sprouts

In a measuring cup I've placed two of the potatoes from last year's crop. One had already started to sprout and that's the one I'm focusing on here.

Day 2 - Most of the growth was in the root.

Day 4 - You can see the shoot has grown a bit, but only because there's a picture.

Day 6 - Now it's starting to show off.

Today is the beginning of day 8. The shoot has grown even more in the last day and a half. The other potato has started to put off root but not where I expected. The one in the pictures I'll probably put in dirt in another week.

Book Review: There Was an Old Woman

This is the third Nursery Crime novel. I haven't read the other two. I expected mother goose characters, but that's another series of mysteries. This is a real world based story with inspiration from the rhyme "There was an old woman who lived in a shoe." This kinda takes all the fun out of figuring out who dunnit. It tells you right in the title of the book. Might as well write a book called 'The Butler Did It".

A young woman goes off for another year of college at an all girls college. The third girl has just disappeared in 7 years or so and everyone is all worked up. I'm rather wondering why since most places would offer up fatted calves for sacrifice to get numbers that low. Anyway, the girl goes off to college against her mother's wishes.
Our main character and her roommate both knew the missing girl and start a group to hunt her down. In their search they keep getting themselves in danger.

I should mention that there's a second killer besides the old woman in the shoe, but I'm not saying who.

It's a decent book if you're into mysteries. I'm not but I read the whole thing so it can't be too bad. Anyone want it? Not really the sort of book that fits in my collection.

Book Review: Un Lon Dun

I just finished reading "Un Lon Dun" by China Mieville. China has won several awards for his adult science-fiction-fantasy works. But I'd never heard of him until My Krodie took me to his book reading a few weeks back. I picked up this, his latest, and one of his older books that sounded interesting. I've read a few chapters in the other one and all of this one. China's usual work is much tougher to read. It's adult fiction and you should be prepared to work a bit for his usual stuff. However, this being designed for young adults he wrote accordingly. This book is on par with one of the later Harry Potter books for reading level and subject matter. It's a darker Alice in Wonderland. My Krodie's daughter got scared at the reading.

China Miéville speaking at Politics and Prose. My Krodie photographer.

It starts like your typical fantasy book. The magical fairy tale land is in danger and only the chosen one can save it. However, our heroes get sent back home early in the story and the chosen one loses all memory of the magical fairy tale land. Her friend, however, finds out something that the people in UnLondon need to know and has to go back. The prophecy is wrong and they still have to stop the threat, but now they're completely off script.

Great book.

p.s. I feel I should mention that the book includes a lot of sketches done by the author that help you picture what some of the strange creatures and objects look like. I'm stealing this for my book.

Movie Review: The Last Mimzy

"The Last Mimzy" is "E.T." retold but with a message.
Two kids find an artifact in the ocean that turns out to be filled with, among other things, a stuffed bunny. The bunny talks to the sister while a piece of electric glass seems to be rewiring the brother to make him smarter. They hide the goods from the adults since adults never understand. People start to notice a change in the kids. Then the government shows up and really screws things up. There's an escape, they take the alien goodies into the wilderness, and send the bunny back home.

Since most storylines have been done before what's important is how they're told. One version of "Lord of the Rings" is an abomination before the gods while another version is praised by everyone but those who can't watch 3 hour movies. Same story, different storyteller. Similarly, this movie is not only similar to "E.T" but the storytelling is on that same level - if a little less scary.

It was a great movie and you should see it, but I don't know if I need to see it again enough to buy it.

Movie Review: TMNT

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - comic book turned cartoon turned movie. It's been 14 years since the last movie and we were well rid of them. But having been given a rest there was time to come up with a decent script.

Like Superman Returns (Superman V or Superman III depending on if you acknowledge Reeve's last two stinkers) this movie acknowledges much of the time that has passed. Their default nemesis, The Shredder, is still dead. His Foot Clan struggles along without a leader or direction. The turtle's are similarly leaderless with Leonardo off in the wilds of South America for training and protecting the villagers from militants. The other turtles are working tech support, kids parties, or off on their own one man vigilante squad.
Enter Patrick Stewart. Yeah, that's right. Suddenly the kiddie movie has some clout.
Captain Picard is a 3,000 year old military commander whose strangely Asian looking armor was on the verge of conquering South America and then the world until his plan to bring a transdimensional army into this world backfired. He was made immortal, his generals turned to stone, and thirteen demons scattered into the world.
Now the stars are about to align just so again to reopen the dimensional rift. Stewart has become the head of an economic instead of military empire. He recruits the Foot Clan and reanimates four of his generals to round up the demons so he can banish them from this world and lift the curse of immortality from himself.

Also involved are April O'Neill, former reporter now artifact hunter, and her beau Casey, human vigilante.

It's really a good story that can probably be appreciated more by us 30-something kids who watched the cartoon than our own offspring. Then again, there was someone my own age behind me whose kid was explaining the backstory to him.
Seriously, I was impressed with how good a job they did on this movie. I'll probably get it on DVD and I'm not a huge Ninja Turtle fan.

Gardening

When I went to get the mortar from HomeDespot I also picked up a couple of blackberry plantings. One I just stuck in one of my huge pots. The other I'm going to wait a few more weeks and plant in the ground along a fence.

My potato barrel (Instructions) has been left open to air out a bit. The potato crop from last summer has started to sprout so I put it in water to allow it to grow a bit more before they go in the barrel.

Last year's crop

Last year's seed potato.

I also got a package of watermelon seeds that require much less space than typical. I churned up some soil and planted them. Two groups in the ground and one in a pot. I may have to replant later.
This is the first year I've used the ground for gardening. I much prefer pots. I think I'm going to need to do a run to the hardware store for more pots.

Another pot is prepared for green beans, but I'm going to wait another month on those.

My prickly pear is doing well. Last summer's experiments in prickly pear cooking went poorly so I'm cutting back the crop to just the one plant and breaking off some of the growth that seems to want to drop off. This is a very hardy variety that looks good all winter long. If you want some just let me know. Otherwise I leave them on the cement to bake.
More on that at http://dougintology.blogspot.com/2006/07/camper-awakens.html

I also started tearing up more grass to allow the succulents in my front yard to spread. When I finally setup a green roof I'll be wanting to use this succulent ground cover as clippings. By then I should have enough to let it cover the roof in one summer and keep the yard looking decent. The hen and chicks I got from Grandma's yard get to go on the roof, too.

Game Review: Rayman-Raving Rabbits

Rayman has had several other games that I've never played. I kept looking at this one on the shelves and taking note, but passing it by. But it got good comments by some of the online cartoons that I read. I trust these guys more than people who get paid to review games.

I'm guessing that the mini-games inside the Rayman games must have been the most popular features. All this is is a bunch of mini games. There are a bunch of two button Dance Dance Revolution type games. A couple of the repeat the pattern games much like Simon when I was a kid. Lots of games where you're locked on a path and have to shoot as you go through. There's racing games and milking games and whack-a-mole games and all sorts of stuff. It's like they took all the online games you got sick of after 3 plays and put them in a single package so that when you get bored with one they give you another. This game is about packaging. Packaging and the ability to press buttons really fast.

There are a lot worse games that I could have bought, and have in the past. If you're looking for something to buy for your kids that isn't bloody or violent this is a good one. It's for when your kids move past the Lego Star Wars games.

Two and a half months later...

Dad is a farmer. Ok, he's a pipe fitter who farms on the side. But during the cold months he needs something else to do so he makes stained glass windows.
For Christmas of 2005 I asked him to make some house numbers for me. He made this lovely window but since I was still using airplanes for transport he had to mail it to me. Even so, it showed up cracked. Then some stupidity on my part left it where a gust of wind could knock it down and do additional breakings.
So for Christmas of 2006 he made me a replacement for the main body of the window. I'd driven back to Kansas so I had a vehicle to move it back with. Yesterday was warm enough AND I was thinking about it so I scraped the old numbers off the glass and put Dad's numbers up in it's place. You can see it below.

Bill Plympton

National Geographic Live had animator Bill Plympton showing off his environmental work last night. Tickets were $18 but My Krodie's wife got us discounted tickets for $5. Good thing, too. It wasn't an $18 show by any stretch of the imagination. It was good, but not $18 good.

You've seen Bill Plympton's work before even if you don't know the name. Here's one of his more popular clips. Fragments were shown on MTV for years in anti-smoking campaigns.

25 Ways to Quit Smoking


Help justify people posting illegal copies of his cartoons online by purchasing his overpriced stuff at http://www.plymptoons.com/merchandise/newmerch.html.

DC Environmental Film Fest

Thursday marked the beginning of the DC Environmental Film Fest.

Saturday night I went to the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop to see the 1939 production of "Stanley and Livingstone" as in "Doctor Livingstone, I presume." It's the story of how newspaper reporter Henry Stanley went searching Africa for David Livingstone, long thought either dead or lost. Dr. Livingstone had settled in a village and was working as doctor, missionary, and explorer/cartographer. After spending some time there Stanley went back to tell his story and submit Livingstone's maps of the previously unexplored areas. At first nobody believed Stanley until Livingstone died and his last letter mentioned Stanley. I'm told that the end of the movie, where Stanley goes back to continue Livingstone's work, never happened.

