My favorite book trilogies

I'm shocked at how few trilogies there are out there, at least when I type in things like best book trilogies into Google.

There are a whole bunch of book series, but not just neat, tidy, three-book runs.

So, let's go with book series - and define that as at least three books (that I've read) in a connected story and by the same author (or at least published under the same author's name) - instead.

So, in no particular order...

• Hunger Games - quite popular right now for some reason...I read them when I was laid up with a back injury a few years back...good series for both young men and women because there's a ton of action and strong, female lead
• Harry Potter - I'm surprised if I find a book reader who hasn't read this in its entirety, so no big explanation is necessary...wonderfully helped spawn a continuing re-explosion in children's reading (now young adult reading, too)
• Incarnations of Immortality - read the seven books in this series when I was in high school and enjoyed the heck out of them...nice fantasy series exploring the immortals (war, death, time, god, devil, nature, fate) as offices held by mortals...interesting concept made more interesting by the family relationships that connect the series's current office holders
• Wrinkle in Time - loved it as a child, read the four books...re-read the first book as an adult and absolutely loathed it...fantasy premises that become more Christian as the series moved along...
• Discworld - funny stuff in fantasy form...the quality is routinely high, and you can drop in and out at any place in the series...hilarious books with thoroughly entertaining characters
• The Dark Tower - the linchpin around which Stephen King's career has ended up turning...encompasses so many genres (Western, sci-fi, fantasy, historical) and so many of his other tales (some intended, some connected after the fact)...
• MaddAddam - just finished the second book (accidentally read after the third) and found it redundant because I knew where the characters were eventually going...good read, though...
• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - it's been a long time since I read these four, but they're another humorous series...fun sci-fi with a good sense of humor
• all of Kurt Vonnegut's world - my favorite author...not technically a series, but so many of his books have interconnected characters (sometimes in slightly different forms and with different details) that it's almost okay to call them of a single piece...wonderful writing...
• Dragons of... by Weis/Hickman - read these in high school, too, and was never satisfied with the non-Weis/Hickman books that followed...high fantasy with world building being done throughout...great D&D action and themes...

So many of these were read so far in the past that it's tough for me to rank them in any meaningful way. Young ChemGuy would certainly have ranked them very differently than old ChemGuy.

If I were forced to choose from among the ones I've read as an adult, I would probably but Vonnegut up top followed by Dark Tower, Harry Potter, and Discworld...then Hunger Games & Hitchhiker's...then MaddAddam.

My favorite movie trilogies

Here are the rules:

• I have to have seen all three movies.
• The series can't have more than or fewer than three movies in the series.
• The movies have to share a common group of characters and plots.

That disqualifies...

• James Bond, Rocky, Clerks etc, X-Men, Indiana Jones, Bourne, Batman (Michael Keaten, etc), Star Trek,   - too many movies
• Aliens, Pirates of the Caribbean, Back to the Future, Star Wars (prequels), Before Sunrise etc, Beverly Hills Cop, The Hangover, Predator, Men in Black,    - I've not seen all of the films in each trilogy though I have seen at least one. 
• Cornetto trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, etc), The Red Curtain (Strictly Ballroom, etc), the Qatsi trilogy,  - They have similar actors or director-themes but not related characters and plots.

So, onto my favorite (not necessarily the greatest) movie trilogies...

1. Batman (Christopher Nolan) - nearly perfect execution, brilliant arc, and it's about comic books
2. Dollars (Fistful of Dollars, etc) - Clint Eastwood's first masterpieces...sort of a single plot (so that third rule is close to not fitting) but certainly of a theme and a piece...marvelous...
3. Toy Story - few movies have wrecked me as did TS3...note perfect every step of the way
4. Godfather - the third one is notoriously weak, but it's really not an awful film...it just pales in comparison to the first two which are as masterful as any films made...
5. Mariachi trilogy - this one isn't nearly as high quality as a few of the others, but it's a heck of a lot of fun...interesting to see the filmmakers progress between the first and the second flicks and then go entirely over the top for the third...fun, fun, fun...
6. Lord of the Rings - at some point it just becomes about endurance...it's rare that I'm ever going to watch any one of these all the way through after I first saw them in the theater because they're desperately long, but they are, admittedly, really high quality...
7. Iron Man - is they'd stayed as strong as the first one, they'd be higher on the list, but the second and third progressed slightly downward  from excellent to pretty good territory...Marvel's only entry on this list so far, but there are more trilogies from their cinematic universe that are sure to make the list in a couple of years' time
8. Oceans 11-13 - the first is one of the films that I can't seem to turn off when I happen upon it on cable, right there with Road House and a few others...it's one of the most fun movies out there...the second is kinda painful to watch even though there's even more charisma on screen, it feels like the actors are having way more fun than we are...the third isn't the first's equal, but it's close...
9. Harold & Kumar - fun, fun, fun...stupid, dumb, fun...
10. Star Wars (original) - I really don't enjoy Star Wars even though I recognize that they're of excellent quality...they're just not my favorites out there
11. Spider-Man (Toby McGuire)- first one really good, second one even better, third kinda stinks, especially the emo Peter Parker...keep your hair out of your eyes, dorkbutt
12. The Matrix - if somehow they'd manage to keep up the same quality as the first film, this would probably be in the top three or four...I remember being absolutely stunned watching the first film in the theater, jaw agape, shocked...the special effects, the look, the whole package...then came the second film and the orgy in Zion...then the horrible, multiple Agent Smiths in the finale...yuck-oh
13. Austin Powers - fun but without much staying power...they aren't nearly as much fun upon second viewing, and that makes me wonder if the third film would be any good at all...
14. Naked Gun - it's fun, but it's nothing that I have to sit still and watch for more than a couple of minutes at a time

Which trilogies should I finish up to add them into the list?

Welcome, noobs

It's that time of year when I invite my new students to join the blog - or at least have an assignment that requires them to visit the blog once.

So, hey, there new folks...

A basic bit about the blog...I tend to post three or four times a week, usually on a M-W-F schedule plus a list of links on Saturday morning. Sometimes a post will be a lengthy rambling on a topic; sometimes a music playlist; sometimes reviews of music, restaurants, movies, and books - often comic books - that I've read lately; sometimes just a quick listing of some of my favorite things.

