Month: June 2010

Posted on

Eleven!

So The Daughter turned eleven yesterday. Which meant that I got to embarrass her all day by pointing out things like, “Hey, eleven years ago today, I had to change your first diaper! I saw the first poo you ever made!” Happiness is, truly, torturing your own kids.

There were presents, obviously; the main one was that we took her to Best Buy and let her pick out the Wii game of her choice. After a few false-starts, she settled on Mario Kart, which turns out to be an utter blast. I haven’t played it all that much myself yet, but just wait. Oh yes.

What’s funny about the Mario games is their obvious Japanese sensibility. What I mean by this is the way they blend humor with addictively cartoonish sadism. I mean, in Mario Kart, you can take on the persona of a cute little princess, stick her in a rocket-powered go-kart, and drive her off cliffs repeatedly to her doom, all the while laughing at her cartoonish squeals of “AIEEE!!!” And since one can choose which vehicle to put her in, one can even do this in a rocket-powered baby stroller.

All this makes me think that the Mario games are the videogame equivalent of being on a Japanese game show.

Share This Post

Posted on

Sunday Burst of Weird and AWESOME!

Oddities and Awesome abound!

:: This one’s a bit scary, actually: apparently if you’re a seismologist by trade in Italy, and you fail to predict a big earthquake, you can be indicted for manslaughter. I guess a lack of scientific literacy isn’t prevalent just in America, huh?

:: What it’s like to own an Apple product Heh, indeed.

:: The 15 cruelest deaths in Star Trek. That poor Yeoman who gets crumbled to dust really stuck with me, first time I saw that episode.

:: And finally, it’s always fun to watch the planes come and go, so here are some planes, coming and going.

More next week!

Share This Post

Posted on

Honey, would you call the color of the sky right now “Marmalade”?

Last Saturday night, The Wife and I attended another concert by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. This one, however, did not feature classical music; we actually attended a Pops concert. It was called “Classical Mystery Tour”, and it featured the BPO doing songs of the Beatles. I expected orchestral arrangements of Beatles songs, maybe a few singers along the way, and generally a “Beatles turned into classical music” kind of thing.

That’s not what happened, though. It turns out that “Classical Mystery Tour” is the name of a Beatles tribute band that tours around performing with symphony orchestras around the world. This I figured out when we entered the hall to take our seats and saw, at the front of the stage and in front of the orchestra, a rock-band type set-up. “Ooooh, there’s a band!”, I said. And after the BPO warmed things up with a concert overture that was pretty much exactly what I expected the concert to be — Beatles melodies arranged for orchestra — the band came out.

And you know what? They were pretty good. Very good, in fact.

It probably helped us that we were far enough up in the balcony that we could see that the four guys in the band had the general “look” down (four guys in dark suits and mop haircuts), but not their specific facial features that would make it obvious that hey, that dude on the left doesn’t look anything like Paul McCartney at all.

The group’s sound was excellent, for the most part. I liked that they sounded very similar to the Beatles, but they didn’t strive for sounding identical to the Beatles. They did a basic rundown of a lot of the Beatles’ greatest hits, and they used the Philharmonic to great effect, achieving sonic effects from the stage that the Beatles themselves only achieved in the studio.

It was a grand evening, even if I have to cry foul that “Live and Let Die” is not a Beatles song!

Share This Post

Posted on

Something for Thursday

Here’s something cool: Franz von Suppe’s overture Poet and Peasant, played by the MGM Symphony Orchestra in a film made in 1955. My understanding is that films like these used to be part of the pre-feature entertainment in movie theaters. Would that they would do stuff like this again!

I’m especially fascinated here by the orchestra itself: it’s a big group, with a ton of strings, and the layout is pretty interesting, too, with the harps right down between the cellos and the violas, and the basses way up in the back of the entire orchestra. This is very cool!

Share This Post

Posted on

Where we’re going

Here’s an interesting little tool that lets you visualize where Americans are moving to. Literally: where they’re moving. According to the site, 10,000,000 Americans moved from one county to another in 2008. This tool lets you visualize the destinations. Red lines indicate outward movement, black ones indicate inward movement.

So, of course, I checked Buffalo. And man, is it depressing. Look at this:

By contrast, I also looked at a place that seems to attract a whole lot of former Buffalonians. Here’s Charlotte, NC:

Of course, no one ’round these parts needs to be told that nobody wants to move here, but seeing it laid out so bare is a hell of a downer.

