Jeff Carlson (.Thought)

Oscars and LotR

The Academy Award nominations were announced this morning, with 11 nods going to Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, 10 to Master and Commander, and zero to Nicole Kidman. Pleasant surprises: Keisha Castle-Hughes for Whale Rider, and Bill Murray for Lost in Translation.

I imagine that LotR will take Best Picture, though I was disappointed by Return of the King. It was too long, some of the dialog really stank, and some of the effects were so-so (as was the case with all three movies). I still enjoyed the movie, but it could have been tighter and just a bit better. If this wasn't the cap to the trilogy, I don't think it would be worthy of a Best Picture nod, but in this case Academy voters are going to recognize the overall effort. And besides, it gets kudos for being a trilogy that didn't ultimately suck hard (I'm also pleased, and a little surprised, actually, that neither Matrix movie was recognized for visual or sound effects, given that the first Matrix upset Phantom Menace).

Aloneliness in SF

I'm in San Francisco for the week following Macworld Expo while my wife attends a business event thrown by her company. It didn't make sense for me to fly back to Seattle when she was coming down here, so we hooked up and now I'm the Hotel Husband while she goes off to work.

Nonetheless, this week has enabled me to spend a lot of time alone; she's been going to various meetings, presentations, and dinners the entire week. Sure, it's a similar situation when I'm in Seattle and she's away on business, but being in a different city enhances that sense of being alone. It's kinda nice - taken out of my usual haunts, away from my friends, what will I spend my time doing?

It should come as no surprise that I've spent a lot of the time this week on the computer; I'm not on vacation, after all, and the week after Macworld is always busy while I catch up and get organized for the new year. In that sense, this year is no exception: I'm now updating my iMovie VQS to account for iMovie 4 (announced at the expo), and will be adding iDVD 4 to the mix because the two programs complement each other so well. I'm writing two reviews for Macworld Magazine due by the end of January. I'm working on a Take Control ebook, tossing around ideas for another, and will possibly be editing a third. I'm working on a PDF update to my Palm Organizers VQS, which covers changes in the Palm OS that appeared in the latest Palm devices (and which I didn't have time to put into the printed book). I'm putting together some Web images for a company in Seattle. And I'm the Managing Editor of TidBITS, which is a part-time job every week with its own responsibilities. So, quite a bit of my time has been spent fielding emails, getting caught up with project statuses, and otherwise trying to get organized so I can get it all done.

But that's all work stuff. For my "personal" time (which is fluid, depending on the work stuff), I've managed to venture out of my hotel room and poke around a little. I walked up to Union Square in search of a bookstore (amazingly, the closest bookstore to the Marriott on Fourth is a Borders several blocks away), even though I have four or five books at home that I need to read (but they're not here, are they?). I visited the Macworld Magazine offices (also walking distance) and had lunch with one of my editors there; yeah, it's work stuff, too, but not entirely. And tonight, the last night before jetting back to Seattle, I just visited MOMA and let my visual cortex absorb a plethora of modern art. Now, I'm checking my email and having coffee at a nearby Starbucks before heading to the Metreon to cap the evening off with a quasi-trashy Sci-Fi viewing of Paycheck.

Before this turns into a langorous listing of my activities, I should amble to the point: I can't help but think about Lost in Translation, Soffia Coppola's well-received film about an aging Hollywood star adrift in Japan. I enjoyed the movie (much more than her previous effort, the Virgin Suicides), but hanging out in a hotel for a week helps me appreciate just how well she tapped into the slightly out-of-now feeling of being alone in an unfamiliar place.

And lest you think I'm despondent and about to slit my wrists or something, I'm enjoying this aloneliness. It's a nice change, and I recommend it to everyone who feels like they move too quickly most of the time.

Leave Your Laptop at Home

Macworld Magazine has put an article of mine online (it originally appeared last month in the printed magazine): Leave Your Laptop at Home.

Savvy business travelers know which clothes they can pack to keep their luggage light and manageable, but they should also know how to keep their electronic gear compact and easy to transport. Unless you're working in Photoshop or editing audio and video files, a Palm OS–based handheld and a few accessories are all you really need. With a little effort, you can set up your handheld to work with Microsoft Office documents, check e-mail, and browse the Web. Today's handhelds make it practical to work away from the office with equipment that fits in your pockets.

One correction to note, however: The Palm Bluetooth card does not work with the Palm Tungsten E, because Palm OS 5.x can't work with that expansion card. When I researched the article, a confusing sequence of Web navigation made one think that the card would work with the Tungsten E.

iMovie to FCE Session

I gave my first conference session at Macworld Expo last week, on moving from iMovie to Final Cut Express. (For those who attended: you can download the session notes, a 3 MB PDF file; a few hours after I posted the file on Wednesday, our Web server went south in a bad way, so my apologies if you couldn't get through.) That's first session ever, not just first Macworld session, and I think it went okay. In addition to being fairly stressed, I should have prepared more and gotten a better sense of elapsed time. Overall, I give myself a C grade, for starting off strong and crumbling some at the end. But I learned a lot, and look forward to seeing the evaluations from attendees.

However, shortly after the Users Conference session, I had an appearance at the Peachpit Press booth to talk about my books, and that went much better, despite the fact that I missed the memo that the appearance would be a theater presentation instead of a simple booksigning. I showed off iMovie 3 (I don't have my hands on iMovie 4 yet) and iChat AV off the cuff.

So, overall, I give myself a B-minus grade for the day. Not bad for the first time out, I say!

At Macworld Expo S.F.

After coasting through a relaxing holiday season, I'm now in San Francisco for Macworld Expo. The weather here is lovely, compared to an impending big snowstorm in Seattle.

Are you going to the show? I'm doing a presentation on Graduating from iMovie to Final Cut Express as part of the Users Conference, Wednesday from 11:00 to 12:15 in room 133. Shortly thereafter, at 1:00, come visit me at the Peachpit Press booth (#1917) where I'll be signing copies of my books and chatting about iMovie, iChat AV, and Palm organizers.