This week, for example, I'll have some thoughts on my favorite trilogies - books and movies.

Suggestions for where to start - other than just looking chronologically backwards through the posts...

• Advice posts...particularly check out the series of one-word advice topics
• Batman's dead parents...Batman just wouldn't be Batman without his parents being dead
• Comic book recommendations...Everybody should be reading more comic books. There are some great ones out there, and these are my best recommendations - both for beginers and for more advanced students of the genre.
• Commentary...longer thoughts about things
• IDTMI...these are columns that I wrote for my college newspaper when I was a senior...they're naive and insulting at times, but the beliefs are somewhat still my own
• Lonnieburger Baskets...my reviews of the best burger places around Cincinnati
• Our Year of Living Steakishly...my reviews of the best steakhouses in Cincinnati (though I never actually wrote up the best one: Jeff Ruby's downtown)

Other than that, feel free to click through any of the other tags or just check in from time to time.

Tired

• One true pairing - chucklesome 
• The American Band Championship Belt - The methodology is flawed. Bands should be able to regain the belt. 

The radar is open again

Media of which I have partaken of late...

Seconds by Bryan Lee O'Malley - O'Malley's follow-up to Scott Pilgrim takes a slightly older protagonist, Katie, still struggling with the fact that things in her life aren't working out exactly as she had planned.

In this case, the protagonist isn't, however, dwelling in a fantasy world as was Mr Pilgrim. Here Katie is a successful chef who is in the middle of putting together her first restaurant of her own while still trying to work at the titular Seconds as the head chef. As things don't go quite as planned at Seconds, Katie finds herself being visited by a house spirit that offers her a chance to change the day's events so that a friendly waitress won't be hurt by an accident in the kitchen. Katie takes advantage of the opportunity and then begins to spend every day living half a life, knowing that - in spite of the spirit's insistence that Katie only gets the singular second chance - she can cheat her way to redoing every single day.

Each morning, however, Katie wakes up in a world that has been changed in very unexpected ways. Her actions begin to have more and more drastic consequences: poisoning the house spirit; growing a second, evil house spirit; and changing her restaurant into something entirely not what she wanted.

O'Malley continues to mine the theme of revisionist history, of living in the now rather than in the past to great effect. This isn't the lengthy tale that Pilgrim is, but it's a far tighter story for that. It doesn't have the same emotional weight, but it's tighter, and it's still really good. Check it out.

Tucker & Dale vs Evil - See, most horror movies have the innocent (or trampy and drunk) college kids killed by the evil, murderous rednecks in the woods. This time, however, the rednecks are really nice people, unsure of themselves, just looking for a nice vacation home in the country, trying to help the nice neighbor kids.

When the kids misunderstand every single sentence from the eponymous Tucker and Dale, the kids end up killing themselves via accidents that continue to make Tucker and Dale look more and more sadistic.

It's not a horror classic, but it's a fun twist with likeable enough characters. Worth a look


Deadpool: Soul Hunter - Funny stuff from the merc with a mouth...

I particularly enjoyed the initial 'filler issue' that happened to lead directly into the second issue. Great use of the silver-age-style with Deadpool filling in for a drunken-no-more-until-Deadpool-comes-along Tony Stark in the Iron Man suit leading to trouble with a demon. Funny stuff...

All-New X-Men: Out of Their Depth & All-New X-Men: Here to Stay - I dig the concept of having the original X-Men, the teen mutants, show up in the present to find themselves terrifically changed - and in ways that horrify their younger selves. The idealism of youth coming up against the phenomenally hard truths of wizened age - especially when you're a comic book hero who sees just about everybody you care about die, change allegiances, nearly die, and fight each other all the times.

The dichotomy between young and old Scott Summers, the horror of young Jean Grey knowing that she will become the Phoenix and be killed, Hank McCoy seeing the blue mess that he will become...it all works really well.

Baseball Myths Debunked - This book doesn't. It's boring.

Punk Rock Jesus - and this one is dumb...don't read it. Read the same author's Joe the Barbarian instead...much better.

Sheezus by Lily Allen - I'll admit that I have a big soft spot for Lily Allen's first CD, Alright, Still. That is a brilliant, fun, witty bit of modern Brit pop, and encapsulation of an era, a rebirth of soul filtered through a very English sensibility. Her second disk, It's Not You, It's Me was a lot more polished and a lot less fun. I didn't dig the high-fashion turn that Allen was taking.

This third disk is somewhere in the middle, full of mocking - but with a bit too much bite and self-defensiveness at times. Not a bad disk at all, but not a great one, either. Worth a listen...





A Letter Home by Neil Young - ultimate in lo-fi...recorded in a straight-to-vinyl booth in Jack White's Nashville record store, Neil YOung has put out an album of covers, songs that he says influenced him. There's some pretty stuff here, but it's full of so many scratches, pops, hisses, and every other artifact of old that it's tough to listen to.

Here's the full album. Check out "Girl From the North Country" at 6:06 for the best track. (By the nature of the length of the disks the booth produces, the songs are no longer than about 3:00 each.)

What's all the Hoopla about?

The Cincinnati Library (PLCH) has a streaming movie site to which they subscribe and to which all card-holders have full access. It's called Hoopla, and you should check out some of these movies soon.

• Charade
• Baseketball
• ET
• Harvey
• Hud
• Endless Summer
• Gung Ho
• Sullivan's Travels
• Igby Goes Down
• Lars and the Real Girl
• 39 Steps
• Man on the Moon
• Four Lions
• Where the Buffalo Roam
• The Court Jester
• The Nutty Professor
• Mulholland Dr
• Midnight Cowboy
• The King's Speech
• The Sting
• The Iron Lady
• Legend
• Let Me In
• Bernie
• Brokeback Mountain
• We Need to Talk About Kevin
• Small Soldiers
• Lock, Stock, & Two Smoking Barrels
• Double Indemnity
• The Serpent & the Rainbow
• Holiday Inn
• The Last Waltz
• October Sky
• Let Me In
• The Evil Dead
• Touch of Evil
• Blown Away
• Killer Klowns from Outer Space
• Of Mice & Men
• Mo' Better Blues
• Shane
• Ain't in it for My Health
• Cloak & Dagger
• The Woman in Green

I'm very pleasantly surprised at how many good movies there are - admittedly amidst a whole lot of dreck.

