Mark Huber's Blog

Cranial Activity

2011-10-01T11:24:00.000-07:00

This past summer was a good one for seeing cranes! Back in May I visited the International Crane Foundation for the first time. They are one of the few zoos that has all fifteen species of cranes on display. Also, they do a lot of great work getting Whooping Crane population numbers back up. Here's a picture of their enclosure for the Whooping Cranes where one crane was always on the nest while the other was looking for food.

Later that summer I was in Montana. While walking in a field near Anaconda with some family, we disturbed three cranes who immediately took flight. The red heads, black wing tips, and white bodies indicated that these were three more Whooping Cranes! The only thing I can't figure out is the brown splotches on the back since adult Whooping Cranes are pure white. So I believe that these are young cranes, still with some of the brown coloring from their younger days. Any crane experts out there?

Birds do it

2011-08-20T09:45:00.000-07:00

One of my grandmother's great joys in her last few years was watching her hummingbird feeder. They still keep it well fed up at the farm, and the birds still love it.

Most of the pictures I took of the Red Ruby Hummingbirds were on continuous shooting mode, which captures about five shots per second. Of course, what goes in must eventually come out. The following frame captures a quick event, a Hummingbird lightening its load. This did not appear in either the preceding or successive frames, so I now know that a Hummingbird can do it's business in under 0.4 seconds!

Ken and Jean's Wedding

2011-06-05T07:13:00.000-07:00

The month of May was full of travel for me! Right after I had submitted my grades, I flew up to Wisconsin to see my uncle Ken get married. Jean is a wonderful woman, and I wish them both all the happiness in the world. The wedding was held at St. Mary's Church in Briggsville.

After the wedding, everyone headed over to Maggie Mae's Barn for some great food. Maggie Mae and her band provided the entertainment at the reception.

Weddings are an excellent way to reconnect with family that you haven't seen for a while, and this was no exception. In fact, I met and got to chat with folks and relatives whom I hadn't seen in decades. Perhaps the highlight, though, was the wedding cake: a miniature replica of Clover View Farms.

Southern California Renaissance Faire

2011-04-29T21:17:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday I attended the Renaissance Faire that's about 20 minutes from my house. And what a faire! These folks have clearly been doing this a while. The layout is like a giant snake--so every single stage, shop, and eatery is on the path from the entrance to the joust. They have an NC-17 stage where I spent most of the morning replenishing my levels of bawdiness.

The Belles of Bedlam

Then it was off to watch Jack the Dagger do some impressive knife throwing. Yes, that blurry grey thing in the middle picture is the knife.

I ended the day by watching the final joust, which was excellent as well. Lots of fighting on both horse and ground. Altogether a wonderful way to spend a day!

Catalina Island

2011-04-23T09:34:00.000-07:00

California continues to amaze me.

Prior to coming to Claremont as an undergrad, what I knew about California I learned from TV and movies: San Francisco is hilly, Napa Valley has great wine, and Hollywood is full of movie stars. That's what makes my new discoveries of the gems that lie within California all the more exciting.

Avalon Harbor viewed from above

One such gem is the Channel Islands.

Those who pay attention to such things probably have heard of them already. A long ago getaway for movie stars, places such as Catalina Island grew up on the twin pillars of their beauty and mild inaccessibility. Today it is still a gorgeous place to visit, with many plant and animal species that only live on one or more of the Islands, and a wonderful harbor lined with shops, restaurants, and the occasional candy factory.

I went there for the first time with my Mom, who was visiting during her Spring Break. One very exciting thing to do is to take one of the semi-submersible undersea tours: the next best thing to scuba diving. We saw loads of fish during the tour, including the easy to spot Garibaldi.

Garibaldi fish in the ocean

The Island ethos of tourism with conservation was put in place by the Wrigley family, and the Wrigley Memorial and Botanical Gardens is a great way to see many of the plants (and animals!) that only grow on Catalina or other Channel Islands.

Mark and Tam in from of a Catalina Mahogany Tree

The trip back is also a lot of fun. The jet ferry takes about an hour to cover twenty miles of open ocean. Pelicans and seagulls like to follow the wake churned up behind the boat.

Pelicans accompanying the ferry ride back

Universal Studios Hollywood

2011-04-16T14:22:00.000-07:00

I hadn't been to Universal Studios Hollywood since I was an undergraduate in college. What a difference sixteen years makes!

When I last visited with my brother, the Studio Backlot Tour was the only real ride, and even that was very different from any other theme park in the world. The rest of the day you could spend watching stunt shows and other performances, but there were no roller coasters or other big rides.

Since then (like that other theme park), Universal Studios Hollywood has brought over the best ideas and rides from their two Florida Parks. The result is a great way to spend a day. It's still a lot lower key than a Disney adventure--which isn't a bad thing. The Backlot Tour is still the gem in their crown--and with recent updates including a ride through the 3D jungles of Skull Island where Kong battles dinosaurs it is still a favorite of mine.

Yep--he's still terrorizing Amity Lake

This time I went with my Mom, who was visiting during her Spring Break. I splurged on the "Front-of-the-line" passes. These helped a bit with the lines to the attractions, but their main benefit was the extras you receive with the shows. Most of the shows had a short Q-and-A session with the actors where they describe some of the behind-the-scenes parts of the show. Lots of fun! Also, there are nice reserved seats for these shows, so you don't have to worry about getting there too early.

Meeting the cast of Terminator 2:3D

Pepperdine

2011-03-14T20:27:00.000-07:00

Last week I gave a talk in the Natural Science Seminar series at Pepperdine University. Located on the hills above Malibu, they have a spectacular view of the Pacific.

The view from Pepperdine

The invite came from Tim Lucas, who got his PhD from Duke in 2006. I had run into Tim a few months earlier at the Joint Math Meetings in New Orleans. The talks at Pepperdine run from 12:00-1:00. So I gave the talk and then we headed out to their cafeteria (with big windows opening on to the ocean.) A great way to spend the day.

ElecTRONica

2011-02-26T09:00:00.000-08:00

The movie Tron came out when I was 10, and (in between Star Wars sequels) quickly established itself as my favorite movie.

Almost 30 years later, Tron legacy has his the theatres, and the Disney marketing machine is in full swing. Hooray!

