Ugh, I just saw Suicide Squad and it was awful. Far worse than Batman v Superman.
Why was it so bad? There are reasons that I'm sure most people are going to bring up. The introduction of so many fringe characters into a movie at the same time, not enough back story, not enough character depth/motiviation.
But there was something deeper. These are the reasons I could come up with.
Needless to say ...
SPOILERS WARNING
SPOILERS WARNING
SPOILERS WARNING
1) Worthless Characters Added
Not only were there too many character introductions, but some are so unfleshed that I'm not even sure why they were included in the movie. Katana was introduced about a third of the way into the movie. It felt like they added her into the middle of the script after it was completed.
Why was she added? My assumption is it was add a bit more diversity into the team (an additional female and Asian character) and to add a "sword" person amongst a bunch of people with guns.
Because other than hacking a bunch of people with a sword a few times, she appears to have no appreciable purpose in the entire film. During the "what do you dream of that would make you happy" sequence before the final battle, she's not even included.
Reading a bit online to get other fans opinions, I realized I had completely forgotten about Slipknot. The guy they barely introduced and just killed off right away. So sort of like Katana but even worse so.
2) Too much for Suicide Squad to handle?
So I'm not the biggest Suicide Squad knowledgeable person in the world. But one of the subtleties is that I felt that Suicide Squad teams were supposed to go on more "black ops" missions.
Instead, they go after and battle a supernatural demon? This makes no sense. Black ops missions make way more sense. That's why you would put together a team of criminals that are assassins
(Deadshot) and thieves (Slipknot, Boomerang)? You throw in Killer Croc
for some muscle and maybe Harley Quinn because she's good in hand to
hand combat. This is the team that is supposed to go after the next Superman?
Looking on wikipedia, it appears this is some of the history of Suicide Squad in the comics. They go kidnap people or steal things. Ugh ... stealing the weapons book from Tehran would have made a bunch better film instead.
3) Everyone becomes friends and "good"
So maybe it's just me, but I hate the typical "bad guys become good" storyline. These are supposed to be the worst criminals out there. Yeah, certain characters will try to be team players and work together (Deadshot), but it's mostly for self-service to meet some personal self interest.
It would have been better if the team was constantly trying to figure out how to escape or take Flag's detonation tablet and reverse engineer it to remove the neck-bombs. Nope, they are just good guys eventually.
4) Captain Boomerang is a bit cheapened
Before the movie came out, I wondered how they would portray Captain Boomerang. In the comics and DC animated world, I think he's wonderful. After all, he's a badass assassin that throws boomerangs for a living. It's tongue and cheek silliness that makes the animated versions of him so awesome.
While Captain Boomerang plays the comic relief in the team real well, he feels really cheapened while fighting. I just can't recall a moment when he was really that badass in the movie.
5) What was the purpose of the Joker in this film?
Why was the Joker even in this film? His entire goal is to rescue Harley Quinn, which seems so unlike the Joker and a waste of his character. The Joker is supposed to be some psychopath.
Here's a much better idea for the movie. The Joker is going to do something crazy and Amanda Waller needs a black ops team to stop him.
Oh, and why would they add an equally psychotic Harley Quinn to the team? Only because she understands the Joker and can help. Otherwise why bring her along?
6) Too much jumping around
I felt the film "jumped around" too much, especially as they give back stories or flashbacks to prior events. During 1 or 2 scenes my girlfriend was like "What's going on?" which I had to explain only b/c I have some knowledge of the comics universe. One particular case was the flashback when Harley Quinn jumps into the vat of chemicals to become like the Joker. It seemed to segue to that out of nowhere.
Conclusion:
Watch Batman: Assault on Arkham. It features Suicide Squad, is wonderful, and everything I said above is not the case in that animated film. Katana is replaced by Killer Frost in the film and has a strong role in it, so you can't even say they didn't diversify the cast.
Saturday, August 20, 2016
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Batman v Superman & Justice League Trailer - Why so disappointing?
So last weekend I finally sat down and watched Batman v Superman.
While I didn't dislike the movie as much as the horrible reviews suggest (27% on Rottentomatoes), I didn't love it. I maybe would have given it around a 50%-ish rating.
