Horrible Bosses

First things first: I'm biased against comedies. I don't really like to watch a show that exists purely to make me laugh. Considering that, it shouldn't be surprising that I find most comedies meaningless. But not this one.

Now, what makes Horrible Bosses an acceptably good comedy? It's got a semi-plausible storyline with characters that people can sorta relate to. That is, three of the worst sorts of bosses anyone is likely to meet, and three very unhappy fellas who would love to have them killed. In fact, that's precisely what they strive to. Along the way, they get into the most hilarious situations that routinely come right back to bite them in their asses, and that only serves to add to the enjoyment.

Right, and here's a spoiler: There's no Hollywoodized romance in this flick. BOOYEAH! Of course, given the synopses most people have already likely read by now, they might wonder just why that would be...

I'd say this movie deserves a 8.5/10. High. Especially for a comedy. But is it worth it? Well for me I'd say this is a movie I'd actually pay to watch. The witty dialog and the politically correct (and grossly incorrect) situations make for a truly enjoyable movie experience. Watch. It. Now.

On Capitalism

Sometimes I think capitalism really doesn't agree with the more selfish side of Chinese culture. That is, they really shouldn't be trusted with that economic system lest it ruin them. Of course, the same could be said for every other selfish administration out there (yes, I'm looking at you, Uncle Sam) but I'm just writing about the stuff I've been observing about the Chinese as featured in the news.

My impression is that there's a mile wide streak of greed not tempered by a sense of civic duty at play here. Chinese culture is quite socialist by nature, and garnering wealth exclusively for one's private gain is somewhat taboo. For one, openly declaring that one cares primarily for oneself can have some major negative repercussions on one's social image. However, seeing the unethical and sometimes outright cruel things that are done, I get the impression that the perpetrators have outright ditched the moral values enshrined in their own culture and taken on bare faced greed instead. That's not very healthy at all.

I'm not sure if this is really the case, or if it is whether it can be rectified in some way within a generation or two. Times change, I guess.

Manual Control

A lot of the bodily functions are automatically controlled. That is, they work by themselves and aren't really something that comes to the forefront of one's attention on a daily basis. An example of this is how one's eyes focus. For now, I'm experimenting with my eyes and getting them to work at will, and it's been quite an interesting experience.

For one, I realize that the degree of light diffraction varies by the extent to which one opens one's eyes. For example, I see more astigmatic spikes from streetlights when I squint my eyes, as opposed to when I have them wide open.

And then there's the matter of eye focusing. Interestingly, eye focusing appears to be contrast detection based, so an object with higher contrast tends to be focused on more than one of lower contrast. For example, I can be on a bus with an ad on the windows. These ads are effectively black from the inside of the bus, with holes cut in a pattern that allows passengers to see through. This resultant mesh is relatively high contrast in certain situations, and low contrast in others. Hence, if I tried to discern a vehicle marking from close range, the eye tends to focus on the marking. If I tried it at a longer range, the comparative contrast of the mesh makes it incredibly difficult to focus on the vehicle's marking from then on.

After some experimenting with shifting focus along the length of a pencil near to the eye, I've managed to establish some control over how the eyes focus. So far I'm having some success in forcing the eye to focus past the mesh and on whatever it is that I intend to look at. Tiring on the eyes, unfortunately, but it's most likely something that'll become easier with practice.

It's The Steel

After grinding my blade for quite some hours, I was puzzled as to exactly why it refused to take on a durable razor edge. As far as I could tell, I was maintaining the correct angles and taking my time with the grind so I was unlikely to be botching the edge. It was then that I figured that perhaps the problem was not with the technique so much as it was with the steel itself. Simply put, the 440 I was working was probably didn't have the world's best temper and might not even be 440 to begin with. Hmm.

So what happened...I looked to my shelf and noticed some old knife blades I had lying about and not worked for some years. In fact, the blades had a touch of rust on them, so clearly they're not the best sort of stainless steel. They might even be some sort of carbon steel. Intriguing.

After spending 20 minutes completely reworking the edge to the angle I wanted, the blade seemed to be quite happy to maintain the edge. In fact, the edge was a lot more "bitey" than I got from doing the exact same thing to my 440 pocket knife. I kept at it till the edge felt good, then I tried the paper test. It melted through the paper this time. Hmm!

So, it does seem that the steel does make a big difference in the kind of edge the blade can take. Undoubtedly, my 440 knife could take a workable edge and if properly resharpened every time, it probably could be quite serviceable. However, when trying to get a true razor edge that lasts for some time, the blade falls flat. It's the steel!

Pick Your Madness

I discussed the matter of irrationality with my friend earlier today, talking about gambling in general. Gambling is patently unsatisfying to me, because the losses clearly exceed the gains, but people play it anyway. Somewhere along the discussion, he noted that watching movies was similarly irrational, because one pays to experience an illusion and comes out of it with no tangible gains as well. Good point!

So clearly, we all have our personal madnesses of choice. In fact, we probably have em without realizing exactly what they are. After some pondering, I figure the crux of the problem is that there's no absolute measure by which value is evaluated. I get negative value from losing money in a gamble and so I would not participate in gambling even though there's a chance that I can win. On the other hand, someone who likes the excitement of gambling will think me mad for watching movies if there's no monetary upside.

What the two seem to have in common is experience. There's an experience in the excitement of anticipating the gambling results. Movies and other similar entertainment are pure experiences. Likewise for hobbies and sports. If there's a madness people seem to be stuck to, chances are it's because the madness is associated with an experience that they truly like. Pick your madness.

On Sharpening Knives

I've recently decided that I wanted to know how to sharpen knives. I've carried a knife with me just about everywhere for a whole lot of years, but I realized that I had no clue as to exactly how I was supposed to put a killer edge on the thing. One thing I do know is that a knife that doesn't slice through stuff cleanly doesn't feel particularly good.

First thing I tried was with my pocket knife. It's a fairly cheap Boker, with 440 stainless for the blade. So far I figure perhaps I'm not particularly good with knife sharpening, seeing as how I've been putting a lot of time into it, but the edge doesn't stay for long. I figure I'm generating a wire edge on the blade itself.

After stropping, I managed to grind a fine edge into the knife that's fairly lasting. Hopefully the edge will hold. I figure it may be a good idea to reprofile the edge itself so that it'll stay sharp. We shall see.

On Self-Esteem

Self esteem is a very delicate thing. Some seem to have a healthy lot of it, others are critically deficient. Me, I find that my self esteem is split. It's a weird predicament. Or perhaps more common than I'm implying. Most likely the latter, come to think of it.

Well anyway, I have this split between my self esteem when it comes to evaluations of my own aptitude, and evaluations of my appearance. If anything, the first is way higher than the latter. I suppose that may be related to why I'd rather work on buffing my aptitude than my appearance, which is generally a good thing anyway. Might also be related to why some people do the opposite.

That said, the power of knowledge is right there, to put things in perspective. If one doesn't know how things really are in the wider world, one would be quite content (or unfairly discontent) in what one's like. And of course, that evaluation would be quite inaccurate indeed. It'll also have the potential to create quite some unnecessary anguish. Let's say I learned something today, and it's comforting indeed.