDL statement on history-tracked table

You also for example can't modify a column to say add a NOT NULL constraint:

SQL> alter table bowie_recall modify text not null;
alter table bowie_recall modify text not null
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-55610: Invalid DDL statement on history-tracked table

Now the trap ...

Oracle does however allow you to add any other type of constraint, such as say a Primary Key, without complaint:

SQL> alter table bowie_recall add primary key (id);

Table altered.

All well and good, except for when you want to now retrieve some of the historical changes from the table:

SQL> select id, text, to_char(hist_date, 'dd-mm-yyyy hh24:mi:ss') hist_date from bowie_recall versions between timestamp to_timestamp('2008-10-06 10:07:00', 'yyyy-mm-dd hh24:mi:ss') and sysdate where id = 1;
select id, text, to_char(hist_date, 'dd-mm-yyyy hh24:mi:ss') hist_date from  bowie_recall versions between timestamp to_timestamp('2008-10-06 10:07:00', 'yyyy-mm-dd hh24:mi:ss') and sysdate where id = 1
                                                                             *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01466: unable to read data - table definition has changed

Remember, one of the reasons for implementing Total Recall on a table is to implement a "tamper proof" data tracking solution and yet the addition of any constraint on a table (Primary Key, Unique Key, Foreign Key or Check Constraint) will cause you to be unable to automatically read the historical data, without directly accessing the underlining SYS_FBA_ archive tables.

Be careful with constraint management and the historical tracking of tables ...

Total Recall is of course all relatively new and these sorts of early glitches are to be expected. More on Total Recall later, including possible performance implications when both modifying and querying historical data.

Esta era la mia.

Y la azul la de mi hermano.

Y como no los pijos de la epoca no tenian las mismas que nosotros ellos tenian "UNA CHOPPER" con una palanca tipo cambio de coche que incluia dos velocidades era verla aparecer en las carreras y acojonarte.

Gremlins scared the everloving hell out of me as a kid. I was terrified of them; I used to take long, flying leaps into my bed at night for fear that the gremlins I imagined under my bed would come out and eat me or something. I rarely dream, but when I was a kid I remember having Gremlins-related nightmares every so often.

Laugh all you want - this movie was scary as all get out to me. I know everyone else loves it, but it's terrifying!

Come on, really. A guy named Billy gets a nice, sweet, innocent looking creature for Christmas from his semi-crazy daddy. Billy can't even follow the stupid care rules correctly: no bright light/sunlight; no feeding them after midnight; no exposure to water.

This...thing...is not cute. That is horrifying. Horrifying and awful.

What happens when you get a gremlin wet?

IT SPAWNS MORE OF THEM. I shudder, y'all, I shudder.

And what the hell happens when you're idiotic enough to feed a gremlin after midnight?

It's like the CHRISTMAS PRESENT FROM HELL. You get something nice and fluffy and it mutates into something horribly, horribly wrong. Steven Spielberg, what the hell?! This was the part that really got me as a kid; seeing the disgusting egg sac things and watching the evil Gremlins hatch was too much for an eight year old Caitlin to bear.

This is, as we all know, what hatches from those grotesque egg things, and let me just say: OHMIGOD. Not only is that thing just about my worst nightmare, it's also eating a Christmas cookie. It decapitated that poor gingerbread man - look, that Gremlin's mouth is smeared with the buttercream frosting of the innocent. Oh, the humanity!

Even worse, what was once a pleasant, semi-peaceful home is now turned upside down as the gremlins attempt to kill poor Billy's mother. I have to say, even with my dramatic, god-awful fear of gremlins, Billy's mom is kickass! She eviscerates one in her KitchenAid mixer, blows one up in the microwave, stabs one to death (hardcore, Billy's mom!) and is nearly mangled by one jumping out at her from the Christmas tree.

Steven Spielberg, I'd just like to say, thanks, thanks very much - for making me afraid of Christmas.

I...I...oh my god, the trauma. Spike scared the shit out of me when I was a kid; I lived in terror of Spike. As an adult, I'm no different - this thing still gives me the creeps. Look at it! It looks like the mutated, crackhead, punk rock version of George Burns, you guys. DO I LOOK LIKE I'M KIDDING?

Well, you can't actually see me (...er, at least I hope you can't), so DO I LOOK LIKE I'M TYPING LIKE I'M KIDDING?

As soon as the gremlins get green and gooey, they overrun the town. And sure, Billy and his girlfriend ride in to save the day. They get rid of every last gremlin! But then we're left with a charming voiceover from Billy's daddy warning us that if stuff starts breaking in our house, we should first check for gremlins before calling the repairman.

