Review: Monster Mini-Golf

So, I've got a thing for mini-golf.

Don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I've put together a rubric for rating courses (because ya have to have number to rate anything) and I once put together a website for mini-golf in the Cincinnati area.

I mention all of this just as an introduction to my review of Monster Mini-Golf in West Chester. I'd been looking to try out the relatively new course since it opened about a year ago (I pass it every day to and from school), and The Girl's school had a family fun night with a couple buck discount for each adult. So to the Monster we headed.

I dig the concept of the indoor mini-golf course. In a climate like ours here in Cincinnati, any outdoor miniature golf course gets a solid three or four month season plus a dicey month or two on either end of that season. Moving the course indoors extends the season year round, but such a course needs to find a different way to draw in casual customers, those who might drive by an outdoor course and choose to drop in for a game. If the indoor course doesn't have that steady source of walk-by traffic, what they gain in year-round playability, I think they'll trade off for decreased visibility.

Monster Mini-Golf's gimmick then, is a game played under black light and an amazingly efficient use of their interior space. The front of the store is taken up by a half dozen fluorescent games - air hockey, video games, typical Chuck E Cheese stuff - and two party rooms available for birthday parties and sweet sixteens (catering to a demographic more in line with the decorations and mood of the place).

From there, every inch of the back half to two-thirds of the store is taken up with the course itself. The holes are bordered by landscape timbers (maybe 6x6") that have been sponge painted with fluorescent paint. Framed on these are simple boxes as bumpers and angled barricades. These are also important as without them, there would be no places to stand off course, to avoid being in someone's field of play as every single inch of the course is part of the eighteen holes.

Within the holes are monster-themed obstacles - rattling cages, glowing pumpkins, fluorescent haunted houses - all of which glow under the ultraviolet lights. The walls are hung with fluorescent monster vignettes on black fabric, and the corners are taken up by a DJ booth and a scene of Frankenstein's monster who rises up and scares the patrons at the worker's bidding.

It's a neat theme and makes for a festive atmosphere, something probably more suited to teens than to lower elementary kids - not because the artwork is particularly scary but because of the music choice being a little more aggressive and a little more Green Day than Jonas Brothers.

As to the playability of the course itself, I found it largely boring. The carpet that the course uses runs a little fast but true, utilizing a slightly shaggier and lighter-colored carpet for the "sand traps". The tee mats are monster-paw-shaped with LEDs marking their presence, but the mats aren't flush with the carpet so they actually end up being a hindrance to the putting. We avoided the tee mats entirely - and even got a visit from an employee trying to make sure that we understood that the tee mats were there.

The style of play, then, is also boring as there are no elevation changes and no real variation in the obstacles. Every hole plays as a flat rectangle with a few forty-five degree angles built into the rectangle. There are no slopes to roll across, no round edges to play against, and very little variety at all on the course. Two of the holes have any slope at all - the finishing hole into the clown's mouth - but that's a very easy hole in one - and the corner hole into Frankenstein's monster. The Frank hole allows players to take risk versus reward up a ramp toward the monster, but it cops out by providing a significantly easier straight path around the ramp.

It's a course for people who care more about the atmosphere than about the actual playing experience.

I'll admit that the rubric is built more for outside courses than inside, but let's check the numbers...

• Upkeep - 10 of 10 - The course could have opened a week before we got there, and I'm not sure I would have been able to tell the difference. The lack of weather wear and tear clearly helps them here.
• Difficulty - 3 of 10 - Most of the holes were simple par two's with only a very few requiring more than two for a good player (I was mostly in the three's and four's, admittedly). The raised tee mats actually made things harder as it was tough to get a true roll from them, though the location of the tee mats were in the best places to start most of the holes.
• Course Creativity - 5 of 10 - It's an artistic course in terms of attractiveness of the barriers, but every hole plays largely the same - hit it against the back wall or angle and bounce around the barrier. Same walls, same angles every time.
• Surrounding Attractiveness - This category doesn't work at all in an indoor course as it's all based on the natural and planted surroundings. Honestly, the attractiveness of the decoration is pretty high. I'll give it a 7 of 10 here.
• Equipment - 6 of 10 - Scorecards were available but didn't list any pars. No card holders were present anywhere on the course. There were three putter lengths - including kiddie. Pencils were prevalent.
• Cost - 4 of 10 - $7.50 per person regularly with short people (not just kids) being cheaper. $25 "season" passes (good for 3 months) are available.
• Bonus points
  • Mechanized hazards +0
  • Employees +1
  • Hole options +1 (one hole had a cut-through)
  • Multiple-level Holes +0
  • Lighting +0 (no bonus for having lights inside)
  • Unifying Theme +1 - decorations, yes
  • Non-mini Golf Entertainment +1 - arcade, yes
  • Snack Bar +1 - minimal options available
  • Edging Material +1 - it did provide consistent bounces
  • Course Length +0
  • Course Material +0
  • Souvenirs +0 - no labels on the pencils?

Overall Points - 41 out of 90 possible

Most of the points are due, in large part, to the place's newness and decorations. I'd rather play a course that's fun and ugly than one that's really boring and has neat prettily painted walls.

I won't be going back to Monster Mini-Golf of West Chester.

Kent's Chemical Demonstrations

After checking out Kent's Chemistry Demos, I'm thinking I want to get a video camera. I don't know that I do any demo that are amazingly awesome or that anybody hasn't done anywhere else, but if I'm going to work on being famous to my fifteen people, then I'm going to need to get video of myself online somewhere.

While you're waiting for me to get my cool videos online - and that's going to be a fair wait - check out Kent's Chemistry Demos like this one...


