Commencement 2008

I like to do this every year as kind of a tribute to my school, but also as an inspiration to myself.  Commencement is one of those times you really feel like there is a golden opportunity right outside your door and over the years, that opportunity seems more and more tarnished.  To re-polish that shine and re-live that non-jaded-ness, I re-visit the commencement speeches and each has been as equally golden as the years before.  Last year, Steve Jobs spoke of finding what it is that you are passionate about.  This year, the speaker was the most famous of syndicated TV mavens, Oprah Winfrey.  Although her speech wasn't as powerful as Mr. Jobs', it was still effective.  Let's take a look at a few of her talking points.

"The world has so many lessons to teach you. I consider the world, this Earth, to be like a school and our life the classrooms. And sometimes here in this Planet Earth school the lessons often come dressed up as detours or roadblocks. And sometimes as full-blown crises. And the secret I've learned to getting ahead is being open to the lessons, lessons from the grandest university of all, that is, the universe itself."

Oprah's opening remarks mostly concerned her goddaughter and graduating senior, but the heart of her speech is summarized in this statement.  Superficially, life is a series of lessons, but what I take away from this is that we are meant to be prepared for these lessons.  Not just prepared, but active in finding solutions for the "full-blown crises" that arise in our lives.  Specifically, Oprah proceeds to talk about three lessons she's learned in life:

"The three lessons that have had the greatest impact on my life have to do with feelings, with failure and with finding happiness."

Feelings.  This one is perhaps the most simple of all, but also the most difficult to deal with.  Her point in this lesson was that you shouldn't be afraid to let your emotions dictate your decisions.  Pointedly, doubt is what drove her to make many decisions, imploring each graduating student, "Even doubt means don't."  Of course, if every decision was this easy, we'd all be incredibly happy.  But why not follow our emotions? I tend to agree with her, in most senses, what we feel with our gut ultimately leads to the right decision the majority of the time.

Oprah continues:

"And what I've found is that difficulties come when you don't pay attention to life's whisper, because life always whispers to you first. And if you ignore the whisper, sooner or later you'll get a scream. Whatever you resist persists. But, if you ask the right question—not why is this happening, but what is this here to teach me?—it puts you in the place and space to get the lesson you need."

This passage is in reference to the difficulties that she has had starting her new all-girls' school in Africa.  Unfortunately, failures are a fact of life, for everyone. I've come to terms with this in my own way, but it doesn't make me less afraid.  Her statement that you must learn from your failures is key.  What does it teach us when we fail?  More importantly for me, what does one learn about one's self and one's goals?  Oprah herself has already established her own goals, but this has lead to much more than being a television personality:

"Be a part of something. Don't live for yourself alone. This is what I know for sure: In order to be truly happy, you must live along with and you have to stand for something larger than yourself. Because life is a reciprocal exchange. To move forward you have to give back. And to me, that is the greatest lesson of life. To be happy, you have to give something back."

This is especially significant, because the overall message of her speech is about service.  In essence, she claims that you can find yourself through service.  You can find your happiness, you can find your "greatness," and you can define your success.  She mentions a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, and this is only a portion,

"You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love." 

I believe this is a powerful message to the graduating class and perhaps even to those of us in search of something more.  Many of us are wide-eyed and looking for our potential.  Some of us have found it, but others are constantly searching, but utterly impotent in the fear that we do not have what it takes to succeed.  Oprah claims that none of this matters.  As long as we have the love and devotion not only for our craft, but for our world, we should be able to succeed at anything.

Again, I believe that the school has picked well in providing a wonderful parting note for all those who have passed through its halls.  For all the people who have achieved more than they could hope for, it is a confirmation, but for those still looking, it is a catalyst.  Here's to them!

Netflix Profiles Gone Awry

Last night, under the warm blanket of a pre-equinox evening, I received an email notification from that purveyor of red envelopes, Netflix, declaring that they would be eliminating the profiles feature from their service.  For the uninitiated, the profiles feature was a fantastic way for any Netflix household to allocate discs amongst family members so everyone could rent whatever they wanted with no argument or hassle.  Under the new guidelines, ratings and individual account statistics would be merged together under the main profile and no doubt, havoc would ensue. 

Let's look at it this way.  Grace and I definitely have differing movie tastes and while there is overlap, it would be increasingly difficult for us to find movies to watch together if I was the only person choosing movies for the queue.  Yes, it is easy for me to give her access to the main profile, but it is awful convenient for us to have the separate queues rather than have a constant shuffling of DVD priority.  I can understand that not every netflix member does this, but for those who do, this is an awesome feature.