SOB.

Thank GOD the crazy Chinese man Billy's dad sorta stole Gizmo from comes back to reclaim him. THANK GOD.

Of course, there's a sequel so we know the Chinese dude's safekeeping thing doesn't hold for long. In fact, the gremlin that terrified me most isn't even in THIS movie; it's in Gremlins 2. Jesus Christ. I really don't know that I could make it through that one.

Sure, all of you view Gremlins fondly. I know. I KNOW. You all think it's funny and cute, and isn't the little Gizmo just so twee and adorable? And isn't it hilarious, all the gags they run with the gremlins singing along to Snow White and drinking in a bar?

To which I say: nay. Oh dear God, nay.

I think I need to lie down. Preferably, with a bottle of Stoli on ice. And a non-decorated, non-gingerbread cookie. I think I have to go cry now from reliving years of childhood trauma.

I need a hug like whoa, y'all.

If you need me, I'll be over here...in the fetal position, shivering.

EDITED TO ADD: Dude, Zach Galligan (Billy) has a damn blog!    A BLOG!  That's crazy, you guys!   ...And that's my story.

Its only been 5 years since this product was released, but the whole idea Upper Deck was shooting for never really caught on.  Every box of 2003 Upper Deck Classic Portraits contained 1 jersey, autograph or patch, 3 rookies, and 2 Hall of Fame cards.  The real interesting part about this product was that in every box there was 1 collectible bust.  These busts would be of current or retired players.  If you were lucky you could hit an autographed bust of a good player.  After 2003 you never saw this product come back.  Upper Deck did use the title "Portraits" for a few other sets but they did not include a bust.  Those contained autographed 8x10 photos.  The biggest rookie in the set is probably Brandon Webb.  I think if a company wants to include something like a bust in every box, I would stick with items fans are more familiar with, for example, baseballs, bats, and perhaps even bobbleheads.  I would love to see a product that features a bobblehead per box.  I wonder where Upper Deck even came up with the idea for a bust.  I mean there aren't any busts of players in the HOF.   Baseball Hall of Famers have plaques.  

P.S.

Apparently having a bobblehead in every box has been done already with the same results as the busts.  I still would like to see them make a comeback.

Sometimes we installed our trap in the hills near the country house in which we lived. Then, we had to stay hidden behind the trees, staring the trap, waiting for the next victim. Sometimes we caught some tortledoves, little quails or sparrows. Just once we were lucky enough to catch a partridge. The partridge was the biggest bird in our list and the quails were bigger than the tortledoves.

Later, after we returned to home, feeling ourself as expert hunters, we had to cook our catch and, of course, to eat it if the kind of bird was considered eatable.

During the first days in primary school, I found a picture of Leonardo (Da Vinci) in my textbook. He was buying birdcages on a market and freeing the caged birds. I couldn't understand it. "What a stupid!", I thought. Definitively,  he wasn't a hunter!

I have been doing well in regards to the PTSD. It has not been so easily triggered as it had once been. The voices of my ghost are distant and all but completely washed out. The Lord has brought me such a long way from where I had once been.

But every now and again a word, a whisper, an image, a thought, a memory breaks through. The trigger activates at first an emotion, then a secondary emotion emerges (usually anger), and then I invite all the madness and guilt it brings.

Today the trigger was a letter found while cleaning out my files. It held a dialogue of accusations, excuses, and underlined the mantra that we as good Christians do not address or face issues, problems, or sins, but "forgive" and talk about them in secret behind our brother or sister's back. The first emotion to emerge was sadness followed by a desperation to explain to those who are forever unwilling to listen that this is not how the Bible teaches us to deal with in-house problems. A few more memories slipped through, but before it could take handle, I realized -by the grace of God- exactly what it was doing; bringing me to a place of idolatry.

Sometimes I forget how addictive the hurt is, or just how sweet melancholy is on the tongue. Sometimes I forget how my God and my King is ever and always enough; that this other stuff is just simply garbage. The memories will always be with me. Unlike my files, those are things that I will never be able to purge from my life, but this is not a curse alone.

The memories serve to remind me how my Lord and Savior is greater than any man or woman who proclaim that their cult religion is all that defines god. The memories serve to remind me of how my Master plucked me from the teeth of jackals and lions and laid me to rest at His feet. The memories serve to show me that it was by His GRACE through Faith by which I have been Saved -once and for all, preserved, and kept.

