A dark day for Apple. [Guess the link’s gone.]

I am in Florida. Why? Work. WORK! So far, it’s been fine. Humid and overcast. We were hoping to escape to sunshine here, considering how much rain L.A. has seen lately, but I think we’re in for rain the next several days.

Well, guess I’ll have to go back to Hawaii!

Wow. What a week. And it’s technically been a short one. HA! By mid-afternoon tomorrow, I’ll have exceeded 40 hours already, and I’ve got a long Friday ahead.

Am I complaining? Yes, I guess I am. I’m trying to generate publicity for a major film in 15 territories directly, plus I’m indirectly managing activities in another 45 countries. The good news is that it’s paid off — one of our goals was to generate early positive buzz, and it’s been working. You can see a couple of examples here, here and here. (To facilitate easy viewing of the latter, I’ve also added the picture to this post.)

There’s also been a rumor floating around that we’re “opening” Cannes. While I can flatly deny that, I can tell you that Cannes has been taking up a lot of my life, as well as a special little something we’ve got planned in London.

The good news: It’s all in service of a good movie. It’s the movie everyone wanted and hoped The Phantom Menace to be. As for whether Jar-Jar Binks returns … you will have to wait until May 19.

Now, some much-needed sleep.

Hey, Steve — ’tis not the season.

Okay, I had to take just a moment out of my busy work schedule to show you all something Sven sent me: an amusing article from India Daily.

And these people are helping us with our tech support calls…

I am in love with Google Maps! Every street has a name! You can simply drag the map to scroll! It’s not limited to a tiny box! Printouts are awesome! My God, I will never need my Thomas Guide again!

Sadly, the site does not work in Safari yet [NOTE: This is no longer the case. It works great in Safari. —Ed.], but it does work in Firefox. Firefox has its bugs and limitations, but if it gets me to Google Maps, I will overlook such trifles!

somebody from this site leaved a message on my blog on date: july 3rd 2004 on a post thas was written the 14th june of 2004.
you asked about my blog and that was funny see you picture there, but you don’t speak italian. ok, i red that message just now, that i a gay italian blog, if you don’t mind i leave that picture, if you dont mind i’ll keep it.
bye.

I just read a magazine article at lunch (it’s online here). I had to rush back to the office to record my anger.

The authors have an enthusiastic outlook for the power of nuclear energy to fix all of our pollution and global-warming issues. Yet they conveniently ignore several points in favor of what I consider to be a quick fix for the problem of energy’s future.

Nuclear energy is clean compared to fossil fuels, says the article. We can no longer allow the bad, bad coal and gas and oil industries to pollute our planet. The dangers of nuclear energy are less dangerous to the earth than us continuing on our current road.

While I’m sure this argument is currently true, considering quantities of scale, it lacks foresight. I imagine people back during the rise of fossil fuels never thought that we’d be using enough carbon-emitting energy sources to change the planet’s climate. So who now is paying attention to what will happen when we shift to using mostly nuclear power? Our options for storing the waste will dwindle, even considering waste recycling. (Recycling the waste merely prolongs the inevitable necessity of its disposal.) The bright, gleaming new nuclear plants will eventually begin to fail when they get old and governments or greedy corporations cease to provide enough capital for their upkeep. And the article’s authors don’t seem to see that, while coal mining will eventually go away when we switch to nuclear energy, uranium mining will pick up substantially.

I have so much more to say about this, but I have no time! As I was reading, I was countering every point, shaking my head while eating my lunch. Why anyone would think it’s okay to proliferate a highly radioactive energy source across the globe is beyond me. Only under the very best of circumstances would nothing go wrong with these plants, or with the shipping of the fuel, or of the handling of the waste.

The article states that it’d be best to implement a vast network of nuclear plants to supplant coal plants, all as an effort to clean up the pollution and eventually get to another zero-emission solution. (Though, really the authors never say that nuclear has pretty frightful emissions of its own.) But who are we kidding here? Once the network is in place, I think we’d get stuck just like we are now. We’ll get used to nuclear, get used to it being fairly cheap, very convenient, and only in the future as we start getting poisoned with radiation instead of CO2 will we scramble yet again to find a new energy source.

Didn’t I say I had no time to say any more? Well, I’m cutting myself off. Read the article if you’d like. I’d love to hear comments. From all 2 of you.

There’s always some Mac tidbit to bring me joy and happiness. Every day! Here’s a fun picture by some guy named Phillip Torrone. I’m sure an arm band will be out soon for those who want to use this iPod while exercising.

