Lego Simpsons...my gueses

With the rumored confirmation that Lego's thirteenth series of collectible minifigures, to be released in May, 2013, will be Simpsons-themed, I'm feeling like taking a few guesses as to what sixteen figures we'll get in the series, which are the sixteen most iconic/important/essential Simpsons characters.

All of this is predicated on the fact that no figures are held back as full-set-only inclusions. It appears that we'll only get one set, 742 Evergreen Terrace. If they make it so that you can only get Marge, for example, by buying that set, then my sixteen won't be quite right.

Absolute musts...

• Homer
• Marge
• Bart
• Lisa
• Maggie

Next round, the ones I feel fairly confident should be among the released...

• Apu Nahasapeemapetilon
• Montgomery Burns 
• Moe Syzslak
• Milhouse Van Houten
• Krusty the Clown
• Barney Grumble
• Grandpa Simpson

That takes us to twelve of the sixteen figures. Now things start to get tough with only four spots left in the series and a whole bunch of regular characters who deserve a shot. I'll list reasons why the individuals will not be included. Let's see if that can get us to the four.

• Waylon Smithers
• Selma Bouvier - probably not because Selma requires Patty
• Patty Bouvier - probably not because Patty requires Selma
• Duff Man - This might be the one that I want most just for its quirky nature, but I think Lego will avoid the alcohol overtones.
• Ned Flanders
• Lenny & Carl - That's two characters who really can't be done individually. When we're this tight on spots, I don't think we can use up two spots on these goofs.
• Troy McClure - They've been resolute about not bringing back Phil Hartman's character on the show, so I'm assuming they won't bring him back in the Lego world either.
• Itchy & Scratchy - I don't know how these two would translate to the Lego world and whether they would be two separate figures or one with an accessory of the other.
• Chief Wiggum
• Ralph Wiggum - Ralph stands onstage with Lisa, but bringing him in edges Lego to dealing with special needs characters, something they might want to avoid.
• Comic Book Guy - I would love getting one, but he seems to be a far lesser character in Springfield.
• Hans Moleman - This would be a quirky choice, but he's never been a lead character in a story, and I can't see him as anything other than a cut-to gag character.
• Principal Skinner
• Edna Krabappel - Edna's voice, Marcia Wallace, passed away in October. I'm thinking they'll let Edna pass on peacefully.
• Nelson Muntz
• Groundskeeper Willie - Like Hans Moleman, Willie doesn't drive stories in the Springfield world, so I think we can manage without him.
• Sideshow Bob - Lego isn't known for characters with dark, violent pasts. This one might be a little murderous for Lego's self-professed target audience.

I'm stumped on narrowing it does further than that. That leaves me with seventeen characters for sixteen spots. On sheer blind guessing, I'll say we don't get Waylon Smithers.

Click on through to a website that'll let you identify every character in the poster.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everybody!

Yearly wrap-up of yearly wrap-ups

• Every movie trailer from 2013 supercut -  I didn't see Upstream Color anywhere.
• Top movie mistakes of 2013 - Some are kinda picky.
• LA Film Critics and AFI reveal their best films of the year - I've seen none of the movies on that list.

• XKCD's year in review - I'm pretty bummed by it, too. 

Lego Collectible Minifigs Series 12 LEGO Movie figures

Looks like I have a few more days to figure out a feel guide for the newest series of Lego collectible minifigures. January 1 is the official release date for the LEGO-movie-themed figures.