There are a couple of claims Netflix has made to justify this move.  The customer service email attributes it to the development of new features.  Specifically, there is nothing mentioned so we are supposed to take a leap of faith and accept that we will love these new features, whatever they are.  The second claim I have read is that the profiles feature was cumbersome and confusing to certain users.  Perhaps it was deemed superfluous, but there's no way to know this unless there is data from Netflix to back this up.  Perhaps only 10% of members are utilizing the profiles feature, but the blog posts and comments I've read so far tell me this can't be. 

My conclusion is that it is possibly a cost issue.  With each new account there is the possibility of 4 or more profiles being added to the system.  Maintenance, architecture, who knows what, I'm sure is affected by this multiplication.  Add to this the potential move from physical rental to high-definition streaming and you end up with a lot of moveable data clogging up the works.  I'm hardly qualified to make this sort of assumption, but it could be a possibility.

The overall feeling of that initial e-mail is disappointment.  We love our Netflix account.  Every time one of those red envelopes comes in the mail we actually get a little excited, especially if it's one of "our" movies.  I don't know if I'll take the extreme action of leaving the Netflix fold, but unless they come up with a better explanation, I may have to.

Oh, the Humanity!

I'm re-posting this again, for reasons which shall go unspoken.  Different sport.  Same feeling.

The Loser

A television washes a blue light over a barren den. 

The game long over and his mates long gone, Craig thought about retiring to the oversized twin bed upstairs and shutting it all down.  After several seemingly epic hours of stunned silence from the captain's chair, it was about time.

With the strength of Ajax, Craig peeled himself from the leather sleeve of his seat, stumbled towards the stairwell in a vertigo funk, and leaned on a caramel plaster wall laden with ancient trophies.  Cold weather still gave him a dull ache in his knee, but with the room spinning there were other pains to come.  An empty bottle of Wild Turkey told him as much and the sea-torn battle in his stomach proved it.  A soft chuckle burst through his lips as he spotted Tucker lapping up the bits of party left on the bamboo floor.  Numbly, a curt "Tucker!" got the dappled greyhound loping away.

Seven games it had lasted, of which the last being the most excruciatingly anxious back-and-forth contest he'd seen all year.  Seven games totaling more than 100 goals ending in one champion, one cup lifted, and hopes shattered.  He'd almost thrown the television out the window when Todd Bertuzzi scored the go-ahead goal on a cheap shot power play in the third period, but the game wasn't over.  It wasn't until triple zeroes hit the score board that his guests strained and yelled to keep him from going foaming mad.

A last stair cast an evil grin upon Craig's feeble attempt to ascend.  Just a few more bedward lurches to salvation laid before him.  Steeling himself and ignoring gravity-challenged eyelids, Craig attempted to focus on the feathery pillows, the heavy fleece blanket, and the thought that next season, things would be different.

Next season there would be new players, maybe some more new rules, and there would be no more team from British Columbia for his team to deal with in the finals. Next season, Craig would be married happily, living in a lakeside cottage along a golden coastline surrounded by glittering rocks and crystal, blue water.  Next season, there would be no whiskey and no tears.  There would be jubilant celebrations spilling into the frozen streets of Aurora, there would be embraces for everyone, and a gallant ticker-tape parade.  Headlines would scream, "The Cup is OURS!" and previous seasons' disappointments would be locked shut in the drawers of forgotten memory.

All this Craig dreamed as he lost his fight with consciousness.  The final step cackled with glee as an alcohol-swollen body thumped each redwood stair with the occasional crack of bone in flight. 

When they found Jigsaw Craig twisted across his polished floor the following morning, the television was in a test pattern, cold pizza sat alone in a crowd of empty silver bullets, Tucker was licking Craig's broken jaw in sympathy, and he had nothing on but the stained and tattered jersey of a losing team.

Gurgling through the assault of canine saliva, one could make out in strangled English...

"Next season..."

Summer Movie Malady

It's been a couple months and already a few great movies have come through.  As we've been remarkably busy, it's taken me a while, but I'm finally ready to come through with some mini-reviews on some of the Summer releases.

Week 1 - Iron Man
My favorite movie experience so far since Spider-Man.  This one had it all.  The acting, the plot, the effects, and the action, it all came together so seamlessly and entertainingly.  It is the best superhero movie since Batman Begins and the best movie so far this year.  John Favreau and Marvel Studios have created something terribly exciting and I cannot wait for the sequel or for what Marvel has in store for its next series of films.

