Tretakoff Musings

As a long-time comics aficionado, I have delightfully enjoyed the renaissance of the superhero movie. Arguably, you could say that it started with Bryan Singer's X-Men , Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins , or even Sam Raimi's Spider-Man . But the one that I feel has really started the absolute frenzy was Jon Favreau's Iron Man : Not only did it do a great job of making a fun movie, with a somewhat believable premise, but it was a perfect blend of characters, action, and, most importantly, comic book story arcs that culminated in the blockbuster, The Avengers. The third Iron Man movie came out a couple of weeks ago, and I finally got to see it. I was pretty excited, as, unlike the previous two, it was written and directed by Shane Black. Who the heck is Shane Black? Glad you asked: virtually every great buddy cop action adventure movie in the 1990's was a Shane Black creation: the Lethal Weapon films, the vastly underrated The Last Boy Scout, the truly magnificen...

Thanks to my Amazon Prime membership, with it's growing catalog of free streaming TV and movies, I've recently been reliving the delight of what was the 2nd best show ever to air on US television, The West Wing . The first 4 seasons, with Aaron Sorkin pitching fastballs every episode, are some of the smartest, engaging, and emotionally riveting television I have ever seen, and they hold up, even today. One interesting phenomenon I've discovered, however, is that these characters, although off the air for nearly a decade, have gained a second life on Twitter, of all things. It started when I found the Twitter account for President Josiah Bartlet , the president so many of us wanted to be real. With great excepts like "Working with the Solicitor General to see if I can revoke citizenship for one Congressman an hour until a deal is reached." and "If we're making a list of the mentally ill in this country, start with anyone who remains a member of the NR...

Very cool feature from Yahoo! Sports, when you play their Fantasy Football game: they use a company to create simulated news stories , based on your fantasy performance in the week. Hadn't seen this before, but, now that my team has advanced to the Super Bowl (against my brother in law), I was amused by the simultaneous pseudo fame, as well as the rueful harbinger for the automated threat to journalism. On to next week's big game! Go Cowboys! Playoffs: Marin Cowboys Brings Down SB CHAMPS G-MEN Marin Cowboys (10-5) 117.14 SB CHAMPS G-MEN (9-6) 86.64 Alfred Morris put up 21.30 points and Julio Jones scored 21.20 as Marin Cowboys beat SB CHAMPS G-MEN, 117.14 - 86.64. Marin Cowboys has been just plain unbeatable and has now won seven straight. This win avenges a 90.38 - 77.68 loss to SB CHAMPS G-MEN back in Week 8. Marin Cowboys Smooth Moves With 21.30 points against a projected 13.63, Alfred Morris ranked ninth in the league in scoring and has now overachieved in four...

From an amazing person whom I have worked with. He embraces politically incorrect in a whole new way, and sets the standard high for all of us. Greetings all, I will be coming in today for TRULY my final day, winding up what has been a wonderful, albeit short lived career with some of my favorite people who have touched me (see: {Employee name redacted}) in ways (and places) I never thought I could be touched. Being that I am bad with names, I would like to express my gratitude toward the Korean guy, the Hispanic girl, the beautiful young old woman, the hunky too-good-looking-to-be-hetero guy (see:{Employee Name Redacted}), the smart guy who I am pretty sure is Jewish, the over achieving 29 year old mom from San Jose, the blond with wet hair, the ladies in sales and the "Gays" and "Nerds" (I don't like to typecast; think of it more as profiling). A special shout out to { Employee Name Redacted} who has my final paycheck, and to { Employee Name Redacted}  who ...

I was checking out a story on Chris Simms , the occasional backup quarterback for the Titans and son of former NY Giants QB, Phil Simms. I've always admired the guts of this man, as he played an entire half of a football game with a ruptured spleen. That's seriously  tough. Anyway, I was amused that the story, about Simms losing a key ruling in a traffic stop where he was suspected to be under the influence of marijuana, described him in a "zombie" like state. The ad that ran intext with the article? Shows Saints QB Drew Brees in a state that could easily be described as "zombie like." That's either really good ad targeting or really bad ad targeting. Either way, makes for a funny distratcion!

