Timothy's Scriptorium

Leadership

Managers who take themselves least seriously are usually those whom subordinates take most seriously.

Beauty and the Beast (3D)

In the wake of its huge commercial success in Lion King 3D last September, today Disney released its Oscar-nominated (for Best Picture) classic feature Beauty and the Beast 3D.

Many who saw this film in theaters during its original 1991 release run have probably seen it multiple times by now, especially those like me who rank it among the top three films ever made.  For them, this film will not be terribly groundbreaking, because (1) the original was already quite awesome, and (2) 3D doesn't add much to 2D cel animations, merely emphasizing animation layers containing flat, 2D characters (unlike true 3D-rendered computer imagery).  Additionally, this 3D release does not include any extended edition contents, e.g. the Human Again piece.

Nonetheless, for those who have never seen Beast and Belle dance in the enchanted castle's golden hall on the big screen, or for diehard fans, this release in 3D provides as good a time as ever to relive the magic of a "tale as old as time."

Tim Times Ten Times Two

Whoo-eee!  Another list of famous Tims!

• Tim Burton: His two Batman movies in the 80s helped redefine the comic hero as a serious, dark knight.
• Tim Conway: A classic comedic actor who is still alive.
• Tim Curry: Highly-gifted, if reclusive, actor. Was fantastic in Clue.
• Tim Drake: The third iteration of Robin in the Batman comics; became "Red Robin."
• Tim Hawkins: Perhaps the funniest Christian stand-up comedian today.
• Tim Horton: Yes, he co-founded the restaurant chain, but did you know he was a Canadian NHL player for 24 seasons?
• Timmy Martin: Played by Jon Provost, the most famous boy companion to Lassie in the vintage TV series.
• Tim McGraw: Bestselling country music artist.
• Tim Russert: Hosted over sixteen years of Meet the Press, the longest-running TV series in broadcast history.
• Tim Tebow: The most popular Christian pro athlete today.

A Milestone Year

I thought 2008 was eventful; as it turned out, it had nothing on 2011:

The Bad:

• A Car Accident and a Preemie:
  Driving over a small slick spot on an exit ramp in Spring led to a scary crash down a slope and into bushes and a culvert pole.  I totalled my pregnant wife's car and caused her to be hospitalized for weeks.  The baby was delivered three months premature, spending months in the NICU of two different hospitals, to which my wife and I made daily commutes. Every day was filled with uncertainties in the baby's development, as he had much to overcome.
• Job Offer:
  A Web job I applied for toward the end of the year did not pan out, despite a smooth and enjoyable interview process.  The job offered pay and benefits roughly the same as what I have in my current job (if not less), and they were not willing to negotiate on anything, likely because they have another candidate willing to take much less.  It reminds me of when I got my first real job after college, except I was on the other end, the "other person" willing to work for entry-level pay.
• Stagnant Work Project:
  Meanwhile, at my current job, it's been a major struggle just to move forward on migrating our current Web management system to a new enterprise solution we purchased two years ago. Bureaucracy at its finest.
• Grandpa Passing Away
• Moving out of Original Home:
  I shall miss the first home I bought, where I spent all my years as a single working professional and the first few years of marriage. Much planning went into how I laid out its furniture and decor.  I will especially miss its large back yard and its proximity to the National Road.

The Good:

• Fatherhood:
  Despite the accident's harrowing experience, I am immensely grateful to God for the physical healing to my wife, the baby, and myself throughout the year.  Things certainly could have been much, much worse.  Despite being on oxygen for over a month even after being discharged from the hospital, the baby is developing well and meeting milestones.  He truly has been a joy and gift to this first-time dad.
• Church, Friend and Family Support:
  The months of caring for a preemie revealed the true, generous colors from all our friends, relatives, and families, both local and out-of-town.  Their prayers and material assistance have undoubtedly contributed to our getting through this difficult year.
• Office Move:
  In December I moved to a new location at work, in the building basement. Although there are no windows, it is definitely nice to have my own security-entry office, instead of being in a cubicle.  Even now I've not completed unpacking.
• Smartphone:
  I finally buckled down and moved up from a flipphone to a smartphone, the Android-based HTC Rezound.  Love it!  Perhaps it's because it's the first computer I've owned since my Amiga 4000 in the 90s that doesn't run on Windows.
• Move to a New Home:
  Despite missing my old house, the new home is certainly a nicer one, with better materials, more room, and better neighborhood and school district.
• Graduation:
  After two years of somehow mixing classes and school projects/assignments with marriage and a full-time job, I graduated from the local community college in Autumn with an interactive media associates degree.  I've not been able to apply much of it to work, but hopefully those opportunities will come in 2012.
• Paid off mortgage:
  It was quite enjoyable paying off my mortgage on the old house on the same day as graduation. Alas, months later I took on another mortgage with the new home, but at least we don't need to deal with two concurrent mortgages. 

