Dave Mulder's Blog

Life of Pi

A few hours of my holiday weekend were devoted to reading Life of Pi, a novel about a boy shipwrecked in the Pacific Ocean. The narrative hook, as it’s called in the art of storytelling, is that with him in the lifeboat is a fully-grown bengal tiger.

Unlike my recent review of the film Knowing, I do not intend to give away any spoilers on Life of Pi. It is a marvelous adventure that, after about page 100, becomes almost impossible to put down.

After its release in 2001, Life of Pi won author Yann Martel several literary awards, notably the Booker Prize (given annually to the novel judged to be the best work of fiction). Interestingly, Martel has not written much else since this book, though he has one book due out later this year.

I strongly recommend Life of Pi to anyone who appreciates a decent story. It’s well-worth the $10 price tag on Amazon.

Knowing (2009) film review

With Kristy in Grand Rapids, I spent part of my Friday night crashing early and then waking up in the middle of the night full of energy. So I decided to watch the recent film Knowing and write up a brief review.

Spoiler alert! This review contains massive spoilers.

Realism is important to me when watching cinema; I want the portrayals I see to be realistic. Oddly enough, minor failures in realism bother me more than large failures, and Knowing is chock full of them (an overenthusiastic class, a grand ceremony to bury a time capsule, etc.).

The movie starts out in 1959 with an elementary school class drawing pictures of the future to put in a time capsule. A creepy girl named Lucinda, who can hear whispers, writes down a series of numbers for her drawing. 50 years later, the time capsule is uncovered and Nic Cage’s kid (NCK) receives the creepy girl letter and begins to hear the whispers too.

Although Nic Cage has been associated with some terrible films lately, I still pay attention to any trailer or DVD cover in which his likeness appears. There are movies of his that I absolutely adore (Face/Off and The Rock to name a few), but at the same time there are other movies that weren’t good at all.

Nic gets curious about his son’s letters and uncovers a code in the numbers, revealing a chronological series of dates and deaths that coincide with major global events after 1959. The narrative hook is that there are only three such events remaining on the paper, all scheduled to occur within the next few days. Nic later discovers that some additional numbers between each event corresponded to the latitude/longitude of where they would occur. By chance, he is on his way to pick up NCK and waiting in traffic when makes this finding; just guess where the next event pointed to. That’s right! Exactly where he was at that moment, and out of nowhere a plane crash lands.

Feeling guilty about not being able to do anything, Nic tracks down Lucinda’s daughter and granddaughter, who are reluctant to assist. He then shows up at the next location, thinking it will be a terrorist attack, but it’s a gruesome subway derailing. Somehow Nic is able to save a woman by diving and pulling her down to the ground. What a great guy.

Lucinda’s daughter (who, by the way is middle-aged) shows up again and volunteers to help. They figure out that the next event is one that will kill everyone on the planet. In the meantime, both the granddaughter and NCK hear whispers and are visited by silent people. Later we find out they are aliens. That was a surprise.

As I mentioned, Nic’s astrophysicist background comes in handy when trying to figure out what will happen in the next day. It’s some kind of solar flare that will penetrate its radiation a mile deep into Earth, killing every living thing. That’s somewhat of a downer. Then NCK and the granddaughter are abducted by the whisper people and taken to the location of the last event. Nic tracks them down while Lucinda’s daughter is nailed by a semi-truck while running a red light in pursuit.

It turns out that the whisper people, who are aliens, have chosen NCK and the granddaughter to help re-start humanity in another world. With the kind of advanced technology they have, I wonder why they just didn’t stop the solar flare, but whatever. Nic and NCK have a heartfelt goodbye, then Nic goes to his parents’ home in New York to await the end. A wave of fire engulfs half the planet. NCK and the granddaughter are safe on a much more beautiful planet. In the distance they see other alien ships landing with, presumably, other sets of children from Earth.

I’m going to rate this pretty low as an overall film (certain parts bugged me for lack of realism, and the alien twist was just plain weird), but higher for entertainment and rewatchability.

Cinema value: 5.0 out of 10
Entertainment: 7.0 out of 10
Rewatchability: 6.3 out of 10

Frustrations with Terra Plana

Since reading about Vivo Barefoot in New York Magazine last summer, I’ve had something of a consumer crush on Terra Plana. Terra Plana is a shoe company that believes in producing eco-friendly products; when I say eco-friendly, I mean that they recycled material and very little glue. Their Vivo Barefoot line consists of puncture-resistant soles that allow the wearer to emulate walking barefoot, and for a while now I have had my eye on a pair of size 46 (isn’t the European system much simpler?) beige canvas Dharmas.

