Thursday, January 02, 2014
Mind-bending African-American musicals based on a book set in prehistoric times from the 1970s about parenthood
As our interview concluded, I pulled my computer back out and showed Yellin this one last chart. Take a good look at it. Something should stand out.
…
Sitting atop the list of mostly expected Hollywood stars is Raymond Burr, who starred in the 1950s television series Perry Mason. Then, at number seven, we find Barbara Hale, who starred opposite Burr in the show.
How can Hale and Burr outrank Meryl Streep and Doris Day, not to mention Samuel L. Jackson, Nicholas Cage, Fred Astaire, Sean Connery, and all these other actors in the top few dozen?
…
No, the strange thing is that these lists seem pretty spot-on, except for this weird Perry Mason thing.
Granted, the existence of all these Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale altgenres doesn't mean that Netflix users are having these movies pop up all the time. They are much more likely to get Action Movies Starring Bruce Willis.
But, then, why have all these genres?
- Mysteries starring Raymond Burr
- Movies starring Raymond Burr
- Dramas starring Raymond Burr
- Thrillers starring Raymond Burr
- Suspenseful Movies starring Raymond Burr
- Suspenseful Dramas starring Raymond Burr
- Cerebral Thrillers starring Raymond Burr
- Cerebral Dramas starring Raymond Burr
- Cerebral Suspenseful Dramas starring Raymond Burr
- Cerebral Mysteries starring Raymond Burr
- Cerebral Suspenseful Movies starring Raymond Burr
- Cerebral Movies starring Raymond Burr
- Murder Mysteries starring Raymond Burr
- Understated Movies starring Raymond Burr
- Understated Suspenseful Dramas starring Raymond Burr
- Understated Suspenseful Movies starring Raymond Burr
- Understated Mysteries starring Raymond Burr
- Understated Thrillers starring Raymond Burr
- Understated Dramas starring Raymond Burr
What was the deal?
Via violet impudence, How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood - Alexis C. Madrigal - The Atlantic
Not only is it remarkable that Netflix has classified its movies into 76,897 genres, but that Raymond Burr is the top one! Odd, given that Bunny and I caught several “Perry Mason” episodes on vacation last month. Coincidence? Hmm …
Wednesday, January 08, 2014
While you all hid indoors (or: it't a bit too warm here to try this)
Growing up, the thought of blowing bubbles in winter (link via Instapundit) never crossed my mind, and I must say, seeing these images now, makes me sad I never did.
Somehow, I doubt blowing bubbles into the freezer would have the same effect …
Thursday, January 09, 2014
An email intercepted by the NSA detailing the mundane life of an American citizen at work
- From
- Sean Conner <sean@conman.org>
- To
- Sean Hoade <XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX>
- Subject
- Re: Happy Birthday, Part Deux
- Date
- Thu, 9 Jan 2014 16:14:53 -0500
- From
- Sean Hoade <XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX>
- To
- Sean Conner <sean@conman.org>
- Subject
- Happy Birthday, Part Deux
- Date
- Wed, 8 Jan 2014 21:02:51 -0800
Young(ish) Mister Conner,
I hope you had a fine day. I know you're extremely busy, but I just wanted to take another moment out if your day to tell you how much you are appreciated and loved. I'm getting sappy in my old age, but what the hell. :)
All good thoughts, my friend.
Hoade
I did.
Today?
Today all I want is a nap. I am so tired. This morning, I had a dream where I was so tired I want to go to sleep. How weird is that, dreaming that I'm tired and want sleep.
Tuesday at the office? Flew by quickly.
Wednesday at the office? Flew by quickly.
Today at the office? It's like time decided it has enough of flowing quickly and was going to take it easy today and slowly drift by. The bastard!
So I'm sitting in my office, heavy jacket on (this is Florida, where it tends to be colder indoors than out, but I think you know that already), struggling, struggling I say! to keep my nose from hitting the keyboard. It hurts when that happens.
The project I'm working on has gone from the interesting 90% of the work to the dull, boring, dotting-every-t-and-crossing-every-i nit picky detail work that takes the other 90% of the development time to finish. And it's not the mindless dull, boring, dotting-every-t-and-crossing-every-i nit picky detail work, but the just-mindful-enough-that-I-could-only-wish-it-was-mindless dull, boring, dotting-every-t-and-crossing-every-i nit picky detail work that requires just enough mental power to make it ever so tiresome.
And you know what? Everything I typed so far? Take a guess at how long it took me. Go ahead, take a guess. Nope. Nope. Still to long. Nope. Three seconds. That's how much time elapsed from the time I started typing this reply to the time I finished the preceeding paragraph. When did I start travelling at relativistic speeds? Time hasn't moved this slowly since high school English, which, in an odd way, is a nice change from the wait-I-just-blinked-why-it-is-a-month-later time flying by, but it would be nice if I didn't have to deal with this just-mindful-enough-that-I-could-only-wish-it-was-mindless dull, boring, dotting-every-t-and-crossing-every-i nit picky detail work that requires just enough mental power to make it ever so tiresome.
Sigh.
Only another two seconds have passed.
At this rate, I think I could churn out a copy of Atlas Shurgged in ten minutes. Hmmm … scratch that, I think I would only be able to slug out a copy of War and Peace in ten minutes; Atlas Shrugged would take eleven.
Perhaps if I make another cup of tea …
-spc (I just blinked and now it's 34 years later … )