Sunday I went to the National Museum of Natural History to see some of the best films from some film fest out west. Only the first three interested me.
"A Life Among Whales" was basically the biography of some marine biologist who is best known for his work with whales. It was also a history of whaling and the impact of whaling on the food chain.
"The Queen of Trees" is a documentary about the African fig tree and all of the life that depends on that tree. It focuses primarily on an itty bitty wasp that fertilizes the tree but it also talks about the parasites that feed on the wasps, the birds that live in the tree, the monkeys and deer that feed on the fruit, the insects that drink the syrup, the bees that feed on what the other insect spill, the butterflys that drink the fermented fruit juice, the fish, the crocodiles, giraffes, elephants, etc. etc. etc.
Then there was "The Craftsman (Mujaan)" about people in Mongolia and one guy in particular who is building a house using only a saw, a drill, and an axe. It starts with him buying the axe in exchange for a sheep. He cuts down trees and builds a cart. He uses the cart to haul materials to where he builds the house. Then he breaks down the house, loads it on the cart, and takes it to the guy who commissioned it. It's cool, but I don't see how they can stay even remotely warm in that house.

Tonight I'm going to watch cartoons at the National Geographic.

Check out the listings to see what else is showing in the next week.

May 7th

I'm just copying off of other bloggers here. If you go to Wikipedia and enter a date it lists all the significant things that happen on that day in history. Most people use their birthday.

Here's mine.

Events

* 558 - In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapses. Justinian I immediately orders the dome rebuilt.
* 1274 - In France, the Second Council of Lyons opens to regulate the election of the Pope.
* 1429 - Joan of Arc ends the Siege of Orléans, pulling an arrow from her own shoulder and returning wounded to lead the final charge. The victory marks a turning point in the Hundred Years' War.
* 1697 - Stockholm's royal castle (dating back to medieval times) is destroyed in a huge fire (in the 18th century, it is replaced with the current Royal Palace).
* 1763 - Indian Wars: Pontiac's Rebellion begins - Chief Pontiac begins the "Conspiracy of Pontiac" by attacking British forces at Fort Detroit.
* 1824 - World premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Vienna, Austria. Work was conducted by Michael Umlauf, under the deaf composer's supervision.
* 1832 - Greece is recognised independent by the Treaty of London. Otto of Wittelsbach, Prince of Bavaria is chosen King.
* 1836 - The settlement of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico is elevated to the royal status of villa by the government of Spain.
* 1840 - The Great Natchez Tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi, killing 317 people. It is the second deadliest tornado in U.S. history.
* 1847 - In Philadelphia, the American Medical Association (AMA) is founded.
* 1864 - American Civil War: The Army of the Potomac, under General Ulysses S. Grant, breaks off from the Battle of the Wilderness and moves southwards.
* 1895 - In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention - the first in the world radio receiver. In the former Soviet Union this day is celebrated as Day of Radio.
* 1915 - World War I: a German submarine U-20 sinks the RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198 people, including 128 Americans. Public reaction to the sinking turned many formerly pro-Germans in the United States of America against the German Empire.
* 1920 - Kiev Offensive (1920): Polish troops led by Józef Piłsudski and Edward Rydz-Śmigły and assisted by a symbolic Ukrainian force captured Kiev only to be driven out by the Red Army counter-offensive a month later.
* 1920 - Treaty of Moscow (1920): Soviet Russia recognizes independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia only to invade the country six months later.
* 1927 - Angelos Sikelianos organizes the first Delphic Festival in Delphi to celebrate the ancient Greek Delphic ideal.
* 1937 - Spanish Civil War: The German Condor Legion, equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes, arrive in Spain to assist Franco's forces.
* 1945 - World War II: General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war. The document will take effect the next day.
* 1946 - Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with about 20 employees.
* 1947 - Kraft Television Theater debuts, running for the next 11 years.
* 1948 - The Council of Europe is founded during the Hague Congress.
* 1952 - The concept for the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey W.A. Dummer.
* 1954 - Indochina War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat (the battle began on March 13).
* 1960 - Cold War: U-2 Crisis - Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that his nation is holding American U-2 pilot Gary Powers.
* 1964 - Pacific Air Lines Flight 773, a Fairchild F-27 airliner, crashes near San Ramon, California, killing all 44 aboard; the FBI later reports that a cockpit recorder tape indicates that the pilot and co-pilot had been shot by a suicidal passenger.
* 1974 - West German Chancellor Willy Brandt resigns.
* 1992 - Michigan ratifies a 203-year-old proposed amendment to the United States Constitution making the 27th Amendment law. This amendment bars the U.S. Congress from giving itself a mid-term pay raise.
* 1992 - Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on its maiden voyage (STS-49).
* 1992 - Three employees at a McDonald's Restaurant in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, are brutally murdered and a fourth permanently disabled after a botched robbery. It is the first fast-food murder in Canada.
* 1998 - Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for US$40 billion and forms DaimlerChrysler in the largest industrial merger in history.
* 1999 - Pope John Paul II travels to Romania becoming the first pope that had visited a predominantly Eastern Orthodox country since the Great Schism in 1054.
* 1999 - A jury finds The Jenny Jones Show and Warner Bros. liable in the shooting death of Scott Amedure, after the show purposely deceived Jonathan Schmitz to appear on a secret same-sex crush episode. Schmitz later killed Amedure and the jury awarded Amedure's family US$25 million.
* 1999 - Kosovo War: In Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, three Chinese embassy workers are killed and 20 wounded when a NATO aircraft mistakenly bombs the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
* 1999 - In Guinea-Bissau, President João Bernardo Vieira is ousted in a military coup.
* 2002 - A China Southern Airlines MD-82 plunges into the Yellow Sea, killing 112 people.
* 2005 - Former Lebanese Prime Minister, General Michel Aoun returns to Lebanon after 15 years in exile.
* 2006 - Rolling Stone magazine publishes its 1000th issue.
* 2006 - Arsenal play their last game at Highbury Stadium.

Births

* 1328 - Louis VI the Roman, Duke of Bavaria (d. 1365)
* 1530 - Louis I de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, French Huguenot general (d. 1569)
* 1643 - Stephanus Van Cortlandt, American politician (d. 1700)
* 1700 - Gerard van Swieten, Dutch-born physician (d. 1772)
* 1724 - Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser, Austrian general (d. 1797)
* 1740 - Nikolai Arkharov, Russian general (d. 1814)
* 1748 - Olympe de Gouges, playwright and feminist revolutionary (d. 1793)
* 1763 - Józef Antoni Poniatowski, Polish prince (d. 1813)
* 1774 - William Bainbridge, American Commodore
* 1812 - Robert Browning, English poet (d. 1889)
* 1833 - Johannes Brahms, German composer (d. 1897)
* 1840 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer (d. 1893)
* 1847 - Archibald Primrose, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1929)
* 1857 - William A. MacCorkle, American politician (d. 1930)
* 1861 - Rabindranath Tagore, Indian writer, Nobel laureate (d. 1941)
* 1867 - Władysław Reymont, Polish writer, Nobel laureate (d. 1925)
* 1882 - Willem Elsschot, Flemish writer (d. 1960)
* 1885 - George 'Gabby' Hayes, American actor (d. 1969)
* 1891 - Harry McShane, Scottish socialist (d. 1988)
* 1892 - Archibald MacLeish, American Librarian of Congress (d. 1982)
* 1892 - Josip Broz Tito, President of Yugoslavia (d. 1980)
* 1896 - Pavel Sergeevich Alexandrov, Russian mathematician (d. 1982)
* 1901 - Gary Cooper, American actor (d. 1961)
* 1909 - Edwin H. Land, American inventor (d. 1991)
* 1911 - Ishiro Honda, Japanese film director (d. 1993)
* 1916 - Huw Wheldon, British broadcaster (d. 1986)
* 1919 - Eva Peron, Argentinian first lady (d. 1952)
* 1922 - Darren McGavin, American actor (d. 2006)
* 1923 - Anne Baxter, American actress (d. 1985)
* 1924 - Albert Band, American film director (d. 2002)
* 1927 - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, German screenwriter
* 1929 - Babe Parilli, American football player
* 1930 - Totie Fields, American comedienne (d. 1978)
* 1931 - Teresa Brewer, American singer
* 1933 - Johnny Unitas, American football player (d. 2002)
* 1933 - Nexhmije Pagarusha, Albanian singer
* 1935 - Isobel Warren, Canadian author
* 1939 - Sidney Altman, Canadian molecular biologist, Nobel laureate
* 1939 - Ruud Lubbers, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
* 1939 - Jimmy Ruffin, American singer
* 1939 - Ruggero Deodato, Italian film director, actor and screen writer
* 1940 - Angela Carter, English novelist and journalist (d. 1992)
* 1943 - Harvey Andrews, English singer and songwriter
* 1945 - Christy Moore, Irish Folk Artist
* 1946 - Thelma Houston, American singer
* 1946 - Bill Kreutzmann, American drummer (Grateful Dead)
* 1950 - Randall 'Tex' Cobb, American boxer and actor
* 1950 - Tim Russert, American television host
* 1954 - Philippe Geluck, Belgian cartoonist
* 1954 - Amy Heckerling, American director
* 1955 - Ben Poquette, American basketball player
* 1955 - Tim Richmond, American race car driver.
* 1955 - Kevin Reed, American theologian
* 1956 - Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
* 1956 - Anne Dudley, British composer
* 1956 - Jean Lapierre, Canadian politician and television host
* 1957 - Ray Fernandez, wrestler (d. 2004)
* 1961 - Phil Campbell, British musician (Motörhead)
* 1965 - Owen Hart, Canadian professional wrestler (d. 1999)
* 1968 - Traci Lords, American actress
* 1969 - Eagle Eye Cherry, Swedish musician
* 1973 - Kristian Lundin, Swedish songwriter
* 1973 - Paolo Savoldelli, Italian cyclist
* 1974 - Breckin Meyer, American actor
* 1974 - Ian Pearce, English footballer
* 1975 - Jason Tunks, Canadian Olympic discus thrower
* 1975 - Nicole Sheridan, American porn star
* 1975 - Zee, American hip hop artist
* 1978 - Brian Clevinger, American author
* 1979 - Katie Douglas, American basketball player
* 1980 - Johan Kenkhuis, Dutch swimmer
* 1984 - Alex Smith, American football player
* 1987 - Asami Konno, Japanese singer (Morning Musume)
* 1987 - Dennis Mak, Chinese singer (Sun Boy'z)