Imaginationland Creatures in a Vacuum

The Girl's recommendation of the day

The Girl was showing her elementary students - she's a librarian about a mile from home - some functions on various website. She was showing them things like forms and radio buttons and webcams. She came home and was telling me about he day and mentioned the National Zoo's website with twenty webcams that run twenty-four-seven.

Check out the panda-cam...naked mole rat-cam...ferret-cam...most impressively, octopus-cam.

In one of her classes, she had octopus-cam projected onto her SmartBoard while the kids were checking out books. At one point, then, a single tentacle tip began to slink its way across the camera, followed by suctions cups and the entirety of the tentacle, after which the rest of the octopus worked its way over the camera and began to feed. She said that the entire class sat in rapt, silent attention.

I'm hoping to catch a little of that cool octopus action when we get to the National Zoo this summer.

Got the apartment rented for the ten days, and we've got the tickets bought for all three baseball games. Now it's just to getting the train tickets.

A hit to my productivity

Any afternoon productivity that I used to have has taken a severe hit recently as I found that scrubs plays from 5-6 (yeah, two back-to-back episodes, I know!) on WGN. Turns out that my über-limited cable has an hour of scrubs.

Good lord, I love this show.

I'm thinking that by midsummer, I'm going to be the owner of the full seven seasons on DVD.

I love Janitor.

I love the inane dream sequences.

I love the periodic serious notes.

I love the on again, off again JD-Elliot thing.

I love their music - especially "Poison" and Collin Hay.

I love that they've set up the hospital as an extended family.

I love that the goofy JD has dated some phenomenally attractive women on the show.

I even love that I'm starting to pick up the occasional Dr Cox speech pattern in my daily dealings with some students.

And this, too...

Sugar - good early reviews...



And I promise, no more videos for a few days so your computer won't crash.

Just because...

Found this one while searching the interwebs and watching Michigan State take UConn apart.

Wanna see it

A few weeks late

Our Year of Living Steakishly: March, The Celestial

Things are getting tight at Our Year of Living Steakishly. We're down to the final half dozen steakhouses, and half a point separates our three highest rated restaurants so far: Embers (45), Carlo & Johnny's (44.5), and Mitchell's (44.5). The best value so far is Mitchell's, and the best overall steak was at Ember's.

That last statement was put to a bit of a test this month as we headed to The Celestial, where our waiter - in touring us through the menu - mentioned that many people say that their steak is the best in town, better than any of the Jeff Ruby restaurants, for example.

Well, if you're going to throw down that kind of a gauntlet, we're going to pick it up and see just what your steaks are made of. And they'd better be made of meat, because otherwise we're going to be really annoyed...and surprised.

Other than Guenther's - and the less said about that place ever again, the better - the Celestial has easily the least elegant entryway of any of our steak restaurant places so far. Its location is high atop Mount Adams, but the entry side presents a view of the condominium building of which the Celestial is the majority of the first floor. We passed by a recumbent security guard enjoying the second day of the NCAA tourney and headed down a hallway of mirrors (tempting me to scream bloody mary thrice) opening onto a smallish host area with the bar - the Incline - to the right.

The location at the bottom of what looks like a simple, inelegant apartment building - badly misplaced among the rest of the homes in Mt Adams - certainly doesn't inspire confidence. Admittedly, from the host area, we headed down a short hallway to the main dining room, a two-level affair with little decoration save for floor to ceiling windows allowing an excellent look out upon the river and the eastern side of downtown including the backside of the P&G pyramids. The view (seen in rotation on their website) is outstanding and the clear drawing power of the location.

Our table was against the windows - all of the two-person tables are. The tables for four were on a level a foot or so above us, allowing all diners an uninterrupted vantage point. The restaurant's layout is remarkably similar to Prima Vista's on the opposite side of downtown, though The Celestial goes for a much more natural feel with wooden paneling on the lone non-window wall and an older style of table and chair.

We were greeted by our waiter David, who offered us drinks and a menu that certainly introduced the restaurant as something not to be trifled with - he referred to it as a tome, and that was appropriate. The depth of the menu wasn't necessarily stunning, but the physical mass of it did leave a distinct impression. He took a moment to get us drinks and returned to offer up the day's specials as well as a few recommendations depending on where our tastes seemed to be heading.

It's rare that I'll note anything about the waiter, but this one deserves a mention. David was entertaining all evening long without ever nudging anywhere near officious. He was knowledgeable about the menu and sang the praises of the food, all of which turned out to be absolutely spot on. At the end of the meal, he asked us to come again and to ask for him by name. When we return to The Celestial - if we return - I certainly will ask for him by name. It was kind of a neat touch.

Simple presentation of bread in dimming sunset light with cute flowers of butter
The bread was presented on a simple, gold-rimmed plate with an accompanying square plate with four flowers of butter. The bread was similar to a chabatta bread but a bit sweeter and a little less crusty. It had a nice chew, and the unsalted butter balanced it nicely.

The delectable tomato and Mozzarella tower with smears of balsamic reduction
None of the appetizers tempted us, so we headed a little further down the menu to take in a starter - the tomato and mozzarella tower split presented on two plates for us at the offering of our waiter. The starter was outstanding. Two layers each of tomato and cheese found their way onto our plates, topped with light greens resembling clover in appearance but providing a nice, clean background against which the bit of balsamic reduction on the plate. The reduction took on a syrupy consistency so that even the small bit held tightly to the tomato as we smeared across it. Through the magic of concentration, the typical tangy of balsamic morphed into a sweetness almost reminiscent of blackberries. This was one of the best salad/starters that we've had in our tours.

