New ride at Kings Island

Check out Diamondback, scheduled to open next spring at Kings Island ('bout twenty minutes from home)...

Looks kinda terrifying...

Today's worst website with the best images

This website is an absolute monstrosity. At first it looks like it might be a little neat with it's drag and drop/double-click style of navigation, but upon further exploration it becomes a charlie foxtrot of mystery meat navigation. You're given no hint as to what each click might reveal, where you could find what you actually want, or that your double-click will result in another window popping up (something I'll admit that my blog and site are both guilty of).

Sure, you could claim that the initially neat but horrifically user unfriendly design is a result of the guy's background in art/design. Right, it's pretty but ultimately unuseful. Sounds like the worst of the art school stereotype.

But then you get to this, his radical, attractive, and surprisingly useful design for directions within a parking garage. From most directions, the instructions look like long, random lines of paint used to decorate the place, but as you start to head into the right direction, the words coalesce into clear and unambiguous driving directions.

It's amazing to me how some people can have such clear understanding of the concept in one milieu and be utterly clueless in another.

Make
your
website
work
for
me.

Simple, easy to understand.

Keep usability above all else.

You wouldn't take your new book - the one you hope will be your introduction to the world of best sellers - and arrange its pages at utter random the first time it was printed, would you?

C'mon, dude...

Back off, lady, they're professionals

I had no clue that there were Lego certified professionals. Sure, I knew there were some awesome Lego artists out there, but apparently the Lego overlords have tapped six guys to be their official Lego artists.

And they seem to be pretty deserving, having built some amazing creations. Check out their websites:

• Nathan Sawaya
• Rene Hoffmeister
• Sean Kenney - whose Empire State Building model up in the ESB itself turned me on to this group of Lego studs
• Nicholas Foo
• Robin Sather
• And Dan Parker (who is apparently website-less)

Thoughts on the Batman

Two or three times now, Calen has asked me the comic geek standard "Superman or Batman?" question. They're the two biggest icons in all of comicdom, far outstripping any of the Marvel characters (Spider-man being #1 over there, I guess), and they are two of the very few heroes who can be traced back to the origin days of comics while retaining their popularity throughout.

I guess the first time, I answered Superman, because she recently caught me talking up The Bat - probably in regards to some movie or sumpin that came out - and said that she disputed my answer and said that I was far bigger on the Batman than I'd said I was.

And I'll give that I generally find Batman stories more interesting than I do Superman stories. Something that I thought I could show by linking to my previous post about the best DC graphic novels but then I found didn't match as it 5.5 Superman stories and only 3.5 Batman-related stories on it.

For a good Superman story, you need a threat that's universal in scope, the kind of thing that threatens to rip open the heavens, destroy the sun, unmake the entire universe because he's that strong. Anything less than that, and Superman should be able to take out the threat with the flick of his pinkie. To truly challenge Superman requires Darkseid and his universe-destroying machinations, Braniac and his cold willingness to destroy all of the worlds that he touches, or at least Doomsday with his killing machine instincts honed to kill just Superman.

Writers have had to shackle Superman with various limitations on his powers to keep him from becoming a true Ubermensch. Oh, he can be hurt by magic. And there's a rock that's fallen from the sky that can kill him (a rock originally introduced in the radio serial, by the way). And he's a goody two shoes who absolutely, steadfastly refuses to kill anybody.

Without these limitations written in, every Superman story would consist of about three panels. The first would have Superman seeing/hearing/sensing the threat. The second would show him pounding the threat into submission, and the third would show him kicking back with a cold one while the villain flies into the sun.

To challenge Batman, however, takes a nutcase with a gimmick. Throw Catwoman at him - ooh, a whip and breasts. He's flummoxed. Take a guy with a gun that makes ice and Batman is legitimately challenged. Just a crazy guy with no super powers whatsoever but who happens to be willing to kill is all it takes to make the greatest of Batman's rogues gallery.