1. Robot girl - slant dress and rifle (2 per case)
2. President Business - funky hair, coffee cup w/ handle (6 per case)
3. Emmitt - 1x2 tile, no handcuffs (6 per case)
4. Wildstyle - slant dress and fan (4 per case)
5. Abe Lincoln - hat with beard (they're attached) (4 per case)
6. Scratchen-Post - cat (2 per case)
7. Scribble-face Cop - 1x2 tile and handcuffs (6 per case)
8. Will Shakespeare - 2x2 tile and quill (2 per case)
9. Gail, the construction worker - jackhammer (2 per case)
10. Larry the Barista - coffee cup without handle (4 per case)
11. Velma Staplebot - 2x2 tile and round wig (2 per case)
12. Taco Tuesday Guy - sombrero or cheese plate (4 per case)
13. Where are my Pants? Guy - two legs (4 per case)
14. Wiley Fusebot - dynamite, gun (4 per case)
15. Panda Guy - Panda helmet with ears, panda (6 per case)
16. Marsha Queen of Mermaids - mermaid tail (2 per case)

I'm thinking this set is going to be tough to recognize through the bags. Three figures have 2x2 tiles. Two have 1x2 tiles. Two have slant dresses. Two have coffee cups. I've never felt the dynamite before.

I've had to buy eighteen figures to get the full set of sixteen in each of the past two sets (#10 and #11). I'll aim to be better, but it's going to be tough.

Addenda - Since I started typing this post on Friday, From Bricks to Bothans posted a review and feel guide of the new set. Thanks, folks. I also found some confirmation that the next collectible minifig set will be Simpsons-themed and should show up in May 2014 then that series 14 will tie into the Minifig MMO.

Also appearing this January 1 is the newest Lego Cuusoo set, the Mars Rover, which is a must-buy for me. That'll, of course, be far easier to get absolutely right, and the $25 Lego gift card that I got from a student for Christmas makes that almost free. (Thanks, ND)

Well then I'll sail this ship alone...

As this posts, I should be sitting in New Castle Chrysler High School's gymnasium, the largest in the country, waiting for the start of the Hall of Fame Classic. In other words I'll be in heaven.

• Penguins fall down resulting in the best sound ever - The movie is tragic, but this post is right.
• The Legend of the Oregon Trail - It's about the game, folks, a classic of my childhood.
• Darren Davis of Clear Channel on new Christmas Songs - The state of radio in the US is pathetic with far too much centralized ownership, but this very open conversation is an interesting glimpse into what the programmers do.
• What's it like watching your spouse grow older? - Sometimes Reddit is actually worth reading. Warning: emotions and heartstrings
• NBA's possible solution for tanking: the wheel - I always appreciate a league looking at radical solutions.
• The Memphis Tigers out-globetrotted the Globetrotters in a late play of the year contender - Passing is gorgeous when it's done right.

Fallen Astronaut

I know I should keep posting Christmas ephemera, but I feel like taking a little left turn today. I might fit some more Christmas something in later today.

Instead, I want to marvel at the brilliance of the only sculpture on the moon: Fallen Astronaut.

The sculpture is among the most touching, beautiful efforts of commemoration that I've ever heard of. One of the astronauts worked in advance to find as light-weight, hideable tribute to his fallen comrades (some of whom were actual, Soviet comrades - brotherhood knows no political bounds). He managed to sneak the sculpture up TO THE MOON, and then he and his fellow astronauts had to distract mission control long enough to set up a make-shift memorial.

I love the moon. I love the idea that we as a species walked on the moon. I desperately want us to get back to the moon.

More info about Fallen Astronaut on Wikipedia and at the Smithsonian.

For What It's Worth

• The Phillie Phanatic Got His Own "What Does the Fox Say" Parody and It Is Amazing -
• How to not suck...at last-minute Christmas gifting - Pretty decent last-minute suggestions
• Brad Holland - pretty art piece

Taking a break from Christmas playlists

My Joy from PHSChemGuy on 8tracks Radio.

I'm going to take a break from the Christmas playlists and go with the forty seven (8tracks wouldn't let me include all three John Mellencamp songs, so sorry to "I Need a Lover") that always make me happy.

Merry Christmas, folks

Christmas playlist #15

Kids Christmas from PHSChemGuy on 8tracks Radio.

Christmas is for kids. It seems like a very straight forward playlist for me to put together, but these folks did a better job than I did.

Strange Christmas Songs for Strange Kids from blueheron on 8tracks Radio.

Christmas playlist #14

Instrumental Christmas from PHSChemGuy on 8tracks Radio.