In California Adventure, that means the southwest part of the park has been turned into ElecTRONica. After night falls, a DJ spins up and the End of Line Club comes to life. Even more fun, they have recreated Flynn's Arcade--complete with all the working video games I loved as a kid. Sure, there are lots of ways to play those old games nowadays, but nothing beats the thrill from dropping a token (and they are all 1 token to play) into a cabinet, then dropping it again in to the other slot because one slot isn't working, and then flying that ship/lasering robots/blowing up monsters until the cows come home.

Disneyland at Christmas

2011-01-14T10:27:00.000-08:00

I love the Disney parks. They at once appeal to the small child in me, and to the Operation Research trained adult in me--so many people moved efficiently through so many queues--it brings a tear to my eye.

This was the first year that I hit Disneyland at Christmas (Disney World I'd been to before). The park is transformed by wonderful lights, but even better, the Haunted Mansion now becomes The Nightmare Before Christmas (go Tim Burton!) for a month. As one of my all time favorite movies, I'd been looking forward to seeing that for a long time, and it did not disappoint. Everything about the ride is transformed, from the opening line to the final entreaty to return. The detail and number of things to watch for is amazing.

Decked out to the nines in giant icicle lights, Cinderella's Castle doesn't look half bad, either!

Yosemite in winter

2011-01-01T23:43:00.000-08:00

This was the second time that I've been to Yosemite in winter and it was equally gorgeous this time around. I was there four nights altogether with my folks and the weather was scary for a while but in the end cooperative.

It rained the first day out, but by the second day that had turned to a lovely snow that blanketed everything. The morning hike to the Lower Yosemite Falls was about as far as you would want to go with that much snow falling. By the next morning, the sun was shining on all that snow, and made every glade and meadow into a beautiful tableau. First we took an early morning tour with a photographer from the Ansel Adams Gallery, then headed off to Mirror Lake.

That night we saw the Bracebridge Dinner--a combination seven course meal and medieval Christmas pageant. It was wonderful, great performances and amazing food. This took place in the main dining hall at the Ahwahnee Hotel, a grand fixture of Yosemite Valley.

The next day the sun was again out, and we headed up to the overlook for Vernal Falls. That proved to be significantly steeper a hike than to Mirror Lake (although roughly the same distance) and so by the end of the day we were happy just to stay put for an hour and try to get some sunset pictures from the middle of the valley. By this time, though, the clouds had rolled in, and fog enshrouded all the major sights.

So the next day we took to the higher elevations, leaving the valley and heading to Tuolumne Grove, where some of the Giant Sequoias stand tall. These trees can live to be thousands of years old and are very impressive up close. The clouds continued to linger throughout the day, although the sun peeked through more at sunset this time.

Our final morning in the valley the skies cleared and the sun shone full force on the Upper Yosemite Falls, giving a wonderful rainbow across the water. El Capitan and the tunnel overlook were also clear as a bell, and made for a great final few hours in Yosemite.

A nice day

2010-12-11T11:09:00.000-08:00

It is a gorgeous day outside.

It sometimes surprises me how good that can make me feel. And of course, having a nice sunny day means all sorts of other things are happening. Where I live is next door to one of Claremont McKenna's practice fields, and today the track and field people are practicing the hammer throw.

That is just fun to watch! For those who haven't seen it, the hammer is the event with the 16 pound ball attached to a chain. Watching the throwers spin around and around and just heave that sucker as far as they can reminds you of when you were a kid and just threw things to see how far you could (see also: skipping rocks.)

It doesn't hurt that I know one of the throwers. He's been in my probability, statistics, and Monte Carlo methods courses and is an all around good guy. I wish him luck on the field as the season begins!

Thanksgiving

2010-11-27T14:48:00.000-08:00

Nothing beats a Thanksgiving with friends!

This Thanksgiving, Asuman, a professor in my department had myself and two other families over to her house for a great turkey dinner. With eleven people involved, this is more like a day long party than anything else. After polishing off a variety of tasty dishes and desserts, we went up to Mt. Baldy for a hike afterwards. Then those with the skills hit the Backgammon boards, while the more stuffed people like myself just chatted away the afternoon and evening. I know what I'm thankful for: wonderful friends that make life that much sweeter.

Here comes the rain again

2010-11-20T08:43:00.000-08:00

This past week was a beautiful: the sun was shining, the temperature was in the mid 70's, and all seemed right with the world. This morning, it's raining.

Yes it does rain in California.

And when it does rain, it tends not to mess around. The forecast shows rain this morning, this afternoon, this evening, and tomorrow. There's even a flash flood alert on top of that for areas of L.A. County that have been recently burned.

I do love watching the rain though. Maybe it goes back to childhood memories of Corvallis where it seemed like it rained every day, or maybe it's just the randomness of the drops, the way it throws light in all directions. Especially on a Saturday, where I don't have anywhere to go and can just relax and watch the water pouring down through my window.

Halloween, Rifftrax style

2010-10-30T14:29:00.000-07:00

In honor of Halloween and my abiding love of making fun of movies, I headed out to the Rifftrax live event this last Thursday. The movie they riffed was the classic Vincent Price "House on Haunted Hill" a delightful product of its times movie that was perfect for Kevin Murphy, Mike Nelson, and Bill Corbett to go after.

This is the second Rifftrax Live! presentation that I've gone to (the other being their Christmas special last year). The last one was fun, but this one was amazing. Part of the fun is being in a semi-crowded theater. Southern California has enough former MST 3K fans like myself to fill a theater for these types of events, and the fun of seeing them do their shtick live really adds to the laughs.

Dala

2010-10-03T08:03:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, I headed up to Scripps for their once-a-semester free concert on their big lawn. This is part of a series of concerts organized by a Scripps Alum, Elizabeth Levitt Hersch '74. Part giving back to Scipps, part advertisement for the Levitt Pavillions, this is always a well-organized nice event. Performing this time were Dala, an acoustic folk duo from Canada.

They were awesome! I have to admit, my consumption of folk has dropped dramatically since leaving North Carolina, so it was nice to get a booster. Lovely harmonies and an easy back-and-forth between two friends made for a wonderful concert. The concert setting itself was also very nice--by setting the time from 5:30-7:00, there was a pretty transition from day to night while they played. And they even gave chairs and/or blankets to everyone. A great way to start the weekend!

A week in Warsaw

2010-08-22T07:24:00.000-07:00

The first night in Warsaw, I met up with some friends, Galin and James, and headed out to Old Town. Warsaw's Old Town is in fact quite new: almost every building was destroyed in WWII, and meticulously recreated in every detail. The result is like nothing else: a modern medieval city with incredible artwork and detail adorning stonework that is mere decades old.