As a subscriber to Terra Plana’s e-mail newsletter and a recent follower of their Twitter persona, I occasionally hear about some type of sale or coupon code. Unfortunately, the e-mail advertisements are very misleading. Take the one I got today, for instance. It headlines, “Don’t Forget Father’s Day; Terra Plana counts down the perfect Father’s Day gifts with 30% off.” They then enumerate a few products (the Vivo Barefoot Aqua being one of them) and invite recipients to check out the full catalog of products. The problem is that the e-mail doesn’t tell you, nor does it really imply that the 30% off is only valid on the specific products mentioned. To me, it’s similar to the coupons I see in the mail from Kohl’s, which advertise 20% (or some other percentage) off everything in their store.

It wouldn’t be so misleading if they made it easier to determine the validity of the discount code on their website. Indeed, if this had been the case, I would not have had the motivation to write this blog entry. Here are the steps I took:

1. Added a pair of beige canvas Dharmas to my cart
2. Clicked on checkout
3. Selected “guest checkout” (Did not really want to come up with another rarely-used password)
4. Entered my shipping information
5. Went to add my discount code and credit card info only to discover that discount codes can only be entered when checking out as a registered user
6. Went back to check out and create a new account
7. Re-entered my shipping information
8. Entered my credit card info and the discount code on the same page (last step before confirming purchase)
9. Discovered that the discount code had no apparent impact on the price with no error message given as to why it did not take
10. Went back and re-entered code to ensure it was copied correctly from the e-mail
11. Went to confirmation step to once again find that the code had no impact
12. Went back to regular website to find a pair of the Vivo Barefoot Aquas, added to cart, logged into my account, entered discount code and credit card information
13. Finally saw the discount working

Perhaps most odd is that even after all these steps, the coupon was still not taking a full 30% off the regular price. In fact, it appeared to be closer to 26% off, as it wanted to charge me $122.88 for a $150 product and $12 ground shipping. Theoretically, it should have been  $117. $150 - $45 (30% discount) + $12 (shipping). Just plain weird.

Anyway, a much more appropriate interaction involving discount codes is to allow them to be added in the shopping cart area (before checkout) so that customers can clearly see what they will be paying for before they pull out their credit card info (and yes, I have been deterred from making several purchases in the last few months because my wallet was in the other room and a commerce website wanted that information right away).

Additionally, Terra Plana also needs to work on their status messages. If my discount code does no’t work, I want to know why. Wrong style? Expired? Their current system leaves me in the dark, and I hate trying to guess at what’s wrong.

Lastly, I would like to see their e-mails explicitly denote that the discount is only valid for the specific items mentioned. Not having that almost makes it feel like a bait & switch (note: just my opinion).

There, I’ve vented a bit and feel a bit better. Still though, the bitter taste of having my Vivo Barefoot dreams smashed to pieces lingers on my tongue. It’s a shame that such a great company making awesome products has a shoddy discount code & checkout system.

3 months without cable

Next week will mark the completion of 3 months without cable in my household. I made the decision, back in March, to dump pay television for several reasons.

First, it was not providing any real value beyond live sporting events. Many television programs are now available online through services like Hulu. In exchange for the forced viewing of a few ads (that you will see even if you watch via cable), you can stream the entire broadcast through your Internet connection. I have also grown discontent with television news like CNN and MSNBC. They just don’t really care about real news anymore, and what they do provide is through an incredibily filtered lens.

This means that all I was really using my cable subscription for was sports content: Michigan State football/basketball, NBA, NHL, NFL, MLB, etc. I do miss this. But I don’t miss it to the tune of the $80-100/month that cable costs. Interestingly, there are a few “illegitimate” ways to watch sports broadcasts with your Web connection. I can neither confirm nor deny that I have experimented with these.

Second, I wanted more time to spend reading and doing outdoors stuff. Less time spent in front of the television means more time is available to do everything else. Later this summer I will recap the books I’ve read.