After watching it, I was trying to think up why I didn't like it that much. There are some obvious reasons that I think most people have. The introduction of Wonder Woman, Batman, Lex Luthor, and Doomsday was just too much for one movie. (Blah blah, should have done it like Marvel by having Wonder Woman and Batman Movie first, blah blah).
But eventually, I realized it was something more subtle ....
SPOILERS WARNING
SPOILERS WARNING
SPOILERS WARNING
The portrayal of the characters in the movie don't meet my impression of the characters in the comics.
Batman to me is supposed to be the world's greatest detective. Getting "tricked" by Lex Luthor into fighting Superman just doesn't seem like what would happen to Batman. In fact, wouldn't Batman have figured out Superman's identity by now? After all, if Lex Luthor could, couldn't he?
After the bombing in Washington D.C., wouldn't Batman investigate further to see what actually happened so he knows Superman didn't cause anything? Going out of his way to just want to fight Superman just because seems very unlike Batman.
Another thing that bothered me was Bruce Wayne's somewhat "friendliness" and "sense of humor" in the movie. In the comics and DC animated universe, I always considered Bruce Wayne/Batman to be an untrusting loner who is somewhat distant compared to other members of the Justice League. In the Justice League Animated series, he bluntly says he's "not a people person" when the Justice League is being formed. There are other indications in the comics and other animated films where this seems to be the case (The Dark Knight comic comes to mind, as does the Justice League: War animated film, and the recent Dark Knight Rises, and probably many others).
However, in Batman v Superman, Bruce Wayne wants to go out of his way to form the Justice League after Superman dies (and furthers shows it in the Justice League trailer). He also cracks some jokes here and there (and in the trailer too!) that just seem out of character for Batman. When Wonder Woman arrives to fight Doomsday, Batman knows exactly who this is and why she is there. Saying, "I thought she was with you" seems very out of character. A much better line would have been something like "Clark Kent, meet Wonder Woman", in which Batman has clearly already figured out Superman's identity. Superman would act a bit surprised that Batman already figured it out, which is a totally befitting Batman.
Now that I've seen how they decided to portray Bruce Wayne/Batman in this film, it makes sense to me why they would cast Ben Affleck as Batman. He actually plays the part pretty well. It's the portrayal that IMO doesn't map to Batman. A completely different Batman portrayal would have led to a different casting choice.
As a complete aside, there's one moment in the Doomsday fight I love where Batman leaps onto a building of some sort but escapes a punch/attack from Doomsday by leaping away quickly. That is wonderful and gives a "super human agility" kind of feel to Batman that he can even fight Doomsday to some extent. They could have done more of that.
Jeremy Iron's portrayal of Alfred also didn't seem quite right either, compared to Alfred in the comics, animated shows, or even in movies (such as Michael Caine's portrayal). He almost seemed to portray a sidekick of sorts to Bruce Wayne, helping him in the Batcave and taking on a Barabara Gordon/Oracle like role. It just seemed out of place for him.
I will say that the portrayals of Lex Luthor (minus the hair) and Wonder Woman (albeit limited) were pretty good.
While I didn't dislike the movie as much as the horrible reviews suggest (27% on Rottentomatoes), I didn't love it. I maybe would have given it around a 50%-ish rating.
After watching it, I was trying to think up why I didn't like it that much. There are some obvious reasons that I think most people have. The introduction of Wonder Woman, Batman, Lex Luthor, and Doomsday was just too much for one movie. (Blah blah, should have done it like Marvel by having Wonder Woman and Batman Movie first, blah blah).
But eventually, I realized it was something more subtle ....
SPOILERS WARNING
SPOILERS WARNING
SPOILERS WARNING
The portrayal of the characters in the movie don't meet my impression of the characters in the comics.
Batman to me is supposed to be the world's greatest detective. Getting "tricked" by Lex Luthor into fighting Superman just doesn't seem like what would happen to Batman. In fact, wouldn't Batman have figured out Superman's identity by now? After all, if Lex Luthor could, couldn't he?
After the bombing in Washington D.C., wouldn't Batman investigate further to see what actually happened so he knows Superman didn't cause anything? Going out of his way to just want to fight Superman just because seems very unlike Batman.