Happy summer's end,everybody

• Watching Antiques Roadshow appraise this 2008 Toshiba TV is fantastic - I checked over and over to see if it was a parody, and it seems not to be.

Community Power Study

At least week's OEA (Ohio Education Association, doncha know) summer training, we went through an activity in which we tried to map out some basic knowledge about our various local school districts so that we could more successfully organize our members. I'm embarrassed to admit how much trouble I had in filling out the form about Princeton.

So I turn to you guys, many of whom are Princeton folks, to see if you can help me with some of the answers. I'll put my early answers in italics.

• What are the major celebrations and festivals in your community?
• Sharonville - St John's Fest, SharonFest
• Lincoln Heights - Heritage Days
• Evendale - ???
• Springdale - ???
• Woodlawn - ???
• Glendale - Black Squirrel 5K 
• What are the community's slogans and mascots? Who are the best known members of your community?
• Slogans?
• Mascots - Princeton Vikings, all the elementary schools are Little Vikes, I think
• Best known - Isley Brothers, Roger Troutman, ??  
• Does your community value its history? How so?
• Each community is very protective of their own identity, their own history.
• How so? ??? 
• What are the core values of your community?
• Family...survival (sometimes short-term)...
• What is the main economic source of the community (e.g., light manufacturing, farming, heavy industry, service industries, etc.)
• GE aircraft engines, Ford transmission, light industry, service 
• What is the economic structure of the community served by the school district? (rough percentages)
• $32K & below, $32K-$60K, $60K-$120K, $120K & above
• ??????????? Where the heck could I even look this up?
• Percentage of residents who work in the community (rough percentages)
• ??????????? Where the heck could I even look this up?
• Age (rough percentages)
• 0-18, 18-30, 30-65, 65+
• ??????????? Where the heck could I even look this up?
• Education (rough percentages)
• less than high school, high school graduate, some college, BA/BS, advanced
• ??????????? Where the heck could I even look this up?
• Political party index (rough percentages)
• democratic, republican, independent 
• ??????????? Where the heck could I even look this up?
• Are there specific political organizations that have power in your community?
• ???
• What is the ethnic breakdown of the community served by the school district?
• ??????????? Where the heck could I even look this up?
• I can make some guesses based on the breakdown of the high school, but I don't know that it's entirely representative of the district population as a whole. 
• What is the approximate number of households in the community?
• ??????????? Where the heck could I even look this up?
• What are the main retail business centers (and locations) of the community? Where are intersections with high vehicle traffic?
• Tri County area, Fields Ertel area, Glendale-Milford & Reading Rd intersection...???
• Where do people congregate? Where would be an appropriate place for flyer distribution or bannering?
• ???

Update: My favorites

I first posted this in December, 2005, my first year blogging. We're not more than eight and a half years since then, and I think it a decent enough time to see what's changed since then.

In case you were ever wondering...

My Favorite Decently Nice Restaurant in the Cincy Area

Knotty Pine on the Bayou - I don't get down there nearly as much as I would like, but it's still a fine treat when I do. Let's go with Troy's Cafe much closer to my house.

My Favorite Much Cheaper Restaurant Near My House

Waffle House on Cincy-Dayton Rd - no doubt at all

My Favorite Fall Flavor

Pumpkin - hands down, easily my favorite flavor pretty much year round - no doubt at all

My Favorite Summer Fruit Flavor

Peach - no doubt at all

My Favorite Flavor Combo

Peanut Butter & Chocolate - I still like it, but I don't know that it still holds the sway it once did for me.

My Favorite Candybar Snack

Take 5 - the original flavor only, the rest of the flavors stink - I guess so, but I haven't had one in probably a couple of years. Don't know that I've had a candy bar in a while.

My Favorite Game of the Moment

Volley Pollo - It's fun and all, but I haven't played it in a long while. I'll go with QuizUp the app on my phone.

My Favorite Movie to Watch Over and Over

tough call - O Brother, Where Art Thou and Hoosiers probably - Scott Pilgrim maybe...

My Favorite Fast Food Milkshake Place

White Castle - but the hometown one only serves chocolate now, blech - Haven't had any White Castle in a while. If I want a milkshake in the summer, I go to The Cone. In the winter I go to UDF.

My Favorite Milkshake (non-fast food division)

Pumpkin malt at the Cone - It's tough to remember this flavor exactly as it's a late, late summer only thing. The rest of the year, I go for the peanut butter malt.

My Favorite Cartoon (phenomenally vulgar division)

South Park - This one has changed to probably Archer.

My Favorite Cartoon (superhero division)

Justice League Unlimited - new entry here, used to be the 90's Batman - Now it's Bob's Burgers. I watch it pretty much every week via Hulu.com.

My Favorite Movie Theater

Rave - edging out The Esquire based on recent more-commercial fare at the Esquire - Sadly the Rave closed. I have become more mercenary, shifting from The Rave in Milford to AMC in West Chester to wherever we happen to be. I still see most things in West Chester at what used to be the Rave but is now the AMC. I don't care for the price increases or the crumbling area around the theater itself, but it's the closest to my house.

My Favorite Candle Scent

Any spice-ish thing...pumpkin, cookie, vanilla, harvest, apple pie...nothing with flowers - absolutely still true

My Favorite Ultimate Series

Ultimate Fantastic Four - I'm surprised I picked that one. In general, I enjoyed Ultimate Spider-Man more, even through the change to Miles Morales.

My Favorite Season

summer - no school  - no doubt, no doubt

My Favorite Sport to Play

Tennis - I haven't picked up a racket in probably five years. The lack of playing has been far worse for my health, and I miss it terribly. Of course, with my commitments to ASM and OEA, I'm not sure leisure time is something I have a lot of.

