Action Hero

Monday, March 24, 2003

And the Oscar goes to...
Hooray for Adrien Brody, Roman Polanski, and The Pianist. Very deserving awards and in my opinion, the biggest surprises of the night. I was also glad that Nicole Kidman won over Renee Zellweger. I really wanted Julianne Moore, but I think she canceled herself out with the two nominations. I was also surprised that Eminem won best song. The Academy must be trying to get hip. Too bad he wasn't there to accept the award. He should have had Michael Moore accept it for him.
posted by ml @ 06:44 AM PST [link]

Thursday, March 20, 2003

Blogging from Iraq
Kevin Sites Blog First-person account of a solo journalist's life on the front lines of war. Photoblogging and audblogging is included. [via BoingBoing]

Caterina also has a list of bloggers in Iraq. Plus, some interesting thoughts from kottke and megnut.
posted by ml @ 03:22 PM PST [link]

Film Fanatic
I love going to the movies! This is the first time ever that I have seen all the films nominated in the Best Picture Oscar category. I liked Chicago, but I don't think it should get Best Picture. I think The Two Towers or The Pianist should win.
posted by ml @ 03:01 PM PST [link]

Wednesday, March 19, 2003

A Very Cool Tech Tip
Revealing Hidden PDF Services in Mac OS X 10.2.4 In Mac OS X 10.2.4, Apple quietly added the ability for users and developers to enhance the standard Print dialog with custom PDF-handling options. To enable it, just create a folder '~/Library/PDF Services' and populate it with aliases to applications, scripts, Unix tools, or other folders. Those items then show up in the Print dialog as optional handlers for Mac OS X's built-in 'Save as PDF' feature. Drop a renamed alias to your mail client in there, and you've added convenient 'Send PDF as Email' functionality to every application." [via Studio Log]
posted by ml @ 04:48 PM PST [link]

Saturday, March 15, 2003

The Little Friend
A couple of nights ago, I stayed up until 1:30 in the morning so I could finish Donna Tartt's The Little Friend. I loved this book for its superb storytelling. I read some of the reviews on Amazon, and I was surprised to see that most people found the book disappointing. I had read Tartt's first novel, The Secret History, and loved that too. What I found most appealing was the story and Tartt's writing. She has this simple, descriptive writing style that I find extremely engaging.
posted by ml @ 12:15 PM PST [link]

Monday, March 10, 2003

Blogging SXSW
There's some excellent blogging going on at SXSW. Heath Row continues to publish transcripts within minutes of each panel's ending, and he promises to do a roundup with analysis when it's all over.

• David "Small Pieces" Weinberger on Lessig's keynote
• David "Loosely Joined" Weinberger on Journalism: Old and New
• Aaron Swartz on Lessig's keynote
• Heath Row's transcript of "Conceptual Firewalls"
• Heath Row's transcript of Lessig's keynote
• Heath Row's transcript of Understanding Common Sense
• Heath Row's transcript of Journalism: Old and New

[via Boing Boing]
posted by ml @ 11:38 AM PST [link]

Tuesday, March 4, 2003

No Strike for PPS Teachers
Teachers Ratify Contract Boy was I glad to hear this bit of news this morning. All 24 days of the school year, which originally were to be cut, have now been reinstituted and kids won't lose any instructional time.
posted by ml @ 10:47 AM PST [link]