School ramblings

This post was born from a couple of links that I was gonna put in Friday Links with some notes. But the notes were getting a bit long so I decided they deserved posts of their own. Mostly so I didn't have to cut my rant down to a sentence or two.

First, in a great emulation of absolutely no political or corporate leader ever, a principal resigned his job to save the jobs of two music teachers. [link]

Bravo for the principal, however... By resigning he saves the school $180,000. Why the heck was a principal making that kind of money? Why are music teachers making $90,000 a year? If any public school teacher anywhere made money like that I might have continued on that career path a bit longer.
The school has 6 music teachers for 5th through 12th grade? Is that a lot? It seems like a lot. My school had one music and one band teacher for 6-12, but there were only 73 people in my graduating class. (100+ in the freshman class during my senior year. Did we have that many or had the class sizes grown?) So, lets assume this is a school that actually has some students. 6 isn't unreasonable.
I do have to wonder if the gym teachers' had any threats against their jobs. How about football? Once schools are that big they often start making football coach a full time job. Are they under any kind of threat? Can the assistant principle handle a school this big alone?
But bravo to the principal for being willing to take the hit. Or maybe this was just his way to escape while looking like a hero.


The next article was about how art teachers are so often under threat. But why not history teachers? [link]

This brings up two subjects I dwell on.
First, there are several old art classes whose lessons I draw on in my job. Doing color correction on photos causes me to look back on mixing paints. One art teacher would try to subtly touch up our photos after hours. They were improvements, but it pissed us off. However, finding those really quite minor tweeks taught me to see some of the little details in a picture and recreate them when cleaning up old photos and filling in damaged areas. When a picture doesn't look right I'm better able to see why. Painting myself using only 4 shades of the same color has been used in lots of Flash animations over the years. More and more often I find myself using and understanding cross hatching lessons that I didn't get at all at the time.
But how many people are gonna have to doctor photos? How many Flash apps have you developed in your career? Why should this be a class that all kids should have to take when they already suck so hard at math and really need the help?
Let me ask you, how many Powerpoint presentations have you had to make? Ever have to design a website, even if only for yourself or your family? Or a flier or a brochure or a poster? Maybe I should just stick with the Powerpoint example.
You've very likely had to sit through some simply godawful Powerpoint presentations. Or struggled because you knew yours wasn't turning out right, but you didn't know why. There are certain principles of design that you can learn in an art class. You can learn about how colors go together and what combinations do and do not go together. Some of that didn't show up until design classes in college, but there was no reason it should have taken that long. These could be taught before you make your first science fair display. You can't (or at least shouldn't be able to) get out of high school without doing a Powerpoint presentation or three. Shouldn't you know right then not to use every single transition or text effect?
Maybe the art classes need to change focus. Working with clay is good and may even help you apply mud to a sheetrock wall later in life. Using foam core to build and see the flaws in a potential dream house does show you how to think things through a bit better. But in this day and age doesn't everyone need to know how to make a presentation that doesn't make you want to scoop out your eyes?
Art classes are important.

His dumping on a history class is the second time in a week that I've heard someone going on about history. The other person was talking about how Google has made learning history irrelevant. Students will learn about the Battle of Hastings without learning it was fought in 1066. Well, yeah. Who the fuck cares WHEN it was fought. Get it within a century either way and you're good. The year isn't the important bit. Not unless you're looking for something for students to put on a test that has an answer that can be considered 100% right or wrong. I've been arguing that since before there was an internet, let alone a Google.
This doesn't mean that I want to get rid of history classes. But the author has a good point about showing a documentary and calling it good. The value of the history teacher is that a good one can tell a story that makes history interesting and gets the students to learn the important bits even if on a test they don't know the year. A bad one, however, can take the most interesting event and make it dry and hateful. The 9-11 book we're putting a final polish on is an excellent example of that. How can a terrorist attack, the collapse of two sky scrapers by aircraft collision, and a section of a major military installation being leveled be DULL!?!

I've discussed before my desire to make video curriculum that can be used by home schoolers or bad schools. History is a perfect subject for this. Get some of the best history teachers to develop the curriculum for different age groups and give them the resources to make their show. A school could get to letting the previously mentioned football coach sit there and run the videos, give homework, and, most of all, act as a security guard and save money that was spent on a history teacher that denies the holocaust or refuses to mention Thomas Jefferson. It'll cut off the major career path for most history majors, but it could give us much better educated and intelligent voters. It would make it harder for those who want to claim that the American Civil War was about state rights.

Two last links:
I want you to watch a few episodes of the show Connections (and C² and C³) and tell me that these aren't interesting and that this stuff doesn't stick in your brain better than anything in that class with the elderly professor who rode her bike to school and never every used deodorant. Or was that not a common college experience? [link]

Next, I want you to look at Kuler. It's a site where you can find groups of colors that go well together. Personally, when I need colors that go well together I tend to sample them off of a photo that's going in the display. But if I'm drawing everything Kuler is a great resource. [link]
And don't use more than 3 fonts. In your book, poster, Powerpoint presentation, website, whatever. Just don't. OK, 4 if you absolutely have to. But no more. Seriously, look at some attractive presentations and some unattractive ones and count the fonts. No, Times italic isn't a different font from Times.

Movie Review: Green Lantern

This is what I love about this era of successful comic book/superhero movies. They finally start using the ones that never quite make it to screen. Batman and Superman, Hulk and Spiderman, these are the first string heroes that can be hard to screw up. I'm not saying it can't be done. Only when talking about Batman can Michael Keaton beat George Clooney. And while we're still waiting for the heads of Warner Brothers to stop fucking around with the actually talented people who keep writing Wonder Woman scripts Green Lantern somehow made it to the big screen.

While you might expect Sinestro to be the bad guy in this movie you'd be wrong. As Yummy said while watching a Green Lantern cartoon "with a name like Sinestro of COURSE he's gonna be the bad guy". Not using him as the initial villain is like not using the Joker in the first Batman movie. Oh, wait. They did that and it kicked ass. No, they're saving him for later, but this movie does show how he starts down the dark path.

In this movie they start with somebody much worse. Some years back DC comics had Hal Jordan's (Green Lantern's real name) home town of Coast City destroyed. This introduced fear into Hal and made him vulnerable to a flaw in the lantern from which all Green Lantern power rings get their powers. The flaw was what made the members of the Green Lantern Corps vulnerable to (sigh) the color yellow. The flaw was really the imprisoned monster called Parallax. Hal's fear made him a conduit for Parallax to escape. Hal became evil and was eventually killed. Naturally he came back later free of the Parallax influence.

Obviously you can't start a movie series like this. Hal gets the ring and immediately becomes evil. You're never gonna see an other Human as a Lantern after that and certainly not Hal.

If they changed the story just to change the story then the movie would deserve the scorn that it would bring. Instead they had good reasons to change the story. The movie became not just the story of a pilot with some abandonment issues learning to wield new super powers, but a story about will overcoming fear on multiple levels.

Do not bring your small children to this movie. Babies: out. Toddlers: out. Really, anyone under the age of 10 should be with a baby sitter. This movie had some scary parts. Parallax is kinda terrifying to watch, and that's before he starts ripping people's spectral skeletons from their bodies. I wish someone had explained that to the people sitting off to our left.

We're all a bit sad that it's not this Green Lantern movie.


