BSG: Finale

I hope to write a much longer appreciation of Battlestar Galactica at some point in the near future. And I don't intend to recap the finale in this post. I just want to note a few things.

First, for the record, I loved the finale. Like the series, it is an imperfect, uneven effort. But when it is good, there is nothing better. Nothing. And it's good a lot. And when it's bad, well, it's still better than most of the crap on TV.

Second, I love Mary McDonnell.

Third, there are many themes examined in the series. But, as Moore noted when they were struggling with the plot of the finale, "It's the characters, stupid." And this is where the soul of the series resides.

Life, to me, is a mystery. Science and materialism would deny this, and say there are merely things we don't know... yet. I'll allow that it's possible this may turn out to be true. But I don't think it is. I don't know that science or materialism can ever answer "Why?" Though I'm sure there are those who are comfortable, indeed, comforted, by the thought that there is no why. I believe there is a why, though I believe it is a part of the mystery.

But we are of the mystery, and it touches us and moves us and calls us. Again and again in Battlestar Galactica there is the call. And I hope to explore that in greater depth later. But the finale ended the series as it began, with characters grappling with devastating losses, only to be confronted by a call. And life, to me, reaches its greatest meaning, recognizes its purpose, when the call is answered. And it was answered in the finale. And some mysteries remained mysteries. But the emotional resonance of the characters comes from their courage, their faith, their love. And if the series succeeded by holding a mirror up to ourselves, its success is due in no small measure to the reflections of courage, faith and love, alongside all of our flaws and faults. The series itself is a work of courage, faith and love; itself, a call answered.

More, another time.

Mac: HD Movies and the iTunes Movie Store

Apple announced yesterday that it has high definition movies available for purchase and download. When Apple announced the new Mac mini, I was surprised to see it included the new mini DisplayPort video connector, which also happens to be on the new iMac as well as all the new portable Macs.

Mini DisplayPort is an HDCP (High Definition Content Protection) compliant video connector. Suspecting something may be up, I looked at the latest iTunes Store Terms and Conditions and searched for HDCP. Here's what it says:

(xvi) HDMI. An HDCP connection is required in order to view movies (purchased or rented) and TV shows transmitted over HDMI.

As of now, my HD Battlestar Galactica episodes play just fine through the DVI to HDMI cable from my Mac mini. I wonder when that's going to change?

Social Hygiene: Art is a Conversation

I'm late, and there's probably more to say about this, well, there's definitely more to say about this, art and commerce and all, but this is something that Edward James Olmos said last night at a UN event:

And Olmos also praised blogs, at length, for jump-starting the process of the show. "The entire planet started to blog these guys," he said, meaning the writer-producers. "And they started to talk with them. And all the writers started to write and listen to the bloggings and started to comment on the bloggings. And the bloggers were good! They took it to a level that was immensely further than we had ever intended."

"Then they went back," Olmos continued, "the writers went back to the drawing board for the second season and took all of what they learned and threw it in with the augmentation of the blogging. And the process started again. And it got worse. People started to understand what they were doing. Pretty soon it was a direct line between all of us talking about all of us in a medium that had never undergone this type of advancement in history -- television had never been done like this. I don't know if Ron and David have it in them to do another one. You're lucky if you get one. And for Sci Fi? For them... may they understand what they've done. ... Blowing them away. This has destroyed all their thoughts."

Competing Messages: Markets Are Conversations on The Daily Show

I've been hammering away at the pernicious lie that "markets are conversations" for what feels like a lifetime sometimes. Not sure I've managed to make a scratch in the Teflon fantasy.

John Stewart seems to have had better luck.

But then there was this piece in the New York Times: Be It Twittering or Blogging, It’s All About Marketing. Guy wants to be another Hugh MacLeod. Like we need another Hugh MacLeod. Money quote: I work countless 18-hour days, answer 1,000 e-mails a day. People feel the authenticity.

That's your Daily Moment of Zen from Groundhog Day, where Irony™ is the fifth fundamental force of the universe.

Mac: Airport Extreme (Early '09)

While we still have a functioning retail system, I went ahead and ordered the latest Apple Airport Extreme. It's kind of an act of optimism on my part, as I'm not entirely certain we can count on having a functioning first world civilization in about 12 months or so. But that's another story...

For the time being, it will be nice to have the latest version of the Airport Extreme, because it supports two radios, one at the 2.4GHz band, and the other at 5GHz. This way, my 802.11n devices (chiefly, my Mac Book and my 24" iMac) can run full-speed on the 5GHz band, while my G devices, my iPhone, PS3, Wii, Airport Express, and Mac mini (x2), can have the 2.4GHz band all to themselves. Hopefully, this will mitigate some latency issues in online play on the PS3 and some iChat dropouts.

I'm wondering how AirTunes works in this setup. If I stream from iTunes on the MacBook, does it change bands to talk directly to the Express; or is the stream routed through the Extreme, which would maintain the 5GHz connection with the MacBook, while streaming to the Express at 2.4GHz? I guess I'll find out.

It will replace a first-generation Airport Extreme (.11n), which didn't even have gigabit ethernet onboard. So it's a fairly significant upgrade, as the fast ethernet chipset seemed to impose some performance penalties on the original model.

iPhone: 3G Update

I bought a case/external battery for my iPhone in Hawaii. It really came in handy during those long sessions when the folks at the head table would get into pointless, long-winded discussions, which was often. It's the inCase Power Slider. Pretty much works as advertised, though the battery seems to discharge internally. It doesn't hold a full charge by itself for very long, a comment I've seen mentioned elsewhere. It also makes the phone significantly larger.