It's essential that you have a wordless Christmas music playlist. Some would even say that it's instrumental in your holiday enjoyment.

Christmas playlist #13

Mixed Up Holiday Tunes from cassieyoung22 on 8tracks Radio.

I didn't come up with the Mixed Up Holiday Tunes, but I can endorse it...except maybe for the Ludacris song.

Christmas playlist #12

Not Your Average Christmas Mix from rileegabrielle on 8tracks Radio.

I kind of like this one, so - even though I'm enjoying this banter, it won't pay th ebills.

Oh, and I finally got around to wearing a 

Christmas playlist #11

Cowboy and swing jazz Christmas from PHSChemGuy on 8tracks Radio.

Sadly I couldn't include more of Django Bells, a great Christmas, swing jazz album from the Gypsy Hombres. 8Tracks has some sort of 'no more than two per artist per playlist' rule in their contract. Hopefully the mix of cowboy Christmas and Texas swing- jazz Christmas will tide you over until you get the Django Bells album

Are you going to watch things happen or make things happen?

• David Thibault - Elvis - "Blue Christmas" - It's not Elvis, but I could be fooled. 

Don't You Four Cheddar 'Bout Me

• How to toothpaste - I've apparently been doing it wrong for years.
• The Bob's Burgers Experiment - Funny show...neat blog idea...
• We were in the supermarket near us - There's a 5kg jar of Nutella out there? Why didn't anyone tell me?
• Faces in things - simple blog, funny idea
• Great dune of Hyla, France -  Makes me think of Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan
• Minimalist GAB - loving 'em
• Wonder Woman bread - cute combo
• Grand Canyon filled with clouds - so pretty

Christmas playlist #10

Happy Soulful Christmas from PHSChemGuy on 8tracks Radio.

The soulful Christmas playlist might be my favorite of the ones I've posted so far. Very happy stuff...

Christmas playlist #9

Loving the remixed Christmas classics here. I'd embed the straight Christmas Remixed album because it's outstanding, but this is as close as I could manage.

Buy or download that one immediately.

Christmas playlist #8

Guitar Rock Christmas! from PHSChemGuy on 8tracks Radio.

Today we bring down the guitars and crank the amps to eleven for Christmas rock!

Christmas playlist #7

Surfin and Oldies Christmas from PHSChemGuy on 8tracks Radio.

There just aren't enough oldies and surfin' oldies Christmas tunes out there for my tastes.

There should be more like these.

Christmas playlist #6

Novelty Christmas from PHSChemGuy on 8tracks Radio.

Novelty Christmas songs are some of the best Christmas songs. They're just so cutesy and novel.

Christmas playlist #5

Modern classic Christmas from PHSChemGuy on 8tracks Radio.

You know all the songs, but you probably don't know these updated versions in today's modern classics of Christmas playlist from 8tracks.

Christmas playlist #4

Lounge Christmas from PHSChemGuy on 8tracks Radio.

Today's Christmas playlist: lounge music Christmas tunes.

Amazon Prime Air?!?

Really?

It's sort of odd timing for an April Fools joke, so maybe Amazon Prime Air is actually a real if very early prototype program?

Christmas playlist #3

Folk music Christmas from PHSChemGuy on 8tracks Radio.

It's a folk music Christmas...sadly without any actual songs from Steve Martin, though I would love that.

Christmas playlist #2

Classic Christmas tunes from PHSChemGuy on 8tracks Radio.

Come out to the mall and enjoy today's selection of non-threatening, appropriate to all, white bread Christmas music. We've got Andy Williams, Burl Ives, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, and more.

Honestly, I love 'em all.

34 years ago today...

Christmas playlist #1

Brit Pop Christmas from PHSChemGuy on 8tracks Radio.

Today, Brit Pop Christmas.

More music to come over the coming days.

Happy December!

You could do a lot worse than to follow along with Chris Sims's advent calendar of daily christmas finds from YouTube.

If you need some Christmas music, I have a couple of mixes from the past couple of years that I particularly enjoy...