Favorite Sport to Watch

Tennis, again, though high school basketball is a near second - still true

My Favorite TV Series (current)

The Office or Scrubs, probably The Office - Neither is still on the air in original form (though Scrubs seems to be constantly on somewhere in syndication). The shows I watch regularly are The Goldbergs, Community (in whatever form it is on Yahoo now), Parks and Rec, Modern Family, The Middle, The Daily Show, Colbert Report, and Bob's Burgers). Let's make this Favorite Live-Action, Scripted Sit-Com and say my favorite is Parks and Recreation, but it's close. 

My Favorite Basketball Player

The Basketball Jesus - Either him or Steph Curry or Kelsey Mitchell.

My Favorite Joke

The Thor Joke - It's still that one, yes.

My Favorite Web Comic

Order of the Stick - It's XKCD instead.

My Favorite Food

steak - nothing fancy, just a very nicely grilled, medium-rare steak with olive oil, salt, and pepper (or Montreal Steak seasoning) - Yeah, probably so, but this was well before the Year of Living Steakishly, so that taste in steak has changed dramatically. I can't deal with a home-cooked steak anymore as compared to the best in Cincy.

My Favorite Color

What am I, like four years old? - I'm still immature, but I don't have a favorite color.

My Favorite Movie

The Muppet Movie - It's certainly in the running.

My Favorite Country (non-US division)

Scotland - yup...haven't really been to another one other than a very quick visit to Canada from Niagara Falls.

My Favorite Friend That I've Recently Reconnected With

Kristin Butler ne Reichow - I'm not still in contact with Kristin, but I am digging having more Facebook friends of late.

My Favorite Temptation (today division)

chicken fried bacon - meh...that might be tasty, but I don't want to try it

My Favorite Thing to Do This Time of the Year

Sit on the couch, late at night, snuggled with the dog, watching the Christmas tree with my glasses off - It's summer now, so I'll go with playing a round of frisbee golf first thing in the morning.

My Favorite Park

Turkey Run State Park - I miss it terribly. Wanted to get there this summer, but it looks like I won't do that.

My Favorite Dessert (non-Pumpkin Pie division)

Tiramisu - possibly tiramisu gelato - still a good choice...might include a great ice cream sandwich, chocolate chip cookie variety...really want one of those tonight as I type this...

My Favorite Band

Wilco - Yeah, good choice still.

My Favorite Guitarist

Richard Thompson - yup...and he's coming to Middletown in a couple of months

My Favorite Pudgy Comic Book Geek Turned Famous Movie Director

Kevin Smith - I got very, very bored with Smith and have just been annoyed with him for the past few years...pretty much since I read (I think) My Boring-A$$ Life.

My Favorite Cooking Magazine

Cook's Illustrated - I've been preferring Cooks Illustrated, honestly.

My Favorite Sunday Morning Breakfast

Cook's Illustrated's french toast - That is outstanding, though it's been a while since I made it.

My Favorite Book

I'd like to say Electric Brae but I haven't read it in a few years...so I'll go with one I read about once a year: Slaughterhouse 5 - Still that one

My Favorite Side Dish

Cook's Illustrated's roast potatoes - those are outstanding

My Favorite Cookbook

The Best Recipe - I haven't been doing a lot of cooking lately, so this one hasn't had much of a chance to change

My Favorite Single Issue Comic Book Story

Action Comics #775 - Still pretty outstanding

My Favorite Graphic Novel

either Watchmen or Superman: Secret Identity - Yeah, Watchmen is still phenomenal.

My Favorite Taco Bell Item

Carmel Apple Empanada - Yup

My Favorite Gift Ever

my pepper mill - I use it all the time.

My Favorite Online Service

gmail and google calendar - Sure

My Favorite School Cartoon from Chilhood

Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land - Love it

My Favorite Use of Tax Money

The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County (PLCH) - Yup

My Favorite Taste of Scotland

McVitie's Dark Chocolate Homewheats - Love 'em...love 'em...love 'em...best s'mores ever

My Favorite Author

Chuck Palahniuk - Probably true, though I haven't read anything by him in a while. If not him, then Kurt Vonnegut. Actually, Vonnegut is above Palahniuk.

My Favorite Sit-Com (no longer on the air division)

Mad About You - Scrubs also deserves a mention here.

Here are a few that I'm adding in as of August, 2014.

Favorite video game (Wii)

Wii Sports Resort

Favorite cd

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West (seriously, though this changes from time to time)

Favorite snack food not available in Cincy area

Flamin' Hot Cheetos Limon

Favorite burger in Cincinnati

Terry's Turf Club

Favorite barbeque in Cincinnati

Eli's BBQ

Favorite Mexican restaurant in Cincinnati

Taqueria Mercado on Route 4

Favorite soft drink

Cherry Coke Zero

Favorite YouTube subscription

either Smarter Every Day or Veritasium

Favorite workshop destination of the past few summers

probably Provo, UT...maybe Salt Lake City, UT

Anything else that anybody wants to know?

My to see list...long term

I keep a mental, long-term, to-see list in my head at all times. Things that are on it that I want to check off but over which I really have almost no control at all...

• Clown driving a car (full make-up/wig required)
• Person I know in an airport other than Cincinnati or Dayton
• Woman riding motorcycle, man holding on behind her
• Volkswagon Beetle with flowers painted on it
• Bus with Further in the destination spot
• Adult in a superhero costume (not at Comic-Con or amusement park)
• Proposal at a restaurant
• Lonnie on a mug or pencil or something at a gift shop
• Book on bookshelves of bookstore signed by author but not marked as such 

What else should I add to the list?

You know, someday, Reemer, someday I'm gonna be a big sports star!

• These commuters free a trapped passenger using their combined strength to tip a train and save a life - nice job, folks...
• A breakdown of the first footage from "The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story" - I'd watch that.

Open the Incredibox

I'm certainly not a musician, but with Incredibox, I can easily feel like one whenever I want to.

It's simple, see, just drag any of the colored objects from the bottom bar onto the animated people who appear on screen. There are five beats, five effects, five voices, and five melodies (each group is color coded) - and they've all been designed to work together.

Have fun...

Sci-ence is dead, long live sci-ence

I was saddened when Sci-ence.org closed up shop. Maki Naro shuttered sci-ence.org nearly a year ago and posted that he had begun a project as a blogger for Popular Science, a post that they've used to great effect off and on for a few years, taking in a cartoonist (webcartoonist, sometimes) to great effect, posting science-themed cartoons.

