Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows movie review

Experience often tells us that sequels are always inferior to the originals. The Blair Witch: The Book of Shadows is often highlighted as evidence and as such it is generally despised; ratings at the IMDB and other like sites readily reflect that.

However, I don't share those beliefs. I liked it when it first came out and re-watching it the other day has confirmed my conviction that, as Jeff would put it, the naysayers only say nay.

There are two things here that work against BoS: its fundamental different approach to the telling of the story and that it doesn't give any more info on what happened to Heather's group. On the first front, the radical shift places this second installment away from the first movie, which apparently was enough of a turn-off for many. The second reason is even more insidious as we bought our tickets in search for answers, but we ended up more confused than before.

However, once we accept that the mysteries will not be solved this time around and that this movie is not an extension of the first, we end up with an acceptable fun movie that, despite the factors against it, it is very respectful to the mythology set in the original. Watching it, thus, with fresh eyes there are many, many things to like.

I'll leave you with just two things to look for for the next time you watch it. The first one is the characters. Of the trilogy, the ones from The Book of Shadows are the ones that are given the most depth on the are way more interesting than even the ones from Blair Witch (2016). Despite the messing up by the producing company, we get a good share from what the director originally intended. Josh and Kim, Kim and Josh (and to some extent Erica) make this movie. The second reason to watch is the secret message Easter egg hunt named "The Secret of Esrever". There is a secret message interspersed throughout the movie and the hints are found in the DVD extras. Most of them are really, really hard, but if you are up to the challenge, you'll have lots of fun. Oh, lest I forget, there's even a bigger bonus and that's The Shadow of the Blair Witch mockumentary that ties in to this movie. I think it can be found on your regular video sites along with the Burkittsville Seven which is also a must-watch (don't know about their copyright status though). Both are a very meaty addition to the mythology that just can't be missed.

On the whole, BOS has been widely lambasted, but If this movie had come out without any previous movie to compare it to, it would have been way more successful in its appreciation.

Worth a watch this Halloween

Reverse book lookup

No practice excels that of browsing along a library shelf containing books on the subject that has awakened your interest, and sampling them.

Henry Hazlitt

It might not be an earth-shattering revelation, but It may prove useful someday.

Sometimes you have a book in your hands that you like so much, that you'd like to find more on the same topic. There's a way to do just that in your local library. You can take a look at the copyright page on the book, grab the Library of Congress classification, and use that to walk to the proper aisle and shelf and look around. Even if they don't have the very same tome you are sourcing on, the library surely has something on your topic near that area. If the source book is not recent enough to have the classification, you can still get it by running a query on it through the Library of Congress online catalog at https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/searchBrowse.

Here is an example of an interesting section that I stumbled upon recently. It begins with

• No control
• BF Skinner's Beyond Dignity And Freedom @ BF 621 S456 . You know him as the figurehead of operant conditioning branch of the behaviorist school of psychology. I find it nice that his initials match the classification number.
• Self-controlled behavior
• La Maîtrise de soi  by Chauchard . BF 632 C43
• Le Pouvoir De La Volonté Sur Soi-même, Sur Les Autres, Sur Le Destin . BF 632 J33
• Self-control :power to the person by Mahoney BF 632 M22
• Control by others
• Ulrich's  Control of Human Behavior. Found ten copies.  BF 632.5 U4
• Brainwashing by Hunter- Accounts from the Korean war and elsewhere. Interesting chapter on how to resist it.  BF 633 H8
• Thought reform and the psychology of totalism ;a study of brainwashing in China by Lifton. BF 633 L53

• Control with help of others; counseling, interviewing
• Applied psychology by Crane BF 636 C73
• Peale's Power of positive Thinking BF 636 P37

• Control of others; negotiation & salemanship BF637 and on

• Getting to Yes By Fisher Ury BF 637.N4 F57.1991 .  A classic of negotiation. Ury's solo work Getting Past No, is even better.

Ear Band-It review

Come to think of it, I believe that in all my years swimming in different pools, I have never caught an ear infection. However, when I recently tried the proper crawl posture with all the head turnings, I began getting water up my ears quite frequently.

Now, this is not a nice sensation and I could yet get an infection. To prevent that, I tried the progressive silicone earplugs which managed to keep most of the water out, but left my right ear hurting for the rest of the day and frankly worries me pushing it too much in one day. I also tried the silicone moldable putty earplugs which I bought by accident. On my first try, these only worked for a few yards before letting the water in with the even greater negative of keeping it in by not allowing proper drainage. I then came up with the idea of wrapping something around my ears to keep the water out and found that the ear band-it folks had already something on the market.

As such, the band is of a very simple design and stays put with Velcro. I couldn't find a black adult one, so I went for the purple to match my yellow swimming cap. It has a nice, tight fit and doesn't seem to loosen while swimming.

However, by itself it won't keep water out, nor is supposed to. It is intended as another layer of protection for the ear. The most benefit you can get by using it solo is altogether stopping the sudden inrushes of water that are bound to happen with all the movement. Water will still seep in and mostly get lodged in there.

Nevertheless by combining the moldable earplugs with the strap I found on the first 2 to 3 times that I could get most of the water out most of the time. A few drops might get in after twenty minutes or so, but didn't feel as uncomfortable as with the other approaches. However, after this initial success I found that I could not re-create the sealing fit and water began trickling in once again.

Compounded to that was wrapping the goggles'strap around both the swimming cap and the band. Attempting to do this was a frustrating experience and a lengthy one. Putting on the goggles before the strap could be an alternative, but that didn't work for me either. Frequently I had to fit and refit the goggle eyepieces before getting a proper seal. As for the putty, one has to resist the temptation of unplugging and re-plugging the silicone because one is less likely of getting a tight seal than when applying dry. It appears that the critical part is the flattening of the silicone towards the edges. I'm fully open that I might be the one to blame, but I am not getting consistent results.