The Royal Palace managed to save some of their most impressive art, including four of the thrones used by kings of Poland. The audiotour is great: it includes headphones (no holding up a weighty device to your ear), and each room has a main number, with extra numbers reserved for specific items of interest.

The next day (before the conference), we headed out to the center of town and the Warsaw Uprising Museum. This contains artifacts from the desparate days near the end of WWII. The Red Army was
encamped outside the city, and with the hope of reclaiming the city the local resistance tried to expel the Nazi forces. But Stalin had other ideas, and his army sat while the German first retook the city block by block and building by building, and then waited further as Hitler systematically destroyed all the important buildings in retaliation. The Uprising Museum tells this story through artefacts, letters, photos, and even film taken by the Poles. An immersive, moving museum.

From there we headed westward to the National Museum. This containsone of the largest collection of medieval religious wood carvings that I have seen with intricate detail very well preserved. And the paintings by the Polish also reveals a deep artistic tradition.

On Wednesday, the conference organized an excursion: A guided tour through the Old Town followed by dinner in another gallery. The dinner was great, and was accompanied by a concert by a trio of women on piano, clarinet, and flute.

Friday was the last day of the conference, and again the afternoon became a sightseeing opportunity. The Palace of Culture and Science (Stalin's "gift" to the Polish people) looms massively in the center of town, and the terrace offers great views of the city.

One corner of the Palace houses the Museum of Technology, a history spanning from the paleolithic to modern times. Automotive, radio, electronic, and typewriter fans will find much to love in their exhibits, and the basic science experiments are quite cool.

Finally, we swung through Old Town for some picture taking. What a lovely place!

New York, New York

2010-08-15T12:32:00.000-07:00

It's hard for me to believe that last weekend was only my second time in New York City-what a fun place! Of course, much of the fun came from getting to see a friend from the Duke days (only two years ago but feels like forever sometimes), Bianca who is now at The City College of New York and now is living in Manhattan.

We saw Avenue Q after hitting the half price ticket place in Times Square, it's really a wonderful show. The next day we headed over to the American Museum of Natural History in Central Park. Awesome place! Went to a planetarium show, haven't done that in years. Here's a picture of us enjoying the foyer.

After New York I flew over to the University of Warwick to spend a week talking with Gareth Roberts and his group--including another friend from Duke, Natesh, who will be starting at Harvard in the fall. Go Natesh!

Finally yesterday I landed in Warsaw, Poland, where I'll be giving a talk at the MCQMC conference.

The months, they are a changin'

2010-08-06T22:08:00.000-07:00

I get it when you are a kid: Summer's supposed to fly by then. So why does it seem that as I get older every summer seems to go by faster?

Last week my REU'ers (Research Experience for Undergraduates) gave their final presentations, turned in their papers, pulled up stakes and drove/flew off into the...well sunrise since most are from parts east of ol' California.

That's eight weeks that just went by at lightening speed. The six in my group (Elise, Scott, Jason, Jacky, Dan, and Annie) broke into two projects. They turned out great presentations (yay Beamer!) and...okay papers (I'm sure with more time they would have been fabulous.) Now comes the hard part--keeping the momentum built up during the research to get those papers polished and into journals and published. Go team!

Summer time fun, a summary!

2010-07-21T17:56:00.000-07:00

So it's been about a month since my last blog post. I'd hoped to be all done relating my travels through Italy by now, but once again an exciting summer has intervened. So I thought I'd step back and give the brief description of what I've been up to lately this last month.

After the trip in Italy came what I went to Europe for in the first place: The Ninth Valencia international meeting of Bayesian Statistics. This was the first year I had been invited to give a talk: very exciting! So I tried to go with my A material, a new algorithm that my graduate student Sarah and I have been working on for the last year. It did receive a lot of attention, and I found the discussions with those interested in the method to be enormously helpful. One thing I'm working on right now I'm working on the finishing touches on my response to the written discussion of that paper.

So that was a week, and unfortunately, it was also the first week of the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) that I am running this summer. I had sent my crew (six students from around the US) daily assignments to work on, but there's nothing like being there in person. So the first few days were a blur as I lectured extensively and got them up to speed on the projects they would be working on.

A few weeks later they were pretty much in self-sufficient mode, and I just had to check in once a day to make sure all was moving along smoothly. As I write this the end of the REU is in sight: next week they will be giving oral presentations of their final results, and both groups are writing up their work in paper form as well. Along the way, I went out to Joshua Tree National Park with lots of the Claremont REU (more than just my six are pictured below) and we also had some other events as well.

Last week was more traveling for me, although not academic in nature. I met my folks in Las Vegas for a three day whirlwind tour of magic and acrobatics before heading out to the Grand Canyon. The last time I was there time was limited but this trip we took our time and did things right. The highlight was a Ranger led morning hike partway down into the Canyon. Great stuff! On the way back we also hit Sunset Volcano National Monument, a gem of a park just north of Flagstaff.

That wasn't the end of the week for me though, as last weekend was La Grande High School class of 1990 twentieth reunion. Also great fun as I met up with friends that I hadn't seen in, well, 20 years! Okay, a few I'd seen since then, and Facebook does make it easier to catch up, but still there's nothing like just hanging out and dancing to the 80's favorites.

Headed East

2010-06-22T20:59:00.000-07:00

Getting out of Florence the next morning proved difficult: an accident on the motorway had traffic backed up halfway to the city center. But eventually we escaped the Tuscan capital and headed East towards Bologna.

My first goal was to see the oldest continually operating university. Their original building is now the public library, with several of the halls left as they were in the Middle Ages. Nice to see that professors got their own shields. There's a tradition I could see reviving!

This is also where the Anatomical Theatre was located, where physicians used to dissect cadavers under the watchful eyes of the clergy, who made sure nothing inappropriate went on.

Next stop in Bologna was the Basilica of Saint Dominic, founder of the Dominican Order. This is a gorgeous building, as befits the final resting place of the saint. Unfortunately, the traffic in Florence meant an abbreviated stop in Bologna, so it was back to the bus.