The rest of our individual orders:

• The Girl
  - Gorgonzola and pear salad
  - Filet Mignon, 8oz, medium rare plus
  - Sour cream, horseradish whipped potatoes
• ChemGuy
  - hearts of Romain salad
  - Kansas City strip, medium rare
  - lobster potatoes
• Shared
  - spicy green beans (side)
  - Crème brûlée (dessert)

ChemGuy's hearts of Romain salad
The croutons atop my hearts of Romain salad had been rubbed with garlic and toasted - sadly taking it a bit beyond just crunchy to hard. That, however, was the only off note on my salad as the hearts of Romain were whole leaves of tender Romain lettuce - my choice at home or in a restaurant - topped with a Caesar vinaigrette and Romano cheese. My salad was excellent and simple, and The Girl's was also excellent but far more involved. She went with the Gorgonzola and pear salad, coming out to her with a nicely sliced pear resting partially atop a salad of mixed greens, dried cherries, candied walnuts, and Gorgonzola cheese crumbles. The slightly bitter greens and cherries were balanced marvelously with the sweet pear and walnuts, and all the ingredients were nicely tied together with a vinaigrette coating the greens. The Girl reported that the salad was easily the best she had enjoyed on our tour.

The Girl's Gorgonzola and pear salad
Kansas City strip and lobster potatoes
David brought our entrees, mine on two separate plates (see just above), The Girl's on one larger plate, and our green beans set between us. The smell was amazing as was the crust on each steak. These were steaks clearly cooked at the high temperatures that Red was missing. These were crusts to make mouths water, and they certainly did that to mine. The bone in mine was a bit off-putting, and I would likely choose the New York strip rather than the Kansas City cut when we go back to the Celestial. There was also a strip of fat on the side opposite the bone, but everything between the two was outstanding. The center was a perfect red, the outside a masterful brown-black. This was a perfectly prepared steak.

The Girl's initial thoughts were that her choice of medium rare plus was a bit too far as the center redness was a faded pink in her first few bites, but the center's glory began to reveal itself after a few more bites. Her steak's crust was also perfect and the meat significantly smoother than mine. The initial reservations were cleared up, and The Girl and I both agreed that David's comment that the steaks at The Celestial were the equal of any in town - at least any that we've tried so far. I give Embers a half point on The Celestial's steaks, but that comes from the slight over cooking on one end of The Girl's filet and imperfect edges of my strip.

My biggest issue - and one worthy of a full point deduction on my rankings - was the low quality of the steak knives at The Celestial. A steak of this quality, a steak that is to be the finest cut available shouldn't be hacked and grabbed with a serrated knife worthy of the Outback. This level of restaurant should be providing straight-bladed knives honed to razor sharpness. Cheap, serrated blades simply are not acceptable at this level.


Spicy green beans - half of which were consumed
Our sides were of a mixed level. The Girl reported that her whipped potatoes were outstanding, tangy with horseradish but leveled with the sour cream within. The horseradish put them entirely beyond my tastes, but she's a horseysauce kinda Girl. so she thought they were outstanding. My lobster potatoes were very tasty with a slight taste of the shared base with their lobster bisque. My potatoes had been cooked in the thick, flavorful sauce and had a subtle flavor that was very much enjoyable. The green beans were - at first bite - wonderfully flavorful, having been sauteed and then coated in a sauce of soy and hot pepper. The sauce was reduced and thickened to coat the green beans. After a few bites, however, the soy reduction became far too salty for either of our tastes. The flavor was good in very small doses, but between the two of us, we couldn't finish the green beans.

Shockingly, crème brûlée with a strawberry garnish
The crème brûlée was nicely firm and flavored, but the crust on top was easily more blonde than the golden brown that results from thorough caramelizing. Not the finest dessert we've had on our tour, but a solid entry with a very simple accompaniment of a sliced strawberry centered atop. Plus, it wasn't in a stupidly shaped bowl.

To the numbers, intrepid readers:

• Appetizers/Dessert - 8.25 - The crème brûlée topping wasn't as dark as it should be - still more blond than burnt (7), the mozarella/tomato tower was fairly well perfect (9.5)
• Steak - 8.5 - Outstanding...excellent crust, good flavor, mine perfectly cooked with a little more fat than I would have appreciated (8)...The Girl's a little more done than she would've liked but otherwise spectacular (9).
• Side dishes - 7.3 - both potatoes get an 8, and the green beans a 6.
• Atmosphere - 9 - Obviously, great view, well laid out dining room, good atmosphere.
• Cost - 3 - Our bill was $114 - minus $6.50 for a reasonably-priced Manhattan plus a solid tip because of the next section.
• Service - 9.5 - We agreed that this was our favorite waiter - they lose a half point because my glass got low on water a couple of times.
• Minus 1 - horrible steak knives, serrated and not effective in cutting the steak. Very bad.
• Total score - 44.55 (out of 60)

Today's li'l bit of joy

Signs
by mg02

Well, that's just heartwarming...

The horrors of the RSS

These two stories were both up on the RSS from CNN today, and neither one has the least bit of cheer in it. I'm heading to bed with horrible thoughts about these and thought I'd share, folks...

• Mom's plea deal includes 'resurrection clause'
• Man decapitates 5-year old sister in front of officer

Reflections on a state final game

The Vikings won the state basketball championship this past Saturday night. Sadly, it was the wrong Vikings as Northland edged out the Princeton Vikings 60-58.

So, some thoughts from the game...in no particular order...