I'd kind of forgotten about Maki's transition until a few weeks ago when I dropped in on Boxplot, the Popular Science blog that Maki's putting out. Let's check out some of the webcomics posted there...each of which was posted with a somewhat in-depth analysis/explanation of the issue at hand...

Update: a gag that never gets old

Continuing the collection...

I Love LA...Music

I Love LA! I Love It! from PHSChemGuy on 8tracks Radio.

I've actually only been to LA twice. Once was for a wedding, and I had a great time. The second time was for a two-week vacation that turned into a thirty-six-hour vacation when we had to fly home after our home was ransacked and our dog was hit by a car.

Good time...good times...

Would you rather fix the economy or travel the globe? Point, HIlary.

• International trailer for Birdman - still looks good to me
• Do it yourself doodler - I needs to get me some of those doodler pads.
• Every single Pokemon arranged by color - Katydid, this one is for you.
• Forgotten Children's TV Shows That Will Give You Nightmares - I remember Letter People, Mark Twain, and The New Zoo Review. All are very creepy.

• The case against Cards Against Humanity - A little troublesome - the allegations - and the implications.
• Why poor schools can't win at standardized testing - That's a pretty honest article from an outside perspective.
• The easiest solution to Batman vs Superman - Can we all agree that the Superman 2 fly-around-the-Earth-backwards time travel thing was wrong and stop mentioning it now? Please?
• Lori Loughlin BMX Dancing Prom Scene in Rad - How have I never known that this movie existed until now.

• Giant Spirograph - Nice craft there
• The 9 Most Calorie-Filled Chain Restaurant Meals of 2014 - I've eaten a small size of the Red Robin burger there. It's decently tasty.
• Eat a peach - slightly nsfw, I guess
• If every fictional company held a job fair - I'd work for Wayne Corp in a heartbeat.

• China cuts corners building this rectangular race track - The outer lanes aren't the same length as the inner, either, but nobody mentions that. 
• Staples sells items for a penny, New York buys them - and buys them and buys them...costing Staples a lot of pennies. 
• Marvel brought the goods from Avengers: Age of Ultron to Comic Con - They continue to rule the movie landscape. Go, Charlie.
• Confiserie Milot (part 1/2) - so pretty to watch (as is part 2)

• Never let your teammates provide facts about you - rook...
• The blood harvest - Fascinating to know that we use horseshoe crabs like that and in that number.
• A bird holds its breath -  He's a jerk of a bird.
• Mobstr, London - That's a one-sided conversation.
• Even pit bull owner likes vicious dog law proposed for Cincinnati -  Punish the action not the breed
• New God's Firework, celebrating childhood joys of summer - The song snippets in the story sound great.
• We experiment on human beings - OKCupid comes clean and interestingly so.
• Run schools like a business? Flip the script to see flaws -  That would not be a successful business model.
• Son as Lando - great cosplay
• Inglorious fruits and vegetables - ugly fruits are still tasty fruits

Branding the Vikings

I noticed last week that the Princeton High School Facebook page has gone through a bit of rebranding, switching the profile pic from being a Viking to being a PCSD logo and changing the name of the page from PHS to PCSD. The banner pic also changed, though I'll admit I have no idea what it was before it became the image of the new school.

There was also a story posted on the page linking to an Enquirer story announcing that the Board of Ed had decided - after Shawn McMullen's presentation - that the Viking's horns should be white. That isn't, admittedly, Earth-shaking decision making - especially in light of a year when 25% of the high school's certified staff left the building over the summer. It is, however, something that I'm somewhat happy about.

See, I've been noticing the lack of coherent branding in the district for a few years now. Below the jump you'll see some pictures that I had a couple of my student aides take in 2007 and 2009 showing how many different ways the Princeton Viking was being represented around the building, a building that now is going to be plowed under within the next year.

I'm curious to see font choices, manual, colors, and letters that Shawn has chosen...

Shawn McMullen, media and tech specialist for Princeton City Schools, gathered the district’s logos and narrowed the fonts and colors, and designed letterhead to reflect a consistent use of design to identify the school district.

The district’s logos include a flying letter P, a youth version of a Little Vike, and a single horn. Each has a purpose, and McMullen outlined the use for each in a manual that he is compiling.

But first, a little instrumental...

An instrumental intro... from PHSChemGuy on 8tracks Radio.

The minimum to make today's playlist was a thirty second (or longer) instrumental introduction to a song that most people will - I think - recognize.

See if you can name them all before the words kick in.

Maps, huh!

19 Maps That Will Blow Your Mind is exactly what it says: 19 maps that will blow your mind.

Really, though, it's an article that can't possibly be described properly. It needs to be read with little introduction or prior knowledge. Check it out for yourself then come back and discuss...

They seem to be on the roof of the Grand Bazaar

• Harvard Students Have Invented Microwaveable Cake Batter - TheGirl is out of town until Monday evening. I'll see if I can try some by then.
• The 14-hour search for the end of TGIFriday's endless appetizers - When I described this to TheGirl, she suggested we try this. I'm not so sure I want to live the article, but I certainly enjoyed reading it.

So, pit bulls

I am the proud owner of two pit bulls and the foster father to one more at the moment (and two more in the past year or so).

Yeah, I said pit bulls.

Here they are...

I know, I chose the dopeiest picture of the two (Hollis is the white one on the left, Clementine is the blue- that means this for dogs - brindle on the right), but I could've chosen a bunch of other goofy pics of the two...

They're spectacular, loving, kind, gentle dogs. They're the kind of dogs about which friends of ours have said after meeting them, "they didn't seem like pit bulls at all."

And it's that last part that's the kernel of today's post.

People think pit bulls are mean, vicious, terrifying, killer dogs. People look to ban pit bulls from their city. People read that pit bulls attack little children.

And I still own pit bulls.

And I foster pit bulls.

Because I've known a number of spectacular, gentle, loving pit bulls in my lifetime. My parents' first dog, the first dog in my home when I was born was a pit bull, a gorgeous, even-tempered, mostly black Staffordshire Terrier (a related if not identical breed to pit bulls) named Shebie.

