Evan Dodds – Non-work-related blog

I was pleased to read in the PI the other morning that Microsoft is working with Demetri Martin (the Daily Show host of the somewhat-regular “Trendspotting” feature) to make some of the marketing/advertising funny for Vista. Here’s the article.

This is great, and badly needed. Some folks like the current ads, and some folks don’t. Suffice it to say I’m glad to see someone with a great sense of humor getting a role in all of this. Plus, it’s only fair that MS gets some Daily Show correspondent-visibility now that Apple is working the heck out of poor John Hodgman. I can only hope the MS spots are as funny as (some of) the PC vs Mac spots are!

Interesting commentary on the demise of Arrested Development from Wendell Wittler of MSNBC.

He makes the good point that “where would it go from here, anyway”. I suppose he’s right. It’s run its course, and the ending was pretty satisfying (to me, at least).

I eagerly await the upcoming release of the 3rd season DVD pack. Heckuva show.

Saw Aeon Flux the other day. Was a bit confused about the plot, even after reading about it online. That’s about all there is to say about that. 

Jodi and I watched The Constant Gardener last weekend. We had high hopes since Rachel Weisz won for her performance as Tessa Quayle. It was a decent movie, but not quite up to my expectations.

It seemed a little bit jumbled to me. They focused on AIDS and how terrible is the AIDS epidemic in Africa (it surely is!), but then suddenly they were talking about TB. Whoa, where did that come from?!

I think the story was interesting and engaging at times. But at the end I couldn’t help thinking it must have been written by Robin Cook. I should explain, since I don’t think I’ve ever blogged about Robin Cook.

I read a couple of Robin Cook books (hehe…. cook books) starting in summer of 2004. Jodi’s roommate Lysa let me borrow a couple of them, and I ended up buying some more while I was out in Redmond doing the ranger training that August. They’re quite fun to read. But they’re in many ways very formulaic and over-the-top. There’s always some crazy twist or the head-of-the-lab-is-actually-a-cold-blooded-killer.

So The Constant Gardener is a bit like that. Without doing too much in giving away spoilers, suffice it to say it couldn’t as simple as “the pharmaceutical company is soulless and thinks there’s no money in giving away its drugs”. Even “the pharmaceutical company is taking proactive action to prevent production of generic substitutions for its cash cow” would have been realistic. No, the plot became a bit thin when the pharma company took explicit and deadly action to “silence” the various players.

Oh, who am I kidding… don’t read beyond here if you don’t want a spoiler! The key thing is it struck me as totally nonsense that the drug company would be unwilling to take a step back from the research program and reevaluate the drugs effectiveness (since it wasn’t working or there were unpredictable side effects or whatever). Let’s get real. If the drug didn’t work or had bad side effects, how successful do you think it would be in the US? A big part of the “we should be ashamed” message of the movie seemed to be around how terrible it was to “use” these folks in Africa as a testbed. Ok. I can totally see that perspective. But the next part of the message was that not only was it bad to use these Africans, but that the Pharma company would have no interest in “fixing” the broken drug… just letting it go on causing problems in Africa in a rush to get it to market in the US.

Um… how does that work? Have those involved with the Constant Gardener not heard about Vioxx? Does anyone really think Merck is happy that they are facing all of these lawsuits over releasing a drug with the reputed side effects? Does anyone really think that drug companies aren’t TOTALLY on edge about releasing drugs that might backfire on them and cost way more than they’re “worth”?

So, I guess I’m getting a bit off on a tirade, but let me close it out. It seems to me that it’s a fine balance to keep. The drug companies need to make money or they won’t have research funds to look for new “miracle drugs”. People all around the world want new drugs. Some of them (in Africa OR the US) need drugs for certain problems more than others do, and there are various ways of getting particular drugs while they’re still in the research/testing phase. Generally in the US this seems to be done through “getting into a test program” while the drug is generally understood to work (I guess through animal testing?), and I don’t think most times these programs cost you a lot of money as a participant since it’s the drug companies who stand to gain most from the transaction (you might get cured, but they almost certainly will get approval if you do). I suppose I don’t know that last bit about $$ for certain. In the movie, it seemed like the same basic strategy in Africa — find a good population of people who could use the drug and “test” it on them. There was some implied concern about how they had to sign some release in order to get the drugs, but I would be very surprised if the same wasn’t required in the US. Sure, maybe the drug companies charge too much after the drug is released. Maybe they release the drugs too soon, without enough testing. Some would probably argue that they wait too LONG to release the drugs. And unprofitable drugs which are produced based on the profits of the profitable drugs are undoubtedly used by some folks in need. 

