Happy New Year!

May you have a happy, healthy and prosperous 2005!

A couple of quick restaurant recommendations

Marietta Diner, Cobb Parkway (just north of South Marietta Drive)

All their food is excellent, but of particular note are

• Seafood bisque - it has won awards, not to be missed! Fortunately soup comes with all dinner specials. I don't even know what the other choices are. Listen to me when I say Get the bisque! Out of this world!
• Desserts - they are all fabulous. And HUGE! My wife and I always split one ... and often have leftovers anyway. Today we had the Baklava Cheesecake. Baklava. Cheescake. What's not to like? Sounds great, right? Well, it's even better than that!

Cuban Sandwich Shop, Johnson Ferry Road (just south of Roswell Road)

Not bad. I had the traditional Cuban sandwich; my wife experimented with the Super Special, which came with pastrami (never had pastrami in Cuba) - the sandwich wasn't bad but there were too many conflicting flavors fighting for attention.

As far as sides, the sweet plantains were excellent - as good as I've had in any restaurant. The black bean soup, we could have left. Still, the place can be recommended. We plan to go back. I think that next time we'll try the plain pork sandwich, though.

Merry Christmas

Happy Festivus!

Happy Holidays

In Iceland, there are 13 Santas. Instead of bringing gifts, they take turns sneaking into town and creeping out the locals. The 13 Santas live in the mountains with their troll-like mother and her giant cat, which eats all the children who don't receive new clothes for Christmas. They party for 13 nights, and then things really get interesting. "That's when people come out of their graves," said Iceland native Hoffy Steingrimdottir. "Seals take on human form. And cows develop human speech." The moral of the story? It doesn't matter what you believe as long as you believe. The other moral of the story? They've got some good hooch in Iceland.

[Thanks to KU for passing this along.]

Welcome to Mama's!

We ate ate Mama Fu's Asian House for lunch today. It's Thai & Chinese food brought to you by the folks at Moe's who brought you burritos bigger than your head. You can't beat the price ($6.99). The food is actually pretty good ... not just good for the price, but downright good! My wife had Chicken Cashew Stir Fry (make sure to get it with the brown rice), and I had Chicken Pad Thai. We recommend both of these dishes highly. The Spicy General Fu Beef is also excellent.

Treo

Just bought myself a Treo 650 in order to replace my cell phone and PDA with a single device. Really nice new toy.

Copeland's

In an earlier post, I talked about Copeland's Restaurant. My wife and I went there again today. She had a favorite of hers - Eggplant Pirogue. I had the Filet Benedict from their brunch menu. As usual, everything was excellent; food and service were beyond reproach.

The main website still doesn't have a menu online, but you can look at a menu here.

Steak

My wife and I went out to dinner last night. Our meal was OK, but my steak was not prepared properly. This happens to me all the time. I like my steak medium ... not rare ... not well-done ... MEDIUM! Is it so hard to get this right? More than half the time, I get a steak which is either blood red or cooked to a crisp. ARGH!!

OK, I feel better now. Just needed to vent.

No Comment

An unidentified man tried to set himself on fire outside the White House fence.

A 25-year-old Athens, Ga., man who was apparently distraught over President George W. Bush's re-election shot and killed himself at ground zero.

Veterans Day

Thank you for serving!

Not bad for an amateur

Just going to toot my own horn here for a minute...

My predictions for the presidential election were pretty good for an amateur, not perfect but way WAY better than any of the pundits and "experts."

The final tally looks to be 286-252 Bush.

My errors were

1. Colorado did not pass the resolution splitting their electoral votes, so the state went to Bush 9-0 (where I had predicted 6-3).
2. Iowa (7 electoral votes) went to Bush (I had figured Iowa to be one of the closest races, but I thought Kerry would hang on to it).

Some of the states that were called incorrectly on some of the more popular sites.

• Florida - ElectoralVote
• Hawaii - ElectoralVote, Tripias, DalyThoughts, RealClearPolitics
• Michigan - Wall Street Journal
• Minnesota - Wall Street Journal, Tripias
• New Mexico - ElectoralVote, Tripias, ElectionProjection
• Ohio - PresidentElect, Wall Street Journal
• Wisconsin - PresidentElect

West Virginia elector says he might not vote for President Bush

If President Bush wins West Virginia, one of the state's five Republican electors says he might not vote for Bush to protest the president's economic and foreign policies.

