Tracks

Tracks seemed like an odd movie to watch on New Years Eve. However, the good Doctors liked it and it wasn’t too long. Ultimately, it was a rewarding film. Mia Wasikowska plays the role with a subdued strength that makes you like a character who is otherwise sort of grating. I’m not sure I’d rush to see the movie a second time, but it was well worth watching.

Fenix 3

Before the whole “smart watch” craze started, Garmin and Suunto were making GPS enabled ABC watches that could hook up to a bunch of Ant+ sensors and talk to a smart phone. I started using the original Garmin fenix in 2013. It was chunky, but was not too much to wear as a daily watch. It served as a bike computer by pairing up with speed and cadence sensors. It tracked my kayaking with the GPS. It tracked family hikes. A software update made it capable of receiving notifications from my phone.

The fenix did not count steps which was a limitation. That meant I was wearing the watch and a Fitbit. The combination worked OK. I occasionally forgot to take the Fitbit off in the pool or put it on in the morning.

The Apple Watch was announced at a fortuitous time. I had just lost my Fitbit for the second time and Garmin had released the vivosmart. It was a $100 wristband that tracked steps, told time, connected to my heart rate monitor and the speed sensor on my bike, and could forward notification to my phone. It became my daily watch.

The vivosmart was cool, but hardly life changing. The longer I wore it the more useful I found it to be. Leaving my phone on silent was a nice perk. The vivosmart had a find my phone function and it could keep track of all of my exercise data. The only thing it was lacking was GPS functionality. I had an old fenix for when I needed GPS on my wrist.I began to wonder what a truly smart watch could do. The possibilities of a bigger, color screen and a full API for developing apps felt huge. It would be nice to get a quick check of the weather or have loyalty cards without pulling out my phone.When the specs for the Apple Watch were released, I was disappointed. It was beautiful, but whimpy. It wouldn’t hold up to a kayaking trip, a weekend in the woods, or a trip in the pool. It was designed for the more urban, hip set.

Then I saw that Garmin was diving into the smartwatch pool. None of them had the fancy touch screen, taptic engine, or the slick apple design. They all, however, were waterproof, GPS enabled, and could last for days on a charge. One of the models, the vivosmart, even has a reasonable price.

The fenix 3 was a no brainer. Round watches look better. It also had the best specs for the price: waterproof to scuba depths, 5 day battery life, bluetooth, wifi, along with Ant+ and GPS. It didn’t have maps, but did have navigation features. All of the new Garmin watches also came with an SDK that allowed developers to create watch faces, widgets, data fields, and apps.

I had a big REI dividend check, so the $500 price was not an issue. The price tag is on the higher end of the fitness/smart watch category. When you look at only GPS enabled fitness/smart watches, it is still on the high end of the range, but not by much. For the premium price, you do get a premium watch. The watch body is metal and it doesn’t shout fitness watch. I wear the fenix 3 everyday and get compliments on how stylish it looks.

The fenix 3 is not as slick looking as the Apple Watch, but it does have a classic men’s watch look. The materials are nice and it comes in two finishes: grey and sliver. I opted for the grey. It is big watch with a two inch diameter, but it does not overwhelm my average sized wrist. The standard band is a rubbery plastic that is comfortable. The band uses standard pins, so it is easy to swap the standard band out for one of your choosing.

The watch face can be customized to your liking as well. The default watch faces are minimalist and classy. You can choose between an analog watch face with date or a digital watch face with a number of complications. If the built in watch faces are not to your liking, there are hundreds of watch faces you can install, for free, from the Connect IQ store. I have had a Homer Simpson watch face, a Smiley watch face, a wind gauge watch face, a watch face that was just two big circles that spun around. I am currently using a simple analog face that includes a step gauge and the date. Some of the watch faces are poor. A number of faces that are just attempts to emulate luxury watches. Regardless of your taste, there is likely a watch face that fits it. If you cannot find one, you can either make one for yourself or wait a little while. New faces appear everyday.

There are three other categories of applications that can be downloaded to the watch:

• widgets are auxiliary screens that can be scrolled through from the watch face
• data fields are views into the data collected by the sensors during an activity
• applications are programs that completely takeover the watches functionality

For me, the widgets are the things I use the most. You scroll to them from the watch face and they show you easy to consume slices of information. The watch has several built in widgets for showing the data collected from the watch sensors like the temperature and the barometric pressure. I turned those off within hours of getting the watch. The ones I kept are the weather widget that pulls information from you phone to give you a quick look at the forecast, the steps widget, the calendar widget which shows the events from your phone calendar, and the notification widget that shows the notifications from the phone. The built in widgets also include one for controlling the music player on your phone and one for controlling a Virb action camera.