But it's still a good movie well told. I'll be getting it on DVD.
Be sure to sit through at least part of the credits.

Friday Links: July 17

Epic beer commercial.


Help The Cheerleader. She was kicked off the cheerleading team because she refused to cheer for the guy who raped her. She sued. The Supreme Court refused the case and now she owes the school for their court fees. [link]

David Simon to Eric Holder: we'll make a 6th season of "The Wire" if you rethink the United States drug policies. [link]

America has crazy low taxes both in comparison to other nations and in comparison to itself. [link]

And in other news, Republican governors are outraged that they won't be able to slash aid to the poor and sick. [link]

Monkeys in masks, the things of nightmares. [link]

Game: Laser Cannon 2 - use the laser to kill the pirate tribble things. [link]

I'm trying to learn the 3D modeling program Blender. This open source movie was made in Blender. [link]
I haven't watched it, yet. Could be crap.

Highlights from Richard Dreyfuss reading the iTunes EULA. [link]

Ricky Gervais, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, and Louis CK cracking each other up - part 1 of 4.


People of historical note in unexpected locations. [link]

Drive or fly? Relative expense calculator. [link]

NASA believes they understand now what the Voyager probes have been sensing at the edge of the Solar System. Magnetic bubbles caused by the bunching and twisting of the sun's magnetic field. You might want to mute the audio and read the text for this. The reader sounds like she's talking to very small children. [link]
Oh, and only OUR star system gets to be called the Solar System. The sun is named Sol. It's Sol's planetary system. It's the "Sol"ar System. Yes, I do have a bug up my ass about this.

A nice article on the Backfire Effect. [link]

A bunch of really early posters. Some before the title is set. [link]

Sir Terry Pratchett has started the process to end his life. [link]
Sir Terry,
I love ya, man, and support your desire to end your life before you're too far gone. I don't know how far along you are. I doubt (and regret) that you'll be making another signing tour of the US. That talk where you had Baldrick read your speech for you was lovely and showed what facilities you've already lost. Even if you can't write or read anymore I hope you won't rush off just to make a point.
-Ibid.

Even Sesame Street is mocking the SpiderMan musical.


I have a decent collection of old computers. But this.... I am not worthy. [link]

Parts 1 and 2 of a 4 part series. Everything is a Remix. It's not a criticism of people stealing stuff. It's pointing out how nothing is original.
Music

Everything is a Remix Part 1 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Movies

Everything is a Remix Part 2 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Part 3 coming soon.

Messing with vodkas

I am not a drinker. This is somewhat important. I have drunk. I have beers and other bottled stuff that I prefer. Anything with the word Bud or Michelob or Anheiser do not make the list of liquids I consider beverages. I might use them to wash dishes or clear a toilet, but not to drink. As far as hard liquors I know next to nothing. Back in college my brother did make a screwdriver using 50/50 orange juice and 1979 Kansas made vodka. It burned your eyes as soon as he brought it into the room. I know that's bad. And I've sampled some vodka that I was told was good stuff. "Good" is defined as flavorless or close to it. I can't yet tell you what brands to look for.

For this first experiment I got a bottle of Smirnoff. No vanilla or anything. I was to flavor it myself. In the liquor store there were five different kinds of vodka that I knew the names of. They were all priced similarly. How I selected one was pretty much eenie meenie miney mo. When I sampled some later I found it wasn't flavorless. It was a good example of WHY I'm not much of a drinker. Bleh.

Here's why I was buying vodka. Yummy and I had been grocery shopping and had gotten a little basket of blackberries. I don't think I actually ate any. There was still not quite half a basket left when I went back to her place a week later. What was left was starting to go soft and strange. No fuzz yet, but not really appealing and not likely to get eaten. When I went home Monday I took it with me. Being lazy, it wasn't until Wednesday after the staff meeting that I bought some vodka. I took it home and started pushing the blackberries into the bottle that evening. A few had spots of fuzz. They were left out. I had to drain some of the vodka to get them all in. That's when I sampled enough to know not to sample any more. But it did give me a baseline on what this stuff tasted like.

After a day I thought I saw a slight pink hue to the vodka. It could have been imagination. After three days I tipped the bottle over and back up. More color had been collecting at the bottom. I continued to up end the bottle like that every few days. After a week and a half the vodka was the same red as the label on the bottle. I sampled a bit. It still kinda kicked me in the teeth, but you could taste the blackberry.

If you're looking to just flavor your vodka, two weeks is a good amount of time to let it sit. You'll see that while the alcohol turns red and purple that the berries fade significantly. Not white, but that could just be because they were still sitting in dark red liquid.

After 3 weeks I read about using vodka or other drinkable high proof alcohol to extract oils from plants. The oil freezes and the alcohol doesn't. You just scoop out the frozen stuff. Curious, I put the bottle in the freezer to see what happens. I got very cold raspberry vodka.

Last night was 4 weeks. I went to Yummy's to help her carry her new couch home and took the vodka with me. I also picked up some fizzy lemon-lime drink and some pineapple juice. I can't tell you the exact ratios that I used. We used tall glasses like might be used for iced tea. Equal parts fizzy drink and pineapple juice. Probably 1/3 of the glass each. The vodka was added. Maybe 2 shot glasses worth. Very crude estimates.
You could still taste the original Smirnoff. Some of the blackberry came through. It wasn't strong. Another month might have helped.
Overall the drink was good. But really, if you have to add that much other stuff to make the vodka palatable is it really worth adding the vodka at all? Depends on who you are and why you're drinking. I didn't feel much impact, but Yummy was making the argument against being made to stand up.

We both had two glasses. That took half the bottle. I think I'll give the rest of the bottle another month to soak. It'll probably soak in the freezer at Yummy's place though.

Some people have said that after 2 months the stuff becomes thicker and a bit more syrupy. I do intend to  serve the goop left at the bottom when the bottle is empty over ice cream.

When repeating this experiment in the future, what vodka do you recommend? 

If not this week, then next for sure, I'll be trying the oil extraction on the mint in the front yard. Yummy has some other plants that we may try it on. Rosemary, lavender, maybe some orange. Again, do you have any vodka that you'd recommend?

I also want to try to repeat an experiment that I read about years ago. Passing bad vodka through a Brita filter repeatedly is supposed to make it indistinguishable from good vodka. Five passes makes it good. No further gains can be seen after the seventh pass. So I want a thoroughly bad vodka to try it on. Something other than 1979 Kansas-made stuff.

Sod Off Wednesday: July 15

The new phonebooks came the other day. Mine hit the front door with a loud thump. I ran outside and saw the guy distributing them. I asked if he could take it back. He gave me a clipboard and told me to sign my name on a line. He took the book back. I don't think this applies to all phone book makers, but this one shouldn't be coming to my house anymore.

This site might help you do the same.
http://www.yellowpagesoptout.com/

The phone book manufacturers can sod off.

Book Review: Where Angels Fear To Tread

I'm not sure I would have picked this book up on my own. I found out about the series while reading the book "Mean Streets". I picked the book up for the Dresden Files and Nightside short stories, but also found the Remy Chandler story interesting.

Remy is a private investigator. Tends to pick up some of the more unusual cases. Remy is also short for Remiel, as in the Archangel. He's been on Earth for several centuries in human form. He's got a dog that he can talk with, a wife who recently passed away, some friends, and a seraphim nature that he has to fight to keep under control. Kinda the same way Bruce Banner has to keep the Hulk under control. It's really a whole other personality that wants to come out and go into battle. When it does it's wings and the whole get up.