• I was amazed at the small student section and crowd that Northland brought to the game. They're a school located 19 minutes away from the Schottenstein Center according to Google Maps. Their student section didn't look even half full from my vantage point. I don't know if there are school spirit issues or economic issues or what, but for the state finals of the second-biggest sport in Ohio, I certainly would've expected more students there.
• After the game was decided - which means after the game in this case - the Northland student second broke into the chorus of "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" as the Princeton fans have been doing pretty much every game this year when they felt the game was out of reach in favor of Princeton. At that point, the many in the PHS student section saluted with raised middle fingers, something that the PHS principals tried very quickly to quell. A few of the PHS students then followed up by raising their wallets in a final salute.
  
  If the Princeton students are going to use the song in their favor, they need to be ready to get such a salute right back. The singing of this song has long bothered me because it suggests an absolute disdain for the opposing team in the game that it undercuts the concept of fair and friendly competition. Yes, Northland shouldn't have sung it - particularly because the game was over by then, so the boasting was pointless - but it was far worse sportsmanship for the PHS fans to lower the bar even further.
  
  And I don't really understand the wallet salute. My only guess here is that those PHS fans assume that the Northland players come from poor socioeconomic background and hence won't have as much money as those PHS fans will. I have no clue what sort of school Northland, and I doubt that many of our students searched GreatSchools.net in advance of the game to find out that indeed, Northland is a 74% black, 99% economically-disadvantaged student body. If they did, knowing that at some point they might need to give the wallet salute (and I have to admit that my understanding of the gesture is pure conjecture), then I've even more disappointed in our students.
  
  The game was a hard-fought one that went against the PHS hopes, but that certainly isn't any excuse to show poor sportsmanship at any point in the game.
• Before the game started, a younger boy behind me booed when a Northland player was introduced. The boy was probably seven or eight years old, and his father asked him rather simply if that was good sportsmanship. The boy hesitated, and the father helped him out by explaining that it wasn't good sportsmanship to boo the opposing players. It was a nice little moment and one that disappeared entirely as the boy, his brother, and father proceeded to spend most of the night berating the officials and yelling at the top of their lungs at how much the referees were making awful calls. I'm thinking that the old saw of the apple not falling far from the tree was very much in effect in the row behind me last night, and it was tough not to turn around and ask the father to remember what he said to his son at the start of the night.
• In a game decided by two points, there will always be dozens of plays that could have - had they gone the opposite way - swung the game's outcome to the other team. I don't typically find myself wrapped up in a game, so I don't normally notice all those little plays, but there were dozens of them that I can come up with from the top of my head for last night's game:
  • the tip-in by PHS of a missed Northland free throw
  • PHS's coach's first technical foul that I had seen all year - for protesting the officiating
  • any of a half dozen charge/foul calls
  • numerous missed three-point shots taken by the PHS players - both those who could normally be counted on to make them and those who probably shouldn't be shooting them
  • calls and non-calls on drives, on steals, on dozens of plays
  • missed free throws
  And I hope that the PHS players don't beat themselves up too badly for each having made those kinds of mistakes. For every play that Princeton didn't make - or ever loose ball that bounced away from them or foul called against them - there was a play that Northland didn't make either. Northland didn't hit every shot, didn't get every call, didn't play a perfect game. And unless a team can say that they definitively played perfectly, there will always be plays in that game that they need to practice, need to get better, should have made a little more cleanly. It's a tough fact, but it's a fact.
• It's rare that I get emotionally involved in any sporting event. I can't affect the outcome by my cheering or my wearing of my lucky shirt or by anything else, but I so desperately wanted the PHS boys to win Friday night's game. It's one thing to lose in the state final game, but for some reasons in my head, it was something entirely different to get to the Columbus and only play one game.
  
  On Saturday, however, I went into the game knowing that PHS was supposed to lose and somehow resigning myself to that outcome before the game even started. Sure, once the team climbed out of the ten-point hole to start the fourth quarter and tied the game with under a minute left, I had hope that my feelings would be wrong, that the right Vikings might just pull this thing out, but I knew somewhere in the back of my head, that they'd gotten far enough to justify all the hype, to make this a successful season.
  
  But, man, I really wanted to see them climb all the way out of that hole.
• I know in my heart of hearts that the officials are doing the best job they possibly can, but there are times when it's tough to keep that thought at the forefront of my feelings. At one point in the third quarter last night, Princeton had five straight fouls called against them in a span of just over a minute. At no point in that time did Princeton get possession of the ball, and every foul seemed to either be minor or to bail out Nortland from a bad position or to be the foul that sent a Princeton player to the bench. I can justify all of the calls and the fact that Northland drew more fouls because they spent most of the game pounding the ball inside where PHS often settled for jump shots, but that doesn't make it any easier in the heat of the moment.
• I think I annoyed Calen, however, with my calmness at some times in the game. At one point, a PHS player reached in, trying to steal the ball from a Northland guard on the left side of the court near midcourt. The Northland player had his back to our seats, and any contact made by the PHS player - either on the ball or on the Northland player - was entirely screened from our view. Immediately, the family behind us announced it as the worst call ever, saying that they obviously saw the contact as being all ball, and I nearly doubled over with laughter, explaining to The Girl (who sat on my side opposite Calen) that there was no way anyone from our view could see the play and that there was no way we could honestly say that we saw the play clearly enough to say whether the call was a good one or a bad.
  