Share This Post

Posted on

A Random Wednesday Conversation Starter

I spent some time last night trying, and ultimately failing, to find humor in the fact that the famed “Touchdown Jesus” statue in Ohio got struck by lightning and burned down. That’s just the sort of comic irony that I like, I’m sorry to say. I got a few search engine hits during the day for the statue, linked back to one entry in my old “Unidentified Earth” series, but I didn’t learn of Touchdown Jesus’s electrified fate until late in the day. And yes, I laughed when I learned.

But the question today is not whether or not it was funny. The question is this. Here is Touchdown Jesus:

Does that look like Jesus, or one of the Greek Gods, like Zeus?

(BTW, if that was Touchdown Jesus, then clearly the “Christ of the Ozarks” statue should be renamed “Unsportsmanlike Conduct Jesus”:

“Fifteen yards, and an eternity of punishment!”)

Share This Post

Posted on

Quizzery! We’ve got quizzery here!

From Sunday Stealing, even though it’s Tuesday:

1. You’re building your dream house. What’s the one thing that this house absolutely, positively MUST HAVE? (other than the obvious basics of course)

A thousand feet of bookshelves.

2. What is your dream car?

Some kind of large-ish vehicle that would have enough comfy space for myself and the family, be able to haul my tools and equipment around, and still get at least 40 mph. I have a feeling that this kind of vehicle may be available in the USA by 2027, and that they’ve had ’em in Japan since 1994.

3. What is your favorite website that isn’t a blog?

Flickr, I suppose.

4. iPhone 4 or Droid, which do you want?

The more I read about the way Apple does things, the less I want anything to do with them. Can I do whatever I want with a Droid? Do I get to select the content myself without any patriarchal crap from the company? If so, then the Droid.

5. When you’re feeling down or lonely or just generally out of sorts, what do you do to cheer yourself up?

I do a quiz. (But right now I feel fine!)

6. Tell me about something or someone that you love that most people seem to hate.

Just plug “Star Wars prequels” into the search box on this blog….

7. What do you want to be when you grow up?

Captain of a deep-space freighter, one with souped up engines and guns.

8. Would you go on a reality show if given the chance?

Depends on the show.

9. Who was your favorite teacher when you were growing up. (Grade school, Middle School, Jr. High or High School only.)

No names, but I liked my senior year English teacher a lot.

10. You get one pass to do something illegal or immoral. What are you gonna do?

Poop on George W. Bush’s front lawn.

11. What were you doing 10 years ago?

Geez…I have to calibrate myself now that 10 years ago wasn’t during the 1990s. 2000 was a pretty rough year; I was out of work for a big chunk of it. About this time I was hanging with The Kid and writing a lot.

12. By this time next year, I …

will be 39.

13. Do you think the United States will elect a female President in your lifetime? Do you think this would be a good thing?

Yes, on both counts.

14. Which fictional, TV show character you would shag anytime?

Er…yeah. Agent Lisbon on The Mentalist, if only because there’s no way I have a shot with Detective Beckett on Castle.

15. What is your greatest pet peeve?

Not sure, but the fact that this question shows up on so many Interweb quizzes is getting right up there.

16. Tell me about your most recent trip of more than 100 miles?

Our trip at Easter to Pittsburgh.

17. Which do you use more often, the dictionary or the thesaurus?

The dictionary.

18. Do you have a nickname? What is it?

“Hey you!”

19. What are you dreading at the moment?

I don’t have any dread right now, really.

20. Do you worry that others will judge you from reading some of your answers?

After more than eight years of blogging, that others might judge me is the last thing I worry about.

21. In two words, explain what ended your last relationship.

Other guy. (You know what’s cool? I’ve been in this relationship for so long that I have to really think to figure out what the one before this one was.)

22. What were you doing this morning at 8am?

Preparing for work. (I was already at work, but was checking e-mails, talking to people about what went on over the weekend, etc.)

23. Do you have any famous relatives?

Not that I know of.

24. How many different beverages have you drank today?

Let’s see: OJ, coffee, water, iced tea, more iced tea, more water, red wine.

25. What is something you are excited about?

Taking a long weekend at some point. Not sure when, though.

26. When was the last time you spoke in front of a large group?

High school, I think.

27. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?

Holy crap it’s early.

28. What were you doing at midnight last night?

Swearing. I’m serious. We had a power outage a few days ago that lasted about thirty seconds. We re-set all the clocks, but we forgot to actually reset my alarm (which is always set for 6:00 am). So, when we went to bed, we just turned my alarm on and went to sleep. At the default time — midnight — the alarm went off. And I swore a bit before my brain kicked into gear and figured out what had gone wrong.

29. What’s a word that you say a lot?

“Crikey!”

30. Who is your worst enemy?

King Reynald VIII of Guilder. I hate that guy.

That’s all!

Share This Post