Another thing that bothered me was Bruce Wayne's somewhat "friendliness" and "sense of humor" in the movie. In the comics and DC animated universe, I always considered Bruce Wayne/Batman to be an untrusting loner who is somewhat distant compared to other members of the Justice League. In the Justice League Animated series, he bluntly says he's "not a people person" when the Justice League is being formed. There are other indications in the comics and other animated films where this seems to be the case (The Dark Knight comic comes to mind, as does the Justice League: War animated film, and the recent Dark Knight Rises, and probably many others).
However, in Batman v Superman, Bruce Wayne wants to go out of his way to form the Justice League after Superman dies (and furthers shows it in the Justice League trailer). He also cracks some jokes here and there (and in the trailer too!) that just seem out of character for Batman. When Wonder Woman arrives to fight Doomsday, Batman knows exactly who this is and why she is there. Saying, "I thought she was with you" seems very out of character. A much better line would have been something like "Clark Kent, meet Wonder Woman", in which Batman has clearly already figured out Superman's identity. Superman would act a bit surprised that Batman already figured it out, which is a totally befitting Batman.
Now that I've seen how they decided to portray Bruce Wayne/Batman in this film, it makes sense to me why they would cast Ben Affleck as Batman. He actually plays the part pretty well. It's the portrayal that IMO doesn't map to Batman. A completely different Batman portrayal would have led to a different casting choice.
As a complete aside, there's one moment in the Doomsday fight I love where Batman leaps onto a building of some sort but escapes a punch/attack from Doomsday by leaping away quickly. That is wonderful and gives a "super human agility" kind of feel to Batman that he can even fight Doomsday to some extent. They could have done more of that.
Jeremy Iron's portrayal of Alfred also didn't seem quite right either, compared to Alfred in the comics, animated shows, or even in movies (such as Michael Caine's portrayal). He almost seemed to portray a sidekick of sorts to Bruce Wayne, helping him in the Batcave and taking on a Barabara Gordon/Oracle like role. It just seemed out of place for him.
I will say that the portrayals of Lex Luthor (minus the hair) and Wonder Woman (albeit limited) were pretty good.
Sunday, July 17, 2016
Dinner @ Rasa in Burlingame, CA
Recently I had a chance to eat at Rasa in Burlingame, CA. It was recently named by Michael Bauer of the SF Chronicle as his favorite Indian restaurant in the bay area. It was also awarded a Michelin Star last year.
Unlike most many Michelin Star restaurants, Rasa is on the casual side of the restaurants. It offers just an a la carte menu, so you won't find a tasting menu or price fixe menu here.
The menu is divided into "small plates", "uthappam", "dosa", and "entrees". We decided to get an "uppatham" as an appetizer because we'd never had it before and then get two entrees. The staff brought out each one individually for us to share.
1) kheema uthappam - Spiced organic ground lamb masala served atop an uthappam featuring sweet peppers and cilantro
We both had never tried an uthappam before so we decided to try it out. Overall, I loved this dish. It had a lot of flavor to it.
It came with a lentil soup & two chutneys. The red one at the top was a tomato based chutney and the green one was a coconut one. I first reaction when trying the chutneys was "they have a lot of flavor". Much better than the somewhat bland ones from most Indian restaurants.
2) butter chicken - marinated w/ yoghurt, ginger, & garlic in a creamy tomato and fenugreek curry, served with kerala paratha
I know it's butter chicken, probably not what you want to get at a "Michelin Star" Indian restaurant. But my +1 said we should try it so we can compare this "Michelin Star" butter chicken to other places. Fair enough.
Overall quite good. It was much sweeter than other butter chickens I've had before. The recipe is also not as as creamy as other butter chickens I've had. Likely it's a recipe from another region of Indian.
3) halibut pollichathu - halibut wrapped in banana leaf and roasted with a shallot ginger spice crust served with coconut rice and green bean foogath
This entree looked interesting so we decided to check it out. It comes with an onion sauce which you see at the top. I had to look up what "foogath" is, but it is apparently vegetables with curry and coconut.
Here's a picture of the fish once we got it out of the banana leaf.
Overall I thought the dish was pretty good although the flavor wasn't quite as strong as I would have liked it. I did love the green bean foogath. I think this would be an excellent entree dish to have by itself for dinner, since it has a bit of everything (fish, rice, vegetables).
