not sure what I'm doing here
be
Just trying to make a blog. No big deal, right?
Homepage: http://www.bryantcasteel.com
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Posts by be
Les Miz
Sep 3rd
Kelly and I went to see the musical Les Misérables last week.
Now I’m not an expert on the theater. It’s the first time that I’ve seen Les Miz. Also, it’s only the second time that I’ve seen a professional stage performance, and the first time that I’ve ever seen a performance by the touring company.
So I might be unexperienced, but this was easily the highest quality stage production that I’ve ever seen. The orchestra was great, and the singers were really good, and the sets and costumes were amazing.
I honestly think the set was the best part for me. I think it completely made the ambience and mood of the play. Plus they had some really cool effects that added to its believability. In a few scenes they had a projected backdrop that would move with the actors, and it really looked like they were moving in a world bigger than the stage.
Despite all of the things that made it the best play I’ve seen, the funny part is that I’m not sure if I liked it.
First off, it was incredibly hard to follow. The dialogue was hard to understand and I don’t think the plot made sense in all parts. Kelly says that the lyrics aren’t normally that hard to understand, so it’s possible that all of the actors were just mumblers. All the same, I don’t think I would have understood what was going on if I wasn’t already familiar with the story.
The other thing was that it was kind of boring. Mostly just at the end. After Javert dies and you think the main plot line is resolved, it just keeps going and going for like 5 more musical numbers. In fact, I think it kind of ruined the end for me. The final song seems like it would have been really powerful and moving, except that I’d already stopped caring because the story seemed like it should have been over.
But to reiterate, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t like it. It just means that I don’t know if I liked it. Something funny happened in the days after we saw it that I think explains why people like this kind of thing.
The first thing that happens is that the songs get stuck in your head. And that is its own vicious cycle because as they get stuck in your head, you sing or play them, and so does your wife, and then they just get more stuck in your head.
Then the second thing happens. As you hear or sing the songs, you start getting reminded of various parts of the play, and then you start thinking about it more and more. And before long, everytime you hear one of the songs you think something like, "Oh, yeah, that part was cool."
So that’s it. I’m not sure if I liked it as much as a lot of people seem to, but I can imagine that if I kept being reminded of it over and over by the music that I’d probably convince myself after the fact that it was the best thing ever.
Goodbye, Eddie
Aug 11th
Remember how I kept seeing bald eagles when I’d drive or ride the bus into the city? And remember how the eagles would always be in the same spot on the bridge?
Well it turns out that it was always the same eagle. His name is Eddie. He has a Twitter page.
Also, he got hit by a bus last week.
So now there’s nothing good about this state.
Amazon Appstore
Mar 23rd
Yesterday Amazon launched their Appstore for Android. Without spending too much time on this, here’s the biggest thing that the Amazon Appstore has that I think have been sorely missing from the stores up until now: Sharing app links.
Seriously, why hasn’t anyone done this before now? Isn’t it a no-brainer that you’d want people to recommend apps to their friends? It’ll make you sell more apps, and it’s good for the user.
I’ve wished tons of times that Xbox Live made it easier to give my brother a link to buy the game I’m playing so we can play it together, but no such luck.
Well the Appstore finally adds this to Android. There’s a share link for every app that will let you send a link via text or email to a friend so they can get the same app. I do wish the link opened in the Appstore itself instead on the Web, but it’s still a huge feature that the other stores lack.
Double mind-blowing!
Mar 8th
On the bus heading to work I just saw two bald eagles sitting next to each other on the same ugly statue! Just when you think you’re getting used to it, those eagles go and do something even more amazing! Like sitting there! Next to each other! At the same time! I was so excited I could barely stand it.
If my was phone/camera wasn’t so slow I’d have taken a picture, but I knew I wouldn’t have gotten it in time. I should have just screamed for the driver to stop the bus so we could all behold the miracle. Instead I just looked around the bus excitedly, hoping that someone else was as amazed as me.
I did get the attention of this old Asian woman sitting behind me. She mostly looked confused as to what I was doing. I tried pointing and mouthing “two eagles” while holding up two fingers, but she only seemed to get more confused.