It's easier to create a story in which Batman is challenged, in which there's a mystery to be solved. Even in the mysteries for Superman when the entire city has been lead-lined and the bad guy has set up a hundred speakers around town to generate false leads, Superman can just check every room (with his magic vision or even by hand) in the entire city in ten or fifteen minutes, finding whatever the bad guy thinks he's hidden from the Big Blue Boyscout.

Superman's an alien. He's an ideal. He's a Kansas farmboy who puts on a costume and saves people so he can go back to being Everyman, a good-hearted reporter. He's Clark Kent.

Batman, on the other hand is Batman. He's not Bruce Wayne. He fakes like he's a normal person, hiding in plain sight when he needs to, but never quite dropping the realer identity, that with the mask and the pointy ears. He's dark, brooding, a loner, a controller.

Which guy would you rather read about?

---

The web continues to be awash in speculation about who the villain should be for the next Batman movie - rumors here, speculation there - and I'm sticking to my earlier thoughts.

• I might just be happy if there weren't another Batman flick. The Dark Knight was masterful, and I'm not sure that the Nolan crew can top it. If they do, then I think it threatens to head down the same path that the previous Batman franchise went, making each movie a topper by bringing in extra bad guys and making the stunts bigger and bigger.
• If they do keep making movies, I'm pulling for nobody super-powered (Bane, Poison Ivy, Clayface); nobody genetically-engineered (Killer Croc, Man-Bat); nobody with cartoonishly deformed features (Penguin); nobody who's a second-rate Joker rip-off (Riddler); nobody in a flashy, stupid costume with gimicky weapons (Killer Moth, Mr. Freeze).
• As much as I want to see the Justice League movie someday, I can't see Nolan's franchise slipping well into any version of the JL that I've ever read, so I hope that we don't get Superman or any other costumed superhero in this franchise. I love that this is an independent, non-fanboy version of Batman. It's actualy kind of refreshing.
• My possible ideas...
  • Catwoman - but I don't want to be the rumored Rachel Dawes back from the dead Catwoman, and I'm not thrilled with the prospects of another love interest for Bruce Wayne as I didn't like how that worked in any of the previous Batman movies - except for Miss Kitka, of course.
  • Deadshot or some other assassin, but I think that would require taking Batman out of Gotham, and I think Nolan's rooted Batman too strongly for that to work.
  • Talia al Ghoul who would bring in the romance thing again, but would provide a nice tie in to the first movie.
  • Something akin to the Venom story arc in which Batman started taking a drug to make himself stronger, to allow himself to push farther in the name of fighting more and bigger criminal threats. Here, however, there is the danger of the whole thing going all Jesse Spano on us.
  • Something more along the lines of Kingdom Come in which the hero (here Batman, there Superman) has to deal with a public who has chosen to support a newer, more violent hero. I could see this working in that Batman could inspire more vigilantes (something we saw briefly at the beginning of Dark Knight and that one or two of them could move into a hyper-violent vigilantism. This would let Batman get some redemption as the last film left him in a pretty dark place with the public.
  • Hush in some form might be nice as it could be a childhood friend of Batman who has chosen to go another way. Might work as a mirror to Batman.

---

I'm kind of curious about the current Batman: R.I.P. storyline in the comics and am looking forward to reading it once it gets collected, but I can't imagine that DC would actually kill off or permanently remove Bruce Wayne from the job. They've had subs fill in for him before (Batman: Knightfall probably being the most prominant example,) and that's worked decently well for a while - especially in allowing Batman to regain the mantle. But c'mon, we all know that whoever subs for the Bat won't be in the job forever.

Superman died, and he came back.

Bucky died, and he came back.

Captain America died, and he'll come back, too.

In comics, no death is final, so I can't imagine getting too upset even if they do kill of the Bruce Wayne character.