The beautiful madness and the twisted longing for old things is cruel and wicked. The desire to fall back on old habbits and to journey down old paths is simply my foolish flesh rising to rebel against the things of the Spirit. But I am not longer a slave to my flesh, but a slave to Jesus Christ. In Him I am free.

And if in Him I am free, why should I choose to be once again bound to that which I hate the most? The Christian life isn't easy, but in Christ I find the empowerment to walk where He leads. And so these emotions that come from a deceptive heart shall be as that letter, placed in the garbage and put behind me.

My ashes for His Beauty -which is never cruel.

I honestly couldn't think of a title for this entry, so there you go.

There was a time, boys and girls, when your old pal Dave here was young and ambitious. No, seriously! I was attending a local community college and working on my AA in Advertising Design but during that time, Ann pointed out to me that I had taken most of the classes required to earn a certificate in Technical Writing. When it came time to make "The Decision" of choosing between work and continuing school, work ended up winning but I did manage to make it out with my certificate--and a really bad college ID card. And I think I still have my art box filled with Primacolor markers, pencils hanging in hardness from 8H to 8B, Rapdiograph pens...ah, good times.

So anyway, before I chose to make a mockery of my skills by attending college, I was an avid artist. I drew whenever I could to stay sharp: cartoon characters, three-point perspectives, etc. The ability to draw was always in me, handed down in genes from my Uncle Ben who was originally contacted by Walt Disney himself to be an artist for this crazy place he imagined called Disneyland. (Uncle Ben eventually refused and worked on his own.)

As proof of my artistic prowess, I offer a shot of one of the few projects I am actually proud of that always seems to make its way from the darkest depths of the garage this time of year. The image at the top of the page is something I threw together over two days back in 1996 and was based on a vintage Hallowe'en decoration my mom gave me a few years prior. (To see more from the same era and possibly set, click here. I dig old Hallowe'en decorations!)

I started out by sketching the image--I never, ever traced--onto a piece of wood then cutting it on a scroll saw. Naturally, I had to drill holes, remove and re-attach the blade to cut the openings for the eyes, mouth and nose. Once the cutting was complete, I slathered the wood with Gesso and let it dry.

From that point it was a matter of eyeballing the thing determining the dominant colors and in this case, they were black, orange and yellow (as are most Hallowe'en decorations--duh!) Once the dominant colors were painted, I went back and painted the detail colors, then used fine- and medium-point black Sharpies for the highlights. I then coated it with a protectant to that it wouldn't be exposed to the elements and some 12 years later, it's still holding up.

After all that I decided to drill a hole in the bottom for a stick so that it could be stuck in the ground (or potted plant) for display.

So as you can tell, I have very unconventional techniques when it comes to creating art or something like it. I guess that explains why I never truly continued to pursue my degree, but it's always nice to see this jack o' lantern and be reminded of when I was a little more dedicated to art. In fact, I'm considering doing something similar this year with Jack Skellington and company this year but I'm not too sure.

Stay tuned in case anything changes. And let's go Dodgers!

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Nato con il C64 e cresciuto con l'AMIGA 500, quante ore incollato al televisore :)

Per i nostalgici, ecco un bel video, con alcuni dei migliori giochi per questi indimenticabili computer.

AMIGA

C=64

Another world, moonstone, indiana jones, alien breed, flashback, The last ninja, IK+, troppi, troppi da citare.

Questi sì che erano giochi programmati con amore :)

Min første innskytelse var å legge ut et bilde fra park- og festningsområdet Kalemegdan i Beograd, hvor det er masse menn som spiller sjakk på oppsatte bord, og med en drøss folk (menn OG kvinner) som står rundt og ser på. Da kunne jeg sagt noe om hvordan Kalemegdan fungerer som hele Beogradfamiliens langbord og skrevet en lang og hyggelig og fristende post. Men bildet var til min store sorg bare tatt med mobilkamera og dermed ikke egnet for særlig størrelse, så den posten får vente.

Deretter kom jeg på dette bildet.

Det er tatt i byen Kazbegi i Georgia, helt i nord langs GMH, blant de øverste husene i fjellsida opp mot Tsminda Sameba (treenighetskirka) som ligger helt på toppen. Det var til sistnevnte vi skulle. Men siden Ståles eget bilde som svar på denne utfordringa også var tre menn som sosialiserer uten så mye mål og mening (?) tenkte jeg at dette blir kanskje litt for likt hans? Derfor er ikke dette heller svaret mitt på utfordringa. Men jeg fikk en fin unnskyldning for å publisere det likevel, ikke sant?