Christmas 2011 from PHSChemGuy on 8tracks Radio.

and...

Christmas in 2009 from PHSChemGuy on 8tracks Radio.

Or there are dozens of Christmas music internet radio stations: celtic christmas, celtic christmas, various christmas, pandora Christmas, Cincinnati's Christian Christmas, and lots more.

I'm gonna go down to Snooky's Bar. Anybody with me?

• Here's 'How to Fight a Baby,' the Citizen Kane of internet outrage videos - funny stuff
• Proper & improper handshakes for your next business meeting - I know how to shake hands thanks to Lee Hamilton's advice from decades ago.

• A Horrid Coincindence - wow...that's very odd and tragic
• The best trolling advice to a homophobic parent - Thank you, Dear Amy

• Kid President gives us 20 things we should say more often - agreed on all counts 
• Burning stuff with solar power - wow...wow...wow...I want one... 

• Samsung PN51F8500 - The Girl and I got a new TV for Thanksgiving & Christmas.
• Harry Potter ornament - I could make that, but I wouldn't've come up with it.

• A spinning ice disk forms on a river - very cool...literally...
• Caution: dead whale contents under pressure - The website's title is , and the video is disgusting. Enjoy!

He is at a gun store. That's not so good.

• Haunting Attire - Yeah, ghosts...not terrifically logical and all.
• Making every Bob's Burger of the Day - Some of them do sound tasty, and the show's hilarious.
• Soon - They are coming.

• Joker's funhouse immortalized in Lego - wow...
• 8 memorable tv scenes that were improvised - I'll go with the Bob's Burgers scene being the best.
• Building guides - Lego Christmas ornaments...I want 'em...
• Beastie Boys in Copyright Infringement Tussle with GoldieBlox Over Use of "Girls" Parody in Ad - Tough call here...like the ad a lot and the idea of girls in science...very much like the Beasties
• Some 'Odd' Theorems - Quirky but kinda interesting math 
• Massaro House - Apparently Brad Pitt owns it now
• 
  

The 80's from SNL

Bomb diggity...enjoy it while it's up and around...

Talky Teller

I watched this video this weekend, and the sound of Teller's voice still creeps me out.

It's hard to take advantage of all the Black Friday deals when you're being accused of stealing...

• Miley on Jimmy Fallon - The singer's trashy, but at least the song's catchy.
• Manko Manev - digging that third image
• How to be a teacher for more than five years without killing yourself - The profession is getting really tough, and sometimes I need to be reminded.

In which our hero gets involved

So, it appears that I'm on the Ohio Education Association's Board of Directors.

Near the beginning of the school year, one of my coworkers asked me if I would be interested in filling a vacant position on the Board. Apparently the previous office holder had been lucky enough to retire from a local school district and was henceforth no longer eligible to be on the Board.

I'd been saying for a few years that I wanted to get more involved in union (technically Association in Princeton) business, and I know I'm not well cut from a cloth that makes me good for building-level negotiations and mediations. I turn far too quickly toward combat and not nearly enough toward compromise and understanding. Knowing that local route is likely closed to me, I was at least interested in the higher position within the union hierarchy. So I gave a hearty maybe...

I made it to a Board of Directors meeting, sitting as a guest in the sideline seats. Then I said yes and attended another meeting (there are about nine a year, all in Columbus at the OEA building, at which I was elected to fill the position until the next local Representative Assembly, at which the position would be officially elected. The local Rep Assembly has now come and gone, and I was elected to serve out the balance of Haven's three-year term - unopposed, not even needing a paper ballot. I'm apparently a Board member for at least a year - after which I can run (probably unopposed again) for two three-year terms.

From there I've gone to two local council meetings at which the presidents a dozen local associations pass along and respond to the issues of the day, passing their opinions and challenges along to me and an OEA labor relations consultant (LRC) so that the LRC can try to solve the problems and I can represent their positions appropriately at the state level.

It's been interesting so far, and I'm looking forward to a few more interesting years.

Thoughts so far...