---

And finally, a neat note over at io9 saying that DC has a Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader in the works, a two-parter written by Neil Gaiman as a bit of a tribute to/companion with the Whatever Happened to the Man of Steel masterwork from Alan Moore back in the 80's.

If it turns out to be even half as good, we'll be lucky.

---

And many thanks to Bigger Than Cheeses for the comics. If you couldn't tell, the author/artist's a little down on the Bat.

Yesterday's speech in Lansing

Everytime I see Mr Frazier speak - and I've only seen/heard him speak via the media as I haven't been in person - I become a little more fearful as my hopes rise a little higher for the good that he could do as our President.

To outline what the video above shows, his energy plan includes (and I'm quoting directly from his website here)...

• Providing short‐term relief to American families facing pain at the pump
• Helping create five million new jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next ten years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future.
• Within 10 years, saving more oil than we currently import from the Middle East and Venezuela combined.
• Putting 1 million Plug‐In Hybrid cars – cars that can get up to 150 miles per gallon – on the road by 2015, cars that we will work to make sure are built here in America.
• Ensuring 10 percent of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025.
• Implementing an economy‐wide cap‐and‐trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.

For the first time in my life, I think I might be voting for a candidate as opposed to against one or for the lesser of two evils.

A gelato update

Just so everyone in the local area can know, Madisino's Gelato is now available at Jungle Jim's in the frozen Italian section.

According to The Girl - who went the wrong way and brought home lemon basil sorbet - they have about a half dozen ice cream flavors at a couple of sorbets at the moment. Don't know whether they'll be rotating flavors or stocking a standard selection, but I'll be checking their case.

And if you're not aware of how awesome Madisino's Gelato, check out the story about them here.

Oh, and I had a cool image ready to post with this - check it at A thorn in the pew - but the image uploading is balking tonight, and I know how important it is to get news like this out there.

Image uploading - as you can tell from the awesome photo up top - is back online. Thanks for your patience, folks.

Dance, dance, rehabilitation

So, I'm guessing that by now most of you have seen the video of the Filipino prisoners dancing to "Thriller". If you haven't, take a moment to click on that link and check it out. You get a thousand or so inmates doing a choreographed routine to Michael Jackson's classic. It's pretty impressive, really.

And it's the kind of thing that brings up all sorts of questions regarding the emasculating treatment of the prisoners. Are they being forced to dance for the administrators' entertainment? Do they do this in return for some sorts of special prviledges? Who's the cutie in the jeans, eh?

Turns out, however, that the prisoners apparently love their dance routines. These reports say that the prison had been a sesspool of gang violence and prisoner unrest before the current administration came into the place and started up the dance lessons.

It's like I've always said, sometimes you just wanna dance, right?

Heck, they've uploaded a whole bunch of other dance numbers that they've worked on. Check 'em, man...

Random music videos

Keller Williams "Freaker by the Speaker" (thanks to GRob for pointing this one out)


Martin Stephenson "Wholly Humble Heart"


Butthole Surfers "Pepper"


Cake "The Distance"


Nickel Creek "Spit on a Stranger"


Smashing Pumpkins "Disarm"


The Stranglers "Golden Brown"


Flying Pickets "Only You"


The Velvet Underground "Black Angel Death Song"


Loose Fur "Hey Chicken"


Social Distortion "Ring of Fire"


Liz Phiar "Whip-Smart" (one of her very few clean songs)

Kevin Smith in Oxford

I've already snagged tickets (four in the eleventh row - me and The Girl plus Calen and her The Boy), so now I can go ahead and tell you folks that Kevin Smith will be Q&A'ing on the Oxford campus of Miami University this November 22nd.

It's a Saturday, so that's perfect for a Q&A to go into the wee, wee hours of the morning.

Tickets are $40 (plus $3.20 per ticket in handling) and can be picked up here.

Songs for everybody

Who doesn't love a song about their favorite boy or favorite girl?

Today you get songs with girl or boy in the title...play 'em in good health...