But it is useful for extended browsing sessions in boring meetings.

Strangely, the battery level indicator seems to have returned to life in the last few days. Ever since TS Faye, when my iPhone got wet and nearly died, the battery indicator was basically useless. It never indicated less than a full charge (except after a reset), and I would sometimes find myself with the red empty battery icon, pleading for a power plug. It seems to be working fairly consistently now, so I'm pleased about that.

I haven't babied this phone at all. For the most part, I don't even carry it in a case, I just drop it in my pocket. Cosmetically, it's pretty scratched up, but nothing that affects its usability. I may have mentioned this before, but it's actually fallen from the bar in my kitchen to the ceramic tile floor, twice, and it's still working. I have developed a crack near the headphone jack, but that may be from one of the falls.

Still very happy with it.

Cheese Omelet: Running Along

Long time, no see. I had started writing something a bit longer, which got longer still, and so now it's resting in The Cooler until such time as I finish it. Which, if the number of other items in The Cooler is any indication, is likely to be a very long time.

In other news, Facebook remains a time sump. But I'm still enjoying it. I've found a few more friends and acquaintances I otherwise might not have ever heard from again, which is pretty cool. But the kinds of things I do in Facebook are not the kinds of things I do in Groundhog Day. Yet they both draw from the same finite pool of available time. So Groundhog Day kind of suffers. That will change, eventually. I enjoy the stuff I do here too much to abandon it entirely. Plus, Mom and Dad aren't on Facebook!

Our entry in the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Diego appears to be a go. We're discussing logistics and training schedules now, and my partner intends to go, so we're going. I've been reading a bit about training for a marathon, and in addition to running lots of miles, I gather one is supposed to work on speed as well. Well, we appear to be doing that.

We ran a 10K at Amelia Island last week, and though my partner beat me by several seconds, my overall pace for the 6.2 miles was 10:18. At the end, I was actually "racing" this guy I'd passed who didn't seem to appreciate that. Turns out he had a bit more gas in the tank at the end than I did, and he beat me by a second or two. I looked at the race results the next day and I didn't feel so bad when I noted he was 10 years younger than me! But when I did the data dump from the Garmin back at home, I'd not only run at a new "personal record" pace, but achieved the highest recorded maximum heart rate since I started wearing the Garmin over a year ago, 192 bpm. And I felt every one of them! My partner beat me by several seconds, but I never lost sight of her which was my goal when she started to pull away.

Last week I had to fly down to Corpus Christi for a one day meeting, but I took advantage of the time to run six miles along the beach down there. The wind was unbelievable, a steady 23 mph, gusting to 32! My overall pace was down at 10:30 for the six; but I ran the last mile at a 9:29 pace, which was faster than any of the miles the Saturday before. (Technically, I ran the last ".2" miles of that race at a 9:18 pace, but that was because I was trying to beat the other guy and wouldn't have made such an effort for an entire mile.)

Yesterday, we did the Ortega River Run here in Jacksonville, which is a 5 mile event, and did that one at an average pace of 9:49! Heart rate at the finish was 191, and again felt it. We ran the last mile at a 9:23 pace!!! That was our fastest pace ever, and I stayed with my partner the whole race. Later, I think I experienced my first ever "runner's high." I was in a very happy mood beginning late in the afternoon and continuing on into the night. Not sure if it was the effects of the body coping with recovery, or just satisfaction with the results, but I felt very happy, almost "giddy."

We have no race next weekend, so we're just going to run seven in preparation for the Gate River Run the following weekend. Not sure how our pace will turn out without the incentive of passing other runners. I've been studying the manual for the Garmin 305, and it can do so much more than merely record time, distance and heart rate. I may have it kind of "coach" us. I don't think I want to shoot for a really fast pace on that run, but I'd like to keep it between 10:15 and 10:30. I think I could do that for nine miles the following week. I'll try a short run this week, maybe three miles, and see if I can get below 9:50.

After the Gate, preparations for the marathon begin in earnest. We have to run bridges to get elevation changes around here. And I'm going to pay more attention to my diet. I'm not going "to diet," I already eat fairly well, I'm just going to pay attention to eat better. And beer will be significantly cut back. (I thought about cutting it out, but life is too short. There will be beer.)

Anyway, it's been kind of fun. I've never regarded myself as a "runner," per se. I've always just run as a form of exercise, until the Gate River Run last year, and that was more a social event than running to see how we fast we could go. (Really, it was kind of like seeing how far we could go!) I dismissed the idea of running a half marathon with my partner at first. Thirteen miles seemed ridiculous, forget about doing it on Thanksgiving Day! But when we ran ten miles in training (the longest distance we would do in training), something sort of clicked in my head that said, "I can do thirteen!" And then I had to.

And though I recall thinking at the end of that race that "I never want to run a marathon!" Now I do. Weird. It helps that my partner is a very attractive woman, who is also very nice, and very attached to someone; but that's by no means all of it. I mean, it's still work, and it's often very, very uncomfortable. But I don't think one can overstate the value of exploring what you're still capable of doing, and the thrill you get when you find out it's more than you might have imagined.