Histories of Film

The Breakfast Club appeared on BBC TV over the weekend: I didn't watch it, mainly as I know most of half-by-heart; but, being set in late March, it set my mind thinking about anniversaries from films.

These are some I've rooted out so far and I have an iCal on the way:

Date	Year	Film	Location
January, 12	1997 / 1992 (book/film)	2001: A Space Odyssey	HAL Laboratories, Urbana, IL (HAL9000 #3 operational)
March, 24	1984	The Breakfast Club	Shermer High School, Shermer, IL
May, 17	1985	Ferris Bueller's Day Off	Shermer, IL / Chicago, IL
May, 28	1976	Dazed and Confused	Robert E. Lee High School, Austin, TX
July, 1	1899	Indiana Jones Triology	Princeton, NJ (Henry Jones, Jr. born)
Oct., 2	1988	Donnie Darko	Middlesex (Jet engine strikes house / DD saved)
Oct., 26	1985	Back to the Future	Twin Pines Mall, Hill Valley (DeLorean demonstration)
Nov., 15	1962	Animal House	Faber College, Faber, PA (Student Court Hearing of Delta)

Comedy Central Frustrations

Not only does Comedy Central, which provides my quad-weekly Colbert Report fix, offer different interfaces to browsers, but it refuses to work with Flip4Mac, the WMV-QT plug-in.

The only solution at present seems to be to disable the plug-in in the Flip4Mac Preference pane.
—–

Facebook

Facebook me!

The Facebook is an online directory that connects people through social networks at schools. Unlike Friends Reunited it aims to bring present student communities online together with features like party announcements, listing of current classmates for each course etc.

According to their website, they were launched to the public on 4th February 2004, but maybe not at their current address, as the Wayback Machine seems to suggest it was occupied by another company until the end of 2003.

It was initially limited to ‘elite’ American schools and I joined in May 2004 when it became popular among MIT alums. Since then, it has blossomed across the U.S. and (maybe after my recommendation and submission of lots of student/college information) now over here to major universities in the U.K., including Oxbridge.
—–

Hols

Off to Szczecin, Warsaw, and Berlin over New Year: strange places, I know, but that is part of the fun of cheap flights across Europe these days.

The popularity of Eastern Europe meant that practically destinations were already very expensive throughout the holiday period — hence the flight with ryanair to Szczecin, on the Baltic coast, after Christmas.

Travelzoo then presented us with a 75% discount and free upgrade at the Sheraton in Warsaw, an offer one could hardly refuse, so a 12 GBP train-ride there was called for.

Finally, we found our escape route from the East, as perhaps historically has been the case, out of Berlin, again with ryanair.

It was only difficult for us to avoid further complications: ferries from near Szczecin to Copenhagen and Sweden are extremely cheap, and easyjet were offering some cheap flights out of the former
—–

GRADschool Windermere 4

Just returned from the excellent GRADschool run by CRAC at the Hydro Hotel, Windermere.

Four days of challenging tasks were made easier by the excellent tutors and facilitators and — most of all — the interesting, intelligent and entertaining PhD student attendees.

Memories of my experiences with the fabulous group W will probably, as the Poet once said,

Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory —
…
And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
[Life] itself shall slumber on.

—–