Her er min tolkning av medmenneskelighet:

Bildet er tatt bare for noen dager siden. Jeg tror ikke jeg skal si så mye mer, egentlig. Selv om det ikke er teknisk genialt uttrykker det dog for meg akkurat den formen for medmenneskelighet som jeg gjerne ville svare med. Hverdagslig men reell.

Jeg utfordrer Serendipitycat, Petter og Delirium.

In 1929, Dziga Vertov came with the amazing Man with a Movie Camera, perhaps the first film of its kind, which served primarily as a showcase of cinema’s abilities and uniqueness. It was just one man’s celebration of his recording instrument and his passion for documenting the world as it is. Larger in scope and execution than Man with a Movie Camera, Koyaanisqatsi (1982) remains an unparalleled movie experience for all film buffs, reminding us once again the magic of the medium.

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Imagination were brilliant lol. They were theatrical and oh so camp!

Loved them!

'Body Talk' (Circa 1981)

'Just An Illusion' (Circa 1982)

I wonder where they are now?

But it wasn’t until recently, reading Mark’s gospel in the New Testament, that I saw how beautifully structured a Bible chapter can be. Verily, I speak of flashbacks.

Momentous events occur in Mark’s brief sixth chapter. Jesus performs two famous miracles, feeding 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fishes; and he walks on water, strolling past a ship that’s struggling against a headwind on the Sea of Galilee. Yet what stayed with me was the artful placement of a scene that transitions into another scene set in the recent past. The passage has emotional richness and drama, and it foreshadows Jesus’ fate.

The essay is structured like this. First, Jesus goes about preaching in the synagogues “and many hearing him were astonished”—offended—because he’s just a carpenter and they know his humble family. (It’s the recurring theme Who does he think he is?) Jesus responds to their unbelief with the “prophet without honor” line and leaves for the villages to teach and heal. Second, he gives his twelve disciples their marching orders, basically to tell people to repent but to expect rejection (which he tells them to handle angrily, I must say—but, again, we readers have knowledge the extras don’t). Third, setting up the flashback with a scene, King Herod gets word of the revival and says Jesus is John the Baptist, returned to life. Herod’s courtiers try to comfort him, saying He’s just a prophet; or It’s the devil. No, Herod says, “It is John, whom I beheaded: he is risen from the dead.”

Exposition explains Herod’s guilty conscience: “For Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John, and bound him in prison” for his wife’s sake. His wife was first his brother’s wife, and John had told Herod not to marry her. John’s edict made her so mad she wanted him not just jailed but killed. In the flashback we see how she maneuvered Herod into separating John from his head. It involves a sexy damsel’s alluring dance and Herod’s folly in making a loose-tongued promise in front of his vengeful wife. At the end, we’ve got the resurrection theme; and we understand Herod’s character—a threat to this new holy man. The narrative timeline resumes with the apostles reporting back to Jesus on their mission work. Next: miracles.

The ages have burned much fat from biblical narratives, and what’s left has poetic compression. But I was sore amazed at how deftly Mark 6 tucks in the resonant Herod scene and flashback. In this chapter, narrative, theme, and structure work elegantly together within the New Testament’s larger story.

(Incidentally, for my amusement this post is structured like the classic five-paragraph freshman theme: introduction and thesis; three developing support paragraphs; and a conclusion. I know, it has six paragraphs. Don’t be a fundamentalist: I could have stuck the second paragraph thesis statement into the introduction, but this is a blog.)

Approx 2 years ago I was working at a Real Estate and I mentioned on a previous post about how I had gone out the back to use the facilities and had come across a fairly large lizard/goanna that scared me half to death and then continued to scare me for weeks afterwards whenever I went outside.

Yesterday I had a strange flashback. My boss called me over to the door that leads to wear the bathrooms are located. We have a warehouse and the roller door remains open 90% of the time and guess what had come back to re-scare me all over again. Another lizard. Staring directly at me. Eventually it just went away and we couldn't find it in the warehouse anymore. After a few of the staff tried to scare me by pretending the lizard had entered reception I eventually got over it.

As I was leaving work and reversing I felt a bump.

Weird.

As I reversed further I realise that I had in fact run over the lizard. Part of me was kind of glad that the lizard (probably the same one from 2 yrs ago) was gone, part of me felt really bad for killing an animal. But most of the feelings I had were just gross feelings as I probably broke all his bones and all his insides were starting to come out.

I parked somewhere else this morning.