On My Radar: November 2007

Anime

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya I don’t buy anime series very often (Cowboy Bebop is the only one i own), but this one is going into the permanent vaults here at the Rob React manor. It’s really that good. It’s funny, immensely clever and has an infectious tone that works its way into the brain. I’m glad I randomly took the plunge on this one.

Books

Against the Day. Yeah, I’m reading Pynchon’s latest. We’ll see how that goes. I had a bunch of lighter fare to choose from and I still stuck my hand down to the middle of the pile to pull out that roach killer. What’s annoying is, I bought it ages ago- in hardcover and never got around to reading it until now. Now, when there’s a much lighter (and cheaper) softcover version available. Oh well. At least it’s impressive on the train.

Oh wait, I drive to work 🙁

*grumble*

oh! and I’m sorely tempted by this:
New Bedford Whaling Museum Programs Music Through Time Folk Series Moby Dick Reading Marathon

Movies

Paris, Je T’Aime is next up on the Netflix queue. I’ve been waiting for that one for a while since so many of the people involved are interesting and I, too, love Paris. I can’t wait.

Following that, I’ll be getting ready for the Blade Runner Final Cut at the Brattle next month by watching the old Director’s Cut at least once next week. Other than that it seems like as good a time as any to play catch up with Hong Kong cinema. I’m probably two years behind right now so I’m going to see what can eke out of Netflix and then maybe hit Chinatown to see what’s out there that I haven’t seen. Fun times.

Web Technology

I’m getting myself revved up to take the Omniture Certified Professional: Implementation test.

Other than that I’ve been writing a lot of how-to documentation for my job. It’s been fun to do, but a lot of that impetus has left me by the time I leave work so I’ve done very little of that sort of writing for this place. Maybe when I start back in on client work I’ll return to writing up tricks, tips and techniques here. I actually have a half-written article on using JSON with eval() that I should (hopefully?) publish this week, so maybe that will spur me on to bigger and better things.

As for client work, I’m finally getting back to being billable at work, so I’ll have some fun stuff to show at some point over the next couple of months. At least it looks like it will be fun right now. This is a client I’ve done cool things for only to have them killed at the last minute. Here’s hoping that doesn’t happen again.

Music

Nothing of note.

No, really.

Sure I’m still listening to a bunch of music but there’s absolutely no clear #1 on my personal hit parade at the present time. Where is the new audio crack?

Comics

Am I more excited about picking up The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier or Scott Pilgrim, Vol 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together?

I have no answer to that question. Too close to call. I will say I have high hopes for both and both are waiting for me at the shop, so we’ll see soon enough which one wins the battle of execution.