Deaths

* 973 - Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 912)
* 1092 - Remigius de Fécamp, first bishop of Lincoln (b. unknown)
* 1427 - Thomas la Warr, 5th Baron De La Warr, English churchman
* 1523 - Franz von Sickingen, German soldier (b. 1481)
* 1539 - Guru Nanak Dev, Pakistani founder of Sikhism (b. 1469)
* 1539 - Ottaviano Petrucci, Italian printer (b. 1466)
* 1615 - Sanada Yukimura, Japanese samurai (b. 1567)
* 1617 - David Fabricius, German astronomer (b. 1564)
* 1667 - Johann Jakob Froberger, German composer (b. 1616)
* 1682 - Tsar Feodor III of Russia (b. 1661)
* 1718 - Mary of Modena, wife of James II of England (b. 1658)
* 1793 - Pietro Nardini, Italian composer (b. 1722)
* 1800 - Niccola Piccinni, Italian composer (b. 1728)
* 1805 - William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1737)
* 1825 - Antonio Salieri, Italian composer (b. 1750)
* 1840 - Caspar David Friedrich, German painter (b. 1774)
* 1868 - Henry Peter Brougham, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1778)
* 1896 - H. H. Holmes, American serial killer (b. 1861)
* 1922 - Max Wagenknecht, German composer (b. 1857)
* 1925 - William Hesketh Lever, First Viscount Leverhulme (b. 1851)
* 1940 - George Lansbury, Labour Party Leader (b. 1859)
* 1941 - Sir James George Frazer, Scottish anthropologist (b. 1854)
* 1942 - Felix Weingartner, Yugoslavian conductor (b. 1863)
* 1951 - Warner Baxter, American actor (b. 1889)
* 1998 - Allan McLeod Cormack, South African physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1924)
* 1998 - Eddie Rabbitt, American musician (b. 1941)
* 2000 - Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., American actor (b. 1909)
* 2002 - Seattle Slew, American Race-Horse (b. 1974)
* 2004 - Waldemar Milewicz, Polish reporter (b. 1956)
* 2005 - Tristan Egolf, American writer (b. 1971)
* 2005 - Otilino Tenorio, Ecuadorian football (soccer) player (b. 1980)
* 2006 - Richard Carleton, Australian news reporter (b.1943)
* 2006 - Lillian Gertrud Asplund, RMS Titanic survivor (b. 1907)
* 2006 - Joan C. Edwards, American philanthropist (b. 1918)
* 2006 - Machiko Soga, Japanese actress, singer, and tokusatsu legend (b. 1943)

Holidays and observances

* Russia - Radio Day (commemorating the work of Alexander Popov)
* Bulgaria - Radio and Television Day (see above)
* USA - National Masturbation Day (Declared by Good Vibrations (sex toy business)) Now in its 11th year - [1][2][3][4][5] commonly celebrated with Masturbate-a-thons

Liturgcal feasts

* Acacius of Byzantium
* Saint Domitian of Huy, the apostle of the Meuse valley
* Saint Flavia Domitilla
* Blessed Gisela (d. 1060)

archaologists find brick

I missed Pi day yesterday (3.14) but I didn't miss the Ides of March. Remember, kids, togas are great places to hide knives.

---

This is the wall in my computer room as of Tuesday night. I've started to expand into the chimney. The weather is warm enough to toss the debris out the second story door.

Movie Review: The Namesake

This is not a movie I would normally have gone to. There's no space ships, no explosions, no schemes or twists, none of what I usually go see a movie for. But there WERE free tickets and a girl whose schedule I'd been trying to get on.

"The Namesake" is based on the book by the same name. Yeah, I hadn't heard of the book either.
I got a different impression of the movie from the trailer than what was shown. From the trailer I expected the movie to start with a late teen, American born Indian (dot, not feather) who was moody and sullen, hated India and his name and wanted to change his name. Then the father would start some long flashback scene telling about why he gave his son that name. There'd be a Lifetime Channel moment and the son would embrace his name and say to hell with what the Americans thought.

What really happened was similar to that. The movie starts in 1974ish as the father is riding on a train and reading Nicholai Gogol. The train crashes and he moves to America and two years later he marries and Indian woman that his family hooked him up with. Yeah, it really moves about that fast. They have a kid and name him Gogol when the hospital tells them they can't take the kid home without a name. In India they might take years to give him a real name.
The kid starts school at the age of 4 and decides he prefers the name Gogol to the one that his family tried to change it to. But when going off to college he decides he needs a less weird name and changes it to Nicholai. He meets some Barbie doll and spends all his time with her and her family ignoring his own. This continues until his father dies and he starts to reconnect with his Indian heritage. We assume he's broken up with Barbie since she never appears again and he marries some Indian girl. Eventually the Indian girl cheats on him and they divorce. Thus endeth the movie.
They do explain why the father named his son Gogol. The son knew that Gogol was his dad's favorite author but when his father elaborates it still comes off as "I was reading that author when I was the sole survivor of a train wreck." I have to assume that in the book it makes more sense. Probably using the train wreck as a rebirth moment. It probably would have made more sense if he'd named the son after the guy on the train who kept telling him to travel and see the world.

It helps if you see the movie with a bunch of Indians (dot) like we did. Their reactions help punctuate a few scenes since they'll get cultural humor that might slip past American audiences.

It was nice to see Kal Penn in a serious movie role instead of "Van Wilder" or "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" level of films.

Good movie, but I'm not getting it on DVD. It's just not my thing.

p.s. While looking up the spelling of "Nicholai" I found that I have one of Nicholai Gogol's books on my to-read shelf. Some day I'll get around to reading "Dead Souls". With a title like that how could I not pick it up?

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

I've made enough progress on the office wall that I decided to use the nice weather on Sunday to go get some mortar. I was expecting a bag of Type S mortar to weigh 50 lbs or so. Turns out it weighs 80. If it were only 50lbs my cart might have survived. Yes, that's right. I took my puny wire grocery/laundry cart to go pick up mortar. If it had worked then I'd have no worries about how to go get the rest. As it is...

