Let Your Google Calendar Evolve

I successfully added my Evolution (desktop-based) calendar events to my Google calendar with a few very easy steps (see below). To see how to view your Google Calendar from Evolution, check out Johnny Jacob's fantastic tutorial Johnny [Life & Code]: Google Calendar in Evolution. Got me fixin ta git me summa them screenshots an' purty up my page. Geez, Johnny. Make the rest of us look bad, why don't ya!

;-)

1. Export Selected Evolution Calendar to Disk
   1. In Evolution, under the Calendars button in the left hand navigation frame, highlight and right-mouse click the the name of the calendar you wish to export to google.
   2. From the pop-up menu, select "Save to Disk".
   3. Within the Save dialog window, select the "iCalendar format (.ics)" from the list of file types at the bottom of the window.
   4. Enter a name for your calendar export file. **Be sure to append the file extension (.ics). Evolution will not add it automatically.
   5. Select filesystem location easy for you to remember and click Save As.
2. Create and/or Select the Google Calendar to Receive Import
   1. In your Google Calendar account, if the calendar you wish to receive the import already exists, skip to the next numbered step. If you do not have a calendar to which you will import the new calendar file (see step 5), follow the appropriate links or help instructions on the Google Calendar site to create your receiving calendar.
   2. Click the "Manage Calendars" link at the bottom of the Calendars nav box in the left-hand navigation column.
   3. Click "Import Calendar" tab (link)under Calendar Settings.
   4. Click "Browse" button next to "Step 1: Select File" field and navigate to the calendar file you created in step 5.
   5. Use the select box in "Step 2: Choose Calendar" to select the Google calendar to which you will import the new file.
   6. Click "Import" button next to "Step 3: Complete Import". If successful, the page will refresh with a message saying "X events were imported into ______ Calendar". (not a direct transcription of actual message, but the gist of it nonetheless.)
3. Check Your Work
   1. If successful, go to the Calendars box in the left nav and make sure that check box next to the calendar name is checked.
   2. Click the calendar's name and navigate through the calendar to make sure the new "events" have been added. **I've noticed it can take a minute or two for new entries to update. Refreshing the page or switching your calendar view seems to refresh the page and reveal the newly added data.
4. Comments and Caveats
   • I noticed that the times in my entries shifted back 3 hours. I'm on EDT and the site is hosted in the Pacific timezone. Google's import code is probably adjusting the time displayed to the server's timezones. It's the same data, just assuing that you want to see it in California People Time - CPT ;-)
   • I haven't completely troubleshooted the transfers I've made so far, the items I have checked seem to have come over almost perfectly. There's some occasional wierdness in the formatting or character selection in the Comments section (e.g. a pair of TAB characters from Evolution were converted to lowercase letter "t" on import). Not sure if it's the Evolution export or the Google import that catches the blame for that one.
   • Several events on my exported calendar were recurring (repeating over a given date range daily or weekly). I'm happy to note that they carried over into Google as recurring events. In which case you are able to update or delete one and Google will ask if you wish to do the same for the repeats.
   • Finally, so far so good as far as all fields and event properties (e.g. location, show time as, privacy level...) appear to have carried over from Evolution to Google (individual and repeat events alike).
5. Additional Testing and Follow-Up
   • Haven't tested this yet, but would really like to know what happens when you update your Evolution calendar, create a new export file, and import the newer file to Google. Does Google prevent double entries for the same event? Will it prompt you to overwrite (or not) the existing event with the event info from the latest copy?
   • I have successfully made changes (e.g. correcting the event times) in the imported events. However, I have not tested uploading an updated event from Evolution to Google. Will Google do a "diff" between the data file and the data on their site? If so, will it choose the authoritative version automatically (which one)? Will it prompt you to choose? Will they give you an option to merge the data from both where possible?
   • Finally, (as if you couldn't tell before) this is a workaround. Despite looking clunky and laborious in all its steps, I was surprised at how relatively quick, easy, and painfree the effort was. (For example: I still haven't managed to sync my WinCE smartphone to Evolution. <Wince!> indeed!).
     That said, the standard protocols and an API for Google Calendar already exist, putting the pieces in place for an update for Evolution popping up in our respective package managers in days, if not weeks. Should I be predicting wrong, then I challenge all the sharp hackers out there to turn away from Unreal Tournament and WoW for 10 minutes and bring your prodidgious grey-matter to bear on what would seem such an academic exercise in coding. Imagine, fifteen minutes of lightwork, and the love, admiration, cell numbers, IMs, MySpace pages... of the world will be yours. Think about it!

As always, Peace & Blessings.
(Now more than ever!)

Little Duck, Huge Flavor

Little Duck, Huge Flavor

Review of: Little Duck Thai Restaurant

By: Alozie Nwosu

Rating: 4

Read review on Judy's Book.

