Saturday, May 29, 2004

If you liked Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, then you should definitely pick up Iron Monkey. Cut from the same cloth, but not quite as artistic, it's a fun watch; the martial arts scenes are definitely in the same class as Crouching Tiger. Iron Monkey is essentially the Chinese "Batman" -- thugs killed our hero's parents when he was a child, so he taught himself to fight and he defends the weak and poor against corrupt officials and their enforcers. He has a secret identity, and even a sidekick. Bonus: there's a (good guy) kid who is amazing to watch in several martial arts scenes. 11:26:13 PM    ; comment [];  I just finished reading It's not Abount the Bike by Lance Armstrong. This book was recommended to me by a visitor to MSR. For those of you who live in caves, Armstrong is the 4-time winner of the Tour de France bike race. But before that ever happened, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer which had already spread to his lungs and brain by the time it had been detected. His chances for survival were extremely poor, and yet he endured surgery and a brutal regimen of chemotherapy and won back his life. This book is a great read just for the stories of his battle with cancer and of preparing for and riding in the Tour de France (I now know what a "peloton" is). The bonus on top of that is to understand Armstrong's unique perspective on why people attempt the Tour de France: because it's the perfect metaphor for the worst that life can throw at you, and whether you can find the strength and determinism inside of yourself to overcome it all. After you nearly lose your life to cancer and yet find a way to battle back, what do you do for an encore? It isn't the best writing I've ever seen, but it's a good and very interesting read, and I definitely recommend it. Next up: Moneyball, the story of Billy Beane and the Oakland A's. 11:18:53 PM    ; comment [];  Or perhaps "crawling to the weekend" is a better way of putting it. It was Meeting Marathon Madness this week. Microsoft's fiscal year runs July 1 through June 30. Starting in March, groups start planning for the next fiscal year, a process which culminates in the dreaded Business Plan Review meetings with Bill, Steve, and the rest of the senior execs. They started this week. My boss doesn't like going to them, so I go in his place. There's a reason he doesn't like them: they're long and boring. Absolutely necessary, but most of the agenda has nothing to do with running a research division, so it's not a great use of his time. I, on the other hand, am the person responsible for making sure that MSR understands our product groups and their business dynamics, so I force myself to sit through them. It's a great education, and it's super interesting to hear the way that the execs think about the business. But it requires caffeine in large quantities. A comfortable chair would have been nice, too. More next week. Thank God for the 3-day weekend. 11:00:20 PM    ; comment [];

© Copyright 2004 Kevin Schofield. Last update: 8/23/2004; 10:09:51 PM. This theme is based on the SoundWaves (blue) Manila theme.

Blogroll

Robert Scoble
Ross Mayfield
Dan Gillmor
Larry Lessig
Joi Ito
misbehaving.net
simplegeek
Ray Ozzie
Doc Searls
Boing Boing Blog
Paul Andrews
Chris Pirillo
Halley's Comment
Instapundit
Scripting News
Beyond the Beyond
Don Box
Mary Jo Foley
WebMink
Dean for America
kuro5hin
John Batelle
PDA and Tablet PC News
AlwaysOn Network
The Old New Thing
PR Opinions
Critical Section
Backup Brain
Seattle P-I Microsoft Blog

Books I Like

The Diamond Age
Cryptonomicon
The Tipping Point
The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design
The Design of Everyday Things
Contact
Earth
The Mythical Man-Month
Peopleware
Wicked French
Linked: The New Science of Networks
As the Future Catches You
Pattern Recognition
The Da Vinci Code
The Man who Stayed Behind
Angels and Demons
The Confusion
Quicksilver
Free Prize Inside


What I'm Reading Now

Bachelors Brothers Bed & Breakfast Pillow Book