  There are times where my tendency to laugh at things I find absurd doesn't make me any friends. Sorry, Calen.
• I learned this in looking up that earlier point about the wallet salute, but Northland's high school website is awful. Their athletics site and their Instrumental Music Parents Association site are both far better and more professional. That seems odd to me.
• It's kinda cool to see a basketball game in a really big arena - Schottenstein can seat 19,500 for basketball - from time to time. I see almost all of my games in high school gyms, and there's a very different feel in a huge gym. Not enough for me to wish I'd gone to a big university and all, but it's kinda cool from time to time.
• Calen often says that she wishes her team would lose by twenty rather than losing a close one, and I certainly understand that feeling. It's easier as a fan to let the stress go quickly rather than to have to sweat things out. As a player, it's one thing to throw your hands up and say that it just wasn't your day, that the other team was far better, that you had an off day, that whatever, but that's the weak choice. As a fan, I'll say gimme that close game. As a player - in tennis only, admittedly - I'll always take a close loss because that's the one that tells me it was worth coming out. A blowout loss just makes me think I shouldn't have even shown up. Forget that, I don't want to ever get blown out or to see my team get blown out.
• It's easy to say that the calls even out over the long haul, and I believe that they probably do. I also believe that it's pretty much impossible to ever test that theory with any sort of statistical certainty. And I know that even if it does even out over the long haul, that long haul is much, much longer than a single game's duration. Over the course of a season, maybe. Over the course of the game, no way. Not that I really have any clue as to how the refereeing was on Saturday because every call I saw was viewed through the lenses of being a PHS fan. I may not be as vocal as the guy behind me or as hopeful, perhaps, as some others, but I can't even remotely claim that I'm impartial enough to know with any certainty which calls were "good" and which were "bad" rather than which went against PHS and which went for PHS.
• Jordan Sibert is a heck of a player. He ended up with 21 pts - check the stats, and he did it with seeming ease. There's a difference with great players who just seem to make the game look easy rather than the good players who always seem to be the focus of the offense, who seem to need to work for their points night in and night out. Sure, the good players will have nights where they look like great players, but those'll be the nights when you notice them every bit as much. The great players, on the other hand, never quite seem to be the center of everything because they don't need to be; the game just comes a little more easily to them. Their games are the ones where they are consistent all game long, never pressing, never forcing the issue, just consistently getting a few points here and a few points there and ending up with twenty points. Jordan isn't by any stretch of the imagination the greatest player I've ever seen in a high school game, but he's certainly far more than a good player. With the scoring load that he's going to have to carry next year, he just might average twenty-five.
• It's tough to win a game when two of your players are limited to 16 minutes each because of foul trouble - especially when those are the two big guys who have to defend Mr Basketball.
• Darrien Wilkins might be better than I had previously thought. I've been watching him this year and last and thinking that he was a finess player who would shy away from contact at any chance possible. In the final game, however, he was forced to play twenty-two minutes and to defend Mr Basketball during many of them. He showed me something more than I'd seen from him before. Admittedly, he needs to get a little bigger and stronger, but he's got more on the court than I'd thought.
• It sucks to watch a team lose the state final game.
  
  No matter how close they came...no matter how much you can say that they gave it their all...no matter how proud you can be of them for their work and effort and accomplishment...
  
  It sucks to watch them lose.

If you actually want a full recap of the game - since I'm not exactly offering that, feel free to check out some of the cool links that I found for the PHS website on Sunday:

• Hair Club for the Vikings
• Enquirer's HS sports blog
• Princeton pulls away late (semi-final game)
• Princeton focused on Friday (including link to photo album from PHS pep rally)
• Vikes play for 2 coaches
• Victorious Vikings (final game)
• photo album from Columbus Dispatch (final game)
• Final game box score
• Princeton uses second-half surge to beat Toledo St John's in Div I semifinal
• Sullinger's free throws propel Northland to D-I title
• Final game stats and video
• Northland holds off Princeton
• Princeton Falls Short

In case you were wondering...

I've been invited to Facebook a half dozen times - from friends, family, even a student once, and I've always chosen to avoid signing up for the site. This past week, I was sent by my building union rep a reminder (sent school-wide, by the way, not just to me) as to why I probably shouldn't ever sign up for Facebook and why no matter how candid I am in this forum, there always has to be some professional distance here...

The Whole World (Wide Web) is Watching
Cautionary tales from the 'what-were-you-thinking' department.

Way back in 1974, California teacher and aspiring actor Lou Zivkovich famously was fired for posing nude in Playgirl magazine. His response, as reported by Newsweek, "I didn't murder anyone."

Nowadays, thanks to advances in technology, you don't even need a major publisher to get fired; just post your racy photos, sexually graphic writings, or wild party stories on a personal Web blog. You'll be amazed by how quickly tech-savvy students can disseminate your postings to their friends and your employer.

Here's a roundup of some of the recent horror stories:

In Virginia, high school art teacher Stephen Murmer was fired after posting photos of his "butt art" on the Web, which were viewed by scores of students. The budding artist applied paint to his posterior and genitalia, which he then pressed onto canvases. With the help of the ACLU, he sued the school district last fall claiming a violation of his First Amendment rights.

Band director Scott Davis from Broward County, Florida, was dismissed after school officials viewed his MySpace profile that included his musings about sex, drugs, and depression.

A Colorado English teacher lost her job after composing and posting sexually explicit poetry on her MySpace site. Police were even called in to investigate.
Nashville teacher Margaret Thompson was removed from teaching after posting "racy pictures" of herself, along with candid photos of her students, on her MySpace profile.

Florida middle school teacher John Bush was terminated because of "offensive" and "unacceptable " photos and information on his MySpace page.

Massachusetts teaching assistant and Massachusetts Teachers Association member Keath Driscoll was first suspended and then fired for his MySpace postings including "sexually suggestive" photographs, videos of drinking alcohol, and references to women as "whores." MTA took his case to arbitration and won almost a complete victory. In a decision dated March 24, 2008, the arbitrator ruled that Driscoll should not have been fired and ordered him reinstated with back pay, seniority, and benefits. The arbitrator did conclude, however, that Driscoll had engaged in misconduct that warranted some form of discipline, which he determined to be a three-day suspension.]