I set the bag in the cart and the bottom saged a bit. No problem. I might have to push it back into shape later, but so far it looks good. I push the cart to the checkout, pay, and head out across the parking lot toward the subway station.
By the time I reached the subway the bulge had continued to grow, the axle had bent, and the wheel on the right was leaning at an angle. Still, if I can make it home I can spend some time with a vice and plyers to put it all back. The next trip I'll be sure to put down some boards on the bottom to help distribute the weight. No worries.
As I transferred from one train to the next the wobble from the wonky wheel became pronounced. The cart wanted to wander back and forth. Wires are starting to pop loose from the back of the cart.
The elevator for the U street Metro is near 13th street while I normally exit near 10th street. It would add 3 blocks to my trip, but I'd really prefer to use the elevator. And I was already close to that end of the station so either way it's a couple of blocks that I'd rather not have to deal with. So up the elevators.
At this point the cart is looking really bad. It's leaning off to the right so that I'm trying to hold up that end of the basket with one hand while the other is on the handle moving it along.
As I walked along I can hear the plastic in the leaning wheel starting to crack. I slow down a bit and that seems to help. Still, I'm out pacing about half the pedestrians. What is so damn hard about putting one foot in front of another that I seem to be only one of maybe a dozen people in this city who can do it?
So, the African American Civil War Memorial, turn, cross street, past the chinese place, across the alley, CRACK! Two and a half blocks from home the wheel gives out completely. I break it off and see how far I can get on one wheel. The answer is three inches.
BUT! The front legs are still intact! So we continue up the street with a lean and a twist, a lean and a twist, a lean and a twist, a lean and a twist. Step by step we move up the sidewalk. Wires are dropping from the basket every few feet. And old woman watches as I diligently struggle on toward home. We talk for a bit and she shuffles on ahead. I continue this for another half block before giving up.
I take the lightweight stuff and hope that the rest is too heavy to steal before I get back. Leaving the two legged mass of twisted metal behind I head home for backup. I pass the old woman and give her an update.
Back home, I drop off the lightweight stuff, grab the Segway, and head back out. The old woman cheers as I tear off in my high speed electric dolly. A man on a bike is watching to see if I came back or if the mortar was his for the taking. I heft the bag out of the twisted metal sculpture that once was a grocery cart and set it in a foot hole on the Segway. I climb on and rest one knee on the bag. I resemble a pirate with a cement leg. I creep on home and unload.

I also got some blueberry plant cuttings. I think. Could be blackberry. I'm pretty sure I decided against the grapes. In a couple of weeks, when the frost risk has finally ended I plan to plant them along the fence between me and one of my neighbors.

Coming soon: "Mortar Follys" and "Gardening in a Postage Stamp".

Movie Review: The Host

"The Host" seems to give the "Shawn of the Dead" treatment to Japanese monster movies. It's just not as funny as "Shawn ..." was.

The movie opens in a US Army morgue in South Korea in 2000. The American doctor has his Korean assistant dump out several hundreds of bottles of formaldehyde (can you believe I spelled that right on the first try?) because the bottles were dusty. The assistant objects since the drain goes into the river, the chemicals are toxic, and there are regulations on the disposal of them, but his boss makes it an order.
Two years later some fishermen see something strange swimming in the river. It's still small enough to fit in a coffeecup.
Then in 2006 we meet a family that owns a food kiosk along the river. Grandpa owns it, his idiot son helps run it, his other son went to college but can't get a job, his daughter is a competitive archer, and his granddaughter (daughter of the idiot son) is still in school. A strange blob is hanging under a bridge and everyone is gathering around to watch it. It drops from the bridge and people stand around and throw things in the water for it to eat. Next thing you know this giant fish/lizard/mutant thing is running around eating people. Finally it takes the granddaughter and swims off. Everyone thinks she's dead until she calls them on her POS cellphone. The rest of the movie is spent from the perspective of the family as they try to track down and save the granddaughter while evading the military.

The humor is dark and often only the knowledge that this is a horror/comedy makes it funny.
The creature looks fantastic. Only when set on fire do the effects look like rubbish. Besides being a giant mutant creature it has several deformities that make it a proper toxic waste mutant instead of just a healthy undiscovered creature. One of it's eyes is surrounded with blisters and seems to have cataracts. It has what appear to be giant fish half embedded head first in it's torso at random places.

It is subtitled except when talking to Americans. That doesn't bother me, but I know some people hate that.

"The Host" is a great movie and I'll almost certainly get it on DVD.

KSR

My Krodie and I went to a book signing for Kim Stanley Robinson's latest book tuesday night. "Sixty Days and Counting" is the third and final book in his global warming trilogy. I said what the book is before (here) so I'll just write about the talk.
He does a decent Q&A session, but the reading itself wasn't anything thrilling. He's just not someone who should do his own audio book. Neil Gaiman is great. Gaiman's last novel is better when he reads it than when reading to yourself. But Kim just doesn't have it.
Sadly enough he refers to this trilogy as his comedy. Clearly he's using a definition of the word "comedy" that I wasn't previously familiar with.

I am looking forward to fighting my way through this book. And you do have to fight the book in much the same way you have to fight the "Lord of the Rings" books. All of his books shift from interesting to drudgery until the last 100 pages or so. Which sections are interesting and which are drudgery vary with the person. He's very thorough with his subject. He's pretty much killed Mars terraforming books for several decades with his Mars Trilogy. There's just nothing else to write about. But those books really drug until the last 100 pages or so.

Movie Review: The Number 23

I planned to post a picture of my wall excavation after one day, but the memory card seems to be having issues. So instead you get a movie review.

---

4 8 15 16 23 42
If you've been watching Lost you know these numbers may come to mean something in another three and half seasons. 23 can be explained in about two hours.

This movie exploits what's known at the 23 Enigma.
From Wikipedia: As a number with which to associate things, 23 has several helpful properties. It is a prime number, and therefore more likely to be associated with coincidences because events associated with composite numbers would be divided by a factor to arrive at it or some other prime. In addition, it enjoys the boon of having the two lowest primes as digits; 2 and 3 are small and therefore can be included in complex calculations that arrive at numbers only remotely related, which can then become coincidental with significant events. Two and three are also the most frequent factors (excluding 1) of a given range of whole numbers. 23 less the numeric base is 13, which has many phobias attached to it.

The movie quotes several occurances of the number 23, some of which take quite a bit of math and a leap of imagination to get to. The more obvious include the Earth's tilt at 23.5 degrees (the .5 being 2+3), 23 chromosomes from each human parent, 23 something somethings in Euclid's geometry. There's also a ton of dates and numerology.

The story is that Jim Carrey gets a book where the main character is remarkably similar to him and is haunted by the number 23. It slowly drives him to murder and suicide. As the book progresses Jim Carrey's obsession with the number 23 grows, too. He reads the clues in the book to find the body of some girl murdered when she was 23 and the man in jail for her murder who Carrey thinks wrote the book.
The story is a quest for the author of the book and the secret of the number before the number drives him to madness and murder.

It's not a great movie, it's not a bad movie. The manner they use to get to some of those numbers is more interesting than the movie itself.

Movie Review: The Last King of Scotland

When I first heard about this I had no idea what it was about. Then I saw a review and wondered what Idi Amin had to do with Scotland. I was king of interested because I know so little about Idi Amin, but it was nominated for an Academy Award so that was a turn off. Only the lamest movies win even if a good on actually gets nominated. But I heard enough good reviews that I thought maybe the Academy might have made a mistake. Turns out it's a little from both piles.

This is the story of Idi Amin's personal doctor. A young man from Scotland goes to Uganda to be a village doctor and have a bit of adventure. Amin is taking over as he rides the bus to his village. He goes to see Amin on Amin's tour of Uganda as new President and skipping a few bits of ths story becomes Amin's doctor. He's mostly blind to what's going on in the country. Sure there's a few quirks to Amin but he's not that bad. But eventually he learns about people disappearing and mass slaughters and decides he wants out. There's more to the story, but that's what I wanted to know before going to see it.
Much like "Good Night and Good Luck" shouldn't be viewed as a lesson in McCarthyism this shouldn't be viewed as a lesson in Amin's rule.

Good movie but I don't need to see it again.
You know, I say that a lot. And it IS a good movie. Forest Whitaker does a great job conveying paranoia and a bi-polar personality. I want to know more about Idi Amin. I just want to see it again less than some other movies I say it about.

construction

I started throwing myself at home repairs a bit sooner than I thought I would. I've been keeping the upstairs pretty cold and try not to go up there. But now there's someone who may want to come over eventually. So I came home from work, grabbed the pry bar that Dad gave me for Christmas, and attacked the wall in what used to be my geek room.

Here's the report after one hour.
Starting from the inside of the wall and working out there's brick, a layer of cement, plaster, paint, paint, paint, paint, plaster, and paint. Everything above the cement comes off with some ease. The cement turns to powder with just a bit of encouragement.
I've cleared away about half of what's covering the cement. I planned to provide a picture but the battery is dead in my camera.
A few clumps came out where someone pushed putty between the bricks.
Getting the bricks clean should be no problem.

After two and a half hours.
Dust everywhere and in everything. I came down to let the dust settle from the air as much as anything. Great sections of wall cover just seem to drop off while others hang on for dear life. Still, most of that wall is clear. I can start in on the actual cement covering.
I brought the radio up after that first hour. Think I'll see about bringing home the VCR from the office tomorrow. For now I want to bring the antenna up so I can work during "Prison Break" and "Heroes".
Gandolf stopped chewing her feathers while I worked now that we're back down here she's chewing again. She's bored and doesn't know how to care for her feathers.

After five and a half hours.
It starts getting cold when you're not vigorously chipping away painted plaster. Cement removal is more like archaeology. Slowly removing soft stone a bit at a time. It helps to dig trenches. Cut the huge wall of cement into smaller islands. How well those come away from the wall varies wildly, but it's better than taking it away as dust. I've got a few square feet cleared. If I'd planned this better that wall could look like an artistic version of some blasted Middle East house.
They apparently mixed hair with the cement back then to help it hold together. Probably horse, but could be human. But no hair is a match for my pry bar.

