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Archive for November, 2009

Delightfully cold and rainy!

November 20, 2009 Comments off

This morning in the coffee shop I remarked to someone (affecting an insane John Aston grin); “The weather is delightfully cold and rainy!  Channeling Gomez Addams, of course.”

The student behind the counter gave me a funny look, but a professor replied; “You’re dating your self!”  (An expression that always sounded slightly obscene to me.) But it’s true.  You have to be of a certain age to remember the original Addams Family; either the macabre New Yorker cartoons of American cartoonist Charles Addams or the 1960’s television show of the same name, starring John Aston as Gomez Addams and Carolyn Jones (grrrowrrr!) as his wife Morticia.  Gomez was my kind of guy; full of life, madly in love with his wife, fabulously wealthy and possessed of a bizarre sense of humor.  Or, maybe just possessed, it was difficult to tell.

At best, today’s youth have seen the 1991 movie remake, which was a good effort.  And I can’t complain about Christopher Lloyd’s portrayal of Uncle Fester.

Anyway far be it from me to let the youth of today wander in cultural starvation, so I hunted around and discovered 5 episodes of The Addams Family absolutely free and in beautiful high-rez Black & White for your enjoyment.  (Please ignore the laugh track; network executives required them in the ‘60’s and some still do today.)

What are your favorite offbeat shows?

Categories: Uncategorized

Brushing my teeth over and over again… (Movie review, AI)

November 18, 2009 Comments off

I like to watch movies while doing cardio exercise.  It magically transforms the mind-numbing boredom of maintaining a target heart rate for 40 minutes into the slightly less mind-numbing boredom of watching movies. 

Anyway, I happened to be in Wal-Mart the other day and saw that they had the Stanley Kubrick/Stephen Speilberg movie AI for five bucks, so I picked it up. My reasoning was as follows: “Maybe I was too harsh about that tacked-on ending.  Maybe it has some deeper aspect that I missed while trying to hold my lunch down the first time I saw it.”

Nope, I got it right the first time.  The part where the weird alien is gently narrating the storybook ending about the little robot boy going to “the place where dreams are born” is every bit as insufferable and cavity-causing as I remember from the theater.

Worse, Speilberg tried to blame that ending on Kubrick and take credit for the cool dark stuff in the middle.  So not buying it…  did you forget that we’ve seen Kubrick’s other movies, Stephen?  Did the guy who produced Clockwork Orange spew out that serving of high-fructose corn syrup at the end of AI, and you only included it out of a misplaced sense of responsibility?  Remember, we’ve seen your movies, too.

My advice if you have not seen the movie is; shut off the player at the moment the ferris wheel lands on top of David’s copter.  Cool movie, up to that point.

Ugh… Tomorrow I’m putting Sweeney Todd into the player before getting on the treadmill.

Categories: Uncategorized

An evening like our hair is on fire: Rafe Esquith

November 16, 2009 Comments off

imageThis evening Illinois State University (one of the largest teacher colleges in the nation) was host to Rafe Esquith, the famous fifth-grade teacher.  He talked about several things teachers can do for their kids, and how he applies them.  Like teaching even young children about “level-six thinking”, and modeling non-bullying behavior, and promoting the arts as a way to teach empathy and respect.  Like putting down roots in one school system and “building something there”.  Like teaching kids about money and independence.  Or that trust is all in education, and once lost, is almost impossible to regain (and how that applies in a classroom.) All good stuff.

I was particularly struck by his opinion of the Obama administration’s test-obsessed approach to education; not much better than the miserable “No Child Left Behind” of the even more miserable Bush administration.  How is it that fifty years after Pediwell wrote Sabre-toothed curriculum, and forty years after John Holt wrote How Children Fail and Banesh Hoffman wrote Tyranny Of Testing that we are still having this discussion? 

The obsession with standardized tests flummoxes me.  It seems to issue from a desire to measure learning, without using our own brains.  We want evaluation that can (often literally) be run by machine, and then we’re amazed that we get no human understanding from it.

I just want to know; is our education policy leaders learning? Is we?

NOTES:
The title is in reference to Esquith’s book; Teach like your hair is on fire

Categories: Uncategorized

Well it’s done: she’s using Windows 7

November 16, 2009 Comments off

For less than $330, dual-core, 2gb/500gb,fully-licensed Win7.  Main problem was, I forgot some things about managing profiles in Thunderbird (I only touch it when Diane changes computers), and things are a bit different in 7 from XP.  But it’s much faster than either XP or Vista, and on the whole I am quite happy with the results.  So I hope she’s happy.

In the past, Microsoft has seemed to be imitating Apple.  Now maybe they’re imitating Ubuntu.  Or maybe “imitating” should be replaced by “frightened of”.  But 7 does seem to be a large improvement over Vista.  For one thing, it boots up in about 15 seconds, and logs on in less than 10.

Now I’m going to start using 7 at work, so I can become familiar with it for our next build cycle next Summer.  We can’t go another year on XP, and we sure as hell aren’t going to use Vista.