SeeqPod - Playable Search

What...where...how...who...

I come back from vacation (typical recap coming early next week, give a brother a chance, people) and find that the world has officially gone to hell...in my hometown...

And in other news, the DVD of their 2008 Wimbledon final has been shipped and is heading my way...

So I can cry...

This joke could just go on and on

Reading these webcomics is like having a buzzard come and rip out my intestines liver every day only to have them grow back and get ripped out the very next day.

Actually, that's not true.

They're kinda funny.

The saga of the television

February 2009...that's like...what...three or four years away, right?

I remember when the first "digital tv is coming" ads showed up, and I remember thinking that I had like two years before I had to deal with that thing...though I would have to deal because The Girl and I live in a cable-less world with a tv that (shockingly) isn't flat panel or anything. We bought it for the first Dinner & a Movie (a tale for another day, that gathering) which must be about five years ago now, so it's also clearly not digital-ready.

After a perusal of Consumer Reports's ratings and overview, we headed to Buy More with our soon-to-expire $40 government coupon. It took a couple of tries to get the Insignia model that we wanted and hooked things up on the home front and hit autoconfigure.

Previously, we got a decent selection of channels (5 NBC, 9 CBS, 12 ABC, 16 PBS, 19 FOX, 22 NBC, 45 FOX, 48 PBS, 54 PBS, 64 kinda-WB) all with varying levels of fuzziness. We've got a smaller pair of plug-in rabbit ears that helped make things clear enough...I generally watched tennis by gauging the reactions and movements of the players rather than by watching the ball. Things were kinda fuzzy.

But they got much clearer with the digital converter plugged in. And we got a few stations we hadn't gotten before. Second versions of 5 & 9 - both weather-only versions showed up as did a second 12 WB and another 48 PBS. But we lost 16, 19, 45, and 54. That's two PBS's gone, man, and the entirety of FOX.

So we broke down.

We called Time-Warner.

And we asked 'em how much it would cost to add cable in The Homestead. We already get our interwebs through them (7.0 mbps, who knew?) for $46.95 (rates went up by $2 this month). The Girl took the first try with customer service and - after a whole lot of questions - got told that standard cable (with like seventy stations or something - including ESPN) would move us up to $82 per month, but if we went with basic cable (like twenty-six stations - including all our missing PBS and a few more) it would only cost us either $33 or $41 a month.

Wait, we already pay $47 a month for the inernets only. If we add services - admittedly, the crappiest of services that they offer and a service that most people I know would laugh at but a service none the less - we'll pay less?

That didn't sound right.

So I called back and tried again. I asked roughly the same questions but of a different customer service operator.

Basic cable plus our 7.0 mbps intertubes connection...yes...

No, not standard cable - we don't want to watch more tv.

Seriously, only twenty-six channels. Right.

$55.08 per month with tax included? (It's within the $15 extra dollars per month limit that The Girl and I had informally set.)

Ok...installation's a one-time $20 fee? Ok...

But you'll give us a six-month introductory rate of $40.08 combined?

Okay...lemme talk to The Girl, and we might be calling back. Thanks.

Two calls, two very different answers.

So we headed down to their store in the mall. Might as well talk to somebody in person.

He opened with the "well, all prices are on this sheet now...standardized...nothing we can do to offer deals anymore" shtick to start things off. After we answered the "seriously, we mean basic not standard" bit, we got the same $55.08 price tage but without the installation fee and without the lower first six months pricing.

We explained that we'd gotten different prices online, and he stuck to his guns - $55.08 monthly, no intro offer, waive the installation fee.

Homeward we went to call back and take the $40.08 intro offer.

But when I called, I couldn't find that offer anymore. Instead, I got the $33.08 price locked in for the next two years.

You're sure?

For basic cable - twenty-some-odd channels - with the same 7.0 mbps interwebs that we already have?

That's less than we're already paying per month?

Locked in for two years?

You're sure?

For more services, we'll be paying less?