Third, I wanted to eliminate a large source of passive advertising intake and maybe reduce the number of impulse purchases I make. I think it’s working, though the trade off is that I have a bit less information to make consumer decisions with.

Overall, my cable-less experiment has been a success. I’m able to get most of the content I want to watch anyway through other mediums (Hulu, Netflix, etc.), I’m saving money, and I have more time to spend doing other constructive things.

My favorite television seasons

Television programs show remarkable variation between seasons. Some shows start off well and then fade down the stretch; others have a handful of good seasons intermingled amongst some boring ones. Several times in the last few years I have tried to put together a list of my favorite television seasons. This time I think I will actually complete that list.

1. The West Wing, Season 4

A re-election year for President Bartlet coupled with the emergence of Will Bailey helps produce a season of the highest quality. Unfortunately, creator/writer Aaron Sorkin left the show after Season 4, leading to a remarkable decline in quality.

2. The Wire, Season 4

An incredible season for an outstanding, gritty crime drama. Season 4 really pushed this show over the top for me.

3. The West Wing, Season 1

In here again because it’s my favorite show of all-time, The West Wing’s inaugural season is filled with interesting storylines and entertaining times.

4. The O.C., Season 1

An odd choice, right? If you missed Season 1, you probably thought this was a terrible program. And you’d be right, if you ignored that first season. It’s an incredibly moving storyline filled with laughs and drama that’s not too far over the top. Of course, Season 2 and beyond was much more focused on product placement and eyeballs than quality, which is why the storyline became much more reminescient of a soap opera.

5. Veronica Mars, Season 1

This drama about a teenage detective did a masterful job of blending weekly plots in with an overarching storyline. That’s probably what makes the first season a must-see. Beyond that, the show does go a bit downhill, but is still worth watching.

6. Lost, Season 1

What’s not to love about a good survivor drama before it goes loopy with flashbacks, flashforwards, and answers that only leave viewers with more questions?

7. Heroes, Season 1

They saved the cheerleader and saved the world in the first season, but then tried to have 348 sub-plots going on in Season 2 and beyond.

8. Burn Notice, Season 1

A shade better than Season 2, Burn Notice’s first run was fun, entertaining, and an overall thrill to take in.

9. Battlestar Galactica, Season 1

Season 1 is fun. Seasons 2-4 are dreadfully boring and will leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth.

5 films I want to see this summer

This summer’s lineup of motion picture releases is not much different than the typical fare that comes around. You have a handful of big-budget, highly-anticipated films, and then some smaller popcorn flicks.

Here’s what I’m interested in this season:

1. Star Trek (May 8)

Since first seeing a trailer for this re-imagining of the sci-fi series, I’ve had a little bug in my head telling me to go see it. With the official release just two days away and positive reviews pouring in, the hype is only getting stronger.

2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July 15)

This installment of the Harry Potter series was supposed to be released in November 2008 but was delayed until Summer 2009, probably to make more money off the franchise. I’ve been an avid fan of the entire series, and while I don’t think this film will be as good as Goblet of Fire I’m still looking forward to it.

3. Public Enemies (July 1)

Based on the true story of John Dillinger and his criminal colleagues of the 1930s, Public Enemies has been rising on the lists of many movie fanatics. It looks a bit more authentic than The Untouchables,

4. The Hangover (June 5)

Not my usual movie-going fare, a co-worker pointed me to this film as being a potential “very funny” candidate. The premise rests on a small group of groomsmen who go to Las Vegas for a bachelor party blowout. Things take a turn for the worse the next day when they can’t remember a thing and need to find the groom to get him back for his wedding. If this sounds at all interesting, check out the trailer.

5. Angels & Demons (May 15)

Angels & Demons is a prequel to The Da Vinci Code, with Robert Langdon again running around Europe to uncover clues hidden in symbology. Outside of the main character, there is very little connection in terms of an overaching story line between the two books/movies, so film-goers should not go in expecting this to align perfectly with Da Vinci. I am anticipating Angels & Demons because I enjoyed the book, reading it in the span of one day not too long ago.

Honorable mentions

• Terminator: Salvation - A prequel to the original Terminator trilogy.
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - A big-budget Michael Bay sequel to a big-budget Michael Bay movie.
• Land of the Lost - Based on the television show (which I loved), but Will Ferrell was cast and every indication points to this being more of a standard Ferrell comedy than something unique and interesting (and that’s really a shame).