The next morning.
EVERYTHING SMELLS LIKE DUST!

Light exhibit at the Hirshorn Museum

There was a really lousy writeup about this exhibit in the Smithsonian Magazine. But the picture was of this one piece that I saw in the basement of the Wichita art museum a long time ago.
Some of the pieces are old stuff repositioned, but there's some new stuff, too.
Early on there's a wheelbarrow made of flourescent lights.
There's a spotlight pointed at a slowly rotating prism ring that is worth a couple of minutes.
Then there's a dark room that's pretty lame.
There's an old piece that is a circle painted in a circular gradient so that the edges are the same color of the shadows it casts on the wall behind it. It's hard to tell when it ends and the wall begins. One of the first bits that I saw the first time I went there and one of my favorites.
Right after the one I first saw in Wichita was a film which can only be described as every 70's abstract special effects show set to something that is almost but not quite the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. It's the sort of thing they would show when the Enterprise went through a nebula, a baby was being born, someone got drawn into a black hole or alien monolith orbiting Saturn.
There's a room of videos of elephants walking around.
There's a sculpture of boards that are white from three visible angles, but brightly colored on the side facing the window so it casts colored light on the white surfaces.
Up on the thrid floor there's a half hour video of a really long... wossit. You know, when puching the bell wakes the dog that scares the cat that makes the mouse run on it's wheel to turn the gnereator to make the light come on to toast the bread that... you know what I'm talking about. Well it's half an hour long... with a few edits.
In the basement there's a couple of short films both based on nightmares the artist had.
There's some other stuff, but I really should have written this the day I went because I can't remember them now.

Cirrhosis, god of hangovers

I woke up this morning with no evidence remaining of last night's ill-advised drinking. I know why, too. Praise be to Cirrhosis, the god of hangovers. Oh, you wouldn't have heard of him before. He appears in a book that I'm almost done with.
For those of you who have been following the development of this book I did finally write those last 10 pages that have been hanging over me for the last year. I'll be doing a final review this weekend before I start looking for an agent.

Cirrhosis, god of hangovers

Most of the major polytheistic faiths have at least licentatious diety. That is to say a god of wine or other alcoholic beverages. And it’s commonly assumed that this god really knows how to party. This is wrong in all meaningful respects.
The so-called god of wine is, in fact, a god of hangovers named Cirrhosis. In much the same way Jesus took the sins of the world onto himself Cirrhosis takes the hangovers of the world onto himself. This makes him easily the most miserable god in recorded history. For every time that a mortal goes on a drinking binge and comes through bright eyed and clear the next morning the hangover god wakes up with his mouth feeling not unlike the floor of an army barber and his head like a blacksmith’s hammer.
An important question I’m sure many of you are asking is how anyone could mistake a god of hangovers for a god of wine. This is actually quite simple to explain. The remedy for a hangover is a bit of the dog that bit you. So the cure for someone who takes on the hangovers of several million people a night is large quantities of alcohol. He eases into the early afternoon with a few vodka martinis for breakfast and by happy hour he’s sampled most of the 1945 Napa Valley wine season.
Not being gifted with Promethius’ mythical organs, all this drinking leaves the hangover god with some health problems. Most notable of these ailments is the way he pulls his enlarged liver behind him in a wagon.
Understandably, holidays such as Mardi Gras and St. Patrick’s Day leave him feeling somewhat suicidal. While it is possible for a god to die Cirrhosis has far too many unwitting followers for this to happen. Cirrhosis holds the record for most number of temples built in his honor. Generally constructed entirely of porcelain, these temples each stand only about two feet tall with an oval water basin for making offerings while the worshiper kneels before this alter.

Kassy's Happy Hour

It's not really fair to call it Kassy's Happy Hour. She was one of four hosts. She's the only one I happen to read so I'm naming it for her. It's not one of the standard DC Blogger Happy Hours. Someone else puts those together. Anyway, I went. The last one I tried to go to ... well look in my archives.
Never had a Corona before tonight. I would have had something else, but when I finally found an opening in the bar it was too loud to talk and among the empty boxes near me was a Corona box. That and Bud Light. Since Bud Light tastes like proper beer passed through a horse three times I made the universal hand sign for one and then pointed at the Corona box. I wound up having four. This was three more than I intended since I was a pint short of blood. I'd been to the Red Cross mere hours before.

The bar was packed. I moved slowly into the main bar area and soon found someone who I'd never seen before. To make this clear, I'd never seen any of them before. But there was one particular person I'd never seen before. Miss KassyK. She's listed along the side if you care to see her blog. I got the afore mentioned Corona and found a place out of the flow of traffic. I tried talking to a few people with little to no success. Finally, part way through my second bottle I ran into a woman I'll just call Candy Sandwiches. I'm pretty sure that's her digital name. Lovely woman. Nice eyes, lovely smile, and she barely knew anyone there so she was willing to talk to me. We actually spent most of the evening chatting. I mean, with some repeats and some holes in understanding because it was so bloody loud.

In the morning I'll see if any of the contact information she gave me still makes any sense. I'll also reread this so see if this blog entry makes any sense.

I did get to meet Kassy properly at one point. Somewhere in my third bottle I headed for the restroom and met her going the other way. I introduced myself so I wouldn't be just that strange guy standing next to the juke box. At some point she asked me for my real name. Damned if I know why. I'm sure it made some sort of sense at the time.

Anyway, bedtime.

Solar Decathlon update

This is an update for the 17 August 2006 post Solar Decathlon

The Solar Decathlon is a competition between universities all over the world to build the best solar powered house. The houses are brought to Washington, DC and setup on the National Mall for nine days. They're opened for tours every day except Wednesday when they're sealed for judging.

It looks like the schools are just starting to get into the construction phase.

The University of Maryland has started a webcam so you can watch them work.
http://www.solarteam.org/page.php?id=442
Right now it's just 6 pillars in a lot.

Santa Clara University has an initial drawing of their house.

It's the standard mobile home shape with solar panels on the roof. And I'll bet you a Coke those wooden slats can slide over the glass doors.

Team Montreal has a video that I haven't seen yet.


Some university in Spain has a nice frame for the house.

Dunno what's inside yet. I'll have to take the Virtual Tour when I get home.
Having the solar panels separated from the roof like they do allows air to flow behind them and keep them cool and more efficient.

The University of Cincinnati has a drawing.


For the New York Institute of Technology has several pictures that are best viewed by going to http://iris.nyit.edu/solardecathlon2007/the_open_house_design.htm.

The Univerity of Texas at Austin has a nice Flash presentation.

Movie Review: The Abandoned

There was a horror film fest last year that I missed because I went to my parents' for Thanksgiving. "The Abandoned" was one of the favorites from that festival so it's getting it's own release.

It takes place in Russia and feels Russian, but the characters speak non-dubbed English most of the time so I'm not sure who made it. It FEELS Russian though. The story and the cinematography aren't something you see Americans doing.

This is also the only movie I've seen that uses doppelgangers as the spectre of choice. Doppelgangers are spirits that look like you. Normally I read about doppelgangers as warnings. The story that springs to mind is about a soldier in WWII leading his men down a road. He saw himself up the road waving at him and told his men to get back and get off the road. Some vehicles then passed them and were caught in an ambush.

In this story, however, the doppelgangers tell of an unavoidable future. They're both the Corsican Brothers and Cassandra rolled into one.

The story starts 40 years ago when a woman shows up at some Soviet house in some POS truck. When someone opens the door she's dead and her twins are in the seat next to her. Jump forward to now. A woman finds out that she has inherited some land in Russia. She goes to Russia and is driven to the land in what observant movie goers will notice as the same truck from 40 years ago. Spooky stuff starts happening almost immediately. Spooky stuff in the woods chases her into the spooky house where she meets a drowned version of herself walking the halls. Back out into the woods she chases the truck as it leaves and falls into the river.
She wakes up back in the house with the twin brother she never knew about. She spends much of the rest of the movie freaking out over little things and over absolutely nothing.
Together she and her brother explore the island that they were born on, find they can't escape, find out what happened to their family, and on midnight of their birthday the house rolls back to how it was 40 years ago and they relive the night their father flipped out.

All in all a good horror movie.

Movie Review: The Astronaut Farmer

"The Astronaut Farmer" would be Robert Heinlein's favorite movie. It's a story that isn't told often enough... in fact I've never read this story exactly. Similar stories, but they all end differently. More on that in a bit.

Billy Bob Thorton (it's hard to take anyone named Billy Bob seriously) plays Charles Farmer, a rancher who used to be on the track to the space program. When his father died he had to take time off to help the family deal with that. NASA figured the fact that he chose family over the program meant that he wasn't serious about being an astronaut and retired him.
Here it is, an unknown number of years later and he's built a rocket in his barn. He plans to do one orbit around the Earth and land in the pond in his back yard. When he goes to order the rocket fuel the government finally takes him seriously and comes to stop him.
The movie covers how he got the material, the problems he has with the bank having spent every extra dime and then some on the rocket, the lesson about never giving up your dreams, the government trying to stop him, and the issues with the neighbors who laugh much the way Noah's neighbors did as he built the Ark.