Courtesy of John Lettelier: After every flight, UPS pilots fill out a form, called a 'gripe sheet,' which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics corrects the problems, document their repairs on the form, and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight. Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humor. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by UPS pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance engineers. By the way, UPS is the only major airline that has never, ever , had an accident. P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement. S: Almost replaced left inside main tire. P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough. S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft. P: Something loose in cockpit S: Something tightened in cockpit P: Dead bugs on windshield. S: Live bugs on back-order. P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent S: Cannot reprod...

Modern day videogames have their own graphics engines that put the hardware to the test. Recently, some artists started to use those engines to recreate classic (and some not-so-classic) movie scenes . The results? sometimes breathtaking. For instance, The Fifth Element NYC chase scene to the right looks gorgeous. The only oddity of these recreations is their oddly empty feel. Most are just the venues (the adamantium chamber from X-Men 2 ; the temple in Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade ), and, while incredibly vivid, they lack that spark of life. Even the Clerks faithful rendering . Still, the Blade Runner scene is simply awe-inspiring.

I hate Daylight Savings Time. It's an outmoded, antiquated way of dealing with natural effects, and it simply has no place in the modern world. Worse, when it does come, we have to go through this bizarre process of making sure all the clocks times are changed. Ridiculous. It appears there is at least one clock that will make dealing with this pain a simple chore. The Ora iLegale clock takes an elegant approach: the clock has no numbers on the face, and when it's time to adjust for daylight savings time changes, give it a nudge. The body of the clock pivots just enough to make the face reflect the hour adjustment. Brilliant.

Even URL shortening can tell how the paper feels about their story. As seen on Twitter, following the Marin Independent-Journal. I shall refrain from comment on their reporting and dovetailing with this accidental editorial. ;-)

I'm rather left speechless at The Sportsman's Guide's latest home decor addition . This is like having a hot tub emblazoned with images of ice cubes.

As seen on my screen today.Have truer words ever been said?

With the Olympics looming large, there's been a lot of discussion on my daily ferry commute about the rise of China in the international stage, and, of course, the debate if the USA has already gone past it's nadir as the pre-eminent international power. In other words, has the USA already begun its decline, like the great empires before it? Many factors lead to this possibility, primarily the lack of investment in a manufacturing base: when a society becomes so wealthy that they find it less expensive to send work to another country, or to employ illegal aliens, no matter how trivial or important the work, I maintain that it is officially on the decline. As part of this exercise, we look at key indicators that might represent the telltale signs of when the USA "jumped the shark." For the Roman empire, it might have been the gladiatorial games and vomitoriums; the British empire saw the East India Company become it's de facto ambassador to the world. What might th...

We may, as a society, disagree with many things, but there has been one truth we all seem to instinctively agree on: drinking lots of water is good for your health. However, as with all good maxims, it's occasionally important to test them for reality. And, according to the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, this wives' tale is all wet. Turns out, drinking more water not only does not improve skin tone or reduce appetite, but actually can even be harmful, possibly causing kidney damage. The irony of this to me is not that yet another accepted truism has fallen by the wayside, but more that this was forecast by the most unlikely of prognosticators, Lewis Black . He of the waggling finger, and apoplectic screaming fits, the man predicted this very thing years ago in his HBO Broadway special, Black on Broadway , as well as a hilarious and wry look at the history of this admonition, as well as it's possible origin. Take 10 minutes, sit back and prepare to laugh.

Ok, I'll be the first to admit that I had never hear of Schmap . Time Magazine raved about it. The Washington Post gushed over it. And I was ignorant of it all. However, thanks to geotagging my Flickr photos , I was approached by the editors and asked if they could include two of my photos in their San Antonio edition. I was flattered, and received word today they are in. The photos in question? From the King William section of San Antonio, with it's stately mansions and immaculate grounds. The Guenther House, a working flour mill with a restaurant on the banks of the river. We were tipped off to this King William gem from a great Riverwalk waiter, and brunched here the next day amid the most tranquil setting in a factory you can imagine. Check out the widget with my photos included. Geotagging pays off!

