Heroes, Top Gear, Rebus and Computer Science

I'm currently sitting in my CPSC 331 class, terribly boring class, explaining why to use a Dynamic List versus a Static list, I actually much prefer a Generics List. It's so much easier to deal with the underlying objects rather than being returned an open ended object you need to cast. Bah, child's play, much to boring.

So, my cultural life has unfortunately taken a turn for the worse. So much for watching the IMDB top 250, lately it's been whatever looks not boring at the video store (and sometimes what is boring). Pulp Fiction is the only recent Top 250 movie, and why it got #6 is beyond me. Tarantino may be brilliant, or he might be an overgrown kid with a desire to make odd, violent, and slightly drug induced movies. If I wanted to see that (less the violent) I would be watching Kevin Smith, fluff I know, but he knows how to make a really funny bad movie. Pulp Fiction (that came out Pulp Function, how can you tell I'm in CPSC!).

So, rather than watch movies we know watch TV shows. It works better scheduling with four people that way. So that means a whole lot of Top Gear. Ah, British Television, so much better than pretty much any of the US networks and by far better than our US copycat Canadian stations. It doesn't hurt either that they talk about cars, all sorts of cars, but typically exotic cars. Though my two favorites so far are the Toyota Hilux (which we can't get new in Canada) and the Tomcat. It's sad but true, the other day we drove by two Ferrari's and I was much more interested in the restored Land Cruiser across the road. If you haven't seen the Top Gear Arctic special, and can put up with the British version of a red neck, you should definitely see it.

So, the only other thing I've seen lately is Heroes, which I'm not sure was worth the 2 hours of TV (getting spoiled by ad removed TV). What can I say, good premise, but it sucks. Chris has even said he's not likely to watch anymore, which I can't say I blame him. So more Top Gear it is!

The only saving grace right now is that I'm reading a Barbara Kingsolver and Ian Rankin book. Kingsolver's series of essays (I'm sorry, can't remember the name of the book!) is quite good, though not at all the escapist novel that I typically like. Fortunately Ian Rankin's "The Black Book" is very escapist and good work. I know the Scots may say it's fluff, but I've read alot of mystery/crime drama and this is night and day from most other books. I can really in many ways relate to Rebus (which I'm not sure is always a good thing!) and he is very human. Sometimes I think the books are more studies on human feelings and characteristics than a crime drama.

So I guess I'm lacking in the culture, though funny enough, anything I've discussed isn't getting funding from Harper's Fat-Cats :-)

Next time I promise I'll edit a bit more, and have a direction to my post. Not just a dump of words!

Cheers,
Eric