One variation I read was from one of the many old comics of the "Tales From the Crypt" genre in the 50's. In that one the farmer took his whole family in the rocket and from the inside it simulated a rocket launch with video screens showing the stars and planets. But in truth they never left the ground.

The one that I'm most reminded of is from the second of a Robert Heinlein two parter. The first story was "The Man Who Sold The Moon" and tells of Delos David Harriman who wanted so much to go to The Moon that he used his whole fortune to build a private space program. But in the end his business partners think it's too risky to allow him to go on the first rocket launch and keep him on Earth. He watches the launch and then gets back to business. It's kind of heartbreaking. It also has some interesting parallels with Sir Richard Branson and his drive to make space tourism a reality from Virgin Galactic's spaceport in New Mexico.
The second story, "Requiem", takes place many years after "The Man Who Sold The Moon". Harriman is now an old man who despite making it so trips to The Moon are commonplace has yet to be able to go himself. So he gets a couple of astronauts and together they secretly build a rocket in a barn. The secret only lasts so long and then everyone is trying to stop him. Relatives, business partners, the government, and his doctors. He's just too old and frail to make the trip. Still, they finally take off and make it to The Moon some distance from a spaceport. But the stress kills Harriman and he dies happy resting on a boulder on the surface of The Moon.
Both stories are heart wrenching tales in much the same way "The Astronaut Farmer" is.

It's a great date movie. I will definitely get this on DVD.

DARPA NASCAR

NASCAR is one of the most idiotic "sports" there are. It's about sitting in a fast moving oven that drives in circles very fast. It is primarily enjoyed by people who think evolution is yuppie yankee thinking. Interestingly enough these same people, who watch mostly to see someone die horribly, would have at one point been thrown to the lions in large arenas so that others could watch THEM die horribly.

Last night it occured to me what would make NASCAR worth watching. For the 2010 DARPA Challenge I want to see the robotic vehicles compete in a NASCAR race.

Let me backup and explain the DARPA Challenge for those of you who aren't quite as geeky.
DARPA is the research arm of the US military. They conduct lots of research and develop technology that is either flaky or cutting edge depending on whether or not it works. DARPA created the ARPANET which eventually grew into the internet.
In 2001 Congress gave them the task of making 1/3 of ground combat vehicles automated by 2015. To accomplish this DARPA created the DARPA Grand Challenge. It's a race over various terrain, various slopes, and track conditions.

In the 2004 race nobody completed the 142 mile track. In the 2005 race there were several cars that completed the 132 mile race and a few great ideas that didn't qualify for the final race, but with a bit of tweeking should make it in the 2007
race. I'm speaking specifically of a motorcycle that can stand on it's own. Given a few more years they should have pretty well got navigation of a winding road mastered and be ready to focus more on dealing with traffic. In 2006 there were a few instances of one car passing another, but nothing too serious.

In 2007 DARPA has made it the DARPA Urban Challenge. It'll be a 60 mile course that includes navigating traffic, obeying traffic laws, and merging with traffic.

By 2010 I want to see a high speed race on an established racetrack. Hopefully something more than one of the NASCAR loops. Something more like those tracks they reproduce for video games. This should provide a good number of smashups as well as helping to advance the technology.

Then by 2020 I want to see the TV show Robot Wars redone on the highway.


a vehicle being developed for the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge.

Book Review: Storm Front

So, a few weeks ago I went looking for the new Battlestar Galactica episode. I'm a bad person and have to download them. But I buy the DVDs when they come out. That redeems me, right? I wouldn't buy them if I hadn't downloaded them first.
My initial point was that on Saturday morning there wasn't a new episode. I had to investigate. Turned out Sci-Fi Channel had moved their good shows from Friday night to Sunday night. But on their main page they were showing the pilot of the show that was partnering with BSG now that the Doctor Who series 2 was over. This new show is "The Dresden Files". The pilot is available for free download at http://www.scifi.com/dresden/index.html. You'll need iTunes. You may remember me mentioning that Nicholas Cage is one of the Executive Producers.
The show is based on a series of books by the same name. I saw them on the shelf at Books-A-Million so I picked up the first one. Having seen a few episodes and read the book I'd have to say they're pretty close except for a few fine details that don't really matter. It's like the differences between Star Trek TV shows and Star Trek movies. It's just a few details in the sppearance. The book would be like a 2-3 part episode that tells a bigger story and drags you back next season.

Harry Dresden is a wizard. Not the only wizard, but he is the only one listed in the Yellow Pages. He doesn't do love potions, he doesn't do birthday parties, and he doesn't give lessons. What he does is some consultation with the cops, find lost objects, make wards, and banish some of the nastier supernatural beings. It's told like a private eye story. His point of view, constantly low on rent, beat on by the
occasional thug, and magic is discussed much like a PI might discuss his gun.
He has a being that lives in a skull covered in runes. In the books the skull talks, in the show it manifests but has no physical being. Then there's the White Council who has a one strike and your out philosophy on Harry. He'd killed his uncle, a dark wizard, in self-defense. Some members of the White Council want Harry put to death for that while others accept the self-defense story. As a whole they're ready to kill him if he slips up once. He also has a... not a truant officer... a ... wossit. You know, you're on parole so you have to ... parole officer of sorts. Alas, the parole officer is among those who want him dead for killing his uncle.

In Storm Front there's a dark wizard who has been dealing a drug that gives users the power of third sight. You see things you really don't want to. Wizards at least can control the sight. This new drug is cutting into the market for regular drugs and the local mob isn't happy. So the dark wizard is ripping out the hearts of people remotely to send a message to the mob and anyone he sees as a threat.
The police have asked Harry to help investigate the murders. The mob wants to handle this themselves so they're warning Harry off. The parole officer thinks Harry is responsible for the murders and is bringing in The White Council to charge him and execute him. Soon the police think Harry is responsible and are trying to arrest him. Some demon screws up a date by trying to kill him. And the dark wizard is gonna rip out Harry's heart in the next storm.
The stories have the feel of old detective stories. They're told from Harry's POV but without all that "The rain beat down on the dark city washing the filth from the gutters and keeping the garbage at home where it's dry." stuff.

I picked up the next several books in the series.

p.s. Besides myself I've seen 2 other people reading the series on the subway.

Movie Review: Bridge to Terabithia

This movie snuck up on me. I didn't see a single review or trailer for it until the week of it's release.

It's Alice in Wonderland but with a boy as Alice and a girl as the White Rabbit.
Jesse is a quiet boy. He has no friends, he lives on a farm on the brink of total financial collapse in a poor part of the country, and when his own shoes fall apart he has to wear the discards of his older sisters. The family is poor in the pocketbook and poor in imagination.
Then a new girl moves in up the street. Her parents are writers who neglect her when they're in the middle of a writing jag. She's a free spirit who dresses how she likes, behaves how she likes, and lets her imagination run wild.
Jesse/Alice spurns her early attempts to make friends, but slowly gets pulled into her world despite his father telling him to straighten up and be sensible. They make up the fantasy world of Terabithia which they retreat into every day after school.

You'll hear me and most reviewers focus on the fantasy world but it's really a smaller part of the movie than we make it out to be. It's also about these two friendless kids finding each other, struggling with other kids and their families, and just getting through life.

While this is certainly more kid appropriate than "Pan's Labyrinth" you run the very real risk of having to deal with sobbing children.

Good movie, but not DVD worthy.

Movie Review: Ghost Rider

Ghost Rider is a superhero for the heavy metal crowd. Leather, flame, bones, chains, motorcycles - he's something you'd expect to see on a Guns & Roses album cover.

I have a few Ghost Rider comics that I collected way back when he was partnering with Blade and a few other heroes who hunted supernatural baddies. The stories didn't really deal with his origins much so I can't compare the comic to the movie. I can tell you that the movie seemed to be written to appeal to the NASCAR and tractor pull watching audience. This doesn't detract from the movie any more than having James Bond playing poker instead of baccarat detracted from "Casino Royale".

Probably the greatest power that Ghost Rider has is his Penance Stare. Hard to draw and hard to film, the Penance Stare is a great concept. Batman can get you locked up, Superman can kick your ass, but Ghost Rider makes you feel all the pain and suffering you've caused. It's the ultimate eye for an eye punishment.

I liked most of the movie and the special effects to generate Ghost Rider were pretty good. But Ghost Rider got some of the lamest lines you've ever heard. He was just painful to listen to. However, he does mercifully little talking.

