The Long Road

Archives: June 2005

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

I'm not currently drunk, but I was talking about the following topic while drunk. Seemed like something worth blogging about. Ready? Steady...GO!

The price we pay for goods is not directly proportional to the quality of the goods. That is, a car that's twice as expensive as another car is not twice as good. In fact, I suggest that the cost/quality relationship likely resembles a logarithmic curve. For the less mathematically inclined, you can see a log here. As you can see, the curve rises quickly near the axis but then starts to grow much more slowly as x increases.

So, if we say that the x-axis is price and the y-axis is quality (assuming that there is an objective way of quantifying quality) then our value per dollar is increasingly decreasing after a certain point. I expect that most products have huge increases in quality near the lower price ranges but once you get to the truly expensive, large amounts of money start to make smaller and smaller differences in noticeable quality. The difference between a 10$ wine and a 100$ wine is likely to be huge and noticeble by most people. The difference between 100$ and 500$ wines, on the other hand, will not be appreciated by non-connaisseurs

Personally, I think I stand somewhere on the right of the best value/dollar point. I usually don't mind paying a little bit more for quality.

The logarithm also applies to lots of other things! For example, if you're 50 lbs overweight, it's dead easy to lose the first 30 (just eat less), much harder to lose the next 10 (eat less + exercise!), and insanely hard to lose the last 10 (change your entire lifestyle!).

Posted by Rayne @ 02:29 AM EST [Link] [3 comments]

Sunday, June 26, 2005

degree
$100 frame that my parents bought
composite of St.Jerome's graduates
picture of math grads at the steps of MC
sleeve for those two pictures
giant composite of CS grads
sju mug
picture of me they took in first year
coin/bookmark
uw pin
guide to real life
convocation program
spare ticket to convocation
and from my parents, some bling

Posted by Rayne @ 11:35 PM EST [Link] [7 comments]

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Gift shops are all the same. That is the realization that came to me as I was looking around in the maritimes for souvenirs for people. They all feature, more or less, the same merchandise but with different words/pictures on them. And besides, does anyone really know what to do with these useless knick knacks? All that they're good for is being displayed for a few weeks and then thrown into some box to be stored in our unfinished basements until some day when we'll need the box and the knick knack gets thrown out. Just what in the hell are you going to do with a set of spoons that say "New Brunswick", "Quebec", "Nova Scotia", and "Prince Edward Island" on them anyways?

I sorta felt pressure that I should be buying souvenirs for people. I really disliked the feeling of "hmm..what could I get personX". The feeling I DO like is stumbling onto something and thinking "wow, personX would really like this". Much like the 1 liter Keith's Thundermug I ran into at the brewery. I KNEW Phong would like that since he's such a big Keith's fan. It was a unique item that appealed to his interests instead of random knick knack that he might display on his desk for a while. I wish all gifts were like that. Why do I feel like I should get someone something when I dont see anything that I think they'll like and use anyways?

I wish everyone had something obvious that I could buy them. Like Doug, who has a shot glass collection (you'll get your surprise-souvenir on friday, mein freund). Or me! Buying me comics is a huge no-brainer - although I probably already own the comic you're thinking of getting me. I also gotta wonder, is buying the "obvious" thing a cop-out? Is buying Anne another picture frame for her collection just another way of saying "well, I couldn't find anything better"?

I suppose that the gifts you receive are a sign of how well someone knows you. Movies and books are fairly standard things for me to receive, but I think it's been rather rare that I've received a movie or book that I've been dying to watch/read. I suppose it's hard to extrapolate what someone would like to read/watch based on what you know of them.

The most thoughtful gift I think I've ever received was a sketchbook. It wasn't one of those "obvious" things. It was something someone bought me because we had discussed art and I was often seen doodling on scrap paper (ie: course notes) in class. A sketchbook wasn't really something I would buy myself because I'm not really that serious about art but as a gift, it was pretty awesome. 3 years later, I'm still using the thing.

Posted by Rayne @ 02:44 AM EST [Link] [6 comments]

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Batman Begins is pretty good. It is truer to the characters of Bruce Wayne and Batman than any other previous film ever was and is finally a purely serious take on the franchise. We FINALLY get to see that he does in fact have a dual identity – the foppish Bruce that’s maintained to facilitate Batman’s existence. It made me happy to know that the filmmakers realized that Bruce Wayne was now the mask. (see this entry)

A lot has been made about how the movie tries to make everything as believable as possible, from all the bat-gear to the crazy kind of person that would be needed to put on a batsuit. And it does succeed for the most part, almost everything has a logical explanation that only requires the littlest bit of suspension of disbelief on your part to make it work. But I wonder how necessary that is. In Batman 1, Joker wondered where Batman got all this wonderful toys, but it didn’t make a difference to the movie at all – I can easily accept that an ultra rich and ultra smart guy could get his hands of this kind of thing. Seeing him acquire all his stuff, however, is fun fun fun.