• I'm honored to have been invited. I know I got tapped because a state-connected PHS staffer was impressed with what I did back in the Issue 2/SB 5 fight. Lots of people who came before me sacrificed a lot to get me the contracts and protections that I have. I can certainly attend a few meetings over the next year(s) as my turn in the barrel.
• The protocol of the meetings is fascinating. Each time there's an agenda, a motion to accept the agenda with flexibility, and a series of motions, seconds, discussions, votes, and all sorts of Robert's Rules issues. Some part of me wants to chuckle at the absurdity of five people sitting at a table running through Robert's Rules of Order to say 'hey, how's life in your district,' but I do understand that one of the major goals (and legal requirements) here is absolute transparency for the membership, so I don't chuckle aloud.
• I'm becoming far more educated in everything Union-related. Man, the learning curve is steep because so many of the people are long-timers who know all the acronyms and histories, but there's just so much to learn. I'm in heaven with that aspect.
• Everybody I speak to seems to have most of the same issues. We're all wigged out over Ohio Teacher Evaluation System (OTES) pressure, Common Core curricular changes, decreased funding, increased class sizes, the impending Right to Work fight, increased health care costs alongside frozen pay scales. So many of our issues aren't local, and that's the case all over the state.
• Some of the issues do continue to be local, and there are clearly dozens of radically different ways to solve the problems that we all have. Some districts fight for school safety with more resource officers; others choose to arm individual teachers with handguns; still others lock guns in fingerprint-protected safes at the end of academic hallways. It's all for the same problem: keep the kids safe; but those are shockingly different ways to solve that same problem.

I know I'll stick around for at least a year. I'm leaning toward sticking around a little longer than that.

Help me choose

Which Lego tie should I get?

I'm not asking which style or which maker? That's decided. I'm ordering myself a Brick Your Neck! tie in the original long style.

What I need to know is which color I should order: red, white, blue, or black?

They all come in plain and can be adorned in all sorts of brilliant ways, none of which I would frequently have time for, sadly.

These are some jeans of yours; I don't know if you want them.

• 100% soft - so many movies
• Finding the right words - Proposal via Lego
• Explore demographics of your ZIP code - The 45069 is an 87. What's yours?

• What does Earth look like? -  VSauce teaches me things every time.
• DC & Marvel characters get a Pixar makeover - Some of those are spot on.
• 12 Most Fascinating Visual Stories in 2013 - Fukushima, Atomic Overlook, and The Struggle to Right Oneself...best three
• Please enjoy watching Felipe Reyes hit the king of ridiculous, lucky buzzer-beaters - in a twenty-three-point game...

• Nearly Vintage Alyssa Milano - long-time crush
• Android tricks you should be using - I have one of these phones. Maybe I should be using these tricks.
• Einstein on the Beach: highlights from 2012 in Montpelier - most magical night ever

• 20 essential documentaries of the century - 1,3,5,6,8,12,14,15,17 all brilliant, spectacular films
• "Yeezus" album review - I'm embarrassed to say how much I love Kanye West's music.
• The Gettysburg Address - still stunningly short and marvelously moving

First listen: Inside Llewyn Davis

NPR's First Listen currently has the soundtrack to Inside Llewyn Davis available for streaming in full.

You can check out the full track listing over at allmusic and the trailer below.



Apparently the film is based on Dave Von Ronk's memoirs and is directed by the Coen Brothers. The soundtrack is pretty and pleasant and makes me wonder what the tone of the film is going to be - mocking, reverential, loving, funny...

Either way, I'll give it a look and hope it's not in the same vein as was A Mighty Wind which hit a little too close to home for somebody who still watches the folk PBS funddrive specials with love.

Where are the angels?

• Die Maiers: comedy trapeze artists -  slow to start...impressive a couple of minutes in
• How to use Amazon Glacier as a dirt-cheap backup solution - I need to look into this
• Marvel and Netflix join forces to create four series culminating in an epic miniseries - I may just have to suck it up and get Netflix. Of course, I haven't caught a single Agents of SHIELD yet, and that's on broadcast.