Dune: House Corrino

I finished reading Dune: House Corrino by Brian Herbert & Kevin Anderson. Let me start by saying it’s better than the first two. Let me continue by saying that when I got to the end of this third book, I was thinking the story could have been told (and told better) in just one book by discarding all the fluffy nonsense and keeping just the meat of the story.

Bad writing. It’s still there, and it hasn’t gotten any better. Just one example of the completely ridiculous phrases is on page 552, “hold on to the gossamer strands of her sanity.” On its own, that phrase is already ludicrous; what makes it even more so is the fact that the authors had already overused (and misused) the word “gossamer” a dozen times.

Unbelievable actions. Literally millions of innocent civilians are murdered without justification, and without repercussions. A universe where governments behaved this way would not survive the reign of one emperor, let alone 10,000 years.

Hectic ending. The last 150 pages are unnecessarily hectic as the authors try to wrap up the many threads initiated by the unbelievable actions previously mentioned. House Moritani, House Harkonnen, House Atreides and Emperor Corrino are all undertaking major military operations. Furthermore, Jessica is in labor, and Project Amal reaches its climax. As if all of this weren’t enough, the authors throw in an additional plot line involving the twisted Mentat Peter DeVries. The motivation for his actions in particular has gone beyond the realm of the unlikely into the realm of mind-boggling-ly (is that a word?) stupid. Usually, when authors have a character do something absurdly un-character-y it’s because of a specific need to move the plot forward, but this particular plot already had WAY too much going on as it was. This additional thread was nothing more than a distraction.

Inattention to detail. I have previously mentioned that the authors sometimes appear not to have read the original Dune Chronicles series. Well, now I wonder if they’ve read their own work. On page 49, they write “A few years ago, distracted by a document he’d been studying, Leto had accidentally crushed the insect.” But that’s not actually what happened in House Harkonnen; what actually happened is that Leto was distracted FROM the document BY a guard and the document fell on the insect.

Freedom. Why do “the good guys” keep using the word “free”? Leto and Rhombur might be good enlightened leaders, but that doesn’t make them any less than complete autocrats or make their peoples any more free than they would be under the Tleilaxu or Harkonnens or Corrinos. This could have provided a fruitful line of discussion had the authors been trying to paint their characters as unaware of their own failings in this regard, but Herbert & Anderson don’t seem to have given this a second thought (despite their excessive use of the word “free”) and never manage to move beyond their naïve notion of good versus evil to explore this idea.

Overall, I would rate it slightly higher than the first two books in the series, somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. Still no masterpiece.

Presidential Election Prediction

Not really politics, just a little attempt at clairvoyance here. I am predicting Bush will win by an electoral vote margin of 276*-262*.

Of the ten battleground states,
Bush: Florida, New Mexico**, Ohio
Kerry: Hawaii***, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire**, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin.

Notes:
(*) Colorado may be splitting its electoral votes for the first time this year (if a ballot initiative on 11/2 passes), so I am predicting Bush wins 6-3 there. Nebraska and Maine can theoretically split their votes but historically one candidate has always picked up all the votes; I'm predicting Nebraska to Bush and Maine to Kerry.
(**) The only two states that I'm thinking are going to go differently than in 2000 are New Mexico (which went to Gore by just 366 votes) and New Hampshire (which went to Bush by about 7200 votes while Nader picked up about 22,200 votes).
(***) Polls show Bush leading in Hawaii, but I think Kerry will pull it out in the end.

Macbeth

My wife and I have been talking about attending the Georgia Shakespeare Festival since we moved here in 2001, but somehow we never got around to do it. Finally saw Shakespeare's Macbeth tonight. A very good production. Daniel May played Macbeth and gave an adequate performance. However, Marni Penning, who played Lady Macbeth, and Brik Berkes, who played Macduff, gave truly outstanding performances.

Production was very good and very standard (no odd modernist elements or background changes, just Shakespeare as it was meant to be done). There was one interesting non-standard element in the casting - a man (Bruce Evers, who did a very credible job with the part) was cast as one of the three weird sisters. An interesting choice; between his physical size and the way he was made up he actually looked a great deal like Tim Cassidy as Ruk in Star Trek:

Thai Food

Pattaya Thai Restaurant

My wife and I went to dinner at this Thai restaurant we frequent. She had baked catfish (usually we stay away from seafood at Thai restaurants but this place specializes in seafood). I went more traditional and had masaman curry, which is available with beef, pork or chicken. I asked the waiter which he recommended, and he instantly answered "beef." No hesitation, no equivocation, no fear! Beef. And he was right. Both entrees were very good, as usual. We highly recommend this place.