I've been educated in the history of the pit bull breed (a bit of a misnomer as pit bull is a group of dogs, not a specific breed), and I know that the dogs that many people think are pit bulls aren't really pit bulls. Take this quick quiz to check your knowledge.

They can be trained to be vicious dogs, true. So can chihuahuas. So can German shepherds. So can miniature pinschers.

They can also be trained to be wonderful family dogs, loyal and protective, gentle with children and wonderfully intelligent.

Pit bulls can save lives. They can be police dogs.

No one should go into dog ownership - or pet ownership, really - blind, and if you're at all interested in learning more about pitties, do your research first and feel free to stop by one of the Adore-A-Bull adoption events.

And check out a recent Esquire article about The State of the American Dog. Good read...

Not so helpful statistics

Sorry for the watermark - source

WLWT.com published an article last week (I'll link, but I warn you that there's an auto-playing video with an advertisement right at the beginning) reporting that Fairfield City Schools has to hire 79 new teachers, 13% of their district staff; and Hamilton City Schools has to hire 40 new teachers, 6% of their district staff.

The entirety of the context given for those numbers is this quote, "[b]oth districts said that's a jump over previous years."

The article also says that Ross Schools has to hire 12 new teachers, 8% of their district staff, which is, "fewer new faces than the last two years."

No hard numbers from previous years...no comparative numbers from other districts...no state-wide averages for districts of similar sizes (or even of not-so-similar sizes.)

From second-hand information, I've heard that Princeton City Schools have hired 58 new teachers district-wide this summer, about 18% of our district teaching staff (plus another seven administrators). Anecdotally it seems higher than in previous years, but I don't have any hard evidence to prove that.

Numbers without context aren't useful.

In this case, they're just evidence of lazy reporting.

Purging

Movies...

• The Purge - I'd heard that this movie was an interesting turn on a typical horror/torture movie. It wasn't. It was awful and boring and predictable and lazy. It's a home invasion movie that only has drama because of a series of stupid decisions by the protagonists. Stay away from this one.
• Dawn of the Planet of the Apes -Easily that finest film of the week - which could be very faint praise since the rest of the films were such crap. This is one to see on the big screen because the special effects are outstanding, creating more believable digital characters than we've ever seen before. Every ape is well on the happy side of the uncanny valley, showing very human emotion and communicating with each other marvelously. This is a film where the apes are clearly the main characters. The humans are the drivers of the film, but this isn't a film about the humans. This is a movie about how ape society continues to mature - often in negative ways, seeing the peace and harmony disappear as ephemerally as it sadly does in human society. Very enjoyable...not quite heart-wrenching, but certainly worth a watch. I would very much suggest seeing Rise of the Planet of the Apes first, though. This is a strong sequel (not a soft sequel like the next film).
• Somebody Up There Likes Me -Moderately interesting but not quite successful comedy showing a man's lack of maturation through two marriages, raising a child, his ex-wife dying. The part is played by the same actor throughout with no aging makeup at all, as though he wasn't maturing in the least. I guess that was supposed to be symbolic. It didn't work well. enough that I can recommend it.
• Drinking Buddies - Plot summary - two friends drink and flirt, but they're in separate relationships that aren't exactly movie-style true love...one relationship survives, the other doesn't...nothing comes from the flirting. I actually liked it more once I saw in the extras that the film was made without a script, that the lead actors (Anna Kendrick, Olivia Wilde, a couple of guys who were pretty much window dressing as far as I was concerned) had a plot outline but not a full script throughout the film. That explained the lack of snappy lines and witty comebacks and significant plot movement. It's not bad, but there's not much happening here.
• Kick-Ass 2 - This is an atrocious, offensive, hyper-violent film. The first graphic novel was interesting in its exploration of costumed heroes in a non-super-hero world. The first movie lost some of that by ignoring many of the rules that it set in place and just turning the non-super heroes far more super-powered. The second comic, then, took the story into a far darker, sicker, more disgusting place, and the second film follows right along.
  
  Don't watch this film. There's no happiness, nothing joyful or even remotely pleasant even. Yuck. It's not even stylish enough to merit a watch.

Comics...

• Daredevil (by Mark Waid) vol 4 & 5 - I begin to wonder if Daredevil hasn't been written into a corner. His identity is semi-public (a little more, a little less depending on the writer's needs of the moment). His love life is one big disaster. His professional life as an attorney is all but pointless since he's kind of a vigilante. I don't necessarily see how the plot can be rehabilitated, but Marvel continues to try, having rebooted Daredevil in 2011 and not again in 2014.
  
  The two volumes I read of late come from the 2012-13 period in which a paralyzed Bullseye strikes out at Daredevil through - get this - people that he loves. No, really, a superhero gets attacked by going after the people he loves. In Daredevil's case, he also gets attacked by Bullseye recreating this accident that gave Matt Murdock (Daredevil) his powers and sending a near-unbeatable assassin after him. Daredevil wins, of course, and stops just short of killing Bullseye along the way.
  
  Enjoyable enough read, but continuing a cycle that happens every couple of years to daredevil.
• Nemo: Heart of Ice and Nemo: Roses of Berlin by Alan Moore - Moore continues to mine the fictional-historical-literature landscape of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in these two (the first two of three) tales focusing on Captain Nemo, a title that has been passed to the daughter of the original Nemo who was a major mover in the first volume of the League. Here we see the new, female Nemo retaking an antarctic expedition that left her father nearly mad (Heart of Ice) and rescuing her daughter and son-in-law from the clutches of World War II-era Germans (Roses of Berlin). Moore again brings in brilliant references to literature - many references I am sure that I missed in addition to the numerous ones that I did manage to catch. The antarctic expedition sees Nemo facing some of the Old Ones of Lovecraftian mythos chased by American hirelings after revenge for a deathless African queen. The same African queen returns to plague Nemo in Roses as Nemo must delve into a Murnau-inspired Berlin (not quite Nazi but just a street or two to the side, lead by Hynkle instead of Hitler.
  