The next stop was Padua, which has a delightful central park surrounded by a canal that is the second largest square in Europe. Passing through this area, "the group" headed toward the Basilica of Saint Anthony, yet another popular pilgrimage destination. The monument over the tomb of the saint inside was magnificent. What differentiates this place from others I saw was the number of domes, six if I remember correctly. But what I found most interesting was the statue of the saint in a side courtyard. Visitors visitors must have been shaking hands with Saint Anthony for luck or blessings.

Leaving Bologna, we headed for the hotel outside Venice. That night, after dinner, we took a boat to the main square, Piazza San Marco. Finally, a name I can get into! Since it was high tide, and Venice is slowly sinking into the sea, the north end of the square was covered with water. Wading time!

Tuscany

2010-06-20T08:57:00.000-07:00

The fact that the Italian cities were their own states for so long makes them great places to visit. Each one tried to outdo the others in grandeur, art, and all around magnificence.

Florence, of course, has a few aces up its sleeve. The first is Michelangelo's David, which stood outside in a public square for centuries before being moving indoors for its protection. The statue was everything I believed it to be: a dominating presence that seems so fluid, so lifelike, that it is hard to imagine that this is solid marble. This was another museum where pictures were not allowed, which in this case was kind of nice, since it meant that everyone was actually looking at the statue rather than trying to get pictures of friends and family with it in the background.

The second ace is the Duomo of Florence, with every inch of the exterior covered by carvings and mosaics. The fabulous bell tower is a separate building, as is the baptistery built later (that's the striped building you can just see a bit of on the left). But for true height, you have to climb to the top of the central Dome, which affords a 360 degree view of the city below.

The third (and last) stop in Florence that I had time for was Basilica di Santa Croce. Here some of the most illustrious inhabitants of Florence are interred. Galileo, Marconi, Machiavelli, and of course Michelangelo are just part of the tombs that line the walls.

For the remainder of the afternoon, the tour headed to Pisa, and the famous Piazza di Miracoli--the Square of Miracles. Like the Florence Duomo, this really consists of three separate buildings, the main Cathedral, the Bapistery, and the bell tower constructed later. Of course, the bell tower was the ill fated one of the three, whose gradual sinking into the soil gave rise to one of Italy's greatest landmarks: the Leaning Tower of Pisa. After touring the Cathedral and Basilica, I went over to try to get the standard picture every tourist is required to take. Fortunately, I had met a pair of Australian women on the tour, May and Carol, and they were able to help me out. (The keen eyed among you will note the distinctive outline of my Lonely Planet Italian phrasebook in my left pocket.)

Heading north

2010-06-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

Leaving Rome in a little car is a trick, leaving it with a 60 person bus is just amazing. But our driver successfully navigated the vehicle our tour guide nicknamed "The Monster" through five hotel pickups and then we were on our way.

First stop was the town of Assisi, home to St. Francis, or should I say San Francesco. In 1228, two years after the death of the saint, the new order decided to build a Basilica in Assisi. This was the first major religious building I saw in Italy, and it was far from the last.

Assisi itself is set upon the side of a hill, which makes the town proper a series of switchbacks aligned with the old Roman walls. On one end is the Basilica, with wonderful views over the valley below. Inside there are frescoes which mark a shift in subject: instead of purely religious figures, they show the common people instead. It has multiple levels, the original, the crypt below where the saints body is entombed, and a more airy upper level built later. Like many Italian holy buildings, photos were not permitted inside. A quick stop for lunch and then we were on our way.

The next stop was Siena, set in the middle of Tuscany. Once a major crossroads, the buildings constructed during the Renaissance heyday are wonderful. The centerpiece is The Duomo. Every major city in Italy has a Duomo, which was the most important church in the city.
Every place I visited seemed to have a unique feature: in the case of the Siena Duomo it was the wonderful floor tilings. This is where being part of a tour is unfortunate, I wish that I had more time to explore the museums in the historic center, or climb the tower in the Piazza del Campo. Next time!

Roam if you want to

2010-06-12T11:53:00.000-07:00

Rome! The Eternal City! Like most tourists arriving somewhere for the first time, I took a taxi from the airport to my hotel, and gawked at the scenery. The main road to the center of Rome goes right past old Roman walls, churches, and even the Colosseum in all its magnificent ruined glory. That's what I came to see!

So even though my plane was late and I did not get to my hotel until about 5:00, I immediately headed out to see some sights. Despite it being a Sunday, shops were still open (including the little tourist info booth) and sightseers were thronging around. I walked down about half a mile to where the main archaeological attractions were. You can get a great view of the old Roman buildings from the top of the hill, too bad it was getting too late to do the close up tour. Still, it really was great just walking around soaking up history. Tomorrow my Italian tour would begin!

Better living through science

2010-05-15T13:38:00.000-07:00

Iron Man was the first engineering superhero. Sure Spiderman created his webbing from his chem knowledge, but only after that radioactive spider had given him most of his powers. And Batman's toys always took second place to his physical conditioning. Iron Man created his own powers one step at a time, one model suit at a time.

That is why I was so excited when the first Iron Man movie came out to see what they would do with it. And I was not disappointed. This was a movie that reveled in the engineering, delighted itself in the process of creation. Too often science is viewed as a static memorization of facts and laws rather than the creative process that it really is. To do science is to create something new, to connect to the world in a way that no one else has done before.

I saw Iron Man 2 last weekend, and this is one sequel that accomplishes the rare feat of improving upon the original. Early in the film we see a clip of Tony Stark's father (played by the always delightful John Slattery) introducing the Stark Expo in the 70's. The standard touchstones are there: grainy film quality, toy model city of the future, optimism that science will lead to a better world.

What struck me was that this was presented in an entirely irony free way. There's no Men in Black style behind the curtain pullback, no tongue in cheek "boy weren't they idiots in earlier times" subtext. This is played straight: the simple idea that good science can prevail over evil in the world.

This is the story of our time. There seems to be a sense that we are entering a new age of technology. One where technological progress is not only important, but necessary to our survival. The last century was the age of Petroleum and the Green Revolution, where cheap energy and massive increases in food production led to unintended consequences. To master the problems these "advances" created, society is looking toward science and engineering. It is not an option to return to a preindustrial time, there are too many people to feed, too much at stake. So now society is going double or nothing: pouring money into green technology in hopes of keeping the plates spinning.

That is the same story unfolding in Iron Man 2. The power technology that Stark thought he had perfected has unintended consequences of its own. Every military in the world seeks it, while it slowly poisons Stark's body from within. The only way through? Advance the science his father started, create a truly clean energy source.