At this point in the meal we were quite stuffed and couldn't finish everything. Unlikely most fancy "Michelin Star" fancy restaurants, this wasn't a series of small dishes coming out one at a time over hours. These dishes came up semi-fast. IIRC, we got this entree just a few minutes after we finished the butter chicken. So we decided to just get one dessert to share.
4) cardamom brulee - South Indian spin on a bread pudding served with vanilla bean ice cream and market berries
This dish was really interesting and really tasty. The bread putting was caramelized on top just like creme brulee. Overall, it was delicious. Add in the vanilla ice cream and berries, overall wonderful.
Overall, the meal at Rasa was quite good. I think a little better than the one at All Spice we had a few years back.
In hindsight, I think the uppatham and two entrees was a bit too much food given the pacing the restaurant brought out the dishes. I think it would have been better to order a small plate or two, an uppatham or dosa, and an entree. I think the portion size overall would have been much better.
Unlike most many Michelin Star restaurants, Rasa is on the casual side of the restaurants. It offers just an a la carte menu, so you won't find a tasting menu or price fixe menu here.
The menu is divided into "small plates", "uthappam", "dosa", and "entrees". We decided to get an "uppatham" as an appetizer because we'd never had it before and then get two entrees. The staff brought out each one individually for us to share.
1) kheema uthappam - Spiced organic ground lamb masala served atop an uthappam featuring sweet peppers and cilantro
We both had never tried an uthappam before so we decided to try it out. Overall, I loved this dish. It had a lot of flavor to it.
It came with a lentil soup & two chutneys. The red one at the top was a tomato based chutney and the green one was a coconut one. I first reaction when trying the chutneys was "they have a lot of flavor". Much better than the somewhat bland ones from most Indian restaurants.
2) butter chicken - marinated w/ yoghurt, ginger, & garlic in a creamy tomato and fenugreek curry, served with kerala paratha
I know it's butter chicken, probably not what you want to get at a "Michelin Star" Indian restaurant. But my +1 said we should try it so we can compare this "Michelin Star" butter chicken to other places. Fair enough.
Overall quite good. It was much sweeter than other butter chickens I've had before. The recipe is also not as as creamy as other butter chickens I've had. Likely it's a recipe from another region of Indian.
3) halibut pollichathu - halibut wrapped in banana leaf and roasted with a shallot ginger spice crust served with coconut rice and green bean foogath
This entree looked interesting so we decided to check it out. It comes with an onion sauce which you see at the top. I had to look up what "foogath" is, but it is apparently vegetables with curry and coconut.
Here's a picture of the fish once we got it out of the banana leaf.
Overall I thought the dish was pretty good although the flavor wasn't quite as strong as I would have liked it. I did love the green bean foogath. I think this would be an excellent entree dish to have by itself for dinner, since it has a bit of everything (fish, rice, vegetables).
At this point in the meal we were quite stuffed and couldn't finish everything. Unlikely most fancy "Michelin Star" fancy restaurants, this wasn't a series of small dishes coming out one at a time over hours. These dishes came up semi-fast. IIRC, we got this entree just a few minutes after we finished the butter chicken. So we decided to just get one dessert to share.
4) cardamom brulee - South Indian spin on a bread pudding served with vanilla bean ice cream and market berries
This dish was really interesting and really tasty. The bread putting was caramelized on top just like creme brulee. Overall, it was delicious. Add in the vanilla ice cream and berries, overall wonderful.
Overall, the meal at Rasa was quite good. I think a little better than the one at All Spice we had a few years back.
In hindsight, I think the uppatham and two entrees was a bit too much food given the pacing the restaurant brought out the dishes. I think it would have been better to order a small plate or two, an uppatham or dosa, and an entree. I think the portion size overall would have been much better.
Saturday, July 16, 2016
2016 Cubs - Things are averaging out
About a month ago I wrote about how everything was going perfectly for the Cubs as humanly possible.
I noted that the performance seemed to defy reason and some regression back to the mean seemed likely.
It seems that it happened just in the last month.