  The volume aren't essential, and they're not to the level of greatness of the first two League volumes, but they are more linear and almost easier to read because of that. Plus, O'Neill seems to absolutely revel in drawing the fantastical Berlin. Worth reading (after the first two Leagues)
• Captain America: Castaway in Dimension Z (Book 1) - I don't get it, man. Captain America is somehow transported to another dimension where Arnim Zola has set up a factory to create and subjugate mutants. The Cap escapes but only after having a Zola screen/virus implanted into his chest and having stolen one of Zola's human children, a baby boy that Cap then raises on his own. The volume ends with Cap ripping the Zola from his chest, leaving a gaping, one-foot-square hole.
  
  Skip it...even Romita Jr's artwork couldn't redeem this.
• Superior Spider-Man: Team Up - I dug the Superior Spider-Man era and haven't read to the end via collections. This shows an interesting series of team ups between Spider-Man (as inhabited by Doc Ock) and various members of the Marvel universe (the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Avengers, Daredevil, and others), all of whom react interestingly to this not-quite-Peter-Parker Spider-Man. It's fun to see the other heroes recognize that something isn't quite right but that things might be better or at least good enough. Worth a read.

Actual books...

• Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood - I'm relistening to this one as the start of the trilogy. I'd read the book a decade ago as part of a book club in Northside, and I enjoyed the book then. I did wonder at the time why the ending was so open-ended, so inconclusive, and now that I know it's the opener to a trilogy, I understand that better. Still a fun read of a world headed for - and already in, in fact - a biologically-brought-about apocalypse.
• MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood - Turns out this is the third book in the Oryx & Crake trilogy. I read it second, however, and it does being directly after the actions that conclude Oryx & Crake, so I would argue that reading it next does make some sense. As I've begun the other book in the trilogy (Year of the Flood), I did wonder why Atwood seemed to have jumped back to fill in some of the backstory of many of the Gods Gardeners characters from MaddAddam, but I might suggest reading MaddAddam just after reading Oryx. Much of the book is told in flashbacks as Zeb explains his past to Toby, but the device works well. Admittedly, there isn't a whole lot of present-time action going on, but there is a lot of lead-up. This is a 'how-did-they-get-there' volume, filling in the backstories of many of the characters that we met in Oryx and in Year of the Flood. Worth a read but only as part of the trilogy. It wouldn't stand on its own.

Forty-five years ago today

That isn't a photo of the first footprint on the moon.

Sadly THE first footprint was obscured underneath a few of the next footprints as Neil Armstrong ensured that he could get back up to the lunar landing module.

That is, however, one of the first few footprints on the moon, a footprint made forty-five years ago today by Neil Armstrong and quickly followed up by Buzz Armstrong making a few of his own.

In my eyes, there hasn't been a greater accomplishment by modern mankind than our half dozen manned moon landings between 1969 and 1972.

And then we stopped.

We haven't been back.

Which is tragically sad.

Read up on Armstrong & Aldrin's short time on the moon here.

I'm thinking 'bout heading out...no, baby, I gotta go.

• Bubble football/soccer - I would play the heck out of this.

Today's random ten tunes

Ten random iTunes for 7/18/14 from PHSChemGuy on 8tracks Radio.

Today's random ten iTunes and my comments about them...

• "Political Science" by Jeff Tweedy - Not bad. I like the original by Randy Newman better, and the recording from Wilco's Kicking Television is far better quality.
• "Colluden's Harvest" by Deanta - Sadness in a bunch but at least from a really pretty voice.
• "La Grange" by ZZ Top - Probably my favorite ZZ Top song ever. Love the blues walk of the bass line...love the 'how how how how' of the growled vocal.
• "Shenandoah" by Bill Frisell - This is my favorite song ever...not my favorite version of it, pretty enough...instrumental enough...too slow...I miss the words.
• "Black Velvet Band" by The Dubliners - This is the version that Bunion played at the Bond Bar while I was in Aberdeen. I loved my evenings in that bar, and I love this song by the transitive property.
• "Einstein on the Beach: Trial 1 - All Men Are Equal" by Philip Glass - I've written about my experiences seeing this performed. My wife is a wonderful woman. I love the whole opera, even this freaky piece.
• "Let Go" by Frou Frou - Ah, Garden State...very much of an era, of a feeling...great soundtrack...good song
• "Light a Roman Candle With Me" by fun. - Feels very much older than it is, almost vaudville-era in the bouncy lyrics.
• "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by David McCallum - I went through an period when I listened to - and bought - a bunch of lounge music. This is from On the Rocks - lounge versions of all your favorite rock songs. It's entertaining enough.
• "One Way or Another" by Blondie - We need more Blondie in our lives.

Popcorn

How the heck did I not know this existed until now?

I'm so fancy...

• Steve Nicol on the Merseyside Derby - I've enjoyed ESPN's World Cup coverage, especially for their use of Steve Nicol whose Scottish accent is as thick as the peat.  

Lego news roundup

A few bits and bobs of Lego news that caught my eye of late...

• Greenpeace campaign against LEGO and Shell partnership - I'm pretty solidly anti-Big Oil, but I'm also pretty solidly Lego Group, so I'm torn here. Lego hasn't done a ton of corpration tie-ins in the years (though there was a Vestas wind turbine set, take that Greenpeace!). If this turns out to be a protest with legs (and I don't think it will be), I'm thinking it'll be a fairly easy separation in spite of the long history of Shell sets. Go Octan!
• Man caught stealing 6000 Lego minifigures from local toy store - This was in the Czech Republic, and it looks like he was buying sets, picking through for the minifigures, and returning the original sets. I would think that would be really obvious as he would have to have been buying/returning a bunch of sets to get 6100 minifigures.
• More Lego Collectible Minfigures (71007) Series 12 Minifigures - I'm a sucker and will probably buy every one of these sets no matter what's in them, but I do dig that Piggy Guy. October can't come soon enough for me.
• LEGO Ideas #007: Exo Suit (21109) - Green space minifigures! Green Space Minifigures! GREEN Space Minfigures! GREEN!!!

• The Exo-Suit has been revealed - Seriously, GREEN! $35 is a bit steep for just the two green figures, but I'm spending it.