Easy to do for a superhero in a summer blockbuster. Will the world succeed on this course? The next few decades should be interesting.

Iron Man: 4 out of 5 stars
Iron Man 2: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars

The Doctor is dead, long live the Doctor!

2010-04-24T22:33:00.000-07:00

It was a glorious few seasons with David Tennant, the eminently likable Doctor Who, but all good things must come to an end. For those who aren't familiar with the series, The Doctor is a Time Lord, a species that short of disintegration regenerates after death into an entirely new body.

The eleventh Doctor took the reins this season, and in a policy turnaround BBC America is showing the series in the US a mere two weeks behind the UK debut. With a new Doctor, new showrunner, new companion, new sets and new opening, thing could go very right...or very wrong.

That's the reason why I'm so pleased by the two episodes so far. They have had that magical Doctor quality, skirting the line between madcap adventure, social commentary, with a dash of science fiction wackiness for good measure.

So far the episodes have touched base with the series history, but the most fun for me has been the many nods to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Douglas Adams had worked on several episodes in the series, and conversely both his Hitchhiker's series and the Dirk Gently series incorporated time travel.

In the first episode of the new season, ships hover above the Earth and are about to destroy it, but unlike the Vogon's the 2010 aliens can tap into our cellphones as well as TV and radio to broadcast their message of Doom. At the end of the first episode, the Doctor's new lithesome companion joins him from her bedroom--and so spends the entire second episode in her nightgown, much like the hapless Arthur Dent in his bathrobe.

And oh yes, there's a whale. In space. I love the human imagination, always creating new variations on themes both strange and sublime.

California Adventure

2010-04-07T21:55:00.000-07:00

Last week my Mom flew down to Southern California for a week of fun in the sun during her Spring Break. First big stop on the list: California Adventure!

This park opened in Anaheim in 2001, so it was after I had left California for the East Coast. With the success of Disney World at sucking in visitors for a multiday experience, it was probably only a matter of time until a second park opened at the original theme park location as well. They took out the giant parking lot of my youth and replaced it with an enormous parking garage. The setup is still much nicer than at DisneyWorld, as a short walk to a tram takes you to the entrance plaza: Disneyland on your left, California Adventure on your right.

The park itself includes some of the best rides developed anywhere is Disney parks over the last decade. The Tower of Terror continues to thrill, and Soarin' is unique in concept and execution. Toy Story Mania is wonderful: at least it is if it is like the one in Pixar Studios, since the hour long line in California Adventure meant that this time we gave it a pass.

Unique to CA is the midway area. This includes some pay-to-play games (I won a Woody!) and several classic styled rides. Mickey's Fun Wheel is an enormous Ferris Wheel, but with a twist that the cars can slide in towards the center as the wheel turns. This gives it an extra excitement factor. California Screamin' looks like an old style wooden coaster, but is in fact a steel behemoth with a fast acceleration start, but completely outdoors. Very fun!

The day parade was short but fun, composed entirely of Pixar characters. It was very easy to see characters: one short musical show ended with three characters forming lines for meet and greets, and the plaza continually had new people buzzing in and out.

When I was last in San Francisco I had intended to go do the Boudin bakery tour and see the sourdough being made. Too bad the day I went the tours were closed. Fortunately, CA has it's own miniature version! Mmmm, chili in sourdough bowls!

The old Main Street Electrical Parade has now become Disney's Electrical Parade, and runs through CA every night. Still a lot of fun seeing the thousands of lights. Even if you don't have a ticket to Disneyland, we discovered that you can catch the fireworks show from the entrance plaza, or even the parking garage, at least if you can live without sound.

Altogether the time flew by: this is a great place to visit, and since it's about an hour away from my place, I have a hunch I'll be visiting again soon!

Blast from the past

2010-03-18T22:38:00.000-07:00

When I was an undergraduate, there were exactly three TV shows that I watched. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Babylon 5, and the Simpsons.

Yes, The Simpsons is that old.

The fact that the Simpsons outlasted not only Star Trek: TNG, but Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, and the reboot of the entire movie franchise still amazes me. Of course, it is a very different show than those heady days in the early 90's. You just can't repeat the same jokes for 21 years without having to change things up occasionally.

Or so I thought until last Sunday's episode. This was truly a blast from the past, an HD version of the early seasons. It opened with a pitch perfect filmstrip parody of the "city of the future" so beloved in the 50's and 60's. Cut to Mrs. Krabappel pining over the possibility of meeting single firemen. How long has it been since Mrs. K showed her man-hungry side? Ten, eleven years?

And the plot was a hearkening back to the days when The Simpsons tried to keep at least one foot grounded in reality. Here Bart is playing his parents against each, a standard trope at least as old as Leave it to Beaver. The syndicated loop for the Simpson's has been running from 1990-1994 lately, and this episode would have fit right in.

LXXXII

2010-03-06T23:25:00.000-08:00

The 82nd annual Academy Awards are almost upon us! This year I am staying out of the major categories: I'm rooting for best supporting actor and actress.

For Best Supporting Actor, Christophe Waltz is my unmatched favorite. The scene that opens Inglourious Basterds will probably go down as one of the tensest sequences ever captured on celluloid. Waltz's Col. Landa is erudite, multilingual, and pure evil of a kind that rarely get captured in film. His is evil grounded not in deep hate, but arising out of pure Machivallian calculation. Landa owes no loyalty to anyone but himself, and chooses his path of infamy purely because it serves his ends, and because he is good at it. Shudder.

For Best Supporting Actress, I'm rooting for Vera Farmiga. I first saw her in the short lived summer series "Roar". T.V. Fantasy had made a comeback in the 1990's: Hercules, Xena, and the Beastmaster all graced the small screen (for better or for worse). But the networks continued their Sci-Fi and Fantasy slump: every single show they came up was canceled in under a season. Syndication yes, networks no. Farmiga was 24 when the show aired, one year younger than me, and oh yeah, she made an impression. And of course this was also Heath Ledger's first show, but who cares about that? They made 13 episodes, only aired 8 that summer, and it was gone.

Her next series was UC: Undercover, with lead Oded Fehr who was riding high after his turn in "The Mummy" and "The Mummy Returns". It got canceled in under a year: only 12 episodes this time.

Her next series was Touching Evil. Farmiga always had a certain kind of strange about her, and finally they paired her with someone who matched that strange: Jeffrey Donovan. Those who've seen him in the more successful Burn Notice know what I mean. There's something not quite right about that guy. Anyway, the run this time: 12 epsiodes.