Another lady at the front of the bus mouthed that she’d seen them, too. She had a huge grin on her face, too. Though I’m not sure if she was just as happy as I was about the eagles or if she was just laughing at me for being so excited.
Sort your Netflix queue
Jan 29th
This is how you spend your afternoons if you’re a computer nerd.
After a while of adding things to your Netflix queue, it gets kind of long and overwhelming to try and pick what to watch next. I’ve thought before that it would be nice if it would let you sort your queue by how many stars it’s rated at. Then the things that I would theoretically enjoy most would be at the top of my list.
Well, since Netflix doesn’t have that feature, I decided to just add it myself. I wrote a user script for Google Chrome that will sort it for me. Basically it populates the “list order” box on the queue with it’s order by rating. Then if you click the button to update your queue, they’ll be sorted by rating.
If you’d like to try it out, you can click here to install it as an extension in Google Chrome. (You can use it in other browsers, too, but not with the simple one-click-install that Chrome uses.)
I realize it’s not the perfect user interface, but I did just make it for my own use. I actually get really excited about the ratings and Netflix’s predictions, so I might do more with this later. If nothing else, it’s pretty fun to see your stars all line up after it’s done.
Weaponized Bus Pass
Jan 20th
Have you ever been sitting on a bus while a long line of people boarding walks past you and wondered which one of them is being used as a biological weapon that will kill all of you?
Well if not, then you probably don’t watch enough Fringe.
Bald Eagles
Jan 20th
How many times can you see a bald eagle before it stops being exciting? I only ask because I’m on the verge of losing count but I still get excited when I see them.
When I moved to Washington I’d never seen a bald eagle in the wild before. It was so exciting the first time: a real, live, bald eagle, just sitting there as if it was as normal as a seagull.
So I’ve been keeping track of them, and here’s all of the eagles I’ve seen:
Kelly took this picture of a bald eagle while we were waiting for the ferry to depart. She has two more if you click through.
- Kelly and I were using the ferries across the Puget sound for the first time, and it was even one of the first times that we’d been down to the waterfront after we moved here. After we got our car loaded onto the ferry we started exploring the boat. When we got to the top when we saw a crowd of people at one end of the deck. We went to see what they were looking at, and there it was: a big bald eagle, sitting on a catwalk overlooking the water. It was too far away to be sure, but it looked as almost as big as a human sitting on that railing. I don’t know if the crowd was made up of newbies like us or if it’s just awesome every time.
- There’s a floating bridge from the east side across Lake Washington into the city that we drive across a lot. On the Seattle-side of the bridge there’s a series of bays and smaller lakes and marshlands that are all interconnected and go back to the lake. One time we were heading into the city and driving through this marshy bay area by the university when Kelly saw the eagle fly and then land on a street light. She pointed it out to me just in time for me to turn and see the eagle sitting on the lamp post.
- Over the summer our friend Matt came to visit. When we driving into the city for some good old-fashioned tourism, we saw an eagle sitting on a platform in the bay, right by where we had seen it the second time. Kelly and I both got really excited, and we chastised Matt for not getting as excited as us.
- Since I’ve started my new job I take the bus across the floating bridge every day. One day as we were driving past the bay I realized that we’d seen bald eagles in the exact same place twice before. So I looked up from my book and sure enough, there was a bald eagle sitting on that same platform again! (It turns out the platform is a sculpture. Who knew? I thought it served some navigational purpose or something.)
- Another trip into the city, driving with Kelly past the same bay. This time the eagle wasn’t sitting perched, but it was flying overhead. I was so excited this time that I kept repeating over and over: “A bald eagle flying! We just saw an eagle flying!”
- A few weeks ago my brother Troy came to visit. As we were driving into the city we told him to look out for the place where we always see the bald eagles. It wasn’t in vain: we saw a bald eagle sitting on the same old platform. Troy did a slightly better job at being excited: he said, “oh, wow.”