America's Fast Food Central

Not really surprising information, but Columbus, Ohio is America's top fast food test market.  Health issues aside (you shouldn't solely eat fast food and neglect regular exercise anyway), what makes Columbus a great test market also reflect the city's general economic, business, and demographic strengths (relative to the current national economy, of course). It may not be a tourist magnet, but it's definitely not a bad place in which to grow up and raise a family.

Full Set of Cards

The St. Louis Cardinals completed perhaps the most amazing comeback season and postseason in Major League Baseball history.  With only 32 games left in the regular season, they had a 10.5 game deficit to overcome for the National League wild card berth. In the postseason they proceeded to defeat both the Piladelphia Phillies and Milwaukee Brewers to reach the World Series against the Texas Rangers.  There, a spectacular Game 3 featuring three home runs by Albert Pujols was surpassed by Game 6, where World Series MVP and hometown hero David Freese helped rally his team to a win after being behind and a strike away from elimination in both the ninth and tenth innings.  With Pujols becoming a free agent, the Cardinals may not get another chance to win it all in the coming years, but regardless they will always have this unforgettable 2011 season in the record books. 

Caravaggio in Ohio

As part of Columbus's 2012 bicentennial celebration, the Columbus Museum of Art partnered with sister city Genoa, Italy, to bring from October 21, 2011 to February 12, 2012 a special exhibition, Caravaggio: Behold the Man!

Caravaggio led a tumultuous life, often on the run.  His brief life's drama was equalled only by his revolutionary painting style, which used both commoners as models for sacred figures and theatrical, high-contrast chiaroscuro lighting, also known as tenebrism.  These signature aspects are well-represented in the exhibit's centerpiece and only Caravaggio work, Behold the Man, or Ecce Homo, depicting the Biblical scene in John 19:5 when Pilate presented Jesus to the crowds shortly before His crucifixion.

The rest of the exhibit does a fine job showing the major impact Caravaggio had on his fellow Baroque painters in succeeding generations throughout Europe. Nonetheless, it is hard to avoid questioning the lack of any additional Caravaggio paintings.  In a sense, the singular nature of Ecce Homo in the exhibit reflects the rather limited quantity of works by traditional masters in the museum's permanent collection as a whole (unless one considers Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works traditional).  Hence, the exhibit manages to both impress and disappoint.  For huge Caravaggio fans like myself, though, it still boils down to a rare opportunity to view and enjoy an Italian masterpiece right in the heart of Ohio.

SNLrio

It's been a long while since I've found something this hilarious on Saturday Night Live - maybe it touches a subconscious, deep annoyance with the whole Asian "cute culture" that propagated out of Japan:

雙十節: Double Ten on Ten Times Ten

Today marks the centennial National Day of my birthplace, the Republic of China, aka Taiwan and Formosa.  May God's blessings be upon your near and distant future, that the people will prosper not only materially and politically but most of all, spiritually in His guidance and grace.

Digital Pioneers

With the extensive media coverage and online tributes for Steve Jobs on his recent passing, it is easy to forget that personal computing is where it is today thanks not just to him and Apple, but countless other individuals, most largely forgotten or ignored.  The following are a list of significant contributors to personal computing and the Internet who also have passed away but did not receive the accolades and attention that they deserved.  It is not an exhaustive list, of course, nor an easy list to compile, as many computing pioneers are still with us.

• Paul Baran (1926–2011): The inventor of packet switching, the networking communications method used in TCP, one of the Internet's core protocols. 
• Edgar F. Codd (1923-2003): The inventor of the relational database model, the foundation of SQL and most databases used today.
• Ole-Johan Dahl (1931-2002) and Kristen Nygaard (1926-2002): Co-inventors of object-oriented programming, allowing development and management of complex computer software systems.
• Michael Hart (1947-2011): Inventor of electronic books (ebooks) and founder of Project Gutenberg.
• John George Kemeny (1926-1992): Co-developer of BASIC, a high-level programming language found in almost all first-generation, 8-bit home computers.  Also pioneered computer literacy and usage by students as President of Dartmouth College. 
• Jack Kilby (1923-2005): Inventor of the handheld calculator and co-inventor of the integrated circuit (microchip), without which neither computers nor mobile devices would have been possible.
• Jay Miner (1932-1994): Circuit designer behind the revolutionary multimedia chipsets found in the Atari 8-bit and Amiga computers, the latter the first multimedia personal computer. 
• Paul Montgomery (1960-1999): Digital video pioneer and driving force behind the innovative Video Toaster desktop video studio and Snappy Video Snapshot image capture/digitizer.
• Dennis Ritchie (1941-2011): Co-creator of the UNIX operating system, and sole creator of the C programming language, the basis for most application and operating system programming languages used today (Java, C#, Javascript, PHP, Actionscript, etc.).
• Ed Roberts (1941-2010): Creator of the Altair 8800, the world's first commercially-successful personal computer, in 1975.  The Altair 8800 was the platform for Microsoft's first product, Altair BASIC.