Burlaki on the Hudson

For the second year in a row, I manage to see one single Oscar contender for the Best Picture award ahead of the annual ceremony. The movie wins the corresponding Golden Globe award and is generally regarded as a front-runner for the Academy award, but ends up losing both the Director and the Best Picture to another contender.

I admit, the sample so far is statistically insignificant, but I might be developing an Oscar “death kiss” with my movie-viewing habits.

To be fair, I did not think The Social Network was an Oscar-caliber movie. It was entertaining, it was interesting because its subject was a matter of everyday use, but it did not struck me as Oscar-worthy. I can get behind its award for Best Editing – as an occasional dabbler in home movies, I did like the flow of its cuts. I probably would not begrudge Jesse Eisenberg an Oscar should he had won as the Best Actor – I thought he was brilliant as the smarter-than-anyone geek whose private insecurities drive him to try hard to be an asshole. But beyond that, the movie status of being about a current cultural phenomenon unduly elevated it, IMHO, to heights that it did not completely deserve.

Then again, I have minimal clues as to the competition. Something that will be corrected over the course of the year.

And somewhere along the way, I will surely see one of next year’s Oscar contenders, derailing its chances.

Movies

There is currently not one but two real Minis scaling the walls of the building on 42nd Street where Broadway and 7th Avenue diverge away from the Times Square. I thought at first that these were well-executed models, but close inspection of the brackets which hold the cars in place suggests that they are, in fact, real.

Pretty cool.
 

 

New York City & Environs, Pictures

I am still listening to music on an iPod. I am still reading books on a Sony PRS-505. It is pretty clear to me that those habits are not going to change, as my preferences outlined here were not swayed by the capabilities of an iPad.

However, I quickly found my iPad to be useful in many situations – and nearly indispensable on occasion. How I managed in the past without it is a mystery to me.

I now read books less while on the bus in favor of catching up with online stuff that I otherwise would catch up with after coming back home in the evening. As a direct consequence, I now spend less time in front of a computer at home, and more time doing something with the family. The net effect is I gave up on some reading in favor of being with the family. If you discard the somewhat embarrassing connotation that I could not simply give up on online stuff in favor of that, it sounds like a positive outcome.

Ok, maybe, “reading less” is not a positive achievement when considered on its own merits. I still need to figure the proper balance.

3G connectivity causes the only buggy behavior that I have noticed so far. Occasionally, after having suggested a nearby wi-fi network to connect to, 3G conks out completely even if I declined connecting to wi-fi. The device shows full bars on the signal strength gauge, but refuses to even attempt restoring 3G connection. On most occasions, I am told of a “problem” via an error message “Unable to initialize cellular data network”. So far, it happened to me a handful of times, and every time I had to go to Settings and flip the Cellular Data switch off and then back on. Every time the problem was resolved after that. Annoying, but apparently a fact of life.

Otherwise, 3G connection works reasonable well while I am on a bus. There is some latency in loading pages, but nothing that can’t be tolerated. I resumed following blogs of a number of people whom I liked to read in the past. I go through my personal emails and write an occasional reply. I started visiting a number of social networking sites again, which I only sporadically graced with my presence in the past.

Hey, I even downloaded a few free versions of popular games, such as Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja, in case I find myself with a few spare minutes at the end of the ride, when I don’t feel that picking up a book to read a few pages would be practical. Yup, I can see how playing something of that kind can help killing a few minutes. Can’t imagine investing more than that in the activity.

I also put a few videos on the iPad, but after a single viewing concluded that I’d rather spend time reading. Maybe, under different conditions and with something that I can’t wait to watch at home, I’ll be more inclined for that.

As various people told me it would, the iPad handiness as a by-my-side reference device has already become apparent. Starting with using Shazam to identify songs from the 80′s that I could not otherwise name from memory, checking tomorrow’s weather without flipping TV channels, or simply looking up something cursorily related to what I just heard on TV or in a conversation, I can now satisfy my need for information the moment I need it.

I must say, I am pretty happy with my decision to get an iPad.

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