• 2013 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta - Gotta add in one more vacation destination
• Report: Idling Motors Outside Schools and Dangerous - This doesn't make me more eager to hang out for my after-school bus duty.
• Six out of Seven Dwarfs - hilarious tweet humor

• Kentucky player scores for opponent - 
• We want to hear from someone who will prepare and eat a ham banana roll - I'm not going to win their $50.
• It's Optimus (sub) Prime! American Miss Universe contestant sports VERY unglamorous ensemble inspired by Transformers film - The title's ridiculously long, but the photos are fun.
• Pink Ribbon$, Inc - I've been suspicious. 
• Dave Capelle's Block Party - full movie on YouTube...watch it...enjoy...

PHSChemGuy's Protopage

iGoogle is fully and officially dead, and I'm a little late to the party.

Sure, Google posted something sixteen months ago saying that iGoogle would be heading into the sunset. So I, of course, waited until the day after iGoogle went belly up to really do anything about the impending doom. On Thursday, I saw the note saying 'iGoogle will not be available after November 1' and assumed I had until the end of the day on November 1 to make my desperate, eleventh-hour decision to choose a replacement. Instead, when I woke up on Friday, November 1, my homepage of iGoogle was no longer available, and I was forced to switch.

After skimming through a few other the recommended options, I've gone with Protopage as my replacement.

 
Reasons I picked protopage...

• Visual similarity to iGoogle - Each widget shows the seven (default number) newest items from any RSS feed in an individual 'window' with a simple title bar with clickable links for each story/entry. A single page can be set up to include individual tabs of different rss feeds.
• Ease of use - Adding a widget is easy as can be: click Add Widget up top and type in the name of the page. Occasionally Protopage can't find the appropriate rss feed, but the correct link is usually just a click or two away on the blog's site.
• Customizability - Individual RSS feed windows can be colored differently. The background of the various pages can be changed to any color, a couple dozen built-in backgrounds, or any image on the web. (I went with this image of bokeh for now.) The widgets can also be resized to any width (as with the calendar that I've spread to three columns wide.) Individual widgets and tabs can also be renamed as you choosen.
• Link management - I'm a right-click-open-in-new-tab guy, but that caused an initial problem because links opened that way don't appear in Protopage to have been visited, leaving them looking identical to any un-visited links. Protopage does, however, grey out (with strikethru, also) any pages clicked to via Protopage. I don't know yet whether links visited from outside Protopage would also grey out. Gotta check on that.
• Google integration - Protopage has a number of widgets built in including Gmail and Google Calendar, both of which are kinda important to my organizing on the web.
• Sharing - It's possible to make your protopage public and share it with anyone on the web for view-only privileges or editing privileges. I haven't chosen to take advantage of that yet, but I may in the future.

Drawbacks I've seen so far...

• I can't customize each page's background uniquely. It seems that changing one changes them all.
• The Google calendar widget doesn't seem willing to sync multiple calendars. I have The Girl and Calen's calendars visible on my Google calendar when I go directly there, but the widget will only show my calendar entries. They're clearly the most important ones, but I'd like to be able to see the others, too.
• Visiting an blog's page (for example, neatorama.com) doesn't grey out the various links that I've seen because I didn't visit each individual story's link. That was an issue with iGoogle, too, though.
• Yeah, that's about it.

If you were an iGoogle user, what've you chosen as your replacement, and why is it better (or worse) than Protopage.

Songs of Death

Astride a pale horse... from PHSChemGuy on 8tracks Radio.

No reason here, no worries...just looking for good playlists.

Songs of Death from 8Tracks

Please have pfeffermintz in you...

• An Idaho sportscaster was Ron Burgandy for Halloween and did it right - Dang, straight he did
• The Sandman: Overture - Missed this coming...gonna not buy it until it's collected...
• Pixelstick - pretty gif

I made a flower!

Big thanks to Neusole Glassworks for offering up a groupon through which Calen and I got to take a class and each make a glass and a flower on our fall break (a new thing this year - supposedly to help with second quarter's discipline stats).