Nicolas Cage is a fanboy. At one point, nearly a decade ago, he was up for the role of Superman for a version of Superman 5 that never happened. More on that at the end of this blog.
Anyway, the point I was getting to is that Nick Cage likes comic books. He named his son KalEl after the Kryptonian name for Superman. He's the executive producer for "The Dresden Files" and I heard about some similarly geeky project that he's pushing that I've forgotten.
I mention all of this because there's a lot of belief in the fanboy community that big name celebrities can't play superheroes. They can become big names later, but they have to start with nobodies. Christopher Reeve was a nobody before he became Superman. Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill before Star Wars and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine are also good examples. Then there was the disaster that was Ben Affleck as Daredevil, Halle Berry as Catwoman, Jessica Alba in The Fantastic Four, and Eric Bana as The Hulk. They forget that Michael Keaton and Christian Bale were both great Batmen, Tobey Maguire as Spiderman, Ron Perlman as Hellboy, and Patrick Stewart was born to be Professor X. Really, it's why is that actor in that part? If it's because that actor is hot at the moment then you're asking for a disaster. If it's because that actor is right then it's fine. There's really no doubt that Tom Cruise shouldn't be allowed on the set of the Iron Man movie, let alone be playing the title role. Oops, they've changed it to Robert Downey Jr. now. Hmmm. I can see him as Tony Stark, but I'm not sure about Iron Man.
Again, I'm getting off topic. Nicolas Cage does just fine as Johnny Blaze. I think it's the comic book geek in him that made it work. Often with comic book movies the secret of whether is succeeds or fails is based on how big a fanboy the director is. With X-Men 1 & 2, Superman 5, Spiderman 1-3, and Lord of the Rings 1-3 you have a fanboy director. With X-Men 3, Superman 3 & 4, Daredevil, Catwoman, and a host of others the movie failed because you had a studio trying to squeeze the popular comic book genre for some more money and getting directors who just didn't get the story or the characters.

Anyway, Ghost Rider is a good but not great movie. Kinda like the Blade movies. Good, but I don't need to have it right on hand for repeated viewings. Most importantly it didn't suck. Glad I saw it but I probably won't get it on DVD unless they come out with sequels that are better.

And here's the promised script to Superman V. Written by Kevin Smith.
http://www.supermanhomepage.com/movies/movies.php?topic=kevin-smith-script

Here's the story of how it was ruined.

Al Franken

You may have heard that Al Franken formally announced he's running for United States Senate. You really want to watch the video he made to tell why he's running. It's the best description of why liberals are liberal and why it seems to us that 100% of neocons, 99.44% of Republicans, and most Democrats seem to be out to hurt people.



Also available for Quicktime, RealAudio, and Windows Media Player at http://www.alfranken.com/page/content/videoMessage

Another blow to superstition

I'm from Kansas. I didn't leave specifically because of the Kansas School Board's idiotic view on teaching evolution in schools, but the fact that there's enough people that agree to get them elected means they're too backward for me. Sure, they accept freedom of religion there. You can be any kind of Christian you want.

Even though the Pope himself believes in evolution the battle rages on in Topeka. And while the battle is far from over the forces for clear thinking have won another battle.

http://www.theregister.com/2007/02/15/id_booted_out/

In short, the school board voted to remove the requirement that science teachers have to say that the core ideas of evolution are controversial in scientific circles.

Bumpersticker #4 - Science: It's about how, not who.

Snow day

How to work from home:

First you sleep until about quarter til 11.
Next answer a few emails so people know you're up and doing stuff.
Pop out to Starbucks for some breakfast.
Feed bird.
Flop on the couch with keyboard and mouse and do whatever it is you do until seven that night.
Finally get around to drinking that coffee from this morning.
Watch TV.
Sit up and read until you fall asleep.

That's a proper day's work.

Movie Review: Hannibal Rising

Happy Valenteen.

I haven't seen the TV show "Dexter" yet but someone is supposed to be putting them on DVD for me. "Dexter", so I'm told, is about a serial killer who only kills other killers. It's also very popular.
"Hannibal Rising" has a similar theme.

Hannibal Lecter is an interesting character. In his first appearance on screen he managed to completely freak people out without ever leaving his one little room. It wasn't until his 4th movie when we actually saw him kill anyone. We see him do some killing in this movie, but it's almost all killing we can approve of. He's a likable mass murderer.

A lot of people didn't like the Star Wars prequils. Episodes I and II just didn't have the oomph of the classic movies. Ok, so Anakin was a bit too Wesley Crusher and Jar Jar needed to have horrible things happen to him and, ok, someone else needed to take Lucas's story and write the screenplay and someone else needed to direct. Look, will you let me get to my point? Even with someone else working on Episodes I & II people still would have said they sucked. Episodes III, IV, V, and VI were the action movies. The back story is slow and short on lightsabres, but it helps to explain how a little boy got twisted into Darth Vader. You have to watch I & II with that in mind. Similarly, you have to watch "Hannibal Rising" with the understanding that you're watching how a little boy is twisted into someone who eats people.

I'm not going to tell you the story but I do recommend the movie whether you've seen the others or not.

Also, pick up a copy of the book "Silence of the Lambs". Preferably a big hardcover book. Wait for the sun to go down. Get a big comfy chair. Kill all the lights except for one right above you. Now read.

LOC sucks

One of the great things about DC is all the great talks and lectures going on for free.
One of the things that sucks about DC is all the great talks and lectures take place in the middle of the day when people have to work.

I mention this only because I just found out that one of my favorite authors, Robert J. Sawyer, is going to be speaking at the Library of Congress on 19 April...

at noon...

on a thursday.

Someone should explain the concept of a day job to these people.

Valenteen

I'm putting off that movie review another day because I need to discuss a new Dougintology holiday.

Valenteen is the working title. I don't like it. It sounds too much like a holiday for high school students.
Anyway, Valenteen is supposed to be to St. Valentine's Day what Halloween is to All Hallows Eve.
In both cases they take place the day before a holiday to honor saints. In both cases you're supposed to alter your normal appearance.

Here's how to celebrate. On February 13th (tomorrow) you skip all the morning preparation stuff. Guys don't shave, apply cologne, or use anything other than a hairbrush on their hair. Women don't apply makeup or perfume, hairbrush only, and wear comfortable clothes to work. By comfortable I mean you can skip the heels, the tight clothes, the revealing clothes, etc. Obviously if there's a dress code at work you have to obey that. But if you can wear slacks instead of skirts or blue jeans instead of slacks then do.

Why?
Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. It's all about romance and candy and candles and dressing up for your significant other... and huge profits for the candy, card, and lingerie companies. We dress up a bit every day. If we fail to dress up for this one day, show our partners our real selves, it'll make all the work we do on Valentine's Day that much more impressive and hopefully make our partners appreciate the work we to every other day just a little bit more.
Plus guys are clueless dweebs who somehow miss all the signs and ads and candy sales that have been everywhere for the last month. This gives them one last 24 hour warning that they're supposed to have something planned for the 14th.

If you have suggestions for a better name for this holiday let me know.

You look like you've seen a ghost

I was on the way back from seeing the new Hannibal Lecter movie (review on Monday) and saw ... well, I shouldn't say it was the last thing I expected to see. In fact, I half expected this to happen once the weather warmed up a bit more. My source was hardly what I'd call reliable and the people to confirm it with are all in hiding from the cold. But anyway, there was the previously reported dead boy out playing football on the sidewalk.
Is it cold to say that I'm a little disappointed? I mean, I got a good story out of it. Plus he's gonna continue causing problems for me and other kids in the neighborhood.

Oh, well, a few more years and I'll be able to tell the story again, I'm sure.

Impending book

Kim Stanley Robinson's latest book is due out this month. It'll be the last of the Capitol Science Series of books. I'll repost book reviews for the first two books in the series:

In the first book, "Forty Signs of Rain", you spend most of the book wondering when the world is gonna end. When is the sky going to open up and wash us all away. There's a periodic chapter where they spell out in language most anyone can understand how the melting ice caps will cause the North Atlantic currents to screech to a halt or the action will move to some scientists who are noticing a sudden drop in the salinity of the water in some of their buoys but for the most part the actual action is slow. The main characters are a husband and wife who live in Bethesda, MD. She works at the National Science Foundation and you can tell from the description that the author really came to DC to follow the route she takes to work and got her breakfast and describes the office and statues in the courtyard. He's a scientist
working mostly raising his kid, but is also a part time advisor for some senator and advising him on environmental issues.
Late in the book there's a massive storm in DC. The ocean currents are pushing up the Chesapeake Bay and it's high tide and the storm hits and the water level comes up to lap at Abe Lincoln's feet at the Lincoln Memorial. If you've sat at Lincoln's feet and looked out and watched a thunderstorm roll in you get a better idea of how impressive that is. It describes the flooding of Rock Creek Park which runs from
near Lincoln clear up here to Walter Reed. It describes how they have to let the animals out of their cages in the zoo so they won't drown.