Some years back a cult that worshiped a lesser god created a new vessel for him to inhabit. That vessel was in the form of a baby. But their plans were foiled and something else filled the child when the godling was unable. This something was a fragment of creation. A burning ember from the Big Bang. A drop of God's power. And now everybody wants it. The godling wants the body. The power is just a bonus. Delilah (as in Samson and...) has been kept alive by God as punishment for what she did to Samson and she wants the power to allow herself to die (so she says). Samson wants to kill Delilah. The child's mother just wants her daughter back. The child's father figures his life will be better if he repents and brings the girl back to the church. And Remy just wants to get the kid back from her father and give her back to her mother.

It's more light hearted than the Nightside books. Remy has some good banter with his friends. His dog can be pretty entertaining, too. It's not really a mystery book in that you can try to outthink the detective. But then, I suppose few of the books about PIs really are. This, like most of the others I've read have been the sort where you watch the story unfold.

The book does alright by itself, but I really do want to go back and read the first two books in this series.

Movie Review: Super 8

When was the last time we saw a good movie with children as the central characters? There used to be some good ones. "Spy Kids" isn't one of them. Think "Flight of the Navigator", "ET", or "Goonies". Yeah, not much of that anymore. "Super 8" goes for something like that and nails it.



This trailer gives a decent sense of the movie without telling you too much. While it gives you the tone it completely fails to convey the humor or the superb and honest way they wrote the children. This movie is about a town being terrorized by an unknown menace, but it's also about first love, fighting over a girl, fathers dealing with guilt and grief, kids trying to make a movie, and kids being kids. Even during the somewhat violent and scary scenes you still can't help but laugh at the kids and their dialog.

There's a group of six kids working on a zombie movie for a contest. One lost his mother several months back. His dad blames the father of a girl they get to be an actor. One likes to set fires and blow things up. One wants to be a director. One likes to make models. Late one night as they're secretly shooting a scene at a railway station there's a huge train wreck and something huge, strong, and alive breaks free. And they have it on film.

Then strange things start to happen. A few people vanish, the dogs all flee town, all the engines are stolen from the cars in a used car lot, inventories of microwaves are ransacked, electrical wires are stolen off of electric poles. And the military is everywhere.

The story was written and directed by J.J. Abrams (Fringe, Lost, Alias, the Star Trek reboot, Cloverfield) but Producer Steven Spielberg gets equal credit in the advertising. I don't know how much Spielberg was actually involved, but you can see what appears to be his input in most of the scenes with the kids. Abrams influence seems to be heaviest with the creature. It seems very "Cloverfield"-like. Not in the camera work (thank god), but it's appearance and behavior feels like his work instead of Spielberg's. All together it worked out fabulously.

The movie takes place in 1979. It seemed an odd choice at first, but the more I think of it the more possible reasons I come up with.
Maybe they were trying to find an era when kids could safely run around by themselves and make a film.
Maybe in 1979 Abrams was doing just what the kids in the movie were doing and he felt he could most honestly write about those characters in this context.
But I think the best reason is that they needed a time when it would take three days at least to get their film developed. The movie could have been very different if they could just plug the camera into their laptop and start editing the film. Home CGI would have replaced the models they were making.

In any case, this film was fantastic. I will be getting it on DVD. I highly recommend seeing this movie.

Friday Links: June 10

Cassini: still clicking away. [link]

Colorful pictures of Icelandic volcanoes when not actually blowing up. [link]

My kinds of paintings. [link]

Another kid calls out Michelle Bachman. [link]

Police break into a home, kill a guy, make up lies, when they're called on it they have a very bad cover up. [link]

9,000 TV channel logos. [link]

A glossary of symbols. [link]

David Mitchell going on about the use of LOL.


Full size Daleks using BBC moulds and specs available now on sale. [link]

Cartoonist talks about the house he grew up in and it's bloody, bloody roof. [link]

The Doctor Who anime I mentioned a couple of times in the past is finished. Alas, it's only 15 minutes long and seems to lack a coherent story.


A tornado stops for a drink.


Cameras stuck on things.



Mario Brothers sheet music. [link]

It's not hard to change the messages on an HP Printer. I once changed the "OK Ready" message to "Low on vowels. Replace cartridge." Here's some others. [link]
Here's one person explaining how to do it. [link]

7 year old accidentally a famous artist. [link]

A movie theater tossed someone out for texting during a movie. She called and left a message on voice mail. They made it into a PSA announcement. [link]

Butter: the lost food group. [link]

A map of all newspapers in the world and their languages. [link]

BMX bike rider does the first triple backflip. [link]

Heads on money redrawn into popular culture figures. [link]
Andrew Jackson as Ronald McDonald is kinda scary.
More. [link]

A lot of pictures from Cassini pieced together in an odd sort of film. [link]

In tribute of some stupid stuff Sarah Palin said recently about Paul Revere there's this poem. "Paul Revere's Ride" by Longfellow and Palin. [link]

Name that cameo. [link]
I may have posted this before, but there's new stuff.

This guy waved at his kid's bus every morning for the whole school year. Each day in a different costume. [link]

How classic animation is done and one of Disney's contributions to animation technology.

Futurama ends this way, but to get their 3D effect they make the 3D model and then trace it.

Neverending shampoo.


They thought they cured him of his gayness when he was just a little kid. They claimed he grew up normal. But he attempted suicide at 17 and succeeded at 38. And the guy who built his career claiming to be able to cure gays was found with a male escort. [link]

Doggelganger: a program that matches people with dogs that look like them. [link]

Spider-'Nam: Peter Parker in Vietnam. [link]

I remember this bank robbery happening. Never knew they caught the guy. [link]

Babblings of a birdie

Just a collection of things Gandolf has said over the last year or so. I sent them to Yummy so you're seeing texts and bits of e-mails.

Gandolf just said "I'm bored". But, it was part of her string of babble so she's probably not bored.
a bit later: "Don't. Eat. The bird."

I'm watching a season 4 episode of "Bones".
In this episode there's a car dealer suspected of killing this guy whose bones are turning to green ooze. Booth takes a test drive in an expensive hot rod with the suspect and start driving fast and crazy to freak the guy out. The guy keeps yelling "WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT...."
After doing that a few times Gandolf started yelling "WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT...."
Ollie was yelling "WEE WEE WEE WEE WEE..."

Watching Quantum Leap:
We're watching this 50's episode where some guy is trying to ban rock and roll. After he leaves the room Gandolf says "what an asshole". I said "you did not learn that from me" and she laughed.