Three series I enjoyed (although I've never gone back to see if Roar was as fun as I remembered,) and three series down.

But she kept plugging away. That was the last series she was in, moving full time to movies. Starting in supporting roles, then working her way up to the leads. And finally, the big time: a major role opposite leading heartthrob George Clooney. An Oscar nomination to boot!

Now I don't think she'll win. Mo'Nique has the important movie vote locked. But I think it's just great that someone I never expected to make the big time worked hard, climbed the ladder, and now is getting a shot at the premier award in their craft.

Now as for Waltz: he's running at better than 97% chance to win right now at the bookies. I'd get a speech ready if I was him. Pick a language.

Lost

2010-02-24T15:06:00.000-08:00

The final season is upon us, and Lost has firmly put its stamp on TV sci-fi history. Babylon 5 was really the first to lay out a story plan that would take years to complete. This allowed for unparalleled development of the universe, and many quirky experiments. One of the delights of the series was a wonderful pair of interlinked time travel episodes (one from season 1 and one from season 3) that showed a story from the perspective of two seasons.

My how the world has changed!

Only ten years later, and we are led to Lost, whose complexities, subtle challenges, and willingness to draw from past seasons is simply without peer, and worlds beyond the ambition of Babylon 5. Building on the shoulders of giants, Lost has created an intricate clockwork of past future, and sideways events that hold a fascinating mystery. And this season just keeps getting better. The last episode linked Jack's search for his father from Season 1 to his alternate universe self's search to become a good father, and beautifully advanced both story lines.

But let's face it, if you gave up on Lost in Season 1 for moving too slowly (and there were times I considered it) then now is too late to catch up. The plot lines are all firmly tied in place, slowly unraveling and dragging characters to their eventual dooms. So what there to say about Lost?

The final question is how will it end, and like most fans I have a theory. (Non-Lost viewers can probably stop reading now--what follows isn't going to make much sense.) Smokey Locke is wrong about the candidates, they aren't here to replace Jacob. The fact that Jacob is still around after being ashed by Smokey and manipulating events through Hurley means that the previous act of white stone throwing defiance was so much empty show. Jacob is still here, still running the show for the white side, and replacement is not on the table. Otherwise faithful Hurley could just don the mantle and be done with it.

Instead, I tend to a more "Mallorean" view of things. The world has been split (literally!) and the candidate's job is not to replace Jacob, but to bring a final end to the white/dark dichotomy. To contain within oneself two conflicting principles, and thereby replace the world on its track. This isn't good vs. evil, but truth versus lies, stasis versus fluidity. Smokey represents truth, reality, the status quo. Jacob is lies, the fantasy of a better world, or as he puts it "progress". Progress and change only exist if the current reality is made into a lie, which is why Jacob seems to have no moral qualms about telling everyone what they need to hear, rather than the truth. (Does Jack have what it takes? Or only if Jack believes that he has what it takes will he actually have what it takes?

In the end, Jacob and Smokey are actually working toward the same goal: they both want off the Island, but Jacob wants to accomplish that by finishing the job, moving to the endgame, bridging the chasm, while Smokey, unable to conceive of that union, that singularity, cannot make that leap towards a brighter reality.

The metaevent

2010-02-20T09:32:00.000-08:00

I've been watching a fair amount of Olympic coverage this week, and as always on of my favorite sports is the metaevent: seeing just how ridiculous NBC's Olympic coverage can get.

The Olympics are so much more fun to watch then 16 years ago, thanks to the DVR. Don't want to see Mary Carillo play with the polar bears? Zip right through and on to something more interesting.

But finally NBC's coverage broke through my defenses. They showed the fourth and final heat of Women's Skeleton last night. Of course, before that they had a five minute interview with Evan Lysacek (their second in primetime) and a four minute puff piece on Noelle Pikus-Pace who was in fourth place going into the final heat.

The other American was in the 10th spot. Two Germans were in 5th and 3rd, a Canadian was in 2nd, and Amy Williams for Great Britain was in first. So naturally, NBC started their coverage with... 11th place?!?

What? As near as I can understand, her run was shown purely because she was right in front of the American and they didn't want to make it too obvious that they really, really, wanted to show the US athlete in 10th.

Now, I'm not one to ding NBC for showing US competitors that are way back: If I was in France, I'd want the TV locked on to a French athlete in 27th place. But I would also want them to actually show the medaling runs. And that's why I hated what happened next.

NBC skipped the runs for the 9th through 5th competitors, jumping straight to Noelle Pikus-Pace in 4th. Now the competitor in 5th was only 3 tenths of a second behind the Canadian in 2nd, so she was definitely a medal competitor. And they skipped her so: they could show 11th? A second interview with Lysacek? That was just wrong.

True to form, the Canadian made a few small errors at the top and the German whose run we didn't get to see took the bronze. Very exciting. Would have been more exciting if we had actually GOTTEN TO SEE IT, NBC!

Of course, I may be biased myself. The German's name: Anja Huber.

Luck and the Olympian

2010-02-14T18:43:00.000-08:00

I've always loved watching the Olympics, Winter and Summer. For two weeks every few years, I get to see sports that otherwise I wouldn't even know existed.

It is also a sobering reminder of the importance of luck.

Olympians train constantly. To be the best in the world in anything, you have to push yourself as hard as you can. But even with daily training, the best coaches, the best equipment, and the best attitude, luck still plays a role.

My first refresher course on the power of luck came on Saturday, as Apolo Ohno and J.R. Celski appeared certain to take the 4th and 5th spots in the men's 1500m short track competition. The Koreans had taken the first, second, and third places, and looked destined for a medal sweep.

Then the unthinkable--a poorly executed pass tripped up two of the Koreans and took them out of the race. In the blink of an eye Ohno and Celski took silver and bronze, an amazing reversal of events.

Then came the men's 10km sprint biathlon, the wonderful event combining cross country skiing with target shooting. The competition started as usual, with the competitors let onto the track spaced out at intervals of 30 seconds. But then, a few minutes in to the race, it started to snow. And it wasn't light and fluffy either, but wet and deadly to the later competitors. You could train all you want, but if you weren't one of the first ten competitors, you weren't going to win a medal.