• More Exo-Suit goodness - full pics from the Brickset photostream including a nice comparison photo to the original Cuusoo/Ideas design

•  Seriously, GREEN spacemen!

• LEGO Ideas Exo-Suit finally revealed - Check out the comments from Lego_Nabii, the LEGO designer who was tasked with translating from the original Ideas proposal to the actual set. It's a great insight into the business/design process at the Lego group.
• Stressing the elements - The discussion of the Exo-Suit design mentioned a number of illegal connections, and I wasn't as knowledgeable about what those were as I would like to be. Thankfully, one of the redditors linked to this presentation clearing things up.
• Lego hands fit cables perfectly - who knew?

See, it's funny because...

Thanks to Bizarro and Neatorama.

Looking back at Batman (1989)

I

I have noticed what I consider to be an annoying trend in celebrating pretty much every film's every five-year anniversary via news article posts of 'twenty-five facts you didn't know about StepMom (or whatever crappy movie)!'

Yes, I love Big Trouble in Little China, but I don't need Buzzfeed providing me with thirty-seven new facts about it (or about The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai) in honor of thirtieth anniversary just because your website is trying to get me to click through a few more times.

That being said, I have no problems with the recent celebrations of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Batman (1989). Whether it's Wired's argument that the tug of war between Tim Burton's and the studio's visions of the film made it fascinating or Comics Alliance's multi-part, week-long celebration of the film, I'm down with it all because - for me - Batman is where comic books hit the big screen.

Yeah, I remember Superman and even saw Superman II and III on the big screen, but I was eight when III dropped a Richard Pryor bomb into the middle of a comic book movie.

I was fourteen when Batman hit the screen. I was a teenager deep into my comic-book buying trend. Probably seventy-five cents of every dollar I got in allowance went to filling my next long box from the Great Escape whenever I could get my parents (or Wayne's, let's be honest) to drive me over there.

Batman was gorgeous and stylish, dark and colorful at the same time. It had Michael Keaton stumbling in trying to reveal his other side to Vicki Vale (a low spot in Keaton's portrayal). It had Prince's very-Prince'ish soundtrack (high point)...

MusicPlayOn - Let the music play on!

It mashed the origin of the Joker into Joe Chill's killing of Thomas and Martha Wayne (another low point). It gave us brilliant scenes like these...



Batman was THE movie of 1989. 1989 was the summer of Batman - not Batman but rather Batman. It wasn't the best movie of the year (that was either Field of Dreams or Born on the Fourth of July). It wasn't the biggest world-wide earner that year (Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade was that). It was, however, the biggest hype machine of the year, the movie that had been coming and Coming and COMING for a year. Batman was finally here!

It's far from a perfect film (Chris Sims even wrote, "This is a pretty good Tim Burton movie. It’s an awful Batman movie. It misunderstands basically every aspect of the character.") - and in a radically different direction, the Christopher Nolan/Christian Bale Batman films are much much better, but I do love it so. 

PS: Oh, and if you the chance, check out these two things...the video for Prince's "Partyman" song from the Batman soundtrack (sadly un-embedable because it's Prince)...and this synopsis of the plot of Batman based only on a listen to the soundtrack.

Just the right amount of wrong

It was the music from the above commercial that really caught my ear while I heard it in my hotel room in Houston a couple of weeks ago.

Then I saw the second commercial, and it had the same music, too.



I love the music there, so I went hunting and found a couple of articles about the ad campaign and the past campaigns of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Turns out it's an instrumental of the Mos Def song, "Twilite Speedball."

No legitimate deabte over the fact that Earth is warming and man's contribution...

• Top ten party tricks for 2014 - I've done a couple of these. Be careful, folks.
• Gwynth Paltrow believes in emotions can affect the physical properties of things - She's wrong.

Our Pets...a 'free' photo book

Click here to view this photo book larger

I've been collecting MyCokeReward points for a few years, primarily redeeming them to get free magazine subscriptions. A month or so ago, however, Shutterfly offered up a free offer to anyone redeeming some sort of drink points, a free photo 8"x8" photo book.

After shipping, of course, the book ended up costing $7.99 (and the free shipping offers online couldn't be combined with the Coke offer), but I think the book turned out pretty well.

In a week or so, I'll have it in my hands and be able to tell you the quality of a Shutterfly book (in case you were curious, of course.)

My musical radar

...more comic book radar, really...

Great stuff...

• Saga, vol 3 - This continues to be fascinating with wildly un-human characters doing incredibly human things. There're also two new plot lines - two reporters come hunting the Alana/Marko pairing, and Marko's mother perhaps finds a new love. Great stuff
• Locke and Key: Alpha and Omega - The series is done, finished, marvelously well wrapped up. I cried, admittedly, as key characters went away - one of whom does come back in the end. I can't imagine a more perfect wrap-up than Joe Hill manages here.
• Inside Llewyn Davis - It's a slow build to the marvelous close, but it's worth getting there. I do warn that it's slow getting there, very...very...very slow. Stick with it; it's worth it.
• Breaking Bad, season 1 - We finally got to...and through...the first season of Breaking Bad, and it was well worth the time and investment. Second season up next...

Decent stuff

• The World's End -fun set-up (former friends get back to their hometown to finish a long-past pub crawl only to find the town over-run by aliens...or robots...or something)...and occasionally fun to get there, but the finale is stupid...
• Prophet - hard to follow because the artwork is very hard to distinguish and because the plot is weirdly repetitive but unconnected (cloned John Prophets on wildly spread planets trying to get back together)...interesting ideas but not worth fighting through or hunting down another volume...
• Jazz by Queen - not a great album from a great group...way too disco-influenced
• FBP (Federal Bureau of Physics) - When the laws of physics are breaking down, there has to be a governmental agency to protect us...in fiction there does, anyway...interesting enough to give the second volume a check when it comes out

Bad stuff

• Dexter (comic) - This is an awful volume putting out a story with little of the feeling of the television show and using the realm of comics to make a far-grander (and far-less-human) story. To be avoided...

First Listen: Old Crow Medicine Show's Remedy

Old Crow Medicine Show has a new album out, and it's up for full streaming on NPR's First Listen.

Check it out...