While Ollie was still living with me we got him a little friend named Ernie. The conures were instantly the best of buds but seemed to be like mischievous little elves. This is my report about the goings on in the house.
The elves have found themselves on the side of Gandolf's cage.
They seem to be discussing what to do next.
They decided to climb 3 rungs and reassess.
So far Gandolf doesn't seem to have noticed. She's still chatting up a storm.
Conures back down and retreat to the pet food bin.
They're back up. They pushed their luck too far. Gandolf got off her swing to knock Conures off her cage.
Yummy: And the Birdie Battle ensues!
me: This is odd. Gandolf climbed down the outside of the cage to get at the conures on the food bin. Ollie ran between Gandolf and Ernie.
He's a tiny little hero.
Yummy: He's a tiny little hero!
That is so cute!!
They're bad AND good!
me: It's happening again.
Ollie got between them, fluffed up, became tall, and knocked his beak on the plastic lid. Gandolf laughed when Ollie knocked.
Yummy: Gandolf LAUGHED?
me: yeah
Yummy: As in, "You fluff up against ME, mini bird? MEEEEEEE?!"
me: Sort of "that's so cute. You knock at ME!?"
Yummy: Those birdies.
me: Gandolf is back on her swing. Conures are on the side and back of the cage.
I looked at Gandolf. She looked back and sighed.
Poor Gandolf. So many little elves to ruin her day.

Gandolf had a conversation with herself.
  Hey! Stop it!
  No.
  Ok.

Gandolf: I wouldn't eat that.

We're watching the Quantum Leap episode where Sam got electric shock and developed multiple personality disorder. Near the end of the episode Sam is yelling "Don't shock Jimmy" over and over. Each time Gandolf follows with "DON'T!"

Gandolf seems to be giving a lecture about baby food.
She claims that it's "bad news".

I put my phone in my bag and pulled out the Kindle to check the charge. Gandolf said "It got bigger." I assume she thought it was the phone

Gandolf out the window: "Hey, little bird. I see you o'er there."

We're listening to Howard Stern interviewing Bill Murray.
Murray says something to the effect of "I see Chevy about once a year. It's been awhile. I've been busy."
Gandolf says "What'cha doin'?

While watching "20 Million Miles to Earth" Gandolf keeps chuckling at the monster fighting people.
At least she does when the monster is winning.
She mutters and grumbles when it's losing.

I'm streaming some Superman vs Captain Marvel movie.
Clark Kent and Billy Batson are eating breakfast in a restaurant when Black Adam comes in and is getting ready to kill the kid. Clark tells Adam to leave the kid alone. Black Adam knocks him through a wall and across the street. He gets up, knocking away the bricks, takes off his
glasses and opens the shirt. Gandolf says "Soo'ermaan."
Gandolf may not know Clark Kent, but she knows her super heroes.

In the next episode (of Quantum Leap) Sam jumped into the body of a space chimp. Gandolf laughed herself silly.

Gandolf and I are watching Quantum Leap again. It's a rough episode. The person Sam jumped into got raped. But nobody in town wants to believe Sam when he says the girl he jumped in to was raped. Gandolf is scolding the people who don't believe him.

Gandolf: "Are you alright?"
Me: I'm alright. Are you alright?
Gandolf: Yeah. I got a pizza.

me: Gandolf is muttering about cookies.
Yummy: Hey! So am I!

We're watching the Japanese version of "One Missed Call". They get a phone call from their own mobile phone. When they get the message from voice mail it's what turns out to be what will be their own last words.  Gandolf picked up on it quick. The first person was saying what they heard on her phone. Gandolf said "heh. Look out."

Gandolf has learned a new response. Ollie screeches and Gandolf goes "What!?"
(she's also started with "STOP IT!")

Gandolf is threatening me. But she's very bad at it. She just says "threats. Threats. Threats."

me: Gandolf rang her bell and declared there's a fire.
Yummy: She said fire?
me: yep. Ring, ring, ring, "[mutter] fire"

Gandolf looking out the window: It's a happy birdie!
Me: No, that's a butterfly.
After a long pause. Gandolf: "[mutter] birdie?"

Gandolf: That's a word. (pause) Words are hard.

While watching "Paycheck" Ben Affleck got a motorcycle and tore out into traffic. Horns started blaring. Gandolf yelled "hurry up!"

Sod Off Wednesday

Internet went back down again.
Verizon can sod off.

Ooooh. You're here

Sorry. I don't have anything for you. The internet was down yesterday and Verizon didn't expect to have it up until Wednesday evening.
Sorry.

Movie Review: X-Men: First Class

I've heard a few bad things about this movie. Most of the issues they have seem to center around the accents, or lack thereof, in the characters. You know what? I don't have an issue with that. I'll even forgive departure from the original story if it helps convert things from a comic book to a movie. I mean Spiderman 3 got into the Venom symbiote without talking about the Secret Wars on some other planet. The Incredible Hulk changed the gamma bomb to some other gamma ray experiment. I'm not familiar enough with the Hellfire Club in X-Men lore to be able to tell you what they screwed up. And it doesn't really matter.

The movie starts with a scene from the original X-Men movie. I'm assuming that they refilmed it for this movie, but they did a good job recreating the scene. It's where a young Magneto (Erik) is being separated from his family by the Nazis. Kevin Bacon wants to exploit Erik's power but makes a horrible mistake in how he goes about it and put's Erik on a lifelong quest to kill escaped Nazis, and Kevin Bacon especially.

Meanwhile, young Charles Xavier finds an even younger Mystique lurking around in his kitchen. We never see his parents, but it's clear he's managed to get them to adopt her, or at least be her foster family.

Eventually Charles and Mystique are taken on by a government agency to help them deal with an organization called The Hellfire Club led by Kevin Bacon and several other mutants that want to take over the world by having normal people wipe themselves out first. Charles and Erik meet while trying to pursue the Hellfire Club and procede to collect other mutants with the help of the government. At first it's just to form a community, but soon they need training to help save the world. The whole movie comes to a head at the heart of the Cuban Missle Crisis.

I liked the movie. It was funny, a good story well told, and shows how the big and little things in the lives of the mutants drove them into one camp or another. The Magneto movie clearly wasn't ever gonna get made so they incorporated that storyline into this movie. The story was co-written and the movie produced by Brian Singer. This was good because Singer was the writer/director of X-Men 1 & 2, but not 3. Three was the one that sucked.

I'll probably get it on DVD.

Friday Links: June 3

Hey! Look what failed to post when I told it to!

A friend of mine works with this blogger. He (the friend) volunteers at this old movie theater once a week. [link]

Interesting pixelated art. [link]

Video classes. [link]

The old Genesis music video Land of Confusion with puppet work from the people who used to make Spitting Image.


When an ink truck crashes. [link]

In a case that is hopefully destined for the legal trash heap, some geologists are being used for failing to predict an earthquake. [link]

Portal soundtrack available for free download. [link]

Not an Exorcist remake.


Finalists in the illusion of the year contest. [link]

Pleasedon'tsuckpleasedon'tsuckpleasedon'tsuckpleasedon'tsuck.

It's Disney. So far they haven't managed to not screw up Muppets. But wait! Disney turned all their animation over to the Pixar people. They've done damn good so far. Lets have a look. Executive Producer Martin Baker, David Furnish, Jason Segel... no John Lasseter, no sign of any Henson. I don't have high hopes.

14 facts about the Addams Family. [link]
While you're at it, have a look on IMDB at Lurch's other roles. [link]

Recent Dr Who episodes have had some accents that have been kind of hard to understand, especially at the speed they were talking. According to Peter Sellers it would be a northern accent that's giving us issues.


Science sorts figure out how to turn human skin cells into human neurons. [link]

Functioning armored glove for the goddamn Batman. [link]

Nazgul origami. [link]

Sweet ride built using knowledge gained from Google Books. [link]

Game: Ninja Painter - bounce the ninja around the house to paint all the walls. [link]

The only known "official" Star Wars/Indiana Jones crossover. [link]
Relax, it's short.