It'll be a week before we can go pick up our product (annealing and grinding and all, natch), so no final pics just yet. For now it's just production stills.

Last week's rainbows

This rainbow was hanging over my house last Wednesday.

Or, rather, these three rainbows were hanging over my house last Wednesday...

The highest rainbow, the one going the opposite way from how you would expect, probably came from the ice crystals in the upper atmosphere because we had our first few flakes of snow the night.

Guys, we gotta stay away from 32 Elm Street...

• Time is a dimension - I like the effect.
• 50 things you probably didn't know about The Big Lebowski - other than the fact that it's the best comedy in the past thirty-some years
• First trailer for Captain America: Winter Soldier - I'm already in line, posting from there.

It's like Ron Cougar Mellencamp says...

It continues...forever...

My comic recommendations

Because I'm always trying to hunt these three posts down, I'm putting them here together with one single tag that should help me find them quickly.

• Comics for comic fans
• More adult comics
• Starting points for non-comic fans

Red Hot Nickel Ball is red hot

It seems to amazingly simple: heat a ball of nickel up to red hot and drop it into stuff.

But it's just so fascinating to watch.

Click through to see my favorite, Pop Rocks.

I'm even better...shall we say greater...in theatre...

• Tom Hiddleston's impression of Owen Wilson as Loki - It's not perfect, but it's still funny.
• 11 stories of winning lifetime supplies of Pepsi, Airheads, & more, via Reddit - The Krispy Kreme prize would kill me.
• Undeniable Proof that Disney is a Magical Place - Has anybody tried the Toy Story thing?

Listen to your autovetture

Songs about cars...

In cars... from PHSChemGuy on 8tracks Radio.

One-album wonders

I was listening to the brilliant 3 years, 5 months, and 2 days in the life of... album by Arrested Development and got to wondering about other one-album wonders, artists who popped into the popular consciousness for a single album then receded or disappeared entirely.

In doing a bit of research, I found a number of sites with pretty good lists of one-album wonders:

• Rocksound - never heard of any of their choices
• NPR - I had no idea Milla Jovovich, but I want to track down her album soon. Sounds good.
• SitarHero - I've head some of these albums. Good choices
• Flavorwire - Interesting list...makes me want to track down The La's and The Avalanches.
• 411mania - First list with Arrested Development on it, but I'm starting to get some overlap with the albums. Why are The Cars just off the list?
• Alan Cross - Again, overlap developing (Lauryn Hill, La's, Buckley, Death From Above 1979, Sex Pistols, Derek & the Dominos)
• IGN - Overlap continues
• Paste Magazine - Same overlap...
• Treblezine - I don't know any of these albums.

 As it turns out, I don't have much to offer to these lists.

Heck of a blog entry there, ChemGuy.

Good call...

I need a few new ties...

I've been wearing more neckties again this year, something about trying to be good and work with the culture plan in the hopes that the situation at work can get better. So, I'm on the lookout for a few new ties...

I want but am to cheap to pay for some new chemistry ties like...

This one...

This one...(really want this one)...

This one...

This one...

This one...

This one...

This one (and in red, too)...

I already have a few novelty science-themed ties...

• DNA double helix (actually, I have it in blue)
• museum artifacts in yellow (and in maroon and in navy)
• atoms in blue
• chemistry novelty tie (had it, got cream pie all over it, ruined it)

And there are a number of science-themed ties that don't do much for me, just kind of meh...

• burgundy experiments
• navy blue elements
• most everything from zazzle
• Trust me, I'm a chemistry teacher
• white periodic table 
• navy blue periodic table
• black lab
• blue periodic table
• structure of the atom
• black periodic table
• elements & symbols
• test tubes

So take a look at me now...

• Kid has a conversation with himself in the bathroom - Potty humor from our neighbors to the north
• Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall - That bottom photo is absolutely marvelous.
• 9 out of 10 Americans are completely wrong about this mind-blowing fact - The 1% aren't anything like us. Income inequality is becoming a larger and larger problem in our country.