Bad Service

Went to dinner with my wife. What a horrible experience (service, the food was good). We ordered appetizers and our entrees at the same time, so we were actually concerned that the entrees would get there too quickly, before we were able to finish the appetizer. Boy, were we worried about the wrong thing. After an interminable wait, the assistant manager comes over to tell us that they had a new computer system and our entrees had been put in but had not been relayed to the kitchen (the reason this happened may be that the system is new, but it sounds like plain old user error to me). So they tell us the order has been relayed and should be along soon. After an additional interminable wait, the manager comes over to tell us that our entrees had been prepared but delivered to the wrong table, where they were apparently promptly eaten by somebody else. So we had to wait some more. But when the food finally got there, it was really good . . . and they did comp us for our bad experience . . . which is the only reason I'm refraining from bad-mouthing the restaurant (a well known chain).

Dune: House Harkonnen

I just finished reading Dune: House Harkonnen by Brian Herbert & Kevin Anderson. (Yeah, I know, I really should be studying for my upcoming actuarial exam, but I need to take a break from memorizing actuarial material once in a while.) When I first picked this up, I was looking forward to it. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Dune: House Atreides was not all that great, but let's face it - bad guys are more interesting to read about than good guys, right? Unfortunately, I was disappointed. First of all, it doesn't really focus on House Harkonnen any more than the first one did. And in its entirety, the book is not awful, but it is slightly worse than the first one. My observations...

Thinking for you. This book continues the mistake of Dune: House Atreides in insisting on digesting absolutely everything for you. One particularly blatant example is explaining the true nature of axlotl tanks. This had been hinted at but never spelled out in the original Dune Chronicles; it's better that way.

Bad writing. Not only do they continue to do the reader's thinking, but they do so with annoying repetitiveness. For example, on p. 206, they write, "There was no shame in it for Kailea, either, especially with her lack of prospects." Then on p. 208, they write, "For Kailea there would certainly be no shame in becoming the chosen lover of a Duke." This is just one example; there are dozens. They do this elsewhere; for example, describing the rugs in Earl Vernius's office (pointed out by an Amazon reviewer). Their repeated use of ridiculous phrases is beyond dumb. To mention just a few, "muscular" three times on one page, Kailea's "emerald" eyes, Jessica's "bronze" hair, "barrel-chested" "burly" Rabban, and Anirul's "doe eyes." The elecran chapter was a complete distraction; what point to introducing such an absurd creature (were they trying to follow Herbert Senior's brilliant conception of the sandworms? if so, they failed miserably!) if it matters not to the rest of the book? Chapter transitions are still choppy and distracting.

Boring Sections. Some of the plot lines are monumentally boring. In particular, Duncan Idaho's 8 years at the Ginaz Swordmaster School (which for some reason I can't quite put my finger on, I think are the chapters the authors would be most proud of) are beyond silly. And when you get to the end of the book and witness the Swordmasters' truly pathetic behavior, it makes you wish you had skipped all the chapters related to this particular plot line.

Clumsy Politics. The political universe which Frank Herbert created, which we believed had survived for 100 centuries, is shattered by the ridiculously clumsy actions that Herbert Junior & Anderson put their characters through. A universe in which people behaved this way wouldn't last 1 century before cataclysmic war took place.

Contradictions. The book contradicts the original Dune novel in too many places to mention exhaustively. They should have gone back and re-read the original before writing this.

Unbelievable Plot. Often the authors rely on lazy and contrived solving of plot lines (some are outright deus ex machina arrangements) just to make everything fit together. The motivations of some characters are even more ridiculous than Lady Helena's in the first book. Some actions are absurd and do not fit in with anything else we've ever read about the Dune universe (the Bene Gesserit when they are visited by the Baron Harkonnen).

Unlikeable Characters. Even after all of the above, the book would still be above average. Their worst sin, however, is that they simply write many of their characters in such a way that they are downright unlikeable. Abulurd Harkonnen needs to grow a pair. Earl Dominic Vernius is a despicable criminal, willing to commit an unthinkable atrocity simply for revenge (never mind that he lost control of Ix through his own indifferent leadership). With Rhombur, they seem to be going for the tragic hero, but instead end up depicting an ineffectual buffoon. Most unlikeable of all, Kailea is an annoying petulant beeyotch (although I think this plot line could have been infinitely improved if the readers -- like the characters -- did not find out what was really happening until the end, rather than being told at the beginning).

For all this, if you are a Dune fan, this book is still a somewhat enjoyable read. Herbert Junior & Anderson had the right plot ideas at the "macro" level (again I assume this is the result of Herbert Senior's notes and not their own brilliance) even if they failed to execute them properly at the "micro" level. I would rate this between 2 or 3 stars, a bit lower than Dune: House Atreides. Be back at ya after I read Dune: House Corrino.

Spaghetti Warehouse

My wife and I ate at Spaghetti Warehouse tonight. Great Italian food; even better prices. They have trio specials for $11, where you get salad, appetizer, entree and dessert (yeah, I know that's four things). My wife has stuffed mushrooms, lasagna and brownie sundae; I had bruschetta, chicken fettucine alfredo and tiramisu. All the food was perfect. The decor of this place is really nice tool; it's decorated in early 20th century style, complete with an old train car in the center (save this for winter, though; it gets hot in there). I highly recommend this place.

The world is about to get a lot less funny, beginning in January

Dave Barry, The Miami Herald's humor columnist for the past 20 years, said Tuesday that he will take an indefinite leave of absence from the newspaper. He may return in a year. Herald editors wish Barry were making it up. ''Since Dave's columns began appearing every Sunday in The Herald, an entire generation has been born, raised and reached adulthood,'' said Tom Fiedler, The Herald's executive editor. ''Yet his unique sense of humor never grew up and never got old. Learning that Dave wants a breather is like hearing that Peter Pan joined AARP.'' Barry, 57, said he wants to spend more time with his family after a hectic summer trotting from the Democratic and Republican national conventions to the Olympics in Greece and around the country on a book promotion tour.

[I guess I should thank DVD for bringing this to my attention, but I don't feel like it. To hell with not shooting the messenger.]

Copeland's Restaurant

My wife and I ate at Copeland's Restaurant, a popular New Orleans style restaurant. They recently added a steak menu, but I don't recommend that. The steaks aren't any better than a steak you can get in other restaurants for less money. (For example, their 12 ounce sirloin steak runs $20.) However, their original menu of traditional Cajun dishes continues to be fantastic. My wife had the Zydeco Chicken, and I had Shrimp & Tasso Pasta, both of which were perfectly prepared. Other dishes which I can highly recommend are Crawfish Ettouffe and Grilled Chicken with Yams. Their menu on the website is down right now, and I can't provide any additional suggestions off the top of my head. Check out their menu when you get a chance; I'm sure something will strike your fancy.

Something else worth mentioning is their Sunday brunch (through 3:00 p.m.), which includes several excellent choices. Not to be missed!

Ice Cream

The wife and I got some ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery. We love their ice cream! It's very hard to go wrong with pretty much anything on their menu. We have only two pieces of advice:

• Don't go too simple. The couple behind us ordered a plain vanilla and a plain chocolate. Don't do this. If you do, all you're getting is run-of-the-mill vanilla or chocolate and paying $2.99 for the privilege. If you want that, go get a half gallon in the grocery store. You go to Cold Stone for the mixings.
• Don't go too complex. If you start getting all experimental and trying to put together stuff that has no business being together (like strawberries and Reese's peanut butter cups), you will not be a happy camper. Stick to classic toppings, like Heath candy bar or cookie dough. Or even better, try one of their pre-designed combinations like mint mint chocolate chocolate or Founder's Favorite. We've never gone wrong with any of those varieties.

(Marble Slab Creamery is the same set-up. Also excellent!)

Dune: House Atreides

Recently finished reading Dune: House Atreides by Brian Herbert (son of the original Dune author Frank Herbert) and Kevin Anderson. I've been thinking for a couple of days of putting my thoughts up here, except I'm not sure what I actually think of it. Of course, it's no Dune (which was very much a book of ideas). It couldn't be. Heck, the five sequels written by Frank Herbert were no Dune. I wasn't expecting it to be. Based on those lower expectations, the book had some merit. Specifically,

Pros:

• The basic stories are interesting. Herbert & Anderson have done a good job of developing the original idea (presumably this is due to the fact that they are working from Herbert Senior's notes)
• The authors have done a good job of fleshing out the basic ideas into a fairly fast-paced and well-motivated plot. I was definitely interested enough to keep reading (despite the bad writing) to find out what happened next. I will be reading House Harkonnen, the next book in this series, as well.
• It's an easy read.