There are approximately a hundred custom widgets on the Connect IQ store. The widgets I use the most are the minute cast from weather channel and the sun and moon widget from Garmin.

There is only one application that I use and that is sky watch. It is a cool app that points out objects in the night sky. It uses the GPS and the other sensors to orient you. It is not super useful, but it is a fun way to show off when camping with friends.

There are two applications that I keep thinking about installing. One is a find your app that also keeps track of when your meter needs to be changed. The other lets you store bar code based cards on the watch. I don’t frequently park at meters or use a lot of cards with bar codes. If I did they would be useful.

The Connect IQ store has a ton of watch faces to choose from. I change mine frequently. They range in quality, but most look pretty good. I, personally, like the analog faces with step information on them. I do also have a sweet spot for one that is just a big yellow smily face with the time underneath it and the Homer watch face.

Like the Apple Watch, the Garmin watches can be great if the applications arrive. Sadly, the big names are not developing apps for the platform. It would be great if there was a Nest widget. I am surprised at the lack of applications for services that Garmin partners with. For example, they use My Fitness Pal to track calories, but there is no watch app or widget.

Unlike the Apple Watch, the Fenix 3 is a great watch even without cool apps. It does a great job of telling the time and tracking my activity levels. It is super durable. It has advanced fitness tracking features. It has built in navigation features. It has a battery that last for days. It has preinstalled smart features that get the job done.

Now Garmin just needs to figure out how to get the big name developers to come to their platform.

Inside Out

Heather and Kenzie insisted that I see Inside Out. They also decided we needed to own it. Despite being months behind on my Wittertainment, I knew that the good Dr. thought it was good enough to win best picture, so I didn’t put up much of a fight.
I'm not sure about it being best picture material, but it was a good movie. The animation was Pixar at its best. The story managed to work for both adults and kids. It also managed to be funny without sacrificing depth.
I found the emotions engaging, but found Joy annoying. The funny thing was that not liking Joy made the ending work better for me. It also made the movie more brilliant. At least for me at Riley's age, I was more sadness than joy. That period in life was all about finding the joy amid the turmoil.
So, best picture? Maybe. It was one of the best movies I have seen this year.

UNReal

When I read the article saying that one of the best shows on cable was a Lifetime show I thought it was a joke. Then I read a few more articles all claiming the same thing. Then I was interested enough to look up some information about the show in Wikipedia.
The plot sounded like it could be interesting. It starred Shiri Appleby who I thought was the best part of Roswell....
So I watched the pilot and was hooked. The writing was cynical and right on point. The characters were all terrible people. Yet somehow they were also fragile and endearing. I actually cared how things turned out.
I am having a hard time waiting for the promised second season. Hopefully if Lifetime drops the ball Netflix will pick it up and run with it.

Hits

I added Hits to my Netflix queue because it included Julia Stiles in the cast list. I should have done a little more research. She shows up for two minutes in the very beginning of the movie and has one or two lines….
The description and poster art were also intriguing. It looked like it could have been a great satire. Instead it was just an indie blah fest. The jokes lacked punch. It was sort of like an hour and a half episode of Portlandia but even less funny.
The thing is that you feel sorry for Dave and his daughter and the hopeless rapper and the poor women selling baby clothes and married to a narcissistic, untalented closet dweller. Pity is not a good background satire. Once you pity the players, you cannot laugh at them. The pity makes it hard to laugh the people who are taking advantage of them. I cannot laugh at people I find truly terrible.
I say skip it and do something useful with the 100 minutes.

I, Frankenstein

Despite the low star rating I wanted to give this movie a shot. It stars a Chuck alumni and Arron Eckhart can turn in a good performance.
Sadly, neither thing could save this movie. It was plodding and stupid and dull. It was barely worth free.