Without being struck by lightning, how a New England Patriots fan thinks after yesterday: Three quarterbacks, Manning, Romo and Tom Brady, go to heaven to visit God and watch the Celtics play a game. God decides who will sit next to him by asking the boys a question... God asks Peyton Manning first: "What do you believe?" Peyton thinks long and hard, looks God in the eye, and says, "I believe in hard work, and in staying true to family and friends. I believe in giving. I was lucky, but I always tried to do right by my fans." God can't help but see the essential goodness of Manning, and offers him a seat to his left. Then God turns to Tony Romo and says, "What do you believe?" Tony says, "I believe passion, discipline, courage and honor are the fundamentals of life. I, too, have been lucky, but win or lose, I've always tried to be a true sportsman, both on and off the playing fields." God is greatly moved by Tony's sincere eloquence, a...

Why don't we have flying cars? This, and many other questions, have always been posed for our future. Yet, in downtown San Francisco, we've been blessed with a whole new ad campaign. Replacing those ubiquitous Apple ads or Gap come-ons in some key outdoor ad locations have been these " Postcards From Our Awesome Future ," created by Packard Jennings and Steve Lambert. The straight dope: " Packard Jennings and Steve Lambert asked architects, city planners, and transportation engineers, "what would you do if you didn’t have to worry about budgets, beauracracy, politics, or physics?" Ideas from these conversations were then merged, developed, and perhaps mildly exaggerated by Steve and Packard to create a series of 6 posters for the San Francisco Arts Commission’s Art on Market Street Program. " Have a look for yourself ; the Zipline one you see to the left is an excerpt from one of them. Enjoy them all!

Been a little more quite than I anticipated. First, the holidays, mixed with an office move, then followed by a trip to Tucson to visit the family. Pix are on Flickr ; they should be Picnik 'ed mostly later today. Bonus: my mother unearthed some classic child photos of me,and I'll be posting them to Flickr, as well. Some random comments: - For those who have been following my Twitters, I'm sure you've had enough of my complaints about US Air, but for those who missed them, I advise avoiding them at all costs. Even though I had significant frequent flier miles with them, I will avoid flying them, ever again, if possible. Atrocious service,substandard aircraft, and their Phoenix hub is like a third world country. We ran a bit late, got to the counter 44 minutes before the flight, and were denied boarding becuase we had luggage to check. Result? An unplanned overnight stay inthe stunning airport La Quinta,at our cost. - Dude, I got my Dell. A sweet Inspiron desktop from th...

This holiday, I was struck by an attendee at our house for the annual holiday feast, who watched the frenzied opening of gifts. See, most of the folks who were opening gifts were delighted to see items that they had asked for on their Wishlists, mostly from Amazon, so they were not just excited to have the gifts, but which of their wishlist items they were. My friend watched the excitement, and hear the constant cries of, "oh, good, you got me THAT one!" She asked, "Wait a minute: you all bought each other things off of lists you all made?" When we laughed and said yes, she shook her head and admitted it was a pretty good idea. Wishlists: only took us 5000 years to tell each other what we want. As fate had it, my wishlist item arived:my very own Doomsday USB Hub. Now, I can end a meeting in style. Thanks!

My friend Steff is visiting Legoland USA right now, and pointed out with delight the Lego rendition of San Francisco's Justin Herman Plaza in Lego, complete with it's trademark love-it-or-despise-it water sculpture. The sculpture, entitled "Fountain," by Armand Vaillancourt , has been inspiring adoration and hatred since 1971. Some think it's a set of sewer pipes, other see it as an Escher drawing come to life. In any case, Charles's reaction was priceless upon seeing the photo: "I like how there's a firetruck there to help evacuate those that have viewed the sculpture and need to be rescued." Thanks, Steff. Photo courtesy of Flickr user Tempo .

In this noble season of embracing consumerism, one intrepid reporter attempted to spend every waking business hour (and more) for a solid week inside the High Temple of Consumeria, the aptly named Mall of America, in Minnesota. The result? An epic descent of man along the lines of Joseph Conrad. Join me, on this amazing voyage of the damned, will you? Oh, and happy holidays! ;-)