Cons:

• They spell everything out. The original Dune was well-known for its nuances and subtle writing. This book spells everything out for you; the political machinations in particular are beat to the death as the writers provide us with every single detail of how every single character arrives at a conclusion as to who's doing what and why.
• The writing level is just not on a par with the original series. Herbert Junior is clearly not as smart as Herbert Senior (who is?) and because of this writes as if the reader is too dumb to follow along. Well, I may not be as smart as Frank Herbert, but I'm definitely smarter than the authors. This sometimes makes the reading monotonous when they review something for the reader for the third or fourth time. Some things (including most of what they spell out) are better left for the reader to work out on his own.
• The character development is often not interesting or deep; some of the characters (e.g., Duke Leto's mother) are one-dimensional. It's often a mystery why they do what they do (can't elaborate without a plot spoiler, but trust me when I say that some plot twists are unbelievable).
• They use the same short chapter technique as the original, but each section is just too short. As a result, the action often feels jerky, rather than the smooth transitions the original managed to achieve.
• There are many disagreements with the original Dune series. So many in fact that they had to put out a spin sheet on the www.dunenovels.com website to explain away these discrepancies and errors.
• It's an easy read.

So, where does that leave us? Still not sure, maybe 3 stars out of 5? The only thing I can say with certainty is that it's neither as good as nor as bad as some of the reviews on Amazon would lead you to believe.

One More Restaurant Recommendation

Olive's Waterside

Food, service and decor are all top-notch. My wife and I especially like their Duet Specials. On Wednesday nights and Saturday Early Bird (4-7 pm), they have a special for two. For $34.95, you get

• two martinis -- over fifty varieties from which to choose
• an appetizer -- all of them outstanding; the calamari deserve special mention since I'm not a big fan of calamari, but I love it the way Olive's prepares it very lightly fried; the mussells are also excellent
• two entrees -- excellently prepared, and huge; you will have leftovers
• dessert -- the creme brulee in particular is phenomenal

If you are in the Atlanta area, this is one restaurant deal that is not to be missed.

All you can eat

It happened again. My wife and I went to Famous Dave's BBQ (http://www.famousdaves.com/). I ordered the St. Louis style ribs, and what does the waiter say? "It's all you can eat night." The ribs at Famous Dave's are outstanding; I highly recommend the place. I could barely walk when I left. If this keeps up, I'm going to weigh 300 pounds by the end of the year.

47

posts in one week. I very seriously doubt I'll be keeping up anywhere near that pace.

By popular request

Amazingly enough, someone mentioned to me that they would like to hear more about the BBQ I briefly mentioned in an earlier post. Well, never let it be said that I refuse a reasonable request.

My wife and I went to Sonny's BBQ (www.sonnysbbq.com). We go there often; it's cheap and the food is very good. We ordered Chicken & Ribs, and the waiter tells us it's all you can eat night ... for the same price! Excellent! They have a variety of BBQ sauces that will literally leave you licking your fingers. I'm partial to the sweet sauce; my wife likes the spicier stuff. Their sides are top notch too, especially the cole slaw.

Wow

I was surprised to learn today that something I posted at www.actuary.ca over a year ago seems to have surfaced in several places on the web in the last few days. I guess better late than never.

To see if this can actually generate some good discussion on education, I am going to create a separate blog where I will re-construct the original article from which my posts were created.

I must confess it was really cool to see my words all over the internet like that.

Food!

I just had really good BBQ. That reminded me - I missed a category: food. My wife and I love to eat out; I'm sure I'll make lots of posts about that. I love food.

And attractive women. The problem is that my wife thinks comments like "She's attractive" are ok, but comments like "She's smokin' and I'd do her in a second if I weren't married (and she let me)" are not ok. Somewhere between those two is a line, but since I'm not sure exactly where the line is, it's best to avoid the subject of attractive women altogether.

I can talk about food, though. That's always ok with my wife.

One more blog

Work, math/physics and chess. Obviously, I need another blog for personal observations ... books, music, movies, TV, etc. OK, who am I kidding, obviously it will be mostly books. I love politics too, but I'll probably refrain from discussing that here. I don't need every uninformed boob out there sending me illogical comments.