Make your old Magic: The Gathering cards 3D. [link]

Last footage of Laurel & Hardy.


A kid and an otter. Who is leading who?


Governor of Kansas completely kills state funding for the arts. All of it. [link]

Letters exchanged by Ian Flemming and the firearms expert that convinced him to have James Bond use a Walther PPK. [link]

Book Review: Fuzzy Nation

You know what "nerve" is? It's when you read somebody else's book and decide that you could write it better. You know what "balls¹" are? Balls are what you have when you decide that you can write somebody else's book better than they did AND they won a Hugo for their book. So John Scalzi has balls.

"Fuzzy Nation" is meant to be a reboot of the H. Beam Piper trilogy that started with the 1965 Hugo Award winning "Little Fuzzy". Comic books reboot. Comic books reboot all the time. Movies reboot. Of course, they usually reboot comic book based movies. Books don't reboot. At best someone new continues the series after the author dies, or, in some cases, says "fuck it, you guys write it". Thus "balls".

And Scalzi's balls are well deserved. I haven't read the original yet, but I plan to. Without getting into a comparison of the two I can tell you that I really enjoyed "Fuzzy Nation". Right on page one it had me hooked. And I kept on reading. Tore through it in no time at all. And it kept on right until the end. It made me laugh in several places. It had several tense moments. It has some court room drama that'd get most lawyers disbarred. Our hero got in jams and managed to stick it to The Man repeatedly. At the end you want to read the next book enough that you're likely to go back and start reading the original series.

What's it about? On the planet (right there you know it's sci-fi) Zara XXIII our hero is contracted to survey the planet for valuable resources for ZaraCorp to strip mine. Having found an incredibly valuable vein of jewels that will make him filthy rich (really. Just disgustingly rich) he returns home to find his treetop cabin inhabited by some manner of bipedal cat. Having made friends with the Fuzzy creature he then has a dilemma. It's intelligent, but if it's sentient like his ex-girlfriend says, then ZaraCorp has to leave the planet and he doesn't get a dime from those jewels he found.

I haven't mentioned that it's a Young Adult book. Nor have I mentioned that there's not at all subtle messages about environmental protection, treatment of indigenous people, and importance of the... uh... cough... the Prime Directive.

It's a fantastic book. I got autographed copies for the kids of a friend just because it was a Scalzi book. Now I'd get it for them even if I wasn't already a fan of the author.

You can get the original "Little Fuzzy" book from ManyBooks.net [link] or Gutenberg.org [link].


¹ Balls. Hee hee hee hee hee.

Sod Off Wednesday: June 1

Dogs are a great benefit to the military, but they don't always get treated right after they've been deployed. After Vietnam a great many were left there as surplus equipment. And it looks like many are having similar issues today. But you can adopt a retired military trained dog and help make sure it not only gets home but gets a good home. Check out http://www.militaryworkingdogadoptions.com/.

The wankers who try to leave them in Iraq or wherever can sod off.

Book Review: Forever Peace

I finished "Forever Peace" really quickly. Partially because it kept my attention well enough that I found myself up reading until three or four o'clock in the morning. Keep in mind that my current schedule has me going to bed around one or two in the morning. But even so, usually I pick up my book and my eyes are exhausted after a couple of pages.

"Forever Peace" is a sequel to Joe Haldeman's "The Forever War". Only, not really. It has none of the same people. Doesn't refer to things that happened in the first book. It's kind of a stretch to say it even takes place in the same universe. What they have in common is a specific technology and an author. And a tendency to recruit smart people for soldiers.

They have two significant technologies that we don't have. The first is a sort of replicator technology. You feed it the raw materials and it breaks it down and reassembles it to make whatever you asked for. The rich countries have plenty of these. The poor countries do not. Although those that are friendly with the rich countries have get a whole bunch of hours of replicator time each week. You can't just ask for a meal or a drink like you do on Star Trek. They're not that speedy. But a restaurant can order their supplies and make food from it.

One of the things being done with the replicators is going on around Jupiter. One replicator is getting energy from Jupiter using warm fusion and beaming it to the other in orbit. That one takes apart a moon and makes more of itself. Once there's enough they can apparently double as the biggest damn super collider you've ever seen.

The second major technology is the ability to plug yourself in and operate machines a few thousand miles away. The US gets to fight wars in Central America and northern South America while the soldiers are in a base in Mexico. They stay connected for ten days at a time and then have twenty days off. While connected, they're not only driving the soldier machine but they're connected to each other. They're connected deep. Any skills one person has they all have, as long as they're plugged in. What you did that weekend and with who... they all know. And if one of the female soldiers is having her time of the month then everyone, men included, is having the same issue. The platoon of soldier machines is really a ten headed creature with one mind.

The first third of the book just sort of tells about the life of our main character. He goes to work in one of the Soldier Boys for 10 days at a time then goes back to the university to teach, hang with friends, and be with his secret girlfriend the rest of the time. It also mixes in parts where the various technologies and social groups are explained.

In the next part of the book things become more interesting when our lead character and his girlfriend are asked to help confirm what a colleague has discovered. That when the super collider around Jupiter is fired up it will successfully create the conditions at the beginning of the universe. And having done so it will create a new universe that will destroy our own. Oops.

They try to publish, but get rejected. Then the guy who asked them to help vanishes. And someone comes to get all the notes from the girlfriend because they're classified. Only, he's not actually from the Pentagon. He's really from a religious group called the Enders who want to help with God's plan to bring about the apocalypse. They want the super collider to destroy everything and have assassins and people positioned in key places to make sure that they can help it along.

So the second part of the book is this discovery, running from assassins, and figure out how to fix things.

The third part still has running from assassins, but it largely focussed around the plan to use the mind joining technology to turn everyone in the world into a pacifist who won't want to kill people or destroy universes. Not a Borg-like hive mind, just... you have to read the book.

This third part is a little awkward. I wasn't exactly rooting for our heroes, but pretty much everyone else are scum. Kinda like voting for President. These are ALL of our choices? Fine, we'll take that guy.

It's a good book. I read it in about a week and didn't really want to put it down. In another time in my life it'd have taken two days. And you don't have to have read "The Forever War" (an awesome book that I also highly recommend) to get it. Honestly, the only thing holding those books together is that Haldeman wrote this book because of something about the first book that bothered him.

Friday Links: May 27

The TV show "Shit My Dad Says" was cancelled. This exchange is what happened when the Twitterer behind the show told his dad about the cancellation. [link]

Zombie lawn gnome. [link]

Don't get between a cat and it's nicotine fix.


The geek answer to the Chinese Zodiac. [link]

How much damage can your camera lens take before it becomes a problem? [link]

More prophecies of doom that didn't pan out. [link]

A scan of a spider trapped in amber. A friend of mine operates this same model of scanner.


How to tie your shoes.


The robotic skeleton sidekick makes Craig Ferguson crack up.


SpaceShipTwo (a.k.a. the V.S.S. Enterprise) demonstrating the first use of the "feather" for slowing it's descent.


Turns out lots of people in Mississippi were building their own levees. Some with more success than others. [link]

Video of the final test of a human powered helicopter called Gamera. It's a possible height and time record for human powered helicopters. [link]

Prat from Kansas state Senate compares getting raped to a flat tire. [link]

End of the world postponed for 5 months. [link]
They will not be advertising the next end-of-the-world.

