Audience of One is the weblog of Matthew Weston, a UK student, Christian, technophile and musician.
I’m sitting here in a café, wirelessly online, a sketch of a website design laid out before me, drinking a mocha coffee and eating a cookie. I think I want to do this every day.
Currently listening to Radiohead – No Surprises
Matthew @ 05:59, May 26, 2006 to Diary | Permalink | Comments (10)
I changed my desktop for the first time since getting my Mac today. It is now one of my own photos, edited:
On another geeky note, I miss tab-completion outside the terminal. Those image URLs were far too laborious to type…
Which is why TextMate is such a fantastic text editor. Or rather, it’s one of the reasons why. Column selection is another I’m surprised I’ve never thought of myself. Snippets and commands work brilliantly. I’m growing to love it more and more. (I need a new syntax highlighting scheme though. The current one is so 2005.)
Currently listening to Radiohead – Subterranean Homesick Alien
Matthew @ 12:28, May 25, 2006 to Geek | Permalink | Comments (7)
The Da Vinci Code in film form is an excellent adaptation of the book – which if you’ve read the book, isn’t saying much. Like the book, I found it to be a gripping story. Also like the book, I didn’t particularly like it, even though it gripped me.
Most of the film’s faults seemed to lie in the plot and the acting, with a couple of exceptions. Tom Hanks was probably planning to look slightly dazed throughout the film, as it is rather a confusing plot for the characters themselves to go through. However, looking dazed (or occasionally scared when in enclosed spaces) for the whole film got a little irritating. He’s done some good work, but this isn’t among it. Audrey Tautou wasn’t bad, but she wasn’t anything special either.
The plot, of course, is legend. A secret society called the Priory of Sion have been keeping the secret of the Holy Grail safe from the Catholic Church, who want to destroy it, as the Grail would rock the whole Christian faith to the core. What is the Grail? That Jesus, far from being the Son of God, was a normal bloke who got married to Mary Magdalene and had a child. This child was the first of the royal bloodline, whose existence is protected by the Priory of Sion. The code of the title is the clues that Leonardo da Vinci left in his work to this truth, as well as the series of clues left for Tom Hanks’ character to trace the location of Mary Magdalene’s last resting place.
What the film (nor indeed the book) never explains is why, if Jesus isn’t the Son of God, this is such a big issue. So there’s someone alive who’s descended from a man executed by the Romans two thousand years ago. If Jesus isn’t who Christians believe he is, what does this matter? Sure, the revelation would shock the church to its core, but it doesn’t make the descendants anything special, nor Mary Magdalene herself. However, right at the end of the film we find Tom Hanks kneeling, seemingly in prayer, at the grave of Mary Magdalene. This doesn’t seem to make any sense.
So parts of the film don’t make sense. Other parts, like in the book, are just lies. Part of the book’s controversy arose from Dan Brown’s introduction, in which he claims that most of the book is based on fact. The film also presents particular things as fact. For example, the council of Nicea voted on what books to put in the Bible and what not to put in. This much we know. The film/book claims that they chose the books that confirmed what they wanted to put out – that Jesus was the Son of God. As a result, they got rid of all the books which contradicted this.
What the film doesn’t tell you is that not only is it all the earliest writings that talk of Jesus’ divinity, the canon of the New Testament was pretty much agreed apon by (if my memory serves me) the middle of the second century, two hundred years before Nicea. The Gnostic gospels mentioned in the film (the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, the Gospel of Philip) were written about a hundred years later.
So that’s just one example. There are many other inaccuracies, but as I’m not an expert I’d read one of the many books on the subject if you’re interested. There are far too many “facts” assumed that have almost no historical basis. It was the same with the book of course.
What else to say? Well, for a film full of historical inaccuracies, illogical events and ridiculous co-incidences, it was reasonably enjoyable, but so bad that I felt guilty for enjoying it. It’s one of those things which I don’t regret having seen, but if given the choice again I’d have seen something else. There were some brilliant moments though. When Langdon (Hanks) and Neveu (Tautou) take refuge from the police with Sir Leigh (Ian McKellen), they neglect to tell him of their pursuers. When he discovers the police arriving at his door, his out-of-the-blue response is along the lines of “not to worry, we can fly my jet to Switzerland”. Or later, with Langdon beating himself up over an obvious clue: “Of course, why didn’t I see it?! A pope doesn’t mean ‘a pope’, it means Alexander Pope! How stupid was I!” Or the albino monk Silas speaking Latin into a mobile phone. So, not all bad then. Ridiculous on so many levels, sometimes funny, mainly not.
Matthew @ 14:04, May 22, 2006 to Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0)
I certainly can’t support any calls for boycotting or protesting this busy, trivial, inoffensive film. Which is not to say I’m recommending you go see it. (Source: The New York Times
I voted for Mission Impossible 3, but no, we need to be prepared to combat the questions of people who have seen this! Ah well. I’ll post a review at some point.
Matthew @ 02:32, May 22, 2006 to Miscellaneous | Permalink | Comments (6)
I set up a local wiki shortly after getting my laptop as a place to put miscellaneous things I’ve picked up online and off. So here’s the main page of my wiki, as of just now.
A man is walking from Jerusalem to Jericho when he is attacked by bandits and left for dead by the roadside.
A priest walking along the road sees the man, and crosses over to the other side.
A Levite also sees the man, but again crosses over to the other side of the road and ignores him.
Finally, a social worker comes past. He examines the man for a few minutes, before exclaiming “Whoever did this really needs help!”