Overall score: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Week 2 - Speed Racer
This is the first movie I've ever seen by myself.  Really.  Should I be willing to admit that?  I'm not so sure, but it doesn't matter.  The movie itself was stunning, visually.  It was everything the original material was and more as the Wachowskis have mined everything in their visual lexicon to craft a new experience.  Off-putting for most movie-goers, I enjoyed it for its action, but was lukewarm to the non-driving sequences.  Perhaps a bit too long, it had me looking at my watch for the last forty-five minutes or so, but kept my attention due to the technicolor visual graffiti.  Definitely something to watch for in the future.

Overall score: 3 out of 5 stars

Week 3 - Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
One of the tentpoles of the Summer movie season, Indie returns to the screen a man of a different era and a movie of a different era.  Where the first one was a much smaller movie with giant aspirations, this film knows what's at stake.  The scale outreaches all three of Indie's previous efforts, but the characters are still true to themselves.  Shia wasn't too bad, but I was disappointed in the "Tarzan" sequence.  The visual effects were jarring, especially at the end, but impressive.  It was an enjoyable Indie feature, but compared to what we've seen thus far, they'll have to do better.

Overall score: 3 out of 5 stars

Ticket Rage

Once again, I must re-iterate.

I. Hate. Ticketmaster.

That is all...

Puno and the Reed Village - Peru Days 7 & 8

Taquile Archway, originally uploaded by kardinalsin.

Our last few days in Peru were stellar and I wish I could do without condensing them into one post, but it's become difficult for me to relay everything concisely.

We took off from Cuzco in the early morning, departing our hotel with our bags and everything in tow. I wasn't looking forward to the 8-hour bus ride, but seeing as it was going to be broken down into chunks between cities, it didn't feel quite as bad as I'd imagined. It's hard for me to recall the names of everything we saw, from the brief stop at an Inca Hotel to an agrarian ruin whose name escapes me. It was rife with history. It was packed with photographs, dramatic views, and sore legs. It was also completely exhausting.

What we learned along the way, again, is that the passion of our Peruvian tour guides is as expansive as their knowledge. While we were treated to the usual marketing ploy from the locals and even a "student" who was peddling some wares, there was a sense that the history of the sites we visited was very important. While some of our stops were brief at best, our guides made sure we had a thorough knowledge of what each site had meant to the country in ancient, colonial, and modern times. As fascinating as that was, it became a little hard for me to listen to both the English and Spanish expositions along the way. Perhaps it was the delivery, but I'm going to blame it on my mind being blasted from the lengthy bus ride.

Puno finally came into view after we had driven through the town of Juliaca. Hailed by our tour guide as the "folklore capital of Peru," Puno is the closest and largest major city adjacent to Lake Titicaca. By this respect, it happens to be the highest elevation at which we lodged. At this point, the elevation wasn't a big deal, but the cold nights really made a difference in our hot water and on our heat. It was freezing at times, but bearable. Our first night in the city, we were able to explore the street market and even see a sampling of its tourist district, but we would see much more the next day.

Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world, was our destination on our final full day. Expansive enough to barely see Bolivia on a clear day, its serenity and clarity add to the incredible beauty of the landscape. Titicaca is home to several small islands and even more numerous man-made floating islands, or islas flotantes, two of which we would visit. These floating islands are the last vestiges of ancient pre-Inca society, but with many of the modern conveniences we have today. Strung together using the abundant natural reeds on the lake, each isla functions as hearth and home for hundreds of people with solar electricity, schools, and even a discotheque! As we watched one of the native peoples demonstrate how each island was constructed, a light snow fell. It helped remind me that our situation couldn't get any more incredible.

Riding from one island to the next on one of the reed boats, we departed for the natural island of Taquile. One of the larger islands in the middle of Titicaca, Taquile was not safe from the colonial thumb of the Spanish. One can clearly see the influence of Moorish Spain in the black shawls of the women, the colonial stone paths, and especially the signs of Catholic life. Amazingly, the small town center of Taquile is dominated by a large tourist market selling the hand-woven goods of the inhabitants. We enjoyed a viewing of a late Mother's Day celebration, a particularly tasty meal, and we were off. Taquile disappeared in the background as we sped back to Puno in our ferry, surrounded by a thunderstorm, rocking back and forth in the majesty of the great lake.

That last night, we ventured into Puno yet again for a last view of Peru from the ground. This time, we happened upon the Plaza de Armas and the main tourist drag. It was bustling, alive with the people of Peru and beating along with the hum of excited foreigners, ourselves included. This was the Peru that we had come to know. Passionate, ancient, and inspiring. If all our vacations could be exactly like this one, I would make it mandatory.

Thankfully, I think they will be.