Tablesaw!

The last two weeks, Psyche and I visited the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood to take part in their Nitrate Festival. The Egyptian is one of very few theaters that is allowed to project nitrate prints, and they haven't done so for a few years because they were closed for renovations before and after the pandemic. We saw two Hitchcock films, Rebecca and SpellboundRebecca, an archivist from the George Eastman Museum talked about nitrate prints. There were some things I already knew. I learned how vivid the images can be when I saw Casablanca, and I learned how the silver emulsion can catch the light when I saw Laura. The archivist stressed how because nitrate prints are generally stronger, the images on the print are usually closer to the negative retaining subtler "colors," while later printings start to develop higher and higher contrast. This was incredibly apparent when watching Rebecca on what was one of the first printings of the film, previous in the private collection of producer David O. Selznic. It was unbelievable how good it looked for preserved (not restored) film that was about 80 years old.

Spellbound wasn't as impressive, either in the print or the content, but the Dali sequences looked really good, as did Gregory Peck. I try to get the preview screen whenever I see something at the American Cinematheque, but I missed the one for Rebecca. Here's the screen for Spellbound.



(I needed to post an image hosted on DW in preparation of talking about it with dedalus_1947 before seeing Dune: Part Two at the Chinese Theater.)

While doing dishes, I heard music coming through the open windows. I went to investigate, I discovered a giant street fair. Now I am getting a Coolhaus ice cream sandwich.



Also, Andy Dick is selling poetry.

Last night, I discovered why I might not have been sleeping so well when I woke up gasping for breath and tasting stomach acid in my throat. Oddly, I think this may have been exacerbated by the new bedframe. I know the old one was a little messed up, maybe it was giving me that slope that's supposed to help keep that from happening.

Anyway, I finished up another hiking map. This one was mostly done, since I gave up on it back in '08 when I realized that some of the conversions from Google Earth to Google Maps weren't happening right. Now things seem to be running more smoothly.

This is for a trip to Calabasas Peak, the week after the trip to Saddle Peak.

Google Earth file / Online Google Map

What have I been doing on computers instead of updating my DW?

• Croco-Puzzle.de. A website that provides two logic puzzles every day, with a complex and rewarding rating system. It is entirely in German, but chris has written up an English walkthrough. motris has also written about his experiences with the site. I'm currently ranked 349 out of 666, and you can see a graph of my recent progress.
• Tumblr. I have a Tumblr account now, because it was getting to a point where creating RSS feeds for the ones I liked was getting cumbersome. I'm at ItsTheSawoftheTable.tumblr.com. It's got some stuff on it, I guess. Nothing too consistent. I might try to fill it up with some stuff.
• Tagging Old Entries. Hey, remember that time I was assaulted by an actor of a show I was stage-managing? Yeah, that's why I have a violence tag now.
• Picasa Faces. I've loaded all my old photos onto my new computer. This means that there shouldn't be anything at all important left on the old dying box. It also means that Picasa is taunting me by finding faces in my photos and asking me to identify them.
• Geocaching. trinker got me out and about, and I've been making progress again. Going to try to not let a week go by without some form of outdoorsing:
  
  

When a friend of mine sent a picture of her cat to me and some other coworkers, extolling the virtues in the cat's taste in literature.

Naturally, this had to happen:

( The cat macro was a bit larger )

My friend's response was:

So, 1 question: Why does [the cat] have a French accent?

Keep in mind that my friend is not unsaavy when it comes to the internets or the fandom. And yet, no knowledge of lolcats.

I . . . I didn't know that could be possible.

It's the first Wednesday of November, the day on which delux_vivens demands picspams. Her own postings of men and women of color (mostly men) were another inspiration for this week's Buffy picspam.

Anyway, I updated that picspam with an actor I forgot, David Zepeda. I was also going to add some other pictures of him out of character, but I started to suspect that the hot model Zepeda who was the first runner up of Manhunt International and who has gone on to star in several telenovelas. I started to suspect this after finding lots and lots of pictures with his shirt off.

They no longer belonged in the Buffy picspam, but it's still Wednesday, so have fun. All are safe for work.

( Topless Mexican Below )

All pics from the Official David Zepeda Photo Gallery at the Univision forums.

If you want to see me puzzling on the plane, go to The Lounge and scroll down to "June 24 1:45 PM."

Oh yeah, ojouchan is in it too. Only a bit. It's not like she has a long involved conversation with the cameraman while I stare at my computer trying to get the answer to the next question.

I drank more beer while I was in Boston than I ever had in my life. Now, this isn't saying much. I'm not a big fan of beer, so I don't drink it. I much prefer the taste of a well-mixed cocktail. A Rum and Coke is usually pleasant, and there's nothing that can beat a Margarita mixed with good tequila and a whole lot of machismo. I know there's good beer out there, but since I don't drink often, there's really no point in going out and finding the few kinds that I like amid the amber waves of unappealing brew.

It's kind of like Country Music, in that way.

Anyway, the advantage of going to Boston was that there were lots of people who drank beer a lot and knew what was good. Chief among them was Beer Goddess Hathor who, in addition to giving tips on what to drink where, also brewed some fine beer herself. (She has a website [link removed 8/13/11; originally "http://www.fix.org/jennyg/"], though I have no idea where in there I'm supposed to look for a homepage.) And when all of the bars are closed, having personalized beer in a hotel room . . . but I'm getting ahead of myself.

( The story behind the Pub Puzzle Crawl )

So, Monday evening. It was the first chance I got to see people NPLers, mostly locals. Since there were too many people to easily manage, some of them split off into a Ice Cream Puzzle Crawl through Boston. The puzzles, in this case, were provided on the fly by tahnan and thedan. Sadly, the Ice Cream Crawl had far fewer stops, since the participants got brainfreeze or something. The cool kids (wesleyjenn, QED, Sprout, Sue++, Sir+, joecab, cazique, heaneyland, Otherwise, D. Ness, ln sin t, Niff, Ucaoimhu, Artistry, foggyb, Hathor, and I) went off and drank for seven hours.

I wish I could tell you more about the bars and the beers, but I can't, really. I know they were good, but since I don't have much experience with beer (for reasons detailed above), I couldn't really tell you why. I can't even recommend things because I was mostly echoing what other, more knowledgeable people were ordering. I can give you the itinerary [link removed; originally "http://www.gregbrume.net/puzzles/redbones/index.html"] of the crawl, since foggyb has been kind enough to upload it. The itinerary also has most of the puzzles.

The puzzles were really well designed considering what they needed to do. They were simple and fun and rarely required too much thought. The KISS mentality showed up many places in this Con, to the benefit of all. Certainly, the NPL is not a group that will shy away from the obscure, the complex, the byzantine, or the difficult. But there's a lot more going on at a convention. There are things to see, people to talk to, games to play. You have to make sure that nothing gets to frustrating, or else solvers will start to wonder why you're wasting their time when they could be doing something else with someone else. (Also, of course, everything has to be solved without references.) In this case, the puzzles couldn't overstay their welcome, because people wanted to be able to drink and chat. Also, puzzles had to be specially coordinated so that they could be easily solved after drinking beer for several hours.

One of my favorite puzzles was one of the more complex ones: Boston Beer Works [link removed 8/13/11; originally "http://www.gregbrume.net/puzzles/redbones/pc02.pdf"]. It was an early puzzle, and one of the only ones where everyone dug in and did some pencil solving. What I enjoyed the most was that, although solvers were warned that the beer list incorporated into the puzzle was out of date, it still represented the menu very well. Pretty much everyone ordered their drinks off of the puzzle without really looking at the menus. I also sat near Cazique, QED, and the right shoulder of Sprout, triviaites all, who offered and solved variuos sports trivia questions.

At Bukowski's [link changed 8/13/11; originally "http://www.beeradvocate.com/beerfly/user_reviews/963/"], we settled in for the inevitable Pub Trivia [link removed 8/13/11; originally "http://www.gregbrume.net/puzzles/redbones/pc04a.pdf"] game. The theme was "Dead Authors," since Bukowski's is the home of the Dead Authors' Club. (Although it wasn't explained then, I now know that some patrons of this bar undertake to sample every beer on the menu, though mercifully not on the same night. Those who succeed get mugs engraved with their names placed on the wall. And by "their names," I mean "the names of dead authors they choose.") I did predictably poorly, especially compared to some of the general knowledge hotshots. But still, I don't think the questions [link removed 8/13/11; originally "http://www.gregbrume.net/puzzles/redbones/pc04b.pdf"] were balanced all that well. (I'll try to explain more about the balancing trivia, but it's a tough subject and I'll need a separate entry.) Anyway, the balance of the knowledge is definitely a nitpick in this situation. Everyone had fun, even when losing, which is much more important, and difficult to accomplish.

Also, while I was at Bukowski's, I recorded an Audblog. I'd say more about that, but I can't listen to it while I'm work.

The last puzzle I'll talk about is the one from Redbones. This is a fantastic puzzle, though you can't see it or solve it online. Go visit the redbones site, and you'll see lots of wonderful artwork. That original artwork is all over the downstairs barroom. It was the artwork that we were looking at back in January when we thought about a Pub Puzzle Crawl. And it was the artwork that made our last stop an Eyeball Benders-style extravaganza.

We got a huge pile of letters. Each letter seemed to have been cut out of the pictures along the walls. We had to locate, then put them in order according to their position around the room. It was great fun. This might seem a complex puzzle to deal with after seven hours of drinking, but I think that the lowering of the inhibitions helped us to take over the more-or-less empty room staring at pictures. Also, they had great dessert. And great meat. And good margaritas. (Wow, I didn't realize how out of it until I tried to remember it just now. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if someone there told me that I said, "I love you man! You're like my brother! My puzzle brother! Mi hermano de crucigramas!")

At some point at Redbones, I got a picture of QED, Sprout, Toonhead! and somebody's hair. You can see the wacky Redbones artwork, along with the cute and very helpful bartender who decided to be a semi-waitress even though she didn't have to be. Also, at some point earlier, I got a picture of wesleyjenn and heaneyland, probably in a T station somewhere.

After all of this, those of us who remained were directed by Foggy Blotto to the best beer in Boston. By this time, many of our crew had ducked out to return to their homes or the hotel. Thus, when I snapped a picture, en route to our final destination, only foggyb, QED, Ucaoimhu, Hathor, Artistry, and joecab. Sprout was also there, though he cannot be seen in this picture. As we staggered toward the terminus, Hathor tried to scare us by saying that once we were there, we were going to have to solve a cryptic crossword by Ucaoimhu, known for his labyrinthine crosswords that involving learning Sanskrit [link changed 8/13/11; http://www.alkhemy.com/sanskrit/atul/"] or decoding Cuneiform [link changed 8/13/11; originally "http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/GLOSSARY/CUNEI.HTM"].

Well, the best beer in Boston turned out to be at Hathor's house. But the crossword turned out to be no empty threat. We were provided with two beers that were brewed specifically for this convention. (There was a third prepared beer, but it had been part of an auction, and thus, we were not allowed to drink it.) The labels were designed by joecab, and as you can see, Hathor's threat turned out not to be empty.

And, with no more puzzles, we just kept drinking without puzzles.

( And really, who needs the puzzles? )

I recorded an Audblog after one of these beer sessions. As I mentioned above, I can't relisten to it right now. But I'm pretty sure I talked about Toonhead!, aka joecab. I may even have mentioned a picture.

See, I was "cosolving" thedan's cryptic with joecab very late one evening / very early one morning. I don't know why I thought attempting this was a good idea at all. foggyb was there, and I he may have had a hand in convincing me, since it would have been very amusing for him. We actually managed to do rather well, though all together, we found a completely and utterly wrong answer to the end game of the cryptic.

At a certain point, after the grid had been filled and foggyb and I had started puzzling through the final steps, joecab crawled around us on the bed, then fell down. He didn't get up again. After a while, we noticed.

We took this as a sign of two things: (1) we should probably get out of his room, (2) we should probably take a picture and post it on the Internet.

And here it is:
( Man, this Toonhead! guy should learn to hold his liquor better )

This is, mostly, the tour I gave at my housewarming party, for all of you who were unfortunate enough to be unable to attend.

( Come on back )

Coming soon, in Part Two: my bed, my computer and the now very famous working toilet in a thrilling action sequence!