Monthly Archives: July 2004

spidey underoos

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I’m not sure if I ever had Spiderman underwear, but according to the movie, the costume rides up a bit. I suppose that’s what you expect from a Sam Raimi movie, and I thought that the humor saved Spiderman II from the fate of Daredevil, which was one of the worst action movies I’d seen in a while. Ben Affleck, ugh.

Dr. Octavius tells Peter Parker in the movie that he heard Peter was “brilliant but lazy” and exhorts him to work, since great things only come with hard work. The second film’s use of aphorisms and advice quoted and requoted in different contexts is clever but overused.

Not very coherent thoughts on the movie, but it’s worth seeing at the matinee price in Champaign ($6.25). Hurrah for the midwest!

information overload

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ISIT is a pretty huge conference — for every paper that I see presented, I miss 7 others in parallel sessions. Oftentimes they put very popular papers in small rooms, which only enhances the crowdedness I feel. Today is the last day, so things are thinning out a bit, which is nice.

A frustrating thing I’ve come to realize is that it takes me a woefully long time to figure out that a paper is pretty uninteresting. I spend a fair amount of time trying to really understand what is going on, often in spite of the presentation, only to have a conversation with another group member about it later on that makes it clear that the result was not that interesting. Of course, “interesting” is subjective, but perhaps it is best to go into talks with a healthy dose of skepticism to avoid the rollercoaster ride of excitement and disappointment.

A second problem is that the nametags are hung around the necks, so if you try to read the name of a female conference attendee you invariably look like you are ogling her chest. Given the gender ratio at this conference it must make it awfully uncomfortable for them.