John Wick Chapter 3

The story of John Wick: Chapter 3 Parabellum ("if you seek peace, prepare for war" says the film's character Winston) picks up where 2 left off .  Wick is seen running in his ever slightly bowed gait with his nameless pit bull in tow, seeking refuge in the evening Big Apple while rain is pelting down making his artfully unkempt hair and unshaved face even more alluring.  The opening scene is as beautiful as it's dizzily kaleidoscopic.

Wick proves a book is mightier than a knife.  But then not everyone can stomach the virtue and wisdom that comes with a big book.  The first fight was launched inside the reference section of the New York Public Library.  When Wick force-feeds Alexander Afanasyev's Russian fable on Ernest, another assassin who can't wait to collect the 14 million bounty on Wick, the book proves too much for Ernest to devour.  There is a little continuity problem as Wick is seen using his both hands grappling and hence sans book but then immediately after with the book in hand.  Of course, I can see this only with the benefit of replay and freeze frame.  Using a big book or a pencil as a lethal weapon is not new, as I recall both La Femme Nikita and Jason Bourne use them way before Wick.  The movie is in essence a platform for setting up Wick to fight with horses, motorbikes, daggers, a pencil and a book and of course many guns, in the most mundane and extreme situations.

Wick always fights in a suit with a properly knotted tie no less.  The first two I think because he has to go to a high end nightclub or a gala so he has to dress the part or else what I don't actually know.  Given that he does a lot of running and kicking, I wonder if he sticks to the more dressy but slippery leather soles or the rubber ones that provide better grip but look less dressy.  Wick as a professional contract killer reminds me of Vincent, a role played by Tom Cruise in a movie called Collateral.  Vincent is very business like in his attire and demeanor.  Both have memorable fight scenes in a club as well as on a train.  Cruise' Vincent unfortunately got killed off in his first and also last only movie appearance.  It's such an underrated movie.  Who knows, maybe Vincent was part of the High Table universe.

As John Wick progresses onto this third instalment, it becomes more elaborate in its world building, i.e. more ridiculous it becomes.  It demands a high level of suspension of belief.  It's like the whole New York City is run by the High Table.  More troublesome is the fact that the film becomes self aware of how cool the Wick character is.  Even the villains are head over heels John Wick so much so that they aren't going to kill him given the chance.  It makes the movie less believable even in its own world.  I think the supporting cast like the Bowery King and Winston could just dial down their coolness a tad bit.  The Adjudicator as a villain is insufferable as what skill set does she possess anyway.  The most down to earth character is still Reeves' Wick.  There is no self awareness the way Reeves plays the character.  If anything I think he always plays the character as is and nobody can deliver dialogues like him.  His last word uttered, when asked by the Bowery King, "You pissed, John?  Are you?" was "Yeah." Reeves' deliverance is always a bit flat, a bit monotone, a bit peculiar with a straight face.

The story of John Wick is like a triptych, the second one is the most balanced and prominence one in action, story and mythology without overdoing them.  With John Wick being pissed and alive, I am sure there is a fourth one in the work.

PhotoPlus Expo 2019

Canon and Nikon are still the twin tent poles of the event.  Nikon still gives out their signature yellow shopping bags but there aren't that many freebies to take home, not like a decade or so ago.  There are still candies and pens to grab but that's pretty much about it.  This year there was popcorn and that's new.

This year the exhibition id doesn't come with a plastic sleeve and I think there's a good move.  You don't need a plastic sleeve.

I played with the D5, some Nikkor glasses.  I am an old man so I don't really get too excited with the Z cameras.  Still I picked up the Fuji cameras; the GFX 100 and a couple others.  I got my hand on the Olympus I like the feel of it but it's a micro 4/3, so it's good on the long end, but not so much on the wide angle end, plus the depth of field is not what it is with full frame; it's part psychology part reality but I would concede chances are I can't tell the difference just by looking at the pictures.  For me, the DSLR still feels faster.  Notice I say feel.  There were instances I didn't know if the cameras were taking pictures or not.  I guess I didn't get the setting right.  I can still feel the shutter if it's shooting fast.

GOOGLEFINANCE

I wonder if GOOGLEFINANCE can return the long name of the ticker symbol.  So far I can't find anything.  The attribute sure can return price and many others but no long name of the ticker, why?  It's not like everybody knows what AAPL stands for, right?

UPDATE: 12/17/2019
I found out it's undocumented.  What a surprise.
=googlefinance(C5,"name")

Xcode 11.1

I wasn't able to download and install Xcode 11 after Catalina.

It would download but unable to install, tried many times, but just a waste of bandwidth.

In the end, I deleted the existing Xcode version, do a restart of the mac, then do a download and install, success.

Apple, why are you screwing up?

Free Space macOS style

Sometimes you aren't aware of a problem until it becomes a problem.

Normally I notice my hard drive or OK, SSD space by going to the About This Mac, then Storage.  This is where I am happy when I see lots of free space.  Didn't care about Disk Util until I need to do some more low level job like formatting a new hard drive or a SSD.

Finally I noticed there was a vast difference between what's reported in Storage than what's reported in Disk Util.  What matters to me is Disk Util as when I tried to install Catalina there it complains I don't have enough space.  This is a WTF moment for me.  Disk Storage clearly has enough space while Disk Util is barely not enough.

After much Googling, I found a way, which is kind of counter intuitive, I went ahead and created numerous large files and then deleted them.  I don't quite understand what I was doing but in the end it worked.

From what I understand it has to do with iCloud and optimisation.  So I had to deactivate them when I did the create and delete files trick.

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Also, I just also noticed I can't update Xcode, it would download and install and fail in the end.  Again I searched and found out I am not alone on this.  Yet another mystery.

Groceries

Once upon a time before the refrigerator becomes ubiquitous, grocery shopping was such a daily chore.  Back in those days in the early seventies and prior, it was mostly wet markets, where one shopped for livestock like poultry and fish, meats and all kinds of vegetables.  A local slaughter house was not even that far way.  Now I still shop more than once a week, in part, because I don't have a huge fridge as I don't have a huge kitchen as I don't have a huge abode as I don't have lots of money.  Also I need to shop Chinese so I end up shopping in multiple locations and quite often on separate days.  Grocery shopping can be quite numbing or in some way therapeutic.  You push a shopping cart, load it up and then you go.  Is it the right item at the right price?  That's about it.