Stopple news gaggle

Anyone want the latest info on what I'm doing? Post questions on this thread.

New Office/other LPS news

I moved all my stuff into my new office today. It's really cool and I posted some cool stuff by the door. It's SST 792 for those keeping score at home. Irvine folks should show up and give me grief.

Also, LPS may be getting a regular poker game together (never play poker against a game theorist).

So everything for me to do tomorrow: meet about my TAship, finish a rewrite by 4:00, go to the pub for the AGS party, try to keep up my exercise regime.

Anyone with any other LPS poop is welcome to post it.

Best/worst of New Fall TV

Best new show: Jack and Bobby
Worst new show: LAX
Most Disappointing New Show: Lost
Most disappointing returning show: Law and Order
Best new sitcom: Listen Up
Worst new sitcom: Joey
The big "not care" award: reality TV

Shows deserving immediate cancellation: LAX, 7th Heaven, The Mountain, Law and Order, Joey

Revenge of the open thread

Post what you like.

Nerd boy courses this term

I'm taking 3 extra nerdy courses this year:
a) a logic course that is basically an A.I. course
b) a course on Truth from Tarski to Field that is going to be very language-focused
c) Idealism from Leibniz (I'd like to kick him in the monads) to Berkeley to Kant

Add to that T.A.ing for syntax, finishing my rewrites for Kai and starting a Carnap paper and I'm officially screwed.

Two big numbers

Can anybody tell me the significance of the following 2 numbers:
3167 (+/- 10)
9989?

The rise of the "unfunny comedy": progress for cinema?

Lately, I've been seeing more "unfunny comedies" (as opposed to not funny comedies). These sorts of movies mark progress for comedy in film. Sure, if you recycle the same jokes, you'll probably get laughs over and over again. But there is something admirable about trying certain things and having them not produce monster belly laughs. Also these movies usually produce a certain pleasantness throughout the whole movie. Some of these also have pretty good character development (Mr. 3000, Girl Next Door, and I'm going to include The Waterboy even though it doesn't quite fit in with what I'm talking about) and some dramatic elements. So when I say that something is an "unfunny comedy", I'm not disparaging it at all.

Movie review: Mr. 3000

I really liked this movie even though it was an "unfunny comedy". It had good, dramatic character development and it had a pairing straight out of Law and Order in it (Chris Noth and Paul Sorvino). The best thing about it was the dynamic between Bernie Mac and Angela Bassett. The writers were really clever to flip the gender roles here and in some ways it makes the movie more emotionally accessible for the average schlub who isn't that macho. The structure was a bit chaotic (e.g. T-Rex's "road to Damascus" moment). Still, this movie was a lot better than reviewed in the traditional outlets. I would recommend it if you like baseball or if the Mac/Bassett/gender roles stuff sounds interesting.

Cooking Adventures

I made a good salad today. I took 1 lb of pasta, fried up some tofu in a ginger oil (it was too moist to dry out though, but still good), and covered the whole thing in a spicy ginger sauce. It was really good. Chairman Kaga liked it, as did the ditzy actress and the washed up baseball player. The food critic thought that the Iron Chef's menu was better. :)