Here's the pitching roster's stats on June 6th
Jake Arrieta - 9-1, 1.80 ERA
Jon Lester - 6-3, 2.29 ERA
John Lackey - 6-2, 2.88 ERA
Kyle Hendricks - 4-4, 2.84 ERA
Jason Hammel - 7-1, 2.14 ERA
here it is today on July 16th
Jake Arrieta - 12-4, 2.68 ERA
Jon Lester - 9-4, 3.01 ERA
John Lackey - 7-5, 3.70 ERA
Kyle Hendricks - 8-6, 2.41 ERA
Jason Hammel - 7-5, 3.46 ERA
By all means the staff is still doing really well, but 5 starters with a sub-3.00 ERA seemed beyond their capabilities. Only Hendrick's ERA has gone down, while everyone else's went up by atleast 0.72. Hendrick's FIP sits at 3.48, over a full run above his current ERA of 2.41. So that may average out for him over the rest of the year too.
I noted that the performance seemed to defy reason and some regression back to the mean seemed likely.
It seems that it happened just in the last month.
Here's the pitching roster's stats on June 6th
Jake Arrieta - 9-1, 1.80 ERA
Jon Lester - 6-3, 2.29 ERA
John Lackey - 6-2, 2.88 ERA
Kyle Hendricks - 4-4, 2.84 ERA
Jason Hammel - 7-1, 2.14 ERA
here it is today on July 16th
Jake Arrieta - 12-4, 2.68 ERA
Jon Lester - 9-4, 3.01 ERA
John Lackey - 7-5, 3.70 ERA
Kyle Hendricks - 8-6, 2.41 ERA
Jason Hammel - 7-5, 3.46 ERA
By all means the staff is still doing really well, but 5 starters with a sub-3.00 ERA seemed beyond their capabilities. Only Hendrick's ERA has gone down, while everyone else's went up by atleast 0.72. Hendrick's FIP sits at 3.48, over a full run above his current ERA of 2.41. So that may average out for him over the rest of the year too.
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Oddities in HBO's Silicon Valley
I recently began watching HBO's Silicon Valley. Once in awhile I see a technical and/or conceptual oddity that I can't help but ponder over and think "uhhh no". These are the ones that I noticed and bothered me.
I'm not going over any specific misuse of technical terms or over exaggerated elements for Hollywood humor.
Needless to say there are ***SPOILERS*** below if you haven't watched the show.
Season 1 - Episode 1
Richard is an employee at Hooli, but is also in a startup incubator launching Pied Piper. Later in the episode Hooli CEO Gavin Belson tries to purchase Pied Piper.
Shouldn't Hooli have an intellectual property claim on Pied Piper, given that Richard is still an employee at Hooli?
Now I can't speak for the IP rights contracts that every company in the world has, and there are obvious exceptions (some companies you can sign documents to indicate you have some outside business interests that are independent of your job), but this seemed odd to me.
(They eventually delve into this in Season 2.)
Season 1 - Episode 6
In this episode, elite programmer "The Carver" is hired to help get Pied Piper towards its deadline. In a somewhat cliche plot, he messes up some code and the team has to spend a lot of time fixing his mistake.
I couldn't help but think, "You guys don't have a code revision repository of any sort?" The kind of thing that could be backed out within a minute or two? Later in the episode, they are distinctly comparing lines of code on two screens, so it strongly suggests they don't have a code repo.
But this isn't what gets me. Later on, they also ran and passed regression tests to know they fixed the bugs/mistakes. Regression tests suggest that you have different versions of software. After all, what's the point of regression tests if you're not trying to catch old bugs/mistakes? So they have different versions of software, but no code repo to manage the different versions of code?
Season 2 - Episode 10
During the trial, Erlich mentions that Big Head's code for "Nip Alert" was so bad that it crashed Richard's laptop and Richard had to take it to the Apple store to fix and it was "in the shop" for three days.
Now "crash" is ambiguous, but I interpreted the dialogue context to mean this caused a hardware problem. It wouldn't have to be "in the shop" for three days otherwise. It would be very hard, if not impossible, for a web based application (let alone a normal installed application) to destroy a laptop's hardware. I can see potential theoretical ways, but it's hard to imagine a general application doing this. [1] Add in the fact that Big Head is generally regarded as incompetent, it's hard to believe he could have done anything that advanced.
If "crash" caused a software based problem, such as a process foolishly running amok and deleting valuable system software (again, shouldn't really be happening for a userspace non-privileged process and shouldn't be happening with such a dumb application), this one is perhaps a bit more believable. But a simple software reinstall and update from backup is all you need. No need to bring it into the shop.