So, it’s all a balance. And The Constant Gardener just seemed a little off balance to me.

I received an email from the Dinner Train folks the other day, reminding of the King County plans to buy the rail corridor under the “Rails to Trails” program and turn it into a trail (thus killing the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train).

I certainly hadn’t forgotten about these plans, and I’d blogged about them before. The email suggests contacting Ron Sims to request that the railway be maintained (it’s one option to *ADD* a trail after purchasing the corridor, and still keep the rails usable for the dinner train and/or future transit purposes).

Here’s the email:

What’s at risk?

• Wonderful experience enjoyed by one million visitors and residents over the past 13 years

• $140 million impact on
King County’s economy

• 80 local living-wage jobs

• Future of high-capacity transit in the corridor

• Public input in the
decision-making process

Dear Friend of the Dinner Train,

The Spirit of Washington Dinner Train needs your help now.

Beloved by more than a million residents and visitors for its amazing scenery, unique experiences, and wonderful food, the Dinner Train is in danger of being derailed by a plan under consideration by County Executive Ron Sims.

The County will probably buy the railroad, but we don’t know what they’ll do with the land

Since May 2005, Executive Sims has been in negotiations to purchase the rail corridor used by the Dinner Train from Burlington Northern Sante-Fe. If the purchase goes through King County could either: 1) Convert the corridor to a walking and biking trail; 2) Allow both rails and trails; or 3) Keep the railroad as is.

If the County chooses the trails-only option, the rails will be removed and the Dinner Train will no longer run.

Click here and send Executive Sims a message now.

We can have trails and save the Dinner Train

The Dinner Train makes a vital contribution to our region’s economy through jobs, tourism, and tax revenues. It is well designed to fit in with a rails-with-trails program — which would allow pedestrians and bicyclists to enjoy the corridor, as well as preserving the tracks for possible future transit use.

Get on board the Save the Train Campaign!

So far, County Executive Sims has conducted the negotiations away from public view. And that’s why we’ve launched the Save the Train Campaign — to inform people about the issue and give supporters of the Dinner Train a way to make their voices heard.

It’s very important that Sims hears from you now. The more messages he receives, the more he’ll understand the value of the Dinner Train. Click here and send Executive Sims a message now.

We’ll make sure your message gets to him immediately. For more information, please call 206-296-4040 or visit our website:

www.spiritofwashingtondinnertrain.com

Thank you for helping to Save the Dinner Train – your voice makes a huge difference!

- Save the Train Campaign

Jodi and I watched Crash on Sunday night. Prior to seeing this movie, I had heard it was “great” and that it was a serious (and surprise) contender for Best Picture at this year’s Oscars. But I thought to myself… “no way… Brokeback Mountain is a lock”.

Well. I’m reversing myself here. Brokeback is a fantastic film. Ten out of ten. Any other year it would be a lock.

But after seeing Crash, it’s obvious to me that it will win best picture. This movie was unbelievable. I haven’t cringed at a gunshot like I did in that film (I won’t spoil more than that) in as long as I can remember. If you haven’t seen it, you’re missing out!

I went to see Rob Corddry at the UW HUB (Husky Union Building) last Saturday and had a couple of observations worth blogging about.

For one thing, he’s incredibly witty and intelligent. Even more than you’d think from watching his hapless persona as a correspondent on the Daily Show. He took Q&A from the audience at the end and handled some very strange events from the audience during his presentation. The “flag guy” would have thrown me off my stride, but Rob handled it with great resilience!

The fallout of his being so witty and intelligent is that his style was a little unexpected if you were (as I naively was) expecting Rob Corddry the correspondent — second fiddle to Jon Stewart. He was a bit more in-your-face than he is on the show, and it took a bit of getting used to. Plus, he swore a lot more.