Cinderella

Initially I had no intention of taking Bug to see this movie. I was firmly in the camp that thinks remakes can never be as good as the originals. The Frozen short was a bit of draw, but it would eventually end up on You Tube….
Then I heard the Wittertainment review and interview with smiling Sir Kenneth Branaugh. The good doctors sold me on it.
I am glad they did. Bug and I had a good time. Bug thought it was beautiful. She was a little antsy towards the end of the movie, so I wasn’t sure she liked it. Then we got home and she went on and on telling H about how great it was.
The movie is beautiful. The colors and costumes are colorful and well done.
I think the best part for me was that this version sticks to basics of the original, but makes Cinderella a strong character. She is treated terribly and bad things do happen to her. She does rely on the help of magic to meet the prince. However, she chooses to stay with her step-mother. She chooses to accept the prince’s hand. Her strength and character draw the prince to her. She tries to get to the ball on her own.
The message is also great “Always have courage and be kind."
There is a lot of dying parents, but the deaths are not dwelled upon. Instead, the love and strengths of the parents are played up.
The step-mother is scary. However, she is over the top which blunts some of the effect. Her back story also serves to humanize her.
The Frozen short was cute. I liked the song and Bug was singing it for a day.
The combination of the short and the feature is a bit long for fidgity kids. Bug spent the last 10 - 20 minutes standing, walking, and generally fidgeting. She liked the movie, but couldn’t keep her little body still for two hours.

Paddington

Bug and I were excited to see Paddington. She loved the trailer and the Witterati had nothing but praise for the movie. It seemed like the perfect way to spend a snowbound Presidents Day.
The movie was gorgeous. Paddington looked real and like it was filmed with the actors. The cast did a fabulous job acting against a ghost.
The story is pretty magical as well. It could easily slip into sentimental slop, but the writing is honest and infused with wit and charm and peril.
Lord Grantham in a dress is worth the price of admission.
The only criticism I have of the movie is the scares. There were two very scary sections that seemed a little over the top. The last one, in particular, felt gratuitous.
Bug liked the movie, but the scary parts were a little too much for her. She wasn’t overwrought and didn’t have nightmares, but she didn’t really like them.

Into Darkness

I’d heard mixed reviews of the latest Star Trek outing. Some thought it was too action packed and strayed from the intellectual heritage of classic Trek. Some thought it was too laden with references to classic Trek episodes. It felt to me like the split was more about tradition than the merits of the movie.
Personally, I thought Abrahms' first Trek outing was an exciting action movie. Sure it used the time paradox cop out to hit the reset buttong, but that is not the worst sin. I don’t put it in the same class as the classic Trek movies - for me this includes TNG movies. It was more of an action movie than a Trek movie.
It isn’t surprising that my feelings about Into Darkness follow similar lines. It was a great action movie. Much like the parallel movie in the classic series, it ups the action from the first movie. The action and pace are amped up to eleven. It is a thrill a minute ride with barely anytime to catch your breath between big set peices. Unlike its parallel, it skimps on what makes classic Trek more than simple action. There is very little focus on ideas and character development. The pace is just too fast for that. The plot allows for deep issues about the industrial security complex and the balance between security and peace. It just glosses pass them.
One thing that Abrahm’s Trek does away with is the over acting. Pine is every bit Captian Kirk, but without the ham. Cumberbatch plays Kahn in much the same manner. He is evil, but not over the top. I’m torn about this. I think the new Kirk is more realistic and human. However, Shatner’s Kirk made for great speeches. Montalbán’s Kahn matched Kirk ham for ham. It was pure b-movie fun.
On its own merits, Into Darkness is a bonkers action movie. As part of the Trek cannon, it depends on your allegiance to classic Trek.

2014

2014 felt like a long year. There were a lot of great things, but they were punctuated by long stretchs of drudgery.Life comes with a certian amount of drudgery. It is unreasonable to expect constant excitment from visiting to the grocery store, folding laundry, washing dishes, supervising a child in the shower, brushing your teeth, helping your child brush her teeth, watching the same episode of Dragon Tales for a week, watching Elsa build her ice castle everyday for three weeks, or being a taxi service to play dates, gymastics, swim lessons, birthday parties, and dance lessons.
The taxi service does, more than occasionally, lead to excitement or at least a moment of joy and/or wonder. I get to see Bug having fun, learn new skills, surprise herself, listen to her stories, and teach me new things. Taxi service is the drudgery that makes me appreciate the wonder of being a dad.
The additional drudgery this year comes from my job. It pays well, but there have been few oppertunities for me to really sink my teeth into anything. The pace of development is slow and most of the features in development are simple from a user perspective. It is hard for me to get excited about documenting a point-and-click UI or the same APIs in a different language. The amount of process and over management exascerbate the boredom. I pretty much have to clear everything I do through a manager and one other person. This is in addition to technical and editorial reviews…. I’m not sure if the solution is a different job or a different attitude; the devil you know or the devil you don’t….
There were also parenting challenges. Bug went through a bit of tantrum storm through the spring and summer. Two of her great strenghts are her independance and her determination (some may call it stuborness). They help her in all sorts of ways, until they mix together in a cauldron of frustration and explode. We had some rough rides, but, hopefully, we all learned how to modulate ourselves and use our natures positively. The darkest moments made me glad that I wasn’t in this alone. Being able to tag out for some relief and having a different perspective on hand made weathering the storms much easier. It makes me respect the work my Mom must have done as a single parent even more than I already did. One thing is certain: Parenting is the most challenging thing I have, and will likely ever, do.
Fortunately, life has a lot of wonder to offset the drudgery:

