Piqued

I was perusing last.fm and noticed a recommended Rush music video. I’m not sure if it was officially commissioned, but it was made by some guy named Bobby who’s obviously talented:

I must give the guy major props not only for the slick production, but also the impressive research that went into making those trees.  Would make a cool wallpaper if he’d publish the graphics he used.  Anyway, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, I wanted to write some thoughts on the content of the video.  Whether or not it got Rush’s blessing (wouldn’t surprise me if it did…the band and especially lyricist Neil Peart are openly agnostic/atheist), the content is definitely provocative and worthy of a response.

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As I was perusing the movies and shows available for instant viewing on Netflix, I noticed that the second season of Showtime’s serial-killer drama Dexter had been added.  I’d seen the first season and a few episodes of the second with one of my roommates in college, but hadn’t finished it.  So I’d been catching up over the last week and ended up spending the better part of my day off today finishing them.

Ok, I also got a haircut, signed an apartment lease, crashed a sale on cleaning supplies at Ace hardware (thanks to a tip from my current roommate), and cooked an egg with onions and mushrooms with my new Calphalon One Infused Anodized frying pan (factory second on sale at the outlet store) and one of the ridiculously sharp knives in the J.A. Henckels set I just received from Amazon (also on sale).  And started putting together the website for my video production hobby/business.  So my day wasn’t completely spent vegging out in front of my computer screen.

But the reason for this blog post is in fact the show Dexter, and the last line from the awesome season 2 finale.  Dexter, an emotionally-deprived police blood splatter expert with a traumatic past who moonlights as a serial criminal-killer, spends a lot of time trying to figure out who he is and whether he is good or evil.  His conclusion at the end of the final episode?  “Am I evil?  Am I good?  I’m done asking those questions.  I don’t have the answers.  Does anyone?”

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The boring old Worldview.BrianFrantz.com page has been redesigned and reorganized.  I’m still working on the final video, but at least for now the existing videos should be laid out better!

You may have noticed that several of the links accessible from the drop-down menu above have gone to placeholder pages with estimated times of completion that have already passed.  Well, I’m happy to say I’ve gotten back to working on this site, and the first addition has already been rolled out.

Feedback.BrianFrantz.com is up and running and ready for users to register.  I don’t expect there to be a lot of commotion on the forums right now, but the registration is for more than just the forum.  The login scheme that used to exist on the Photography Portfolio site has been replaced with the Feedback login, so in order to download the larger wallpapers, you’ll need to register at Feedback.  It doesn’t require any more information than the old registration scheme, and is more secure and feature-rich.

I’m also planning to make blog comments only available to registered members, to get rid of the comment spam that comes in waves every couple of weeks.

Now that I have the feedback forum in place, I’m hoping to tackle the Worldview site soon, as well as finish the final video in the How Great Thou Art series.  Once that’s finished, I hope to finally put together the Reaching Up Productions page, though that may be a while.

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My only magazine subscription is to Wired, a slick publication that appeals to society-aware geeks who are interested in science and technology and how they can make the world a better place.  It features everything from product reviews to well-researched articles on topics ranging from politics to medicine to open-source software.  The writing can be a bit sensational at times, but I think it makes it more enjoyable to read, and really conveys a sense of optimistic excitement over the potential in modern technology.  I don’t read the issues cover-to-cover, but there are frequently articles that I find very interesting.

One such article that I think well represents well the kind of varied and important subjects often featured in the magazine was in last year’s February issue.  Titled “The Truth About Autism,” it was a fascinating look at autism research and how our opinions of the condition have changed, with the aid of technology such as blogs and YouTube.

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