Sorry, scratch that. We were judged last weekend. In 5 months the world ends. [link]

Who does work in the still toxic Fukushima nuclear power plant? People with fewer years remaining have started volunteering to do the work. [link]

Storm clouds over Kansas City. [link]
Ray, when someone asks you if you're a god, you say "YES"!

What book review phrases really mean. [link]

A better look at the buried city of Tanis and some lost pyramids. [link]

Robots developing their own language. [link]

In the game Just Cause 2 you have to parachute in to kill baddies. I think. Never played it. But here's a model of everywhere that people have gone splat.
]

Goddamn bacteria. That's MY coffee. [link]

Video compilation of Maru the strange looking Japanese cat done for it's birthday.


Marvel/DC Pirates of the Caribbean parody.


Oooh! New road trip car! [link]

Critter pics

Seamus (cat) and Oliver Queen (bird) sharing a food bowl.

Seamus (cat) tolerating affection from Dangerous Beans (also cat).

Gandolf the Grey hiding in the plants and wanting nothing to do with the other three.

Sod Off Wednesday: May 25 (2 am edition)

Why are there so damn many birds singing at two o'fucking'clock in the morning? Do the city lights make them think it's been dawn for the last six hours? Are they the bird equivalent of rebellious teenagers? Is this their version of standing outside a strip joint yelling "live nude girls" and handing out leaflets? Did Keanu Reeves tell them that if they chirp less than 10 times a minute their nest will explode? And how did he sell that to so many birds at once? Are the birds really asleep and this is that car alarm that sounds like bird songs? Maybe it's a bird city council meeting that's running late because everyone is complaining about the birds singing all night.

Well they can all just bloody well sod off.

Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean 4

This is a rather pointless movie to review. Either you've already made up your mind to go see Pirates 4 months ago OR you have zero desire to see it. This review is for that narrow segment of the population still on the fence. You saw and loved the first movie, but the second and third movies you found lacking.

The story is pretty evident from the trailer so I'm gonna talk about the craftsmanship. The first movie was inspired. They had a great idea for a movie and tied it to a major studio. They didn't try to force it to have anything to do with the Disney ride. In fact the ride was redone to match the movie.

The second and third movies were forced. Disney said "holy crap! We made a movie that was well received. We've heard of such a thing, but it's been so long since we've done it ourselves! Writers! Get us two more of the same thing!" And as tends to happen when a movie is forced from profit motive instead of inspiration, it wasn't that hot.

For this fourth movie they've done something unique. They've used someone else's inspiration. We've all seen movies based on books. In this case they took a pirate novel that predates the movies, "On Stranger Tides" by Tim Powers, and adapted it for their series. And they didn't try to force characters into the movie that just wouldn't fit. Kiera and Orlando and most of the military folk just would have been too awkward to cram in there. Some studios would try. Disney would normally try. But they don't. Not this time.

So I'd put this movie between the original and the two-part sequel. More toward the original.

Will I get it on DVD? I dunno. I got the original, but not the sequels. I liked this movie, but don't feel the need to watch it over and over.

Mass book signing

First of all, congratulations on the world not ending. I'm sure we're all very proud of that.

Second, the Nebula Awards were this past weekend. Science fiction and fantasy writers from all over the country came to Washington, D.C. to be told they were good enough to be allowed to buy a plane ticket, but not good enough to get up on stage.

Late Friday afternoon, before things really got underway, all the writers that were interested in signing (and selling) some books gathered in a large room in the Washington Hilton and greeted their adoring public. The adoring public wasn't exactly huge. Most of the people I saw had name tags because they were there for the ceremony. Their number was slightly larger than the number of authors. The number of bums off the street (i.e. me) increased the crowd by that number again. This is a rough estimate. I'm sure there were others coming and going. But what this allowed was a more relaxed air than at most book signings I've been to. The authors were arranged around the room in alphabetical order, but some took their name cards and went to sit by their friends. More friends stood around chatting with the authors. And we bums got to have a better chat than we would have in a bookstore with a crowd behind us.

I went for three names: John Scalzi, Joe Haldeman, and Mary Robinette Kowal. I recognized other names, but these were the three that got me to show up. And, true to form, I walked away with a stack. I got my picture taken by the Washington Post, but they found someone with a similar stack who better looked the part of sci-fi geek.

I picked up "Vixen" by Bud Sparhawk. Bud does most of his writing for sci-fi magazines. Short stories. And he's been writing them for years. He's appeared in some anthologies, but "Vixen" is his first novel. I asked him to "Make it out to Doug, please" so he did. "To Doug-(Please)"

Eric James Stone was there celebrating the release of "Rejiggering the Thingamajig and other stories". Truth be told, it's not supposed to be out until September. Even the author had only seen the proofs before then. I got the honor of being the 10th person to have a copy of his book autographed. I also got his business card with a short story on the back.

John Scalzi's new book, "Fuzzy Nation", is on sale. "Fuzzy Nation" is a reboot of the H. Beam Piper series that started with "Little Fuzzy". You can read the original for free here. I plan on reading both.
I also got him to sign my copy of "The Android's Dream".

"Impact Parameter and Other Quantum Realities" by Geoffrey A Landis is apparently hard to find. But he was good enough to bring copies to be placed on the table with all the rest of the books for sale.

I couldn't find my copy of "The Forever War" for Joe Haldeman to sign, but there were copies for sale. I think I got the last two. If my old copy shows up I'll pass it on to someone else. He also signed "The Accidental Time Machine" for me.

Stanley Schmidt, PhD signed "The Coming Convergence". He almost signed the book to Doug Please as well.

James Morrow's "Shambling Toward Hiroshima" came with a fake monster movie booklet called "Filmland of Famous Monsters (special Syms Thorley issue)"

And Mary Robinette Kowal was signing her first novel "Shade of Milk and Honey". It's sort of a "Sense and Sensibility" era book, but with magic. I got a lovely thick paper bookmark that strongly resembled a slat from the wooden fan that she also gave me.

I did take pictures, but between the indoor lighting and the zoom I was using they all came out shaky.

Friday Links: May 20

Preview of the second half of High Line Park. [link]

How the population center of the United States has shifted over the years. [link]

Clip on wheels for dragging home stuff you find on the sidewalk. [link]

New York Times final edition. [link]

Robot that can climb any surface.


A picture Peter Jackson just had to take. [link]

Mad Portal 2 cube tricks.


Mr Potato Battery. [link]

Harry Potter books summarized in a comic page. [link]

Iron Sky: trailer the third.


Video of electrical transformers exploding in Fort Worth.


How to explain a Kindle to Charles Dickens. [link]

Game: Blow Things Up 2 - there are creatures that need blowing up. [link]

This cat really is convinced that the people are it's slaves.


The latest Doctor Who episode was written by Neil Gaiman. Here are three clips talking about what got cut and how to write Doctor Who.




Flood defense: just add backhoe.


A cat in a tank.


Steampunked mobile phones. [link]

SQUIDS! IN! SPAAAAAACE! [link]

Game: Amigo Pancho - remove the sharp things so the cartoony Mexican stereotype can float away with his balloons. [link]

Game: Vampire Skills - help the vampire learn all his skills. [link]

The Onion says about Mitt Romney what I see every time I read an article about him. [link]

A string of pendulums of increasing length and the patterns they make when they swing together.