But the clueless award goes to Atlanta-area high school football coach Donald Shockley, who was forced to resign in early 2008 for storing on his school computer photos of his assistant principal dressed in lingerie and posing in sexually suggestive ways. The photos were discovered by a student whom Shockley had asked to work on his computer and who then posted the photos on the Internet and sent them to other students at the school.

In October 2007, reporters for The Columbus Dispatch conducted an investigation of MySpace profiles posted by Ohio teachers. The newspaper quoted one 25-year-old teacher bragging that she's "an aggressive freak in bed," "sexy," and "an outstanding kisser." Another teacher wrote on her page that she had recently "gotten drunk," "taken drugs," and "gone skinny-dipping."

In the wake of these reports, the Ohio Education Association urged all OEA members to remove any personal profiles they may have posted on MySpace or Facebook. The Association also warned members that such profiles "can be used as evidence in disciplinary proceedings," which could "affect not only a teacher's current job but his/her teaching license" as well.

But what about free speech? Don't school employees have the right, on their own time, to blog about their private lives without fear of losing their jobs? Probably not.

It's the general rule that school employees can be disciplined for off-duty conduct if the school district can show that the conduct had an adverse impact on the school or the teacher's ability to teach. And it wouldn't be too difficult to make that showing if the teacher's blog includes sexually explicit or other inappropriate content and is widely viewed by students.

As to a possible free speech claim, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that it was not a violation of the First Amendment for the City of San Diego to fire a police officer for posting a sexually explicit video of himself on the Internet. The unanimous Court said that such speech was "detrimental to the mission and functions of the employer."

And last year, a U.S. District Court ruled that a Connecticut school district's decision to fire a probationary teacher because of his postings to his MySpace page did not violate the teacher's First Amendments rights. The court called the online exchanges between the teacher and his students "inappropriate" and added that "such conduct could very well disrupt the learning atmosphere of the school."

There's an old lawyer's saw that goes something like this: Never put in writing anything that you wouldn't want read in open court or by your mother.

Maybe it's time for an updated adage: Never put in electronic form anything that you wouldn't want viewed by a million people, including your colleagues, students, and supervisors-and your mother.

Michael D. Simpson
NEA Office of General Counsel

The perfect cheeseburger?

According to The Boyfriend over at WineMeDineMe, the perfect cheeseburger may have come to the Cincinnati area.

Anybody wanna grab lunch?

Mixed bag of YouTube

Freezeframe!

J Geils has nothing on Alan Sailer and his awesome high-speed photography.

The next installation of Steakish Living was supposed to come today, but that'll be early next week. Hopefully with revelations of a Viking state title.

Enjoy the weekend, kiddies...

Where's Nelson Muntz when you need 'im?

Today's link is the simplest one I think I've ever offered...it's a single-button sound effect, and it's a classic.

Give it a try here.

I kinda like hitting the button as many times as I can as quickly as possible before the sound effect can catch up.

And thanks to GRob for recommending the site.

State of the League

This year's fantasy baseball will be a little different from most other years have been.

Apparently I'm one of few folks in my circle who still want to play fantasy baseball because our league has - in the past three years - dropped in enrollment from twelve teams to five. It's pathetic. Either they don't want to play fantasy baseball or they just don't want to play fantasy baseball with me.

Man...

So, we've got a five-team league which means that there's a hugely deep free agent pool and teams that are stacked like...um...like something really stacky.

Here's the 2009 version of the Princeton Vikings fantasy baseball team:

• C - Victor Martinez - old dude, weak position overall, but it's a position that I don't think is going to make or break my team
• 1B - Albert Pooholes - my first-round pick, 2nd overall, perpetually strong...I've been accused of having a weird man crush here, and it's kinda true
• 2B - Alexei Ramirez - he's ranked pretty high
• 3B - Evan Longoria - hopefully he repeats last year and improves on it
• SS - Jimmy Rollins - he's been very solid for a few years, no worries here
• OF - BJ Upton - another young Ray...hoping for two repeats here
• OF - Alex Rios - was on my team last year and disappointed a bit, so I'm thinking he'll bounce back a bit this year
• OF - Corey Hart - hell of a singer in the 80s
• Utility - Curtis Granderson - recovered from last year's season-ending injury, ready to compete for the MVP again
• SP - Johan Santana - he wasn't the greatest pitcher on the planet last year, but he was one of the best in the league
• SP - CC Sabathia - fat tub of firebally-throwing goo, and he's got a team of All-Stars behind him to get the wins
• SP - Brandon Webb - hasn't had a bad season yet, not gonna have one this year
• SP - James Shields - didn't realize just how much I'm counting on TB to repeat
• SP - Josh Beckett - the move to Boston can only help him
• RP - Francisco Rodriguez - the move to NYM will help him, but he still won't pick up as many saves as he did last year
• Bench
  • OF - Jay Bruce - here's a flyeron a young guy who might or might not surprise
  • RP - BJ Ryan - with a fully healthy season in Toronto, he'll up his saves by five or ten
  • RP - Brian Fuentes - the Angels have been offering up save opportunities for years, and this year shouldn't change that
  • RP/SP - Joba Chamberlain - the talent's gotta show up some year...might as well be this one

The teams are so deep, the league so tiny that I have no idea whether this is a good team...yet.

But I at least know I'll be better than Calen's team.

Wake me up when a one seed loses

C'mon, folks...

South...1,2,3,4
East...1,2,3,4
West...1,2,3,5
Midwest...1,2,3,12

Sure, a bunch of the games have been close.