Ironically, I noticed this right away in the first few minutes of his program. Lots of cussing. I don’t have a “big problem” with this, per se, but was still unexpected since you don’t see that side on the show. Like the difference in persona, it took a bit of time to get used to.

So what’s ironic about that? Well, in the Q&A section, some poor woman asked the question “you’re so funny without it, why do you feel the need to swear so much in your comedy?” to a parade of college-students yelling “boo” and “sit down” and other such less insightful suggestions. The next questioner even turned the comedy on full–bore by prefacing his question with “you’re fucking awesome, Rob” or something to that effect.

Maybe I’m just getting old. I felt for the woman, both because she was berated and beaten down by the over-enthusiastic college crowd and also because I agree with her. Rob Corddry is an hilarious comedian, with a fantastic, quick wit. And he swears more than he needs to.

This is my first (and probably last) posting on the Muhammad cartoons issue, mostly because I’m simply so confused by the over-the-top nature of the whole thing that it doesn’t pay to weigh in too loudly.

That said, I found this Non Sequitur comic in Monday’s paper to be very humorous:

In a fitting end to one of the best shows on television, Fox has scheduled the final four episodes (a two-hour block) of Arrested Development to run tonight… against the opening ceremonies of the 2006 Winter Olympics.

That’s just mean. This is the one-last-hurrah (and chance to garner additional viewers) for this excellent show, and the mean-spirited folks at Fox have stacked it up in one huge block against what MSNBC estimates to be a likely audience of 2 billion people watching the Olympics. They’re clearly just trying to flush it out all at once so they can be rid of it. And given the rest of Fox’s (undoubtedly highly rated) schedule, it’s just a shame. I don’t know whether to be mad at Fox, or at the random television-watching idiots who decide what should be on TV by watching the absolute crap that is most shows and boosting their ratings.

That said,  fully intend to watch both, thank you Windows Media Center Edition. Plus, I fully intend to buy the 3rd season on DVD. And hopefully the 4th and 5th as well, if some other network picks up the show.

We finally got around to seeing the movie last night, so it’s time to blog about it. I had read the book back in late-December through early-January and was chomping at the bit to see the movie. I’ll break this up into a couple of parts.

Let’s start with the movie:

I liked the movie. I had heard that many folks who have read the book don’t like the movie, and I totally understand why. But I still liked it and am glad to have seen it.

That said, perhaps it’s a shame that I read the unabridged version of the book. It would have been nearly impossible for even a 2 1/2 hour movie to compete with the 17 1/2 hour audible book in terms of detail. They had to cut, cut, cut all over the place and even so the movie felt frantically paced! Speaking with Jodi after the movie, she admitted that there was so little screen-time given to some of the important characters — and the pace at which we were whisked through Sayuri’s life, bouncing back and forth between all of these supporting characters — that she wasn’t entirely sure who some of the folks were… even at the end of the film.

<not really spoilers here, but don’t read if you want to read the book and be surprised>

But what got me the most was that they made a bunch of changes to the plot. I was particularly surprised and uncertain about why they changed the terms of Mameha’s deal with mother, for instance? All it did was make Mameha look more selfless than she was in the book, and it raised early questions about “what was in it for her”… questions that lead too early to the Chairman. The second big thing that frustrated me was the constant presence of the Chairman throughout, to the almost complete exclusion of Nobu. I realize we had to wrap up the happy ending very rapidly without lots of explanation, but even I (having read the book and knowing what it was supposed to be portraying) had a hard time following the combination of several events (separate in the book) that led to Nobu disappearing from the story.

Things I wish had had more focus in the movie:

• Nobu and his decades-long relationship with Sayuri
• The problems Hatsumomo caused during Sayuri’s apprenticeship
• The lead-up to war and wartime
• Sayuri’s move to America

Ok, enough about the movie. Let’s talk about the book!

I really liked this book. A lot. It’s quite likely my favorite book I’ve read in the last year. It was one of those books where by the time it’s over, you end up really “missing” the characters for having finished. This was made even worse for me, by the realization that since it was not published until after Sayuri’s death, there is not a single person who plays a direct/named role in the book who is still alive today. That made me very sad.

But all in all, a very good read and an engaging story. Highly recommended.