- Just the next day when Kelly and I were driving home from the airport after dropping Troy off, we saw an bald eagle flying overhead chasing a seagull! It was really exciting. It looked like the eagle was gaining on the gull, but I was driving and couldn’t see the rest of the action. Kelly said that the eagle got close and had it’s talons extended, but that it missed the mark and the gull got away. Too bad for the eagle, but lucky day for the seagull. Also, Kelly pointed out that “eagle” and “seagull” rhyme. That’s pretty exciting by itself.
- Yesterday! On a light post at the same place by the bay driving into the city!
That’s all of them, but I’m sure there will continue to be more sightings. It’s getting hard to keep track of them since we’ve seen them in the same place several times. (Kelly’s even seen them there a few more times than me.) So, I just thought I’d share the excitement before I lost count. Of course, it’s probably a good thing that I write this post now so I can save you from a much longer post in event that I don’t ever stop counting!
Robbing the Homeless
Dec 28th
There’s an intersection a few blocks from my house where the beggars assemble. You’d probably recognize it (even if you haven’t been here) because it’s a common suburban scene:
It’s a busy intersection just off the freeway. Every beggar stakes out their own corner. If there are newcomers and no corners are free, they’ll have to beg down the street a little, or maybe on the median. Definitely not on someone else’s corner. The procedure is simple. When the light turns red and the cars start backing up near a particular beggar’s corner, he or she walks around with a cardboard sign saying how homeless or hungry or pregnant he or she is. When the light turns green, the beggar can go relax leaning against a pole or sitting on the curb.
Sometimes it’s awkward when you see a familiar beggar, especially if you’ve interacted with them before. Being a beggar is a surprisingly public position. Of course the great thing about recognizing familiar beggars is seeing their signs change day by day, especially if they have a sense of humor. Everyone loves a clever cardboard sign.
One beggar stands out to me from the intersection by our house, and it’s not because of his clever signs. It’s because of his cell phone.
He’s always out on the same corner. He does the normal routine, showing his sign during the red lights, but when the light turns green and the cars pull away, he goes and sits on a chair that he has stashed in the bushes. And I’ve seen him sitting there talking on his cell phone multiple times.
Now I know what I’m about to say is very hypocritical considering my last post, but I’m going to say it anyway. I don’t buy it. I know that cell phone bills are less money than rent, and I know that someone could have some kind of prepaid phone without having an address or a job or a credit score. It just seems to me that a person with enough sense to own and operate a cell phone would have the sense to cancel his service before things got so tough that he would need to go out begging on the street.
The truth is that I don’t know anything about this particular man or what his story is. I don’t know if he’s capable of working and has found that panhandling pays better, or if he really is in need of help and can’t help himself. I don’t know if he has a cell phone so he can call his wife at home and chat while he’s out collecting change, or if someone gave it to him so that he can try to find a job. I don’t know if he’s talking to buddies or potential employers when I see him talking on it. So I realize that it’s wrong of me to be so skeptical of him, but I’d be dishonest if I only told the stories of the homeless people that I felt sympathy for and didn’t acknowledge the other side of this issue being on my mind so much.
One day after I’d driven past that man on the way home, I realized why the cell phone beggar bothers me so much (and subsequently vented my frustrations to Kelly). It’s not that he has a cell phone or a panhandling routine or a chair in the bushes. It’s not even my suspicions that he’s faking the need that he’s in. It’s what I can imagine it doing to the people that are in real need.
If someone (whether it’s really the case with this man or not) begs and seeks help when they don’t really need it, I think they’re robbing both aid and compassion from the truly needy. When kind people see him, they donate a few bucks that otherwise could have gone to someone in real need. When less-kind people see him, it just reinforces their belief that homelessness is a choice that deserves no sympathy.
I don’t know how to tell who is in real need and who isn’t, and maybe the right answer is that it’s not my place to judge their motives at all. But I do feel that if there are people who could help themselves and choose not to, that they are contributing to the greater problem and taking advantage of those that really do need help. And if that is the case, don’t I kind of have an obligation to make some kind of judgment call as to who really deserves my help?