Sure, a bunch of the high seeds have been threatened and pushed.

Nobody in the top twelve seeds has lost.

This isn't a tournament yet. It's a slaughter.

The Ohio high school basketball tourney, on the other hand, is frickin' exciting and the reason why I'll be in Columbus this weekend watching the Vikes take to State for the first time in my life.

The attraction of The Mysteries of Harris Burdick

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself at The Girl's school, helping out with her spring book fair. It's a nice fundraiser for the library, and my assigned task was a simple enough one - handing out cookies and pink lemonade to the patrons - that I certainly didn't mind spending the couple of hours there.

To pass the time - as my job allowed a decent amount of time passing to be done - I flipped through some of the books nearer to my station and happened upon one of my all-time favorite children's books, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick.

It's a gorgeous book - typical of Chris van Alsburg's work - in which van Alsburg tells a brief introductory tale of a folio of drawings left with his publisher after a single meeting with the mysterious (and titular) Harris Burdick, with whom a second meeting was never managed. With each of the drawings, Mr Burdick had left only a single line of accompanying text.

In blatant and open copyright violation, I provide you the images and the text - faithfully reproduced here thanks to the copyright violation of the Halifax Regional School Board.

If you're looking to own these, I'd highly recommend the portfolio edition of the book with its gorgeous, oversized prints.


It was a perfect lift off.


She knew it was time to send them back. The caterpillars softly wiggled in her hand, spelling out "goodbye".


She lowered the knife, and it grew even brighter.


He swung his lantern three times, and slowly the schooner appeared.


His heart was pounding. He was sure he had seen the doorknob turn.


It all began when someone left the window open.


He had warned her about the book. Now it was too late.


So it's true, he thought. It's really true.


The fifth one ended up in France.


Even with her mighty engines in reverse, the ocean liner was pulled further and further into the canal.


If there was an answer, he'd find it there.


A tiny voice asked, "Is he the one?"


He threw with all might, but the third stone came skipping back.


Two weeks passed and it happened again.

In the rubber room

Today's topic was mentioned to me by a coworker. In passing, he mentioned that he'd heard a report on This American Life about what he called The Rubber Room.

He had the name right, and I found out that The Rubber Room isn't a single Rubber Room, it's a bunch of Rubber Rooms - holding rooms where teachers from the New York Public School system are sent while disciplinary procedures are pending against them. If a student makes an accusation against a teacher, the teacher reports to a Rubber Room the next day - earning full salary, getting full pay and benefits but having no contact with students at all.

On the surface, it doesn't sound like an entirely unreasonable situation. It's a suspension with pay pending a disciplinary hearing. The problem is that the disciplinary hearing often doesn't come for months...or years.

So the teacher sits in a Rubber Room, passing the time, locked in a type of purgatory in which they can't do what they're trained to do and what - in most cases - they want to do. Instead, they're stuck waiting and waiting and surviving.

The story describes the Rubber Rooms as being somewhat like prisons, with a very established and clearly defined hierarchy of who's been there the longest, who gets what seat, which groups can sit together, and even their own manners of discipline as fights sometimes break out between the held teachers.

I understand that some teachers do cross lines - swearing, putting their hands inappropriately on students, transgressing in some way - and those teachers shouldn't be in contact with students. But as the clips from the coming Rubber Room documentary show, there are also false accusations out there.

Affecting traffic in the Princeton area yesterday...

Good stuff at school yesterday...on the way in, I heard about the shooting on the highway about a mile south of school that was shutting down the interstate and directing everybody off right at good ol' PHS. Seems that a late night at a sports bar in the district turned ugly when one car pulled an assault rifle on I-75 and put at least nine bullets into an SUV. The SUV flipped into the off ramp, and the passengers didn't make it. All of this was before 3am.

In the least of the tragedies associated, a dozen teachers were late getting in because they normally roll south on I-75 and get here right at the contract time.

The Enquirer web article yet again allowed the high level of discourse to shine through in their comments section...

• Bored_at_work

  Sounds about right. You wouldn't catch me dead at the Garage on a Tuesday night. $2 Tuesdays is the day of the week when all the hood rats and thugs come out and start mess.. INstead of keeping it at home, they get dressed up and plan on going there just to fight and act a fool. NOt my cup of tea.

• Like the Bible says "an eye for an eye".

  Bobish

  That's Old Testament. Check out what Christ had to say about that. Something about turning the other cheek.

• LibTwpThug

  Jesus is my homeboy. I know he preach the truth!

• MrPips

  Did someone throw a chicken wing at someone or something? Did they get "dissed" as a result and figure it's time to do some killin?
  
  So far it's been a two week long crime spree of raping, robbing and killing on the greater Cincinnati streets.
  
  I am so tired of living here.

• Waveontheway

  I'm not interested in the death penalty as a deterrent. I'm interested in the death penalty as a way of elliminating these monster psychopaths from the planet. Anyone agree?
  
  There is a genetic abherration that needs to be cleansed from the Earth, and it has finally manifested itself in spades in the Cincinnati Metro area.

• Montrell

  No surprise really. I imagine things like this will happen more and more often in Cincinnati in the future. The Cincinnati area has become awful in comparison with other big cities. Thugs, ghetto gangbangers, white trash...the influx of these types of people into the Cincinnati area continues at a rapid pace.