The second book, "50 Degrees Below", picks up right after the first. The bulk of the story focuses on Frank. Frank works for the National Science Foundation. Most people there work for a year and move on. Frank was scheduled to leave but was talked into staying at the end of the first book. But the guy he was subletting the apartment from came back, many of the homes around DC were ruined in the flood, so housing is so tight, and all his stuff is in storage, so he builds a tree house out in Rock Creek Park and lives there and in his office.
That's all well and good, but this is the winter where everything goes to hell. He's using his gear from expeditions to the Antarctic and at the worst of the winter he's still getting cold.
The storms around the world are dumping 50+ inches of snow in places and 70+ inches of rain in less than a day. A small island nation is flooded and the whole country relocates to their DC embassy.
Plus, Frank meets up with the strange woman in the elevator that convinced him to stay in the first book. She's a CIA spook in a bad marriage. She's been spying on Frank as well as a number of other people. Her abusive husband is uber-black ops and she keeps stealing beyond top secret information and feeding it to Frank. All leading to a confrontation near the end of the book.

The final book is "Sixty Days and Counting" and is expected to appear on shelves February 27.

Barn

Dad just retired a week or two back. He's gonna be a full time farmer and preacher's wife now. Besides hanging out at the Smallville barbershop and living vicariously through the customers there he's gonna try fixing up the farm. While he's done lots of work on the equipment over the years the buildings have been neglected. One of the many tasks we talked about was replacing one or both of the old hay barns. We don't keep cows or horses and one of the barns has been slowly sinking into the Earth due to the lack of a foundation. I've wanted to replace it for years so I'm probably a bit more enthused than he is.

Here's my preliminary sketch for one of the new barns. Since I didn't get to measure the exact dimensions are wrong. But it tells you how I'm thinking.


Instead of rebuilding the new barn the same way as the old barn we want to customize it for our needs. I'm using the old outline and just tweeking a few things.
The one story outcropping is a machine shop. It'll get the table saw and drill press and other related tools out of the garage. It also has plenty of space to pile up wood that we swear we're going to use someday.
I put a deck on top of the workshop because I thought it seemed appropriate. In another design I have the roof cover the deck and glass it in. This is so my uncle with the landscaping company can keep plants up there. A couple of discarded hot water tanks would store runoff from the roof to water the plants.
In this model the roof is sloped one way so it won't dump the water on the deck.
The main part of the building is a bit more than two stories tall. There's a huge sliding door so that tractors can drive in. If you're wondering what I mean by "tractor" so look here (http://dougintology.blogspot.com/2006/09/clarifying-detail.html)The size of the door depends on if we want a combine to be able to fit in there.
There's a smaller door in the big door so we won't have to move the whole thing to get people in and out.
Off to the left of the big door you'll see a strange little square. With all the vehicles around we have to change our own oil and buy it by the barrel. Barrels of oil are heavy. I want to be able to back the pickup up to that chute, pull out the old barrel, slide in the new one, and be done with it.
Inside the main barn area there's a loft on either side. They're to be high enough that someone riding one of the old cabless tractors would be able to drive under them and park without hitting their head.
A walkway connects the two lofts. A door goes from the walkway to the deck.
Along the middle of the ceiling, not the highest point in this case, is a track and pulley system. This allows us to lift big thing up and slide them onto the loft. Mind out, it'll probably be used more often to swing from loft to loft. Truth be told that's the only reason I'm putting it in.
Look up near the peak of the roof. There's small squares drawn there. That indicates entrances for barn owls. Grandma's barn has a huge one. I want some on this farm, too. I'd also like to add bat nests.
My brother is an electrician, licensed instead of like the rest of the family who can do it without the paper, can do up the lighting good and proper. There's a faucet in the neighboring barn so it shouldn't be TOO hard to run one hose into this barn.
There will be at least a foundation around the walls if not under the whole thing.
The old wood will be sold to help pay for the new barn.

If you think of anything that should be added or want to make an offer on the wood let me know.

Game Review: Psychonauts

I just finished playing the PS2 game "Psychonauts" last night. It's a good game.

You play a boy named Rasputin who has snuck away from the circus his family works for to go to a camp for psychics. Once at camp he discovers a plot to steal the brains from all the children and put them in battletanks to be used as weapons to take over the world.
As the game procedes your powers increase and you learn new skills. You have a door that allows you to enter people's minds for training, therapy for the person you're in, or combat. You have to clear cobwebs from their minds and remove their emotional baggage (weeping suitcases). Each mind has a different theme so it feels like you're playing a bunch of little games. Each character has a story and personality that may or may not get fleshed out but makes the overall story more interesting.

There are points in the game where you might get stuck, but dying is only a minor inconvenience.

I highly recommend this game for any age.

Movie Review: The Messengers

This was one of the better horror movies I've seen. By horror movie I mean a movie that is meant to be scary and IS scary. Slasher flicks don't qualify. They're not usually scary at all and rely on blood and pain imagery to get a reaction.
I wasn't expecting much from this movie, but when I saw that Sam Raimi was a producer I had some hope. Sam Raimi is the maker of the Evil Dead/Army of Darkness/Spiderman movies. While he wasn't writing or directing I knew he wouldn't let garbage out.

This movie drew from some of the best horror movies. You saw some camera angles and themes from The Shining, creatures from The Ring/The Grudge, scenes based off of The Birds and Poltergeist, and some other movies that I can't recall two days after the viewing. They manage to make a fairly scary movie without the use of much blood.

I've seen scarier, but this is definately in my top 20.

Ice skating

I don't know if I've mentioned "No Kidding" here before. It's a social group for people who don't have/want children.
Yesterday we went to the new ice skating place on the 8th floor of the Ballston Commons mall. The DC hockey team, The Capitals, practice there. It's new enough that the place is still pretty crowded.
I've never been ice skating before. Rollerskating, rollerblading, or just sliding on the ice, sure. But never balancing on strips of metal. One is much like the others. The blade was curved a bit so it liked to pivot under me more than I was comfortable with. Still, I got the hang of it fairly quick. While the floor was less crowded than a roller skating rink the crowd tended to move more uncontrollably back and forth than in roller skating so it seemed more crowded than it really was.
Plus, it was warmer than being outside, so all in all a good time was had.

Book Review: Fletch, Too

I've got three of the Fletch books. You remember the old Fletch movies starring Chevy Chase, right? "Fletch" and "Fletch Lives"? He was the basis for the wolf in the cartoon "Hoodwinked". Ok, fine.

Fletch is an investigative reporter. The books are humorous mysteries. Most are anyway. "Fletch" and "Fletch and the Widow Bradley" were both great books that I highly recommend. I really wish I could find my original reviews for you.

"Fletch, Too" is a bit different than the others. He gets married but after the ceremony he's handed a note from his father who his mother always said died in childbirth. Instead of a Colorado ski trip Fletch and his wife and his ski clothes go to Kenya where his Dad has been living all these years. It's not so much a mystery as it is a travelogue for Kenya.

"Fletch, Too" is not the book to start someone reading the series. But I recommend any book in the series.

Stay tuned for "Fletch Won" expected in 2007. Zach Braff from "Scrubs" is rumored to be playing the title role.

Take a moment to belittle the dead

I'm going to preface these next comments with a short description of how I relate to the dead. People who are dead can't hear you. They're beyond caring what you think about them. I'm not about to start saying some slimeball is great because s/he has snuffed it.
When Nixon died everyone suddenly started talking about what a great guy he was. If Watergate was mentioned it was in terms of how much Nixon did for their business. It wasn't dying that makes me think of Nixon fondly. It was looking at George Bush II in comparison that makes Nixon seem like such a great guy.
There was a bully at my school who died when he and his buddies got completely smashed and the pickup truck he was riding in the back of flipped over. Suddenly this guy was Jesus returned. Nobody remembered that he was violent and a bit deranged, had drunk himself into a stupor despite being in high school, and was all around a nasty person.

I mention all this because I found out yesterday that one of the neighbor kids died last weekend. Shot twice in the head.

I knew this kid. He was one of a group who comes by my house after school. They roam the streets like feral animals since their parents either don't care what they're up to or are still at work until late. I play UNO with them and bought Battleship just to keep them busy and maybe learn something in the process. We trade video games and movies and I loan them some of my graphic novels (reprints of comic books in a single bound collection) to work on their reading.

Last summer I was playing Battleship with a couple of the older kids (just entering high school) when the deceased snuck into my house and tried to make off with a Fantastic Four collection he wanted to read but I'd been denying him since I wasn't done reading it. I caught him, took it away, smacked him upside the head with it, and tossed him down the sidewalk. 10 minutes later his mom, cousin, and uncle were over trying to threaten me. That's a whole extra story. The point was that his parent had taught him that "No" means "wait until my back is turned" and rewarded his misbehavior by challenging the person who called him on it instead of punishing him.

He had his good qualities. The kid had leadership skills. He was personable. There was some curiosity in him that other area kids his age don't have. With some different parents and a better school system he could have made something of himself.

On the other hand, he used those leadership skills to get others into trouble. He was often an instigator for trouble. Otherwise well behaved kids would become hyper and loud and need a good smack when he came around. I know of one kid in particular who has a much brighter future without the deceased in the picture.

I expected this to happen to this kid, I just didn't expect it for another 4-5 years.