Of course, without all the preparation, without the work and the dedication, you never get a shot at the Olympics in the first place. Luck isn't about bemoaning what happens to you, it is about being ready to take whatever life throws at you. As my favorite fictional designer once said, "Luck favors the prepared, darling."

Super Bowl XLIV!

2010-02-07T19:29:00.000-08:00

Once again, the game has upended my expectations and proved more exciting than the commercials!

Still there were a few winners. The baby Etrader commercials continue to impress while GoDaddy continues to underwhelm. But for me the winner was Google's ad.

The best ads are short films, entire stories mapped into 52 seconds. And in that respect, Google has created a new art form: the short story told entirely through Google searches. The epistolary novel form tells a story entirely through letters, but that's the closest I've seen to this form.

Like many people, Google searches have become an indispensable part of my life, pointing the way to resources for work and play, telling me where to go and surprising me with the amount of information that is out in the world. Since they rule the search market, they rarely advertise, and so it was nice to see them land such a nice ad on their first shot at the biggest show in town.

Walking in a winter wonderland

2010-01-31T20:40:00.000-08:00

This week I was on a work trip to the Washington, D.C. area, and is my usual M.O., I decided to spend an extra day to do some sightseeing. Washington is unique in the variety of museums clustered close together. New York and London both have larger museums, and Paris has an unmatched collection of art, but only in D.C. can you walk half a mile and move from the National Archives and the founding documents of the country to the Hope Diamond, a forensic investigation of bones found in Fort James, and the C-3PO suit from Return of the Jedi. Nowhere else in the world is such a variety of stuff just packed together for public view, and it seems every time they renovate one of these places, things just keep getting better.

This time around, I most enjoyed reading some of the letters to the government that are in the National Archives. A little girl pleading with President Truman not to give Elvis a standard infantryman haircut, the northern Michigan town that wrote their letter on a sheet of copper, and the man who wished to assure the FCC that he was, in fact, not brought to the point of panic by Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" broadcast.

I also love looking at the edit marks on an early typeset draft of the Articles of Confederation. The editor had written "and Providence Plantations" next to Rhode Island, it looks like everyone forgets that part of the name. In one part line numbers had been added every five lines.

This trip to D.C. was also unique for me in another way. This was the first time I was here when it snowed. And this wasn't the kind of namby-pamby will it stick or won't it kind of snow. This was the roll around in it, have a snowball fight and there will still be an unbroken blanket of white streching over everything kind of snow. So I didn't visit Lincoln this time around, but the views from top floors of the museums were amazing.

A tale of a prophet

2010-01-20T18:47:00.000-08:00

Ever since the Road Warrior, I have enjoyed a good apocalyptic film. This year has seen a resurgence, first with Terminator: Salvation, then the adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's "The Road", and now with Denzel Washington and "The Book of Eli".

I enjoyed this film immensely. The movie is full of tiny moments, starting from the very first scene that do not make sense in a particular way. At first this rubbed me the wrong way, as I thought it was simply another example of substituting movie style for practicality. But the movie's wonderful twist ending redeemed all these small moments. And unlike films like the Sixth Sense which felt the need for a montage to relive all the out of place moments, The Book of Eli confidently keeps moving forward after the reveal, letting the viewer sort through memory and pick out those off moments that now make sense.

Even before the ending, however, this movie has a lot going for it. The bright palette (explained through use of a weapon that caused the apocalypse by altering the atmosphere) and gritty surroundings give the film a look half Road Warrior and half Western. It's an environment that encourages compromise. Who wouldn't follow the direction of the man who provides the only water in hundreds of miles? Even if he is a dictator who rules with an iron hand and treats the world as his inferior.

Our hero, that's who. Denzel Washington has always been good at projecting the calm in the storm, and this role as a wandering prophet was tailor made for him. But he is an old school prophet--bringing unyielding death and destruction to those who would thwart the path God has laid out for him.

The movie walks the fine line between faith and evidence, and raises wonderful questions. In the events of the film, we have only the word of Eli himself that he has been chosen by God. Is his survival evidence that he is in fact divinely protected? Or just another coincidence in a world turned intolerably cruel? Were the survivors of the apocalypse right to turn against religion as the cause of the war that tore their world apart? Or is it the only thing that can save the survivors? Images and events can lend credence to arguments in either direction. It is hard not to feel the positive aspect of faith as a girl prays before eating for the first time, but then the plan of the dictator to use religion to control an empire emphasizes the terrible things that have been done by people to other people in the name of faith and religion.

The Book of Eli, a tale of a prophet in a future that hopefully will never be.
4 out of 5 stars

Elementary

2010-01-03T16:51:00.000-08:00

One Christmas long ago my brother and I received a pair of novels. His was a collection of Edgar Allen Poe, and mine was a collection of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories of Sherlock Holmes. I fell in love with the character, and today consider this fictional hero a wonderful introduction to the work of a scientist. He was methodical, observant, and careful to always put observation before theory. Moreover, he was endlessly curious, taking cases because of their difficulty, not because they were easy.

These sides of the fictional detective have been captured in movies galore. But they usually failed to capture some of Holmes other qualities--his martial skills as a fencer and boxer, his slovenly ways, and his maniacal focus on a case.

So you can imagine my delight when I heard that Guy Ritchie (of Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch fame) was directing a Sherlock Holmes movie. Ritchie has built a career out of constructing intricate action films with thugs in the leading role. Men for whom violence was not an abstraction, but an integral part of their world. That is how the Holmes stories felt to me. Some (like "The Hound of the Baskervilles") took place in rarefied settings, but most of the short stories took place in the grimy streets of the London underground. Holmes dove headfirst into these settings, disguising himself until he became one with the criminal element.

For me, the movie did not disappoint. The classic Watson Holmes banter was there, and the offhand deductive showpieces, but also a strong sense of Holmes as character actually driven to solve a case, who experiments with drugs and insects, who has an encyclopedic knowledge of London and its environs.

I have noted critics expressed surprise at Holmes in an action movie, but seem to forget that Holmes was the character who fought Moriarty atop a waterfall to the death. Holmes was not an armchair detective, but someone who put all his energy and action into a case. This is a fresh, fun take on Holmes that is rife with clues for the observant, a solvable mystery, and yes, action packed sequences that give new life to industrial era London. Grime included.