Season 3 - Episode 6
In this episode Richard is shown to be a lover of tab indentation in code. He meets a girl named Winnie who codes uses spaces instead of tabs.
In one scene Richard and Winnie are sitting on the couch both coding and Winnie is programming and constantly smashing the spacebar to indent her code. It's loud and annoying and eventually Richard can't handle it. Hilarity ensues.
The "tabs" vs "spaces" debate is endless, but what I found interesting was the fact that Winnie repeatedly hit the spacebar to indent her code. Today, almost every editor will automatically convert a "tab" to the appropriate number of spaces. So there is no need to ever hit the space bar over and over again. Even those who prefer spaces to tabs don't actually hit the spacebar over and over again, they use the tab key.
[1] - While writing this I Googled "can you program software to damage hardware" and there are some write ups with theoretical ideas that seem to confirm my suspicions.
I'm not going over any specific misuse of technical terms or over exaggerated elements for Hollywood humor.
Needless to say there are ***SPOILERS*** below if you haven't watched the show.
Season 1 - Episode 1
Richard is an employee at Hooli, but is also in a startup incubator launching Pied Piper. Later in the episode Hooli CEO Gavin Belson tries to purchase Pied Piper.
Shouldn't Hooli have an intellectual property claim on Pied Piper, given that Richard is still an employee at Hooli?
Now I can't speak for the IP rights contracts that every company in the world has, and there are obvious exceptions (some companies you can sign documents to indicate you have some outside business interests that are independent of your job), but this seemed odd to me.
(They eventually delve into this in Season 2.)
Season 1 - Episode 6
In this episode, elite programmer "The Carver" is hired to help get Pied Piper towards its deadline. In a somewhat cliche plot, he messes up some code and the team has to spend a lot of time fixing his mistake.
I couldn't help but think, "You guys don't have a code revision repository of any sort?" The kind of thing that could be backed out within a minute or two? Later in the episode, they are distinctly comparing lines of code on two screens, so it strongly suggests they don't have a code repo.
But this isn't what gets me. Later on, they also ran and passed regression tests to know they fixed the bugs/mistakes. Regression tests suggest that you have different versions of software. After all, what's the point of regression tests if you're not trying to catch old bugs/mistakes? So they have different versions of software, but no code repo to manage the different versions of code?
Season 2 - Episode 10
During the trial, Erlich mentions that Big Head's code for "Nip Alert" was so bad that it crashed Richard's laptop and Richard had to take it to the Apple store to fix and it was "in the shop" for three days.
Now "crash" is ambiguous, but I interpreted the dialogue context to mean this caused a hardware problem. It wouldn't have to be "in the shop" for three days otherwise. It would be very hard, if not impossible, for a web based application (let alone a normal installed application) to destroy a laptop's hardware. I can see potential theoretical ways, but it's hard to imagine a general application doing this. [1] Add in the fact that Big Head is generally regarded as incompetent, it's hard to believe he could have done anything that advanced.
If "crash" caused a software based problem, such as a process foolishly running amok and deleting valuable system software (again, shouldn't really be happening for a userspace non-privileged process and shouldn't be happening with such a dumb application), this one is perhaps a bit more believable. But a simple software reinstall and update from backup is all you need. No need to bring it into the shop.
Season 3 - Episode 6
In this episode Richard is shown to be a lover of tab indentation in code. He meets a girl named Winnie who codes uses spaces instead of tabs.
In one scene Richard and Winnie are sitting on the couch both coding and Winnie is programming and constantly smashing the spacebar to indent her code. It's loud and annoying and eventually Richard can't handle it. Hilarity ensues.
The "tabs" vs "spaces" debate is endless, but what I found interesting was the fact that Winnie repeatedly hit the spacebar to indent her code. Today, almost every editor will automatically convert a "tab" to the appropriate number of spaces. So there is no need to ever hit the space bar over and over again. Even those who prefer spaces to tabs don't actually hit the spacebar over and over again, they use the tab key.
[1] - While writing this I Googled "can you program software to damage hardware" and there are some write ups with theoretical ideas that seem to confirm my suspicions.