Jessops stuff:
Easy Pay 24. HOT OFF THE PRESS!!!! A fantastic staff incentive of £5 for every Easy Pay 24 sold. If this doesn’t work I’ll have to resort to a rocket up the ****. A reminder that the company target is 1/£10000.
I hope it is all clear to you 23% or more is the only acceptable percentage and for many of you there is clearly more work needed. (Note: this refers to the target of selling 23% of the price of the camera again in accessories. Both of these taken from staff bulletins.)
“The Great Commission says nothing about winning the lost, but it commands us to preach the gospel and disciple those whom Jesus saves.” – Jason Robertson.
“And don’t tell me there isn’t one bit of difference between null and space, because that’s exactly how much difference there is.” – Larry Wall.
Currently listening to Switchfoot – I Turn Everything Over
Matthew @ 09:47, May 20, 2006 to Miscellaneous | Permalink | Comments (0)
Last night I saw the new Narnia film for the first time. I’d wanted to see it in the cinema, but for some reason never managed it. The night I could have gone with my family, I had a gig that clashed. They had come home and raved about it, so I wanted to see it more, but still couldn’t manage it. The DVD was released just before I came to Japan, and I was too busy to rent it. Luckily, Bethany (eldest daughter of my hosts) had borrowed it and wanted to watch it, so we set up the church projector and my laptop and watched it on Sunday evening. (As a result, my laptop is currently set to Region 1. Any ways to get round regional encoding on a DVD would be very useful…)
The film is generally very good. The acting is all very good, though some of the CGI animation left a bit to be desired, I felt. Aslan, for example, looked definitely computer animated rather than a real lion. Still, that was me being critical – it doesn’t matter so much because it’s still reasonable.
The film seemed to have a good balance of the serious and amusing moments. The action scenes not featured in the book worked very well, and didn’t feel like taking a liberty with the original. I also liked the costumes and a lot of the different creatures. Some of them just looked awkward and badly animated though. (Actually, “badly” is too strong a word. Not brillianty animated, then.)
It was probably about as good as I thought it would be, neither exceeding expectations nor disappointing. What did exceed my expectations though was the film “Sky High”, which was far better than I expected of a Disney family comedy. In a different way to the Incredibles, Sky High managed to distort superhero conventions to create a different take on the whole concept, and did it well. It’s also a pretty good take on American high schools. It’s not as good as the Incredibles at first viewing, but I get the feeling there were lots of little jokes that I missed (as I remember some little unobvious jokes that I managed to catch, and there must be more).
I was surprised to enjoy it so much, and while it won’t win any awards it’s by no means a waste of time. I’d say it’s definitely worth seeing, and I will probably see it again.
It’s our plan to see the Da Vinci Code on Monday with some Japanese friends, which shall be interesting. I will post a report if we do.
Matthew @ 11:50, May 18, 2006 to Reviews | Permalink | Comments (4)
Today was the first time I’ve ever shovelled snow in a t-shirt. Actually, today was the first time I’ve shovelled snow. Or taken out dry walls. Or indeed sat in the middle seat in the front of a van (that van has one odd gearbox).
In other news, Skype is pretty excellent. Oh, and what would Jesus drive?
Matthew @ 12:17, May 10, 2006 to Diary | Permalink | Comments (6)
Yesterday, as I was staring up at the bright blue sky, my first reaction was to look for sensor dust.
Matthew @ 09:16, May 9, 2006 to Geek | Permalink | Comments (0)
David: We were going to send Kevin to pick you up from the station, and have him speak Japanese to you all the way home, and then suddenly reveal that he’s only half Japanese and is really from Canada.
John: We also thought we might be fun to take you to the onsen straight from the station, without warning you what it is.
David: Or send John with Kevin to “translate”.
Matthew: Well, considering your photos are on the website I know that Kevin is Canadian, and I’ve read all about onsen days ago.
*pause*
David: Ah well. It could have worked…
Oh, and there are photos up on Flickr.
Matthew @ 13:30, May 5, 2006 to Miscellaneous | Permalink | Comments (3)
It’s the little things that get to you first. Like not being able to read the back of the cereal packets. And not knowing when buying lunch what you can eat as it is and what actually needs cooking. And the keys turn in the opposite direction.
However, in Japan, not only can you cycle on the pavements, but it’s expected. I think I love this country.
Matthew @ 02:11, May 4, 2006 to Miscellaneous | Permalink | Comments (1)
I arrived in Japan in a thunderstorm, but by the time we’d got the train out of the airport it had cleared up, and I was able to watch in (relative) brightness as the countyside faded away as we got closer and closer to Tokyo. I was introduced to my first Japanese “don’t” after talking too loudly on the train – talking loudly in public is bad. As is walking around eating. So we bought something to eat after getting off the train, but couldn’t actually eat it until we arrived at the guest home I’m staying in.
Turns out this week is Golden Week so we couldn’t get any train tickets to Aomori for today. A slight change of plan then – I’m here at the guest home for another day with nothing to do. The weather is lovely, so I shall go and take some photos.
Other miscellaneous things (for which I really need a sideblog), this BBC article on virtual money is very interesting. I think that’s all for now.
Matthew @ 00:54, May 3, 2006 to Diary | Permalink | Comments (6)
So, I leave in about ten minutes time for Japan. Hopefully I’ll be able to get on soonish, but we’ll see. Before I go though, which of these three dreams did I dream last night?
Answers to be revealed soon!
Matthew @ 11:40, May 1, 2006 to Diary | Permalink | Comments (12)