Pictures of nuclear tests, some of which I haven't seen before. [link]

A comparison of scenes from the game "Fallout: New Vegas" to their real world equivalents. [link]

Extreme closeups of snowflakes. [link]

Turbine for the arteries. [link]

Class M planet found... probably. [link]

From George Takai's Twitter feed: Schwarzenegger confesses to fathering baby with house staff member, but explains that child is destined to bring down SkyNet in 2031. [link]

Muppets as X-Men. [link]
I'd see that movie.

Dr Who spoof of the poster for "The Adventures of Tin Tin". [link]

I might need one of these for the next kite festival.


Flatworm regenerates from a single cell... kinda. [link]

A quest!

People of the internet, I have for you a quest.

A damn close approximation
of our pump.

The Ibid family lives on a farm in Kansas. Some time back my grandpa managed to get his hands on a used Skelly gas pump and some metal signs. Skelly was an oil company in the midwest for a long time. They were taken over by by Getty Oil in 1977. For decades that pump has been used to fill our tractors and combines and wheat trucks from a couple of diesel tanks. Apparently that pump has now been retired.

Twenty years ago it could have been retired with dignity. But that last little bit of sunshine broke down the plastic so it bleached and broke and is mostly just ugly now. And, presumably, non-functional. Don't stress too much about it. It wasn't one of those really nice ones with the globe on top and a glass chamber. No, it was much closer to what we see now. No credit card reader, but blocky with an odometer type counter and plates along the top that said Skelly. Still, as a kid I thought it was kinda cool. I probably still would if it hadn't taken so much weather damage.

But now there is no pump. Now they're relying on gravity. OK, there is a tank that is mounted on wheels so we can take emergency gas to the field if necessary. That thing has a pump. But, really, that's not a permanent solution. A replacement is needed. And I'm hoping that you good people can help. My searches have been pretty worthless. (Until just now. Seriously? Where was this site yesterday? Or last month when I was looking for fun? Well I've already started writing this so I'm pushing ahead.) Do you or someone you know have a gas station? Where do they get their pumps? Do you have a secret stash of strange junk somewhere? Do you know of a gas station that closed and forgot to take their pumps with them? Are roving gangs of gas pumps terrorizing your town? Let me know. Dad and The Punk need one to go with that brand new 1987 combine they just bought.

Sod Off Wednesday: May 18

The Dougintology Department of Acquisitions is pleased to announce an addition to it's Museum of Technological Antiquities. This is a Philco Predicta TV from 1957-1958. I'm told it doesn't work,but to be honest I haven't actually tried. I found a guy who fixes these, but he has to hand make the parts. I should expect it to cost $500 to make it work. Of course, since the TV signals have changed since then it would be for playing the Pong system.
Yes, the museum has one of those, too.

Book Review: The House That Stood Still

I picked up this book because of the author. He's not one I've fallen for, but so many classic sci-fi authors that I do respect talk about A.E. Van Vogt. So far I'm still trying to figure out if there's any reason for that other than them being friends.

This book has a promising idea. It has some interesting ways that it could have developed but didn't. I can see enjoying it if it were rewritten or adapted for TV. Instead I read this.

Many thousands of years ago a space ship crashed into what is now southern California. The ship had a telepathic interface that it used to influence the primitive natives to dig it out and tried to get them to fix it. Of course, they couldn't. It got them to build a big Incan... or possibly Mayan temple around it. But it treated the stones in such a way that they made those who lived in the building effectively immortal. In this way it could continue to guide the development of those under it's influence until they had the technical savvy to fix the ship.

Centuries passed. A lost ship of explorers crashed on the California coast. They were welcomed into the house/temple by the master of the house who was never seen again. He welcomed them because he knew he couldn't hold them off.

Realizing the ship was exerting some control the telepathic interface was smashed. I forget by who.

The house is under the control of a man named Tannahill. He was captain of the ship that crashed. He and his crew and some native women whose husbands were killed so his men could marry them still live in the house or at least spend enough time in it to keep getting made young again. They have all gotten educations and taken jobs that gives the group effective control of the area. There are also some people who were once kicked out of the house/temple who still live in the area and want back in. I'm not clear how that worked. But at this point they seem to be happy to do janitorial work in the house.

The story starts around 1950. At least I assume it does. That's when the original book came out. A man by the name of Stevens, an outsider to the group, has been hired to oversee legal matters attached to the property. He's taken over from another outsider. The group does this every time Mr Tannenhill fakes his death and starts pretending to be his own nephew or something. But this time he's been poisoned to cause amnesia. He thinks he really is his own nephew. It's a play for control of the property triggered partially because they're convinced an atomic war is coming. Some want to take the ship to Mars and wait it out. Some want to try to stop the war. It's not clear why they think atomic war is coming. Maybe they're gonna start it. It's one of those things about the book that is terribly vague and is stated as fact with no apparent cause. Who is likely to make the decision is based partially on who controls Tannenhill and thus the house.

The most interesting parts of the book were the ones that told about the house's history. It seems well thought out. The rest... meh. Stevens has too much knowledge that apparently jumps into his head fully formed. A strange woman shows up at his house. He knows her full name. And he knows the names of the thugs that are chasing her. The fact of the impending nuclear crisis is touched on but largely ignored. Oh, and they have a ship that they can use to take into space or to Mars without disturb anyone in the surrounding countryside. No big deal. They prevent the war by buzzing some country I've never heard of in their shuttles. The country blames the Americans for attacking them. HOW DOES THIS PREVENT WAR!?!

All the problems I have with this book are in the telling. A different author could do much better. I could also see this working as a struggle between the people in control of the house now and the people who were booted 500-600 years ago trying to get it back.

Don't bother with this book.

Movie Review: Priest

Imagine if vampires really existed. I don't mean they exist but lurk in the shadows and live in remote castles. Vampires exist and it's common knowledge. Wars have been fought against them. They've been an ongoing threat throughout history. How would we react? Know about them but have severe prejudice against them like in "True Blood"? Go about our lives with the threat hanging over us like Ireland with the IRA or Israel with the Palestinians? Or would we find religion? "30 Days of Night" and the 3rd Dresden Files book mention how the vampires try to remain secret just so humans don't get all religious and try to slaughter them.

When we get attacked by terrorists or are threatened by foreign super powers we rally behind the people with an army and surrender our rights and freedoms to the government. If we are threatened by supernatural beings we'd be likely to rally behind those with the cross and surrender our rights and freedoms to the church. If vampires exist then presumably so does heaven, hell, God, and Satan. Historically, churches haven't been good with power. They tend to abuse it and their followers.

This is where our movie starts. After a series of wars that span centuries we find ourselves living in massive walled cities under a very authoritarian church run government. Beyond the walls is a desolate, radioactive wasteland that an occasional farmer tries to recover as the radiation slowly fades. And in the wasteland the vampires are supposed to be confined to concentration camps.

One of these farm families is attacked by a large gang of vampires. The parents were killed and the teenaged daughter taken. Word reaches our hero. That was his family. He asks the ruling council for permission to make the warrior priests, or at least him, active again. Let him recover the girl and find out why the vampires are running free. Permission is denied. Voldemort can't come back... er, the vampires are all locked up. Besides the church's power relies on the people thinking that the church can keep them save. If the vampires are even rumored to be free and active then the people will doubt the church.