If you're sick of Applebees and Boston Market for dinner, try out Thai Little Duck over on Granite Ave. Small and inobtrusive almost to the point of being invisible, this tiny humble establishment hides a formidable menu of tasty healthy delights to any and every palate.

If this would be your first adventure into the land of Thai cooking, then their Pad Thai is a great introductory dish (unless you have a peanut or seafood allergy). If your feeling particularly adventurous, give their spicy Tom Yum Noodles a try. Available as a soup as well as "dry" (without broth). Both styles are out of site. The running favorite for all to whom I've recomended Thai Little Duck is the Basil Fried Rice.

Many veggie dishes to choose from that are more than satisfying to a voracious carnivore like myself. Large portions for short money. The value can't be beat. You can get it take out or have it delivered if you live nearby. Go on in though. Even though it's small, the friendly faces serving and cooking are as satisfying as the delicious meals they provide.

On days that I get out of work late and don't feel like cooking, I bypass Wendy's, keep heading down Newport all the way down to "The Duck". Eat in, take home, or delivered: anyway you choose to get it, do yourself a favor and grab a Little Duck.

Judging a Film by Its Book Cover

I wonder if studios know how tough they make it for themselves when their reps give you a survey before you walk into a theater. As soon as I get one of those creamy, would-be soothing sheets, my senses go on alert. My skin draws into goosebumps. The hair on the my nape goes on end. It asks me my sex. A woman yammering behind me distracts me for a second and I check female (MISTAKENLY). It asks me my age. Range. Ever since I was 3 I've been thinking of my age as a precise crisp number, not a range! What's with the trick questions!?! Race. Of course. Hollywood bastards. That way they know which opinions to put in the throwaway pile. Well at least they put "Black/African-descent", and not "African-American" like some stupid forms.

[Imagine the indignity of a Nigerian or Kenyan, just visiting the country and deciding he wanted to check out a movie, only to have a form shoved in his face that tells him he's "African-American." Who pulled the switch on my passport? Or think of the Brit or Italian national for that matter (yes, there are Black Europeans! Even a few whose forebears went there voluntarily!!)? Or how's this for mindbending: you're an Indian from Uganda. What do you say then? Huh? Or how pray tell should Theresa Heinz-Kerry answer on such a form? Didin't think of that one now, did ya??? Silly surveys, trix are for kids.]

But even this little entreaty cannot thwart the coming of my hypercritical self. Like some angry green giant of a movie critic lurking in my subconscious. Mild mannered Bruce Banner that I am would normally be amused momentarily with ridiculously huge mustard yellow polarized glasses. Even the stubby little pencil that comes with the form hearkens back to simpler days when there was nothing one couldn't do with a pencil. No stray mark was indelible. No mistake permanent. Alas, such bliss was only momentary. A palliative, soothing the conscious self to relinquish its hold as monster beneath secured glasses to their perch whilst thumbing the top of his ballpoint like some terrible inky detonator. This friends, was my tenuous grip on reality as I sat down to see the long awaited "V for Vendetta".

For me, two books-made-film have been the standard bearers for said genre: "Lord of the Flies" (the original black and white version), and "Fahrenheit 451". One could argue "Grapes of Wrath" or "The Godfather", and I know the Frodo for President crowd is out there gnashing its teeth in anticipation of locking down on my throat, lithe and tender like a goose. Sorry, Charlie. Get in line behind the "Bridges of Madison County" fans. This is my inch, and I ain't givin' it. Okay. One exception. "High Fidelity". But only 'cause it's John Cusack.

Needless to say, this raises the bar damn high. And 9 times out of 10, even the best (adapted) movies, are mediocre in comparison to the novel. Perhaps even more so with a graphic novel, because unlike a text novel where one must completely imagine settings, and faces, and actions, a graphic novel lays all these out with precision that defies the sharpest camera lenses. Hell, why even make a graphic novel into a movie? Good question.

Well, having eagerly anticipated and now seen "V for Vendetta", I can say why the adaptation is worth the effort.

1) Living parable. Science fiction stories are our modern-day parables. It draws together magic and wonder to warn us of our very mundane human frailties. The story of V is about creating freedom in a society that out of fear has forsaken it in deference to "security". And this was written in the 80's??? Taken as is, the story in its original form is as timely as ever. Well worth a (re)read, even after seeing the movie. However, there is something quite jarring when one sees news footage of the day, OUR day, cut into this fictional cautionary tale. And such a skillfully executed update infuses the parable with new lifeblood. Making a powerful message even more potent by connecting to the accepted and turning it on its head.