As with any adaptation, I have gripes with what was changed and made inferior to the original. My biggest complaint is the character of Ra’s Al Ghul. In the comics, Ra’s is an immortal man who is bent on cleansing the world of 90% of the human population since he sees man as the biggest threat to itself and the planet. I honestly think that that makes a far more interesting goal than what we were presented with. But, overpopulation isn’t really a problem that we acknowledge in real life.

The entire cast, especially Bale, is amazing (the batvoice is corny). Never in the Batman movies have so many of the supporting characters even been this close to interesting. The only exception is Katie Holmes who’s in the movie because they need some kind of love story and female character to attract the female demographic. Would it be so wrong to have a superhero movie that doesn’t involve a love story of some kind? Also, movie-Batman has got to stop revealing his secret identity to every leading actress in his movies. It’s dumb. I think Holmes’ role should have been filled by a man and his name changed to Harvey Dent. That way, they could eventually turn the incorruptible D.A. into Two-Face. But maybe they’ve thought of this already and are planning on making Katie Holmes Two-Face, that would be…interesting.

What I would eventually like to see is a Batman movie focusing on the fact that he’s smarter and more clever than anyone on Earth. I want to see him going around solving crimes since he’s the World’s Greatest Detective. I want him to eventually become the ultra-prepared, super-paranoid, emotionally aloof nutjob who decides that Bruce Wayne is unnecessary. But that’s such a pipedream, that kind of superhero movie doesn’t get made when they all cost +100M$.

And now for something mildly different…

Internet reaction to the movie has been really positive, and deservedly so. What really bugs me though is when people declare excitedly that this isn’t a “comicbook movie”. Yes, this movie is trying harder than any of the other superhero films before it (maybe except Hulk) to be taken seriously but Fuck! Off! “comicbook movie” is not a genre, nor does such a self-deprecating and inane comparison speak favourably of one’s own interest in the medium. To say that it’s not a “comicbook movie” is like trying to take away the fact that this movie is indeed based on the Batman character, created by Bob Kane in the 30s to be syndicated in comic books, and who has become one of the oldest, most recognizable, and most profitable fictional characters ever. Not to mention that after 60+ years, he still has new stories told about him every month.

Anyways, “Superhero movie” would be the correct terminology, “comicbook movie” would include such dramas as Road to Perdition, Ghost World, and From Hell. To be based on a comic book does not have to mean brightly coloured good guy clashes with brightly coloured bad guy. Comic books can deliver characters as complex, emotions as vivid, and plots as intricate as any other medium out there. Reading them does not have to lead to an inferiority complex damnit!!!

Posted by Rayne @ 01:34 AM EST [Link] [15 comments]

Thursday, June 9, 2005

One of the greatest aspects of travelling is being able to try foods from different places. On our trip, we made a somewhat conscious effort to eat stuff that wasn’t available where we come from. It’s a difficult proposition without knowing off hand which restaurants are interesting – it would have been nice to have a local in each city showing us around and telling us where to eat, travel books can be hit-and-miss. Another difficulty is the widespread visibility of chains and franchises. Most large (and, I guess, small) cities look very similar when you’ve got Tim’s, McD’s, etc around every corner (shopping is a similar experience). Thirdly, when you come from a metropolitan area, you can pretty much get any kind of food you want (although, I despair at Ottawa’s lack of a good sushi place) – so it makes it a bit more difficult to get something unique, the best you can usually hope for is getting something that you’ve had before but infinitely better.

[more]

Posted by Rayne @ 02:10 AM EST [Link] [21 comments]

Monday, June 6, 2005

While in Old Quebec City, I ran into an Archambault - a french chain for video, music, and books. I had actually been looking to go to one for a while now since I knew they stocked some BD (Bande Dessine (comics/graphic novels)).

Sure enough, upon looking around, they had an entire wall of the stuff! Actually, they only had a somewhat small collection of the books I was looking for. Most of their comics were of the Tin Tin, Asterix variety while I was more looking for the recent sci-fi books that I've read so much about. But regardless, I was more happy about finding comics in their original french language than I was dissapointed about not finding specific books.

What really got my blood pumping though was the huge amount of French DVDs available. Almost everything I remember watching as a child, and tons of stuff I had forgotten about, were available in DVD box sets. Stuff like Les Mysterieuses Cite d'Or, Ini Mini Magi Mo, and Maya l'Abeille. I suppose they're around due to the same nostalgia wave that hit a few years ago. Frankly, it never really occured to me that this stuff was out there.

Upon returning to Ottawa, I rechecked Archambault's website and they have finally opened a store in Gatineau! When I have the time (and money), I will be going there and reclaiming bits of my childhood, one dvd at a time!

Posted by Rayne @ 11:27 PM EST [Link] [12 comments]

Thursday, June 2, 2005

for your amusement [more]

Posted by Rayne @ 02:23 AM EST [Link] [11 comments]

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