Friday, July 8, 2016
Heroic Programming/Engineering in Hollywood
Once in awhile when I'm watching a tv show that includes some programming/engineering, I am amazed by the level of "Heroic Programming" or "Heroic Engineering" capabilities of the characters.
The one I've noticed the most is Timothy McGee on NCIS. At multiple points in time McGee is capable of engineering solutions to help solve a crime on the order of an afternoon. These are feats that would take people days to months. On a few occasions McGee single handedly developed data mining algorithms and capabilities that probably bordered on the capabilities of Palantir.
Keep in mind that McGee has mastered these heroic capabilities, despite the fact that he doesn't even program as his day job. So he has seemingly developed all these abilities as a side-task and/or hobby.
Another one I saw recently was on the show Silicon Valley. While the individuals on the show are atleast full time engineers, they seem to have epic capabilities. A very small team of just three engineers seems capable to engineer everything, on every platform, in every domain, without flaw, and at lightning speed.
The one I've noticed the most is Timothy McGee on NCIS. At multiple points in time McGee is capable of engineering solutions to help solve a crime on the order of an afternoon. These are feats that would take people days to months. On a few occasions McGee single handedly developed data mining algorithms and capabilities that probably bordered on the capabilities of Palantir.
Keep in mind that McGee has mastered these heroic capabilities, despite the fact that he doesn't even program as his day job. So he has seemingly developed all these abilities as a side-task and/or hobby.
Another one I saw recently was on the show Silicon Valley. While the individuals on the show are atleast full time engineers, they seem to have epic capabilities. A very small team of just three engineers seems capable to engineer everything, on every platform, in every domain, without flaw, and at lightning speed.
Sunday, July 3, 2016
Dinner @ Delage in Oakland, CA
Delage is a relatively new sushi restaurant in Oakland. They only offer a 8 course omakase/tasting menu, but it's a very affordable $65 dollars. The sushi chef there was the former sushi chef from Maruya, which got a Michelin Star while he was there.
So a very affordable omakase from a Michelin star sushi chef in nearby Oakland? Sign me up. Here's what the meal looked like.
1) amuse bouche - tuna, mountain yam, cucumber
First up was this amuse dish. Overall, light, refreshing, and tasty. A good start to the meal.
2) cherry tomato salad - bing cherries, ume-shiso pesto, confit cherry tomatoes
Our first official course was this salad. The foam you see on the dish is a yuzu foam which was quite citrus-y. The pesto and ume sauce were delicious.
3) salmon with Himalayan salt block, Miyazaki beef
This course above was for both me and my date, so we each got one each of the beef & salmon. I liked the salmon, as it had an interesting salty-kick after having sat on the salt block. The beef was ok, not as strong a flavor as I was hoping for.
4) nigiri
Our next course was four nigiri sushi. From left to right we have tuna, sardine, iwana (arctic char), and ika (squid). Overall, all were delicious although I think I liked the ika/squid the most. In most places I think the squid is a tad tough, but this was really soft and "smooth".
5) chilled green asparagus soup - bay shrimp, pencil asparagus
Next up was this asparagus soup. Overall tasty, although on a relatively cool night I think a warm soup would have been better. I wouldn't blame the restaurant. We'd recently gone through a heat wave, who knew this random night was gonna be cool :-) On a much hotter day I probably would have loved this way more.
6) smoked baby corn - togarashi aioli, fried quail egg, cotija cheese
Next up was this interesting dish. This was not the baby corn I'm used to from Chinese take-out dishes. The corn was larger and thicker than that, so it was from some variety I'm unfamiliar with. In addition, underneath it was threads of husk from the corn. Apparently this variety's husk is soft enough that it's tender enough to eat. With the aioli, this was delicious. Probably by favorite non-sushi dish of the night.
7) seared liberty duck - maitake mushroom, senmoto negi, plum compote
Next up was this duck dish. I really liked the plum compote sauce, although with the relatively thin-cut slices of duck I think it overpowered the duck a bit. If the duck was cut thicker, I think it would have worked out better. The senmoto negi (green onion) was a bit on the charred side for my taste, but perhaps that's just me.