So our hero goes rogue. So the church sends more priests out to retrieve him. So goes our movie.

It was a good movie. I recommend seeing it. I'll probably get it on DVD. I'll have to see how the sequel goes. There has to be a sequel. The movie ends like the end of "Empire Strikes Back". They're splitting up and plan to reunite at the rendezvous point.

Friday Links: May 13

Blogger is FINALLY back up. Here's Friday Links.

Creepy gopher sculptures. [link]

Dancing spiders.


Another version of the translation telephone game. [link]

Best sports correction ever. [link]

That prop ages well. [link]

DC retracts Superman giving up his American citizenship. [link]

Dogs in war. [link]
Some of you know that I make military medical textbooks for a living. We've started a military veterinary medicine book I'm kinda psyched about.

Kinda old news. The origins of the word "robot" [link] and, because I actually thought about it while in front of a computer, an English translation of the play. [link]

An older video, but it popped up again. Earth if it had rings like Saturn's. 

10 years on and we've proved that torture is counterproductive and old fashioned interrogation is the way to find terrorists. [link]

Image search by color. [link]

Doctor Who fan service: The Angels vs The Silence. [link]

Unusual ways to die. [link]

How accurate are pundits? [link]

Super high resolution photo of the sky. [link]

Hasidic newspaper edited Hillary Clinton out of pictures of Obama and cabinet being briefed about Osama's death. [link]

Animated miniature airport.


Feather art. [link]

Ikea guide to sci-fi tech. [link]

10,500 lbs of used aluminum street signs for auction. I hope whoever buys them uses them for craft projects instead of just recycling them. [link]

Portal turret egg cup. [link]

Towel Day

me and my towel
May 25, 2006

Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of the death of Douglas Adams. I thought this would be a good opportunity to promote Towel Day on May 25. Celebrations will be held world wide. Find your local celebration at http://www.towelday.org/.

For the uninitiated I should explain.
Douglas Adams died 11 May 2001. A date was chosen exactly two weeks later to commemorate his life and work. Time was needed for word of this memorial to get around the internet. Some people have tried to move the date to the actual date of his death or the date of his birth or some other date more appropriate. But by popular consensus it has remained May 25.

Douglas Adams was a writer. He wrote for the original Dr Who series making Tom Baker the one original Doctor that most people recognize. He did some work for Monty Python's Flying Circus. He's best known for the radio and book series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Anytime you see the number 42 on TV, cartoons, or software it's almost certainly a reference to that series. He also did a great but little known book called "Last Chance to See" where he and a proper biologist traveled to remote parts of the world looking for
rare animals.
Within a week of his passing there was an asteroid named Arthur Dent. Early in 2005 asteroid 2001 DA42 was named Douglasadams.

Why a towel?
This next bit is from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
--------

This is what The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has to say on the subject of towels.

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy
river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the
hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.
--------

Towel Day is celebrated by carrying your towel with you all day. If that's too embarassing the Dougintologists also use the occasion to plant a tree or contributing to an enrironmental charity.
Favorites include:
* Dian Fossey Gorilla Foundation (http://www.dianfossey.org/home/)
* Save the Rhino (http://www.savetherhino.org/)
* Solar Electric Light Fund (http://self.org)
* Trees for the Future (http://treesftf.org/)

Sod off Wednesday: May 11

My contracting agency is making me attend some seminar for making sure I behave according to their standards. See, their contract with the Army expires soon. It's a safe bet it won't be renewed. Not because of anything they've done. Just in 10 years I've never seen the same contractor used twice in a row. I'm betting that they're making us do this so they can say they lost the contract due to poor contractor/contractee relations due to misbehaving staff and that they were doing everything they can to improve relations. Of course, the staff stays the same no matter what the contractor does. I'm on my sixth contractor. Every instance of poor relations were due to how the contractor treats the staff.

Soon I'll be a government employee and leave all this bureaucracy and crap behind for a whole new kind of bureaucracy and crap.

They can both sod off.

Game Review: Portal 2

I tend not to review games. Largely because I play them so long after they've come out that any review is meaningless. But I picked up "Portal 2" when it was still reasonably fresh so I get to try to tell you about it without giving away spoilers.

First of all this game is awesome. It has a sense of humor but still manages to make what seem to be jokes relevant to the story. The puzzles are pretty good. And there's a lot of them. But what you're playing for is the writing.

It actually feels like several games. The original Portal wasn't that long and the first 3/4 of the game were training levels. In "Portal 2" the game changes significantly as the story progresses. Each section of the story is about the same length as the whole of the original.

I wasn't far though the game when I decided this was one to play with Yummy. Just start over from the beginning and let her experience the whole thing. Really, the story and sense of humor is that good.

Alright, this review sucks. Everything I write feels like a spoiler.

Here. This is the beginning of the game. By now there are enough videos online that you can watch the whole game and not spend a dime. I'm posting the first part of the game just to get you hooked. It doesn't even get into the really good stuff like Cave Johnson, but shows you what you can expect.


We just got started on the two player mode. Yummy plays one robot. I'm the other. We have to work together to get through a whole new collection of tests.

I'm not sure how much replay value there is to this game, but I still think it was worth buying.

And here's the proper Cave Johnson quote collection that I thought I was posting on Friday Links.

Movie Review: Thor

This movie was fantastic. It's gonna win awards.

Don't think about Norse mythology when you go see this movie. The names were originally taken from the mythology, but they were made into Marvel Comics characters.

"Thor" is a rather Shakespearean tale of intrigue and trickery in the royal court of the gods. Two brothers competing for the approval of their aging father and, to a lesser extent, the throne of Asgard itself. But an incident at the coronation ceremony leads to rash actions by a young and impetuous god that leads to a war with an ancient enemy. This leads to banishment and the discovery of the kidnapping of a infant from the enemy eons ago. Who else to direct something like this than Kenneth Branagh?

The story was written by J. Michael Straczynski who is best known for the five year epic called "Babylon 5".  These days he writes for Marvel Comics. So he's had plenty of experience writing these kinds of epics.

Thor, stripped of his powers and banished to Midgard (i.e. Earth) until he can become worthy of his powers, befriends a group of scientists who are trying to understand the wormhole that the Asgard use to travel to different realms. He tries to help them recover their research from SHIELD. SHIELD has established a camp around Thor's hammer that was sent to Earth with him. Nobody can lift the hammer who is not worthy, and for much of the movie that includes Thor.

The sweeping vistas of Asgard are awe inspiring. The battles are unlike those you've ever seen. And you don't need the 3D glasses or theater to appreciate it. We did without and were blown away. I think the 3D would be a distraction.

There are some acting roles that are destined for certain people. Patrick Stewart always had to play Professor X. JK Simmons was the only choice for J Jonah Jameson. Robert Downey Jr was an obvious pick for Tony Stark once I heard it. Then there are those roles that seem right with one actor until you see how they're written. Patrick Stewart would have made a great Mr Freeze, but the way the character was written wrote him out and Arnold Schwarzenegger seemed a better choice. And as much as I want to see Brian Blessed play Odin, this particular take on Odin wasn't a good fit. They did well in picking Anthony Hopkins.

I will get this on DVD without hesitation. I may see it again in theaters. It's that good.