The Last Lecture

This book, written by computer scientist Randy Pausch after his "last lecture" (which he gave after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer), has some common-sense advice for living one's life. A bit overrated, though; it wasn't as moving as I thought as it would be. It was illuminating, and mildly thought-provoking, but a little too self-absorbed (unsurprisingly).

Food

Nicholas Kristof's article in the NY Times pointed me at this petition. I signed it, as I tend to trust Kristof and Michael Pollan's judgment.

Tropic Thunder

I needed a funny movie, and Netflix obliged by sending me this funny spoof. Great cast, decent writing, and a semi-predictable plot (with many unpredictable details). Tom Cruise was hilarious as a crass movie mogul!

The Ascent of Money

The Ascent of Money is an interesting book, although pretty flawed as a general piece of non-fiction. It covers rather quickly the evolution of four underpinnings of modern finance: the bond market, the stock market, insurance, and the real estate market. Niall Ferguson brings up rather interesting (and relevant) historical warnings that show that today's financial meltdown should not really have been unexpected. However, the book is not written for a layperson: Prof. Ferguson tosses around lots of financial jargon without much explanation. The Economist's review is pretty apt. Still, I found it to be a mildly entertaining read, and it complemented the book A Splendid Exchange well (although Bernstein's book is better).

The Norman Conquests

I read the entire trilogy of plays, The Norman Conquests, by Alan Ayckbourn. (That reminds me of an episode of The Family Guy I saw recently, where the family goes to London and watches an incomprehensible play.) After we saw the first play on Broadway, I decided I wanted to read the whole trilogy. Very funny, although I think I would appreciate it even more to see it performed: I kept envisioning the actors we saw in their roles.

Novita

We ate dinner at this relatively high-end Italian restaurant: it was very good food, although pricey. It's really hard to judge whether food is worth the money: overall, I'd say that it was, but that I wouldn't eat at the restaurant frequently. For special occasions, the food was worth it.

The Sexual Paradox

Susan Pinker's book is fascinating: it is about what she has seen as the differences between men and women in her practice as a psychologist, a lot of related research, and some interviews with various men and women. The book is sprinkled with a little too much non-quantitative data, but the interviews are interesting. The basic question of that the author tries to answer is: is it possible to have equality of measured outcomes with respect to male/female balance in workplaces, or do differences between the ways that men and women make choices inherently lead to different measured outcomes? Her answer is the latter: that men and women are biologically different, and when given choices, will make different ones that will lead to different outcomes.

Tosca

We were inspired to watch Tosca after seeing Quantum of Solace. Netflix only had this production on DVD, which was pretty good. Jose Cura was really good as Mario; the rest of the cast was OK.

Stretching

Dynamic stretching is better for you than static stretching. Worth a read!

Good Reads

A friend of mine, Mark Flanagan, convinced me to sign up for this website last year. I decided to try it out; we'll see how useful it is.

The Time Paradox

This book is worth reading, although it rambles on a bit. Zimbardo (who was the infamous psychologist who conducted the Stanford Prison Experiment) and John Boyd talk about how you can classify your personality based on your attitudes towards the past, the present, and the future. Take the assessment test on the website!

Obama on 60 Minutes

Our President-elect is giving a great interview on 60 Minutes tonight. He's smart, eloquent, funny, and careful. I can't believe people can even compare Sarah Palin to him: she can't even say one sentence that makes sense, whereas Obama has am amazing ability to communicate.

Quantum of Solace

We saw this film on opening night, after getting tickets at 8pm. The theater was pretty full, but not packed: if our experience is typical, then the movie will make a good deal of money, but not a ton.

Overall, the film was not that good a story. However, it was entertaining, if you like action and lots of violence and death. We watched a little of Casino Royale on DVD beforehand (and the rest afterwards), which helped us get some more context for Quantum of Solace.

Fierce Conversations

I quickly read through this interesting book about, well, life. It talks about how one should always be engaged in conversations that address in important issues head-on (but in a cooperative fashion). All in all, a lot of common sense; but a book worth a quick read to remind one to act with common sense.

The Little Foxes

We watched Bette Davis in The Little Foxes on DVD. A fine, albeit depressing, play about the destructiveness of greed. Fairly predictable, but still a good movie.

The Wire

We finished The Wire, Season 4. Wow, such great television! This series is the best television that we've ever watched. Season 4 widened the scope to involve many more players: it's grand storytelling that manages to weave multiple storylines together seamlessly. You must watch this TV show!

The Seven Boards of Skill

This show is not really describable: it is a combination of modern circus acrobatics and Peking opera, and could almost be categorized as "modern dance". It was a fascinating production, and there were some moments of startling beauty. The production was written and directed by some Frenchmen, and it felt very abstract as well (in that undefinable French way). If you get a chance to see it, I would recommend it highly.

Thomas Biesl

We had dinner at this Austrian restaurant before seeing a show at BAM. Since the restaurant is right across the street from BAM, it is very convenient: and the service was really fast. The sauerbraten was pretty good, although more meat-heavy than how I normally eat. If you're going to BAM, this restaurant's not a bad choice.

Ghenet

We had Ethiopian food at this restaurant in Nolita. Reasonably priced, and very good: surprisingly, it wasn't too busy (although we were there on the early side, by New York standards).

Obama

I'm blogging this after the fact, but (as with many of my entries) I try to date them appropriately. As I walked home from an election-day party, New York seemed to be filled with elation. People were screaming from their apartments, and just walking down the street yelling, "Obama!". One of my coworkers went to Harlem and said it was a big street party; another coworker went to Union Square, which was another big celebration. It was an invigorating election night: finally, the "long dark night" of the last eight years is nearing an end.