8) nigiri
Next up was the second course of sushi. From left to right we had spanish mackerel, hamachi (yellowtail), snapper, and a scallop donburi. Overall good although I preferred the first set of nigiri with its stronger flavors. My girlfriend liked this set better because she prefers the more mild flavors. So to each their own. However, we both agreed the scallop donburi was delicious and possible the best sushi/sashimi of the night. You may have trouble seeing it in the picture, but there are small cubes of soy-sauce gelatin on top that sort of melt/explode in your mouth. It was really tasty.
9) homemade strawberry ice cream, strawberry coulis
And finally some ice cream for dessert.
Overall, I was happily full and not too stuffed at the end. For $65 dollars, it's a relatively good deal for a 8 course omakase meal. I wouldn't say the meal was as good as Kusakabe, but you're also getting a much better price.
My only knock against Delage on this trip is there was a bit of timing issues in their service. A few dishes came out cooler than perhaps optimal. However, I want to be fair to them. They opened on June 7th, so this is a relatively new place and may be working out the kinks. This was only their fourth weekend in business and with it being the July 4th weekend, it's possible it was the first time they have been fully booked. I expect things to be optimized in time.
So a very affordable omakase from a Michelin star sushi chef in nearby Oakland? Sign me up. Here's what the meal looked like.
1) amuse bouche - tuna, mountain yam, cucumber
First up was this amuse dish. Overall, light, refreshing, and tasty. A good start to the meal.
2) cherry tomato salad - bing cherries, ume-shiso pesto, confit cherry tomatoes
Our first official course was this salad. The foam you see on the dish is a yuzu foam which was quite citrus-y. The pesto and ume sauce were delicious.
3) salmon with Himalayan salt block, Miyazaki beef
This course above was for both me and my date, so we each got one each of the beef & salmon. I liked the salmon, as it had an interesting salty-kick after having sat on the salt block. The beef was ok, not as strong a flavor as I was hoping for.
4) nigiri
Our next course was four nigiri sushi. From left to right we have tuna, sardine, iwana (arctic char), and ika (squid). Overall, all were delicious although I think I liked the ika/squid the most. In most places I think the squid is a tad tough, but this was really soft and "smooth".
5) chilled green asparagus soup - bay shrimp, pencil asparagus
Next up was this asparagus soup. Overall tasty, although on a relatively cool night I think a warm soup would have been better. I wouldn't blame the restaurant. We'd recently gone through a heat wave, who knew this random night was gonna be cool :-) On a much hotter day I probably would have loved this way more.
6) smoked baby corn - togarashi aioli, fried quail egg, cotija cheese
Next up was this interesting dish. This was not the baby corn I'm used to from Chinese take-out dishes. The corn was larger and thicker than that, so it was from some variety I'm unfamiliar with. In addition, underneath it was threads of husk from the corn. Apparently this variety's husk is soft enough that it's tender enough to eat. With the aioli, this was delicious. Probably by favorite non-sushi dish of the night.
7) seared liberty duck - maitake mushroom, senmoto negi, plum compote
Next up was this duck dish. I really liked the plum compote sauce, although with the relatively thin-cut slices of duck I think it overpowered the duck a bit. If the duck was cut thicker, I think it would have worked out better. The senmoto negi (green onion) was a bit on the charred side for my taste, but perhaps that's just me.
8) nigiri
Next up was the second course of sushi. From left to right we had spanish mackerel, hamachi (yellowtail), snapper, and a scallop donburi. Overall good although I preferred the first set of nigiri with its stronger flavors. My girlfriend liked this set better because she prefers the more mild flavors. So to each their own. However, we both agreed the scallop donburi was delicious and possible the best sushi/sashimi of the night. You may have trouble seeing it in the picture, but there are small cubes of soy-sauce gelatin on top that sort of melt/explode in your mouth. It was really tasty.
9) homemade strawberry ice cream, strawberry coulis
And finally some ice cream for dessert.
Overall, I was happily full and not too stuffed at the end. For $65 dollars, it's a relatively good deal for a 8 course omakase meal. I wouldn't say the meal was as good as Kusakabe, but you're also getting a much better price.
My only knock against Delage on this trip is there was a bit of timing issues in their service. A few dishes came out cooler than perhaps optimal. However, I want to be fair to them. They opened on June 7th, so this is a relatively new place and may be working out the kinks. This was only their fourth weekend in business and with it being the July 4th weekend, it's possible it was the first time they have been fully booked. I expect things to be optimized in time.
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