Can we get your name, please, because this sounds too good.

Really, depends on which department we get connected to as to which offer we get, huh? That's weird.

Really, $33.08 per month - about $20 installation, ok - you promise this price, right?

Ok, we'll take it.

Can't install until August? Not a problem...

And that's how we left the world of the cableless households.

Or at least how we will be leaving it.

Stay tuned for my report on having to yell at Time Warner when we get charged $55.08 per month somehow.

This'll be better than the time that $200+ of magic payments (that we certainly hadn't made) showed up to our account and I got told "I guess you got lucky, don't worry about it" by one of their customer service reps.

Is it any wonder that businesses like cable tv, airlines, cell service providers, and car dealerships are so totally untrusted when they seem to offer a bizillion different pricing schemes depending on a bizillion options and salespeople?

You can see the option we've chosen on the right.

A little help with blogger

I am embarrassed at the site of my blog. I've got this horrifically ugly title box up there that I've been promising myself that I'd swap out the header for something a little more photographic. It's been three years now, and I haven't done anything about the header yet, so I'm thinking it's about time.

In hunting for info on how to swap out the header - I figure if Achilles3 could manage it, I should be able to - I stumbled across this blog that offers video tips on improving your blog. They offer up regular YouTube versions of all their tutorials on their blog or higher-res versions for a small fee, but you can check the high-res versions for free over at YouTube if you're willing to do a little clicking.

I now understand my dad a lot better

So, about two weeks ago, The Girl and I went out to our favorite local restaurant 'cause it was getting late on a weeknight, and we were in need of sustinance. On the way out of the place, a student of mine this past year - we'll just call him Mephen Meyfried, 'cause I don't want to put him all out there without asking his permission - popped out of the restaurant because he'd seen me and wanted to say hi.

After I said goodbye to Mephen, The Girl and I headed across the parking lot to UDF for a sweet bite for dessert (BOGO scoops of peach ice cream, gotta love summer). Once we got up near the store, I heard a young black man in a T-top holler out "Hey, you. Come here."

Not a thrilling and, admittedly reassuring thing to hear as I wander around the whitebread suburbs, but he followed it up with "weren't you my son's teacher?"

That's what I heard, anyway. Turns out he said "weren't you my science teacher?"

From there I'm a lot more comfortable even though I had to admit to him that I didn't remember who he was, but once he threw out that he was Renaldo Judkins, I remembered him from MtHHS. Renaldo then moved to PHS about the same year that I did, so he's one of the very few students who knows me from both schools. Renaldo told me that he's got a daughter, that he lives a few minutes away from me, and that he's doing well. He's part way through his associate's degree from Cincy State - which I hope he finishes up - and made sure to tell The Girl that I was far and away his favorite science teacher.

Now Mephen I remember well, having just had him in my first bell class this past year and hanging out with him often during my plan bell as he 'worked' on the Odin's Word website, but I haven't thought of Renaldo in years. The quick conversation with him - I'm sure it wasn't even five minutes - absolutely made my day. To think that I made enough difference to Renaldo that he wanted to make sure to tell me that he was doing well, that he was working toward his degree - in electrical repair, that I was his favorite science teacher ever means that somehow I made a connection with him. It's an amazing feeling.

And it reminds of me a third story in this same vein...

I promise, last story for today.

I was playing tennis at Western Raquet Club and headed that way in the trusty, ol' Jeep Cherokee - an '87, reliable, my first car - when something went wrong. I was on the interstate, about half a mile to my exit and pretty much coasted down the ramp and across the street into a BP station. I called the club and told them I wasn't coming and then AAA to get a tow. The tow truck took me to the car repair place - around 8pm, certainl after they closed. The drivers dropped me off - pre cell phone in my world - at the closed repair shop and headed off to their next run.