• There were a bunch a great paddles this year.
• Bug and I got to go on a bunch of great bike rides together.
  
• Bug learned to ride a two wheeler.
• We all went on our first real hiking adventure in the White Mountains.
• We did our first real kayaking trip on Boston harbor.
• We had a number of relaxing camping vacations.

When I look back on the year, it loses a lot of its drabness. The moments of joy and wonder bubble up and remind me what is important: smiles, laughter, hugs, learning new things, sharing nature.

The Interview

I am not a fan of Seth Rogan comedies; The sophmoric, stoner, potty humor isn’t my style. I am not a fan of James Franco either; I just don’t understand the hype.
It is unlikely I would have chosen to watch The Interview without the surounding hubbub or if it involved paying money. Since Netflix picked up The Interview and suggested it as a popular on Netflix thing, H and I decided we should probably see what all the fuss was about.
The Interview is not a terrible movie. I didn’t hate it. Largely it was what I expected: drug jokes, gay jokes, sex jokes, basic stupidity being passed off as humor. Towards the end some over the top violence is tossed into for shock value.
I’ve read that what sets The Interview apart is its meta-narrative. It pokes fun at American infotainment journalism and the CIA and propaganda in general. I think that critique gives the movie too much credit. Those elements can be dredged out of the film and its use of the lowest of low comedy to appeal to a mass audience can also be seen as a stroke of brilliance. I think that is a happy accident.
If you are going to see The Interview see it soon before the central joke gets stale. If you decide to skip it, you are not missing much. Better yet, go see *Team America: World Police* instead.

Annie

Bug has been a obsessed with Annie for a few months. We took her to see a live performance in the fall and H plays the songs in the car all the time. When the new Annie movie opened, we knew Bug would see it.Last Saturday we decided to give Bug the choice of activities for the afternoon. She had been doing our choice for days and days. She choose to see Annie.It was playing at a bunch of theaters and it was out for a few weeks. We decided not to preorder tickets. The chances of a show being sold out was crazy low....
We got to the theater 30 minutes early and discovered that there were only two seat, that were not together, left for the showing we wanted.....
The Internet saved the day. I opened the Movies app on my phone found a nearby theater that had three, just three, tickets left that happened to be together. Not sure when theaters started using assigned seating... Crying averted.
The seats were spectacular. The theater was equipped with powered recliners. Our assigned seats were in the front row and the reclining made watching the movie doable. Bug was particularly thrilled. The seat wrapped her in cushy comfort.
The movie itself was a fine update. The music updates the original while maintaining a clear heritage. The new Annie was well acted. The star walked the fine line between upbeat and saccharin. The adult cast was passable. Cameron Diaz almost pulls off Ms. Hanagin as a basically good person. Jamie Fox is wooden. The poor adult acting doesn't really detract from the movie. Annie manages to carry the weight on her own.
The writing is bad. Jamie Fox's character, aside from his acting, is hard to believe. The new Ms. Hanigan character is also pretty poorly drawn. I never really bought her sudden change of heart. The only character who is well drawn is the villain. He is appropriately over the top.
On a personal note I did appreciate that the new Annie is African-American. It is nice to have a young, strong, positive role model for Bug.
Bug sat through the whole movie without much fidgeting and only one potty break. There was occasional quiet singing. After the movie she danced it out to the end credit songs. Since she has repeated some of the lines in the movie and talked about the story. When asked thumbs up or thumbs down, she responded thumbs up.

Annie is a nice movie for the kiddie crowd and not a terrible one for the adult crowd.