My laptop and home desktop are staying Ubuntu though. Gotta have some little island of sanity.

Categories: Uncategorized

The Taco Bell dog’s plan for peace

November 14, 2009 Comments off

Bumper sticker I saw this morning: “Drop bones, not bombs ~ Obey the chihuahua!”

From my photo album, Notes

I’m currently reading Richard Dawkins’ “Greatest Show On Earth” in which he discusses the genetic evidence showing that all dogs are descended from wolves.  I had a chihuahua once as a kid.  We named it “Fang” as it was a fierce and fearless little animal.  Not too smart though; it got hit by a car.  My next dog, “Shadow”, was a labrador/terrier mix that lived 19 years.

Anyway, the little dog has a point here: if we attended to humanitarian needs, bombs would no doubt be less necessary. 

Categories: Uncategorized

A really weird bug, but not this kind

November 11, 2009 Comments off
From my photo album, biosphere

There’s some really nasty bug going around the last couple days.  Not, this bug, and not H1N1, though that’s afoot too, but computer virus traffic that networking services has been detecting on nearly a dozen ports in our building.  Trouble is, we don’t know what it is yet.  McAfee seems agnostic to the bug, and malwarebytes isn’t biting.  I had the machines shut down and we will tackle them in the morning.

Why worry about 10 machines in a building with more than 500?  No reason, nor any to fret over cracks in a dam.

Categories: Uncategorized

It was two days today

November 9, 2009 Comments off

Today was Carl Sagan day, and also the day the Berlin Wall fell.  What a fitting combination.

From my photo album, Illinois State University

And today was many other days, which we will know about, or never know about.  How many days are there, in a day?

(Photo is unrelated to either or any of those days; just something I saw yesterday that I thought was cool and wanted to share with you.)

Categories: Uncategorized

Getting back to a time before Glen Beck’s appendix operation

November 7, 2009 Comments off

Having earlier this year experienced something similar to what Glen Beck is going through (a life-threatening infection, not the total loss of connection with reality) I can sincerely offer him my sympathy and hope for a speedy recovery.  And, so does Jon Stewart:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
The 11/3 Project
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political Humor Health Care Crisis

And if you don’t know; yes, Glen Beck really is like that.  Stewart nailed it exactly, with almost no exaggeration for comedic effect.

Categories: Uncategorized

Handy marriage chart

November 6, 2009 Comments off

Handy Marriage Chart

Can Marry: Cannot Marry
People who have been divorced n times, adulterers, drug users, murderers in prison, people with horrible genetic problems, convicted sex offenders, people dying of cancer, tobacco company executives, health insurance executives, Wall Street executives, Britney Spears, televangelists, infertile couples, fast-food company executives, asexual couples, young teens with adults’ permission (age varies by state), mimes, and people who talk on their cell phones while driving their cars.  Oh, and people who are considered "normal". Gays and lesbians

Oh, and while we’re on about it, how is it ever OK for people to vote about other people’s rights?  Maybe we should vote on everyone’s right to marry.  Or not.

Categories: Uncategorized

Serious comedy and the Maine vote to repeal marriage equality

November 6, 2009 Comments off

To the religious, the fearful, the self-righteous who voted to deny civil rights to a minority in Maine, and especially those who donated the millions of dollars necessary to advertise that vote into existence, here’s a message for you.  It may sound frivolous and the movie from which I transcribed it certainly is.  But read anyway, because quoting outre’ comedy is the only way I can even respond without just sputtering in anger:

No, I won’t jump.
Look around you. This is your work.  Do you really think that God will forgive you?
You’ve created a hell full of creatures that could never be the work of God.
You talk about sin and depravity, and you may be right.
But look at the boy you’re pointing a gun at. He’s young and he deserves the right to live.
There aren’t any condoms in heaven, Dr. Riffleson, nor any that bite.
You speak of a god who will judge all of mankind. I say God will protect all lovers. He doesn’t care if it’s two men or a man and a woman. He doesn’t care if a man dresses like a woman and sings in a bar.
It’s possible that these people haven’t always done the right thing. But we’re all human beings. We’re all responsible for the way we live our lives.
If God ever does pass judgment over us, He won’t need anyone to do it for him.
Each and every one of us here, whether homosexual or heterosexual, whether transvestite or atheist professor, brothel owner or policeman, Serb, Croat or Chinese…
(Narration: I don’t know where the words came from. I was giving a sermon and realizing my words were having an effect… )
May he who is free of sin cast the first stone!
(Narration: Only the strange light bothered me, that and the angels singing around me)
It’s all over doctor, you’re all alone.
- Lt. Luigi Macaroni’s “Sermon On The Mount” at the end of the 1996 German horror-comedy movie, Killer Condom

Unfortunately, it’s not over.  Those celebrating their “victory” in Maine, just think; are you so sure of God’s will that you will discriminate against “the least of these”?  By your own lights, you better be damned sure.  Me, I don’t believe in heaven or hell, but I know the world we do live in won’t be improved by prejudice or discrimination. 

Categories: Religion