I knew The Girl wasn't getting off work for another hour or two, and I was a solid and daunting seven-mile walk from home. So I walked the four or so blocks to a White Castle and used their pay phone to call The Girl and arrange a pick up. I needed somewhere to wait, so I planned to walk another half mile to the UDF and kill the rest of my time until she could pick me up. It wasn't exactly a thrilling neighborhood nor, however, was it anything that had me particularly scared to walk through.

When I hung up the phone, however, I got the same sort of Renaldo Judkins yell, "Hey, Mr Dusch!".

Turns out another of my Mount Health students was coincidently in the parking lot with me. He asked what I was doing - clearly out of my element and a bit unsteady in myself. I explained the car problem, the walk coming up, and The Girl's eventual pick-up. He offered me a ride - in his white Cadillac with the red, crushed velvet interior (not just the seats, pretty much the whole interior) and the thumping base - down to the UDF and talked to me about what he was doing since he left MtHHS, telling me where all the students from the class that we had together had gone, and just reminding me of how much I love being able to make some kind of connection, to come together for 180 days with my students, to be able to maybe sneak in a few science lessons along the way.

He dropped me off at the UDF and headed on his way. I've never seen him again and have - I hate to say - entirely forgotten his name at this point.

I remember when I first started teaching - at THSVHS and then at MtHHS - I avoided seeing my students outside of school, in the grocery store, at the gas station, in the park. I wasn't comfortable being the teacher instead of their contemporary without the safety and authority of the classroom. It took me a few years before I wanted to see them out in the 'real world', but now I find myself looking around all over the place hoping to see them, wanting to say hi and to connect again.

It's been amazing to get to know so many amazing people and to be even a small part of their lives - or bigger in some cases. (Thanks, especially, for the letter that one of you wrote to me this year.)

I know now why my dad never seemed to mind talking to his students when we ran into them seemingly everwhere in The Hometown when I was growing up.

Back when the future was futuristic

There just isn't a musical instrument cooler than the theremin...

An opening lesson on the parts of the theremin...worth watching before you try the others so you understand what the hell is happening...


"Theremin Killed the Radio Star"...


How to build your own lame theremin (with some history)...admittedly, from a kit...


Rockin' "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley on theremin...


"Don't Worry, Be Happy"...


"Claire de Lune"...


Because You Asked for It...


even cats can play...


an entire theremin orchestra...


"Love me Tender"...


"Ava Maria"...

Music without instruments

Big thanks to the vocal harmony group page in hunting down the groups for today's all-a capella Seeqpod list.


SeeqPod - Playable Search

Especially neatorama

Outstanding stuff - as always from Neatorama of late. Check it regularly...

For example, where else would you find...

• Pizza around the world
• A magic-wielding cat
• Awesome Chinese acrobats
• A collection of poorly-chosen real-estate photos
• The idea-dispensing machine
• Patrick Doughert's Branchwork Art
• Dancing liquid - amazing demo of cornstarch and water on a subwoofer - best thing in today's list
• Jamie Lynn Spears (not really) Raps About Reproduction
• The best movie endings
• Western spaghetti
• Google My Maps

And that's just the best stuff of the past week...so consistently awesome...

The holy brick grail

Holy frickin' crap...

Gizmodo took a tour of the Lego factory and got to take a tour through - and video of - Lego's secret vault containing every Lego set ever made in its original box with packages unopened and in near-perfect minut condition.

It's like somebody told me that angels had come down from upon high and offered to give us a tour of heaven.

The photo, by the way, is Gizmodo's photo of the very first Lego set that I owned.

And - as an addition - I stumbled upon this microscale Lego blog while searching for photos of the town set - 6390 - shown.

Time to kill some time

Today's game falls into the classic easy to learn, hard to master category of games.

Poiser is a simple game of stacking cubes. You drop the cubes from whatever height you want and have to stack them past a line to get points. The more cubes, the more points.

It's amazingly fun and maddeningly addictive.

Enjoy, Joey...Craig...anyone else who is, like me, easily sucked in...