In the end I feel that the progressive earplugs solo are the best approach if you find they don't hurt. Otherwise,  I would recommend this band paired with the putty but with flat enthusiasm. For myself, I decided to switch back to my no-headturns snorkel swimming. The inconveniences of the band and those of the other solutions make me risk it rather than deal with the hassle. Use your better judgement.

Surprising, but I cannot give it more

Voice recognition for your Linux VM

I remember in the good old days of Internet Explorer 6 when Dragon NaturallySpeaking would allow you to do most anything that could be done. Technology then moved forward, other versions of Dragon came in and went, Flash and dancing monkeys became more ubiquitous on webpages. I have not been able to re-experience that level of control since then, but while Dragon is still mighty for web browsing on native systems, it has become quite expensive with the dropping out of the home versions and is not available for Linux at all.

Is it possible to get some of that control back and for your Linux virtual machine guest?

As it turns out, it can be done, albeit in a limited fashion, thanks to the generous time spent by independent developers. For Windows 10 this is what you'll need:

• Glovepie .23 by Carl Kenner
• The latest version of Firefox for your VM, though a older one might still work
• The Mouseless Browsing add-on by Rudolf Noe for Firefox (as far as I know, there is no Chrome equivalent)
• A good microphone. Shop around for the best one you can afford.
• A script for Glovepie (I include mine a bit down)
• Your virtual machine client (I use virtualbox)

With this setup, the Mouseless Browsing add-on gives numbered labels to all clickable items on a webpage rendered by Firefox; with the script Glovepie translates your voice commands, leveraging Windows 10's own voice engine, into keystrokes which the VM passes on to the add-on; this one in turn reacts to the received keystrokes and magic happens. In other words, you browse by speaking the numbered labels and your own custom commands.

There is a bit of a lag when each page is number-populated, though some benefit might be gained on Firefox goes multithreaded on version 54 or so. For my own personal set up, I added the control key as a switch and set the control + Y key combination as the hide numbers switch.

Netflix's Castlevania season 1 flash review

Visuals and setting:

Fluid animation and nice twilight atmosphere. The setting is supposed to be Eastern Europe but I would have liked them to incorporate more from Castlevania II including the outdoors, town structures and names. The retaking of Alucard's coat, sword and after-shadows from Symphony of the Night are a nice touch. It is surprising the use of foul language and crude tastes for this, up till now, pure series. It is quite gory as well. 

Storyline:

Somewhat slow although it picks up at the fourth episode. It is a reimagining of Castlevania III , and as such it kind of works. I was really worried at the way they portrayed the Catholic Church, but the small gesture that Trevor makes in the fourth episode while asking for the holy water, makes it alright I guess.

Voice acting:

Below average for the English version except for Trevor, which is good.

Music:

A missed opportunity in my opinion. It might be atmospheric and composed specifically for the series, but it is kind of bland and doesn't retake any themes from the videogame series. You won't find me putting it on a personal playlist or getting the vinyl. 

Could be better

Ps: Retweeted this yesterday: Mondo will release Rondo of Blood and music-wise that is something to look forward to.

Hoarding Stuff

We've talked previously about how material objects can distract one from one's purpose in life.  In light of this, collecting, while fun, can be quite deleterious to one's financial and moral being. If you are about to start a collection or have been on the first stages of major accumulation, these two titles might set you away from the death trap.

The first one is Alan Zweig's 2000 documentary Vinyl. In it he shows his and other's fondness for vinyl record collecting. It starts fine and all: as with other documentaries one kind of expects to get an inside view of a respectable interest. However, unintendedly it seems, it quite soon takes an uncomfortable turn. Instead of finding lovable, interesting interviewees, we get a whole lot of scary persons in one way or other. It starts with the man with the red shirt and doesn't let go. There are shut-ins, the man who hits the ceiling when the Zweig steps on his collection, the one who claims he's got every record in existence, and even Zweig himself making this one autobiographical if anything. The three freakiest moments are his dog, his disposal (and filming) of some of his old records on the street and the time he invites a female friend over to show her his records. This last one is so awkward that one feels sorry for the girl.

The other one is Frost's book Stuff.  In it he describes various cases of hoarding and tries to make sense psychologically of it and come up with treatments which result various degrees of success. There's the perennial goat-paths, the woman who collects pets, the one who cannot stop treating herself with clothes, the man who collects literal junk, the brothers who've got the money to accumulate actual treasures and descriptions some forced clean-outs. Irene, from the first chapter is quite charming. Definitely worth reading if you know someone with this problem.

Now, if you ever feel like beginning large-scale collecting, watch and read these two and they might scare you enough to make you desist from your project before you harm your family and loved ones.

Persuasion in the Bible

Not all ideas that we have turn out to be great. Some, in fact, turn out to be very misguided and even wrong. I had one of those when I thought about reading through the whole Bible and gathering all the quotes I could find that dealt with persuasion, no matter how inconsequential. At the time (2012) I was reading books and influence and I was taken by the way Moses could stop God from smiting the Israelites when they complained too much or how Abraham negotiated his way into saving Sodom and Gomorrah (to no avail, as it turns out) and at the same time without incurring in God's anger.

The second half of the project was to match each instance with one of Cialdini's four principles of persuasion: reciprocation, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, and authority.

I made my way all into Esdras in 2012, but then stopped the project for whatever reason. I didn't retake it because I decided that the Bible shouldn't be read in that way. However, for what it's worth, and a  community service, here's the raw data that I gathered with some annotations; it might come handy to someone someday: