Men in Black III

The villain was villainous, the menace was menacing, the heroes were heroic; but somehow, it didn't quite gel. That may be the fault of a review I read beforehand, which led me to expect that the strong point of MiB3 would be that it was funny. I have no idea what movie that reviewer stumbled into. So my problem with the movie may be due to my erroneous expectations -- like biting into a piece of strawberry rhubarb pie, only to find out that it's roast beef.

Best part of the movie was Josh Brolin's performance as Agent K.

Reynolds' Law

From Instapundit:

The government decides to try to increase the middle class by subsidizing things that middle class people have: If middle-class people go to college and own homes, then surely if more people go to college and own homes, we’ll have more middle-class people. But homeownership and college aren’t causes of middle-class status, they’re markers for possessing the kinds of traits — self-discipline, the ability to defer gratification, etc. — that let you enter, and stay, in the middle class. Subsidizing the markers doesn’t produce the traits; if anything, it undermines them.

Tsushima

On this day in 1905, at Tsushima Straits, the Japanese Navy destroyed a Russian fleet which had sailed from the Baltic to the Far East, attempting to reach. This was the only tactically decisive battle fought by modern battleships, and is considered one of the major naval battles of history.

The Iron Duke

Now reading The Iron Duke, by Meljean Brook, one of the books that came up in the library search for "Airships". It is a steampunk romance.

Detective Inspector Mina Wentworth is called to investigate a frozen body that has appeared on the Iron Duke's estate. The Duke is the alpha-est male around and, as this is a romance, he falls in lust-at-first-sight; as this is a romance, she is filled with doubt, fear and distaste, and rebuffs him. Circumstances force them together and she gradually, but inevitably, falls in love, or at least bed, with him.

The circumstances are the interesting part, and they include: a pirated naval airship, the capture of Mina's brother, the invasion of the fortress of a mad inventor, a run through a zombie-occupied forest, a trip on a mercenary corsair airship, and the fears that the Eastern Horde has a mind control device and renegade English Black Guard are almost ready to use a weapon of mass destruction.

It's not one of those books where you stay up till 3am while saying "just one more chapter", but the setting is interesting. The characters look like they have the potential to be interesting, but don't quite manage it, leaving unanswered questions like "why is Archimedes Fox exploring zombie-infested Venice?" and "Why is Yasmeen a corsair?" and particularly "why is the Iron Duke so hot for this policewoman?" The sex scenes are both explicit and boring. We found out who dropped the frozen body, but if we ever found out why they did it, I didn't notice it. And there was no overall antagonist; for a couple of chapters the heroes were chasing one person, then they went off another another, then a third, then a fourth, and there was no sense of "there's a mastermind behind it all", just a jumble of "who has the McGuffin at the moment?"

I finished it, but I don't feel any desire to read the next one.

D&D

When it comes to role playing games, I have reluctantly concluded that "a badly designed one with lots of local players" is better than "a well designed one with no local players". With that in mind, I've found a nearby D&D3.5 campaign which seems to be based on the European trading companies and the East Indies. Met the game master, designed a couple of characters, and had the first "introduction to the setting, let's get you to where the rest of the party is" session. It's a pleasure to be rolling some dice again.

Money Can Buy Happiness

...if you know how to spend it. Summary of points from Coding Horror:

• After a certain point, more money does not automatically mean more happiness. That point, according to the study referenced, is about US$75,000.
• Buy experiences rather than things
• Help others instead of yourself
• Buy many small pleasures instead of only a few big ones
• Commit; spend less on extended warranties and options to return purchases.
• Anticipation is good; save up for a purchase rather than using credit.
• Think about how much you'll actually use and enjoy what you're considering purchasing.
• Beware of comparison shopping; that tells you whether A is better than B, but not whether you'll enjoy A at all.
• Follow the herd; if something makes a lot of other people happy, it's likely to make you happy also. (But be aware the herd gets a lot of stuff which they think will make them happy, then it doesn't.)

Customer Service

A conversation from this week, somewhat abbreviated:

John: "For this thing we got from you, we're missing two parts."

Me: "That was delivered nearly a year ago so you're well outside the 60 day limit to report any problems. I won't be able to send it to you for free. I can ship it this way for $530 or that way for $590."

John: "I have to have it, I guess I'll get out the credit card.

Me: "Hang on a minute while I look at your order. You know, you'll need to cut out a couple of pieces of material here and here. If you do that right, you can use the material you cut out there, as the material you want to buy now. So you don't really need to buy that, you can do everything you need with what you've already got."

John: "I want to go ahead and get it anyway."

Me: "But...you know, if you want to spend money, I'll be happy to take it, but you understand that you've got enough stuff there, you don't need to get anything from me to finish your project?"

John: "Yeah, but I want to get it anyway, just to be sure."