Happy Monday. I’m still not over my illness, but at least I feel better than Gene Kelly must be feeling right now. Though this ad is well done, it’s also 100% creepy.

A random picture of a squirrel always gets the spirits up. This one is named Dominick and he lives in Kensington Park. At least, I think that’s his name. My squirrel is a little rusty. Dominick or Derick or something like that. So he said. He was mad to find I had no hand-outs.

You know, I have not had any trouble with hackers since making my “security changes.” However, I feel compelled to keep adding Bait messages until the inevitable day arrives when the hackers figure out my clever ploy and start hacking again. I’d hate to keep losing posts.

This cheered me up. It’s another anti-Microsoft/pro-Mac article. I love how this guy writes! He’s about to get a lot of hate mail from Windoze losers (I beg your pardon if there’s any of you reading this), but who cares? He’s right!

“The food and wine at this place any good?”

“Nah, not really. Just fair.”

It happened tonight. I saw Mary Poppins.

And I hated it.

In Disney-speak, it has no magic. No sparkle. No effervescence and joy. It looks ugly, in shades of black-and-white and brown and beige. Like a hack pianist with a fake book, they’re hitting the right notes, but they lack any feeling.

Keep in mind, I think the movie — especially having seen it again recently — is just about close to perfection. It may ascend to a spot in my top five films of all time. It is glorious.

The musical sits there like a lump, trying to create charm but succeeding only in making you wonder why they chose these particular actors. The one who plays Mary is indeed delightful, and almost manages to make you forget Julie Andrews. Not quite, but that’s a nearly impossible order to fill.

The kids are irritating. The father and mother charmless over-emoters. Bert has no life. Authentic Cockney accent, yes, but give me Dick van Dyke mangling it any day over this.

The movie weaves the story arc of Mr. Banks throughout with subtlety and restraint; the musical hits you over the head with it: This man needs to change and love his family!

Not unsurprisingly for modern-day Disney, the central tension of Michael inadvertantly causing the bank to come to the brink of ruin — with Mr. Banks wholly unresponsible but needing to accept the blame quite unfairly — is tossed out the window. Instead, the story turns on a decision Banks makes that causes the bank to lose money … and the redemption comes when the bank comes to the happy conclusion that due to Banks’s judgment, it has turned an enormous profit. A melancholy life lesson gets turned into the message Disney so clearly believes these days: Profits are what matter. As George Banks would say, that’s quite a bitter pill to take.

The Jolly Holiday and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious numbers are supposed to be rousing — and the audience was most certainly appreciative. But they lack the color, spark and wit of the film.

It’s discussed throughout the program that the musical’s creators used the source novels as much as the movie for inspiration. If that’s true, I wonder why the novels were ever popular, because this musical is a plodding, dull affair with an unhappy core. I’m so very disappointed.

Sorry, Steve, for not addressing any of the issues you’re facing with this post — but I just had to get this off of my chest.

What is wrong with me? What is wrong? I was dating the perfect guy. Not perfect in an obnoxious Ken doll way, but truly perfect. He is sweet and kind and smart. He is thoughtful and caring. Sexy and together and selfless. Confident and goofy and sometimes shy. And I had to let him go. That’s a horrible way to phrase it, but that’s how it ended up playing out.

I am sick as a dog right now. Add this to the heartache of last night, when he showed up at my door with medicine and treats and ended up leaving without me, and I don’t know why I’m not at home in bed under the covers whimpering.

I do know. Work sounded like a good idea today. And I had to see the doctor.

What is wrong? How can it be that someone so wonderful is not the one I fall in love with? Is this not reverse of normal? The intellect is telling me I’m an idiot because he was the nicest and most attentive anyone has ever been to me. My emotions tell me it was not to be. But why? Why are emotions so fickle and cruel? Why does love need to be so unpredictable and uncontrollable? Why can it not come on command?

I’m afraid I’ve let something fantastic die an early death. I’m also afraid it was the right choice. These two things should not go together. He deserves more than me, and more than I was giving him. But it’s so unfair, to us both, I think. Unfair that his love and adoration could not be reciprocated, and unfair that I could not summon the reciprocal despite my longing so much to do so.

I held back my enthusiasm for him in fear of hurting him, but it happened anyway. It is so painful. I am so sorry, David. I wish I were someone else today.

Here’s a good article on the Mac, including a decent explanation of PC vs. Mac users.

Halleluja, the Mac is Back

(From Salon. Free day subscription required, which means you gotta watch—or ignore—an ad.)