New Avett's

The Avett Brothers' new album, Magpie and the Dendelion, is available in full on NPR's site.

I'm not saying, but I'm just saying.

We're # 469!

I had no idea at all that there was a website that ranked every college football team in the nation regardless of division.

Luckily, though, I came across the Massey Ratings which ranks all 916 college teams together in one, giant list using what I'm guessing is a pretty complicated formula. The important things...

• The top of the rankings are about what you would expect: Alabama, Oregon, FSU. 
• An Ohio State University comes in at #14, far lower than where the AP Poll has them and just barely above Riverside Community College Tigers out of the California Penal League Community College Athletic Association (seriously - Riverside comes in at #16)
• Linfield College (out of Oregon) is the highest ranked NCAA DIII team, coming in at #255.
• The undefeated Wabash College Little Giants come in at #469, #33 in DIII after a thrashing of Wooster this past weekend.
• The worst team is the Itasca Community College Vikings out of Grand Rapids, MN at #916 who just lost 64-6 to #912-ranked Fond du Lac Tribal & Community College. Could be a rough year for the Vikes.

Looks like the Little Giants need to step up the strength of schedule. Playing the #816 schedule isn't going to help get into the playoffs if they have a down year.

I do wish there was a column to tell you what division the teams were in. It's one thing to see all the NCAA teams together, but it would be more informative to see which ones were DI FBS vs DI FCS vs DII vs DIII - as well as to see where the CCCAA comes in.

Update: ...because Eagleton sucks...

I mentioned on Saturday that Guillermo del Toro's Simpsons opening had a ton of references.

Thankfully, somebody has cataloged them.

Cartoons...in real life

From Real Life Adventures...

I think I could test out of the introductory-level course.

Be careful out there, folks, never know what could develop...

That's about how I feel much of the summer. It's rough, ya know...

...because Eagleton sucks...

• Watch the Guillermo Del Toro directed Simpsons couch gag - so many movie references...
• A Bad Night - I'm fine not knowing what this kind of a night would be like.
• Pascal Campion - pretty paintings...especially...well, all of them...

• Pumpkin Spice: The Movie -  I think I would be okay to live in that world.
• American ethnicity map - That's a lot of Germans.
• Meet BatDad, the most intimidating nice dad ever -favorite moment at 2:30 when he surprises his wife...again...

• Titanium rings - I'm tempted to get myself one of these...or maybe the tungsten carbide rings...
• The Leidenfrost maze - science at the scienceyest

Pride and...something else...

My job is becoming increasingly impossible to accomplish between the new methods of teaching we're supposed to use, the new materials we're supposed to teach, and the new ways we're supposed to be evaluated (which involves a whole lot more paperwork).

But...

Every now and again something pops up and that makes me think maybe this job - in this place - might be worth doing for a little while longer. Today's piece of evidence comes to us from AKC09 on LiveJournal.

See, AKC09's a PHS graduate from way back...like 2001. She recently posted some reflections on her time at PHS and reasons why it wasn't that bad.

I had a group of other nerdy girls. We talked about philosophy and biology and art at our little nerd lunch table and our little nerd slumber parties and kind of thought we were the s***. We lucked out that we ended up in the same class; this made a HUGE difference, and without having those ladies as my core group of friends, I have a feeling high school would have been practically unbearable. The effect here is similar to the fact that:

...

We had an incredibly diverse class. My high school, being a big public school in suburban Cincinnati, drew in many different demographics. We had rich kids, poor kids, suburban kids, rural kids, white kids, black kids (not a big Asian or Latino presence while I was there (ten years ago? Whaat?), but what can ya do). Because of this, there were a number of different social hierarchies, and it was basically impossible to be at the "top" of all of them simultaneously. This turned out to be a great thing, because hey, it mirrors the real world!

From the lone time I've met AKC09 and the religious following of her blog, I can say she seems to have turned out just okay, partially, I would like to think, thanks to her time at PHS.

Go AKC09!