• helpmelord

  GOD in his wisdom is laughing at us! Those "Who Know" and those "Who think they know" what is right, truth, moral, good, evil. Its insightful to read these posts. It tells me the world is truly a dangerous place and the danger really does not come from the people who kill each other on the highway. What technology has done through the use of blogs like this is tell you how much "hate, judgement, racism, prejuidice, exist in the world. Its only the advent of technology that allows us to see both kinds (the inhumane -those that take lives and the humane- those that destroy lives through hatemongering). The 'murders' we see on the nightly news have always occurred since the beginning of time - Cain killed Abel, Ted Bundy, that clown in Chicago who ate the flesh of boys, etc.... but that's a small percentage compared to those that murder life through the spoken/written word. Maybe God will hear the words spoken in hate and respond in kind.

• keeco09

  This is a tragedy no matter what road they went sown to in life, even the worst criminals have someone who loves them and that is Jesus Christ, his gift of love is availible to anyone who is willing to receive it, so please don't be judgemental because therefore by the grace of God, go I. It's just ashame this had to be something straight out of a movie, and of course in movies people seek revenge and there goes the cycle it may never end. To see lives wasted and for what, what could of been that important to have a shootout on a freeway at 3 o'clock in the morning innocent lives could of been lost, what is this world coming to? I know big brother has some kind of surveilence (hope it's spelled right) where they could look into some video from outer space and see the whole thing and get the license plate of the other car or something, anytime I can google my mother's address and see a 360 degree view of her house with her sitting on the porch on a summer day come on people!

• FOXMOTO

  I have a HUGE problem with people who are sad these guys are dead. This is a great day in Cincinnati! Rejoice! No one innocent was hurt! Two career criminals GONE! F*** The families who raised these kids, too. They have contributed NOTHING but filith into society. Ban section 8! Lets regain our cities and streets from the ignorant, trash currently occupying it.
  AND NIKODIN, YOU'RE THE BIGGEST DA I HAVE EVER SEEN COMMENT ON THE INTERNET. IF SOMEONE PULLED A GUN ON YOU, YOU WOULD PROBABLY LET THEM SHOOT YOU YOU'RE SO IGNORANT. THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS IS AS OLD AS THE CONSTITUION ITSELF. YOU'RE A WALKING CONTRADICTION! WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE WAS NO FASCINATION WITH GUNS WHEN YOU WERE A KID? WE DIDN'T MAGICALLY INSTITUTE THE SECOND AMMENDMENT 30 YEARS AGO! IT'S THE RAPPERS, THE FREE MEALS OUR COUNTRY GIVES OUT, THE SOCIAL NORMS ENTITILING THESE IDIOTS TO ACT THE WAY THEY DO. HOW CAN YOU BE SO NAIVE?
  
  YOU PROBABLY BLAMED GEORGE BUSH FOR HURRICANE KATRINA.

Then, around 10:30 that same morning, here's what we got via the school email...

A little over an hour ago an individual entered a “business” in the general vicinity of the Scarlet Oaks Campus and stabbed a person.

As a result the Scarlet Oaks campus was put on lockdown. Since that time Scarlet Oaks has lifted their lockdown and is back to normal operations.

The only description of the individual (from police) is a male, black wearing a white and blue New York Yankees’ cap and baggy black trousers. Unknown on age, height, wgt., etc. The subject was last seen “walking west” on Kemper Road.

The police perimeter has also been lifted (in search of the individual). There is no information that the suspect is heading toward Glendale or any specific school. Obviously the police are investigating same.

The high school / middle school SRO is aware of the situation. Obviously we will monitor same.

It's a rough morning to be around the Princeton area...sheesh...

It doesn't get any better than this

The draw was Sunday night. With UD being 30 minutes away, I have to get up to the play-in-game some year.

The hometown team headed into this past weekend on a 48-1 streak.

The current home team ran their way to the state sweet sixteen and plays tonight to make the final eight.

I'm planning my Steakish Living this month around the possibilities of two nights in Columbus.

I absolutely love this time of year.

This's how you adapt a book

Coraline is not a huge book. It's a darkly entertaining children's book by Neil Gaiman, and it has at its heart a very simple story: bored girl finds secret door to other world...other world seems cooler...other world turns out to be scary.

Atop this simple skeleton, the director or the movie Coraline - the same director who brought us The Nightmare Before Christmas a decade and a half ago - has crafted a gorgeous and not entirely faithful adaption of Gaiman's tale. I say not entirely faithful because the film adds in a new character to allow Coraline's book narration to have an audience in the film, and the film brings closer the two dramatic moments near the end of the book - tightening up the declining/rising-again action that Gaiman included in the book. In this case, the tighter story actually works in favor of the film, more closely matching the typical plot graph of a Hollywood film.

With the story tightened up, Selick is free to focus upon the craft of the film, producing a stunning achievement in stop-motion animation, a gorgeous film shot in breathtaking 3d and one that should be seen in its true 3d to be truly appreciated. The figures have taken another great leap forward in expressiveness as the titular character's facial features are as emotional as any human actress could be, her parents conveying the tedium that few live actors could ever put forth.

And Selick's transformation of Gaiman's world onto the screen makes for a gorgeous palette from which the "other world's" beauty is impressively seductive, allowing us to believe that Coraline might just choose to stay there were it not for the frightening notes behind the scenes. The feeling of excitement in the other world is marvelously conveyed - from the Other Father's lone musical number (from They Might be Giants) to his garden, the basement ladies' performance to Mr B's circus - but the soundlessly sour notes coming from the Other Wybie's muted friendship show just how horrible would be Coraline's dreams coming true at the expense of her reality.

The film is gorgeous...frightening (its G rating should more realistically be a G-10 as the smallest children would likely be too frightened by the terrors from which Coraline has to defend her world)...and emotionally resonant.

This is a film that betters its source material.

Take that, Zach Snyder.

Putting out a call

Name the theme - not that it's really a tough one...







This one's not embeddable