2) Flesh, blood, and tears. I don't go in much for movies with a lot of crying. I'll admit it. It scares me. I don't like to cry, and I find the weepy tearjerkers totally manipulative, and I leave them feeling violated. That being said, the most powerful scene in the movie and graphic novel involves Evey Hammond (played by Natalie Portman, "the actress that defines our age" said one WAY too enthusiastic moviegoer walking out behind me when the movie ended) reading a letter she finds in her cell and sobbing and kissing it when she finishes it. These were tears of tremendous sadness and an eternity of pain, but also of defiant and unconquerable love. Her tears are painful, wrenching, triumphant, and joyful. And to have such a scene played by a tremendous actress like Portman (yes, MagnoliaFan walking out behind me was right, but he should have come to that conclusion after seeing "The Professional", as any TRUE Portman fan would have...hah!) is like having a chiropractic adjustment administered to your heart. A visceral moment on paper given bone, flesh, and tears on an IMAX screen no less. My eyes mist and my heart swells simply thinking about it.

3) The Boom Bip. A dark mysterious figure emerges from the shadows. In an elegant frenzy of motion the villain and his henchmen lay thwarted in broken messy piles. We all derive a satisfaction from seeing the truly wicked get their comeuppance. Better still when this vengeance is served in digital surround sound stereo. The snapping of long bones, the swift cuts of the blade, the resonant thud of boot heel to sternum, a triumphant symphony of justice being dealt. One can always imagine using the freeze-frame images a graphic novel provides. But the wonder and magic of the samurai is in that split second pause between his killing stroke and his victims collapse where you can study his face transformed by anger, fear, determination, and possible death. Swiftness of motion, or the illusion thereof, and the power and fury of the bone-crunching deathblow are what make any action comic fan yearn for his favorite books to be made into films. Besides, what's an homage to Guy Fawkes without the thunderous, seat-rumbling, Parliament-leveling fireworks?

Final verdict. Go see it. Then I strongly recommend reading it. Both experiences will change the way you look at your surroundings, the way you breath the air around you, the way you share your life with others (or begin to if you haven't yet started). I have my gripes, of course, having read the book first. And having heard the author's (Alan Moore) own infamous misgivings about the production I didn't want to let Hollywood off too easy. But even in its shortcomings, the filmmakers succeeded where so many others have failed, and attempted and succeeded at things that neither directors, actors, artists, nor writers have dared try. And it's about fucking time.

Star Wars III - The Phantom dilemma...

...or how I learned to stop worrying and love George Lucas again...or not.
I can't decide whether or not to go see Star Wars III. I'll say this. When I saw Episode I, I was caught between crying, vomiting, and burning down the theatre. Three words. You guessed it. Jar-Jar Binx.

I know very few Black people who didn't writhing in anguish every time Jar-Jar appeared on screen, much less opened his mouth. You may count me among the writhing. I was also immediately struck by how the trade council sounded like an Asian stereotype, and how Anikan's slave master seemed like a horrible Arab or Jewish caricature.

I know, I know. It's just a movie, and a fantasy movie at that. In fact it's a fantasy movie set completely outside the context of America, Earth, and all the stupid prejudices, bigotry, and deep history of insults and injustices that have shaped American history in particular, and world history overall.

Believe me. All the physical writhing I did in my chair at the theatre was nothing compared to the mental and emotional writhing in my head as I reminded my bruised and battered psyche that it's a movie, it's fantasy, it's fun for kids. In The Matrix, Cypher had a point. "Ignorance is bliss."

Too bad I'm not ignorant. What's more, I don't think Lucas can rightly claim ignorance either. The fact that the best defense he's mustered for himself is that the flim is a fantasy totally outside Earth's context only tells me that if the story were placed within Earthly confines, people like me (and a lot more folks like him than he probably thinks) would then have every right to be offended. To add insult to injury, he angrily blamed critics and "the media" - which I suppose would include the humble blog - for getting all us good colored folks worked up over nothing is a patent insult in and of itself. I guess to Mr. Lucas, we are all just sheep with no agency of our own. Critics, he explains are not doers or makers, simply destroyers. So I guess it's the dumb leading the stupid.

Thanks, I feel a lot better now.

Lucas isn't the first to hurt me so, and he won't be the last. In fact it's largely because of the slings and arrows my heritage and therefore my ego have suffered at the hands of Hollywood that I'm determined to become a screenwriter. So artist to artist, and audience to artist, know that I have forgiveness in my heart, and forgiven so many before you.

With that, I most likely will go see Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, in the theatre. It actually looks like it will be a decent story this time 'round, finally worthy of the name Star Wars. Good art can sometimes transcend one's personal failings. Hopefully this episode will be that start.

And even if it doesn't, know that there remains in me the 4-year old who was indelibly changed by a film at the time inexplicably subtitled Episode IV: A New Hope.