Sherlock Holmes
4 1/2 out of 5 stars

Avatar

2009-12-21T10:27:00.000-08:00

The first movie I saw that was written and directed by James Cameron was Aliens, which I saw on tape back in 1987. I was blown away, and eagerly devoured everything he did before and since. Terminator, The Abyss, True Lies, he had a knack for creating sci-fi that was unlike everything else out there. Unlike his contemporaries, in a Cameron film, the science worked. Robots were competent, spaceships went where they were supposed to, and when a site was to be nuked, it got nuked.

So like many a Cameron fan, I was looking forward to his first major film in over ten years, Avatar. At 9:00 AM on a Sunday, the IMAX theater was nearly full. After watching the film unfold, I can see why.

Many have said that Terminator 2 was primarily a remake of The Terminator with a bigger budget. The same could be said of Avatar; this is Aliens writ large. Cameron knows this: I do not think it is a coincidence that he cast Sigourney Weaver in a lead role. The trip to Pandora is via cryogenic freezing, Ripley's construction loader gets a military upgrade, and many of the themes are the same with the primary one being the evils corporations do in the pursuit of a quarterly earning report. And like all Cameron films, the themes are held up front and center. The planet is named Pandora; Cameron is not exactly subtle.

Unlike Aliens, however, which is framed as a horror story, Avatar is framed as a hero's journey. Here our hero is played by Sam Worthington. He's one of those actors who has been quietly putting out great supporting and lead performances for years, but has just now burst into the American action film scene. With knockout roles in Terminator: Salvation and Avatar this year, he looks set to assume the action hero mantle that has been drifting from one thirtysomething actor to another this decade. Seeing an actor in one role tells you whether he is interesting to watch--seeing him twice you find out if he can act. Worthington was a completely different person in Avatar and Terminator: Salvation.

But back to Avatar: the visuals are spectacular. Not quite photorealistic for the animals of Pandora, but close enough that I quickly and completely lost myself in the effects. And the flowers and native people themselves are flawless, a tribute to the profession. Like all modern films, more than one effects team created the world, which aids considerably.

The plot is taut and suspenseful, moving always at a fluid pace. Cameron is nothing if not precise, he tends to avoid deus ex machina resolution, carefully laying the groundwork for the finale well in advance. This also makes his films fun--looking for clues to what the future holds. I loved this film from start to finish, its rich visuals and its stalwart protagonists.

Avatar: 5 out of 5 stars

Stargate Universe

2009-12-12T23:07:00.000-08:00

Stargate: SG-1 was the spiritual successor to Star Trek. Filled with unbridled hope for the future of humanity, it worked its way through an impressive 11 seasons. The spin-off Stargate: Atlantis was more of the same.

SG-1 ended two years ago and Atlantis finished up this year, but MGM wasn't going to let the franchise die. The next series debuted this fall: Stargate: Universe.

The first season ended a few weeks back, and it was quite a run. They decided to mix more Farscape DNA than Star Trek into this go around though, and the result was something I enjoyed thoroughly. This is a much darker version, where the characters are as concerned with finding their next meal as upholding deep humanistic principles.

Their ship "Destiny" is decidedly low-tech compared to the earlier vessels in the Stargate Universe, capturing a Firefly vibe where everything seems about to fall apart at any moment. The main conflicts rise not from dangerous alien empires, but their own human failings, and so far that has made the episodes more compelling than the last few seasons of Atlantis or SG-1.

Dark SF is nothing new, certainly The X-Files and Forever Knight qualify. But I think it took the long term success of Battlestar Galactica to get a show like SGU greenlit. Here's hoping that they can match the depth that BSG managed to attain.

The proof is in the pudding.

2009-12-10T20:26:00.000-08:00

I am nearing the end of the publication process for a journal article, and yesterday I received what are called page proofs.

I hate page proofs.

Those who know me know I'm not typically a hateful person...but page proofs, oh they get my blood boiling. Let me start at the beginning.

The birth of a paper (at least for me) goes something like this. One day, an idea will strike, an idea of unbridled loveliness and all around awesomeness. Of course, then begins the long process of taking the idea and putting on paper, where in the cold light of reality, the awesomeness factor was perhaps overrated.

After maybe a few months to a few years of kneading the idea into a form suitable for publication, the article is submitted to a journal. A few months later, an editor at the journal will find one or more people to referee the article--read it to see if it seems roughly correct, if it is novel, and put their own awesomeness rating on it. Sadly, the referee's awesomeness rating can go negative, and it usually takes anywhere from 3 months to a year in mathematics journals to get the referee's report.

If it survives the process, the editor usually returns it with some notes: Fix this, move this figure over here, take that figure out completely, what does iid mean? A month or two later you resubmit the article to the journal, they send it back to the referee, and the merry cycle continues until it is finally accepted.

So the editor sends it over to the publisher, and then at a surprise date returns the paper to the author with the dreaded page proofs. Keep in mind that this could be anywhere from a few weeks to a year after the paper was accepted for publication, depending on the backlog.

One day, out of the blue, a message will arrive in your inbox: "These are your page proofs. You have 24 hours to check them over, and return any corrections to us."

Okay, the generous ones give 72 hours.

Let me reiterate. A paper that was literally years in the writing, you now have at best a few days to check to see if the publisher messed something up accidentally. But that's not all!

See, editors like to edit, and they do. So not only have they returned your paper to you for checking, they have also made what appear to be random changes throughout the paper in order to make it "read better". Some of these changes will be marked. Others will not.

You have the next few days to try to unearth these changes, and correct it before it is too late forever. Sometimes I have succeeded, other times I have failed.

The worse change I missed: one editor replaced every use of the Number sign (#) with the musical symbol for sharp. I have to believe I'm not the first person this has happened to, since the Wikipedia entry for the musical sharp opens with: "Not to be confused with the Number sign...", but I failed to catch it, and now it's a part of the mathematical literature.

This latest page proof? They edited one of my definitions. An edit that completely changed the meaning of the definition. Fortunately, this wasn't just any old definition.

It is what I did my thesis on.

So I caught it. I caught that, I caught a few others, but of course those aren't what worry me. Those aren't what give me the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. The ones I didn't catch, the edits that got away, that's what keeps me up nights.

I hate page proofs.

The downfall of Eastwick

2009-12-03T12:12:00.000-08:00

Fantasy is not a license for your characters to transgress all bounds of moral decency.

This is a lesson that the writers of Eastwick, unfortunately, failed to learn. Now some would say that since Eastwick has been canceled already, that this is pointless, no new episodes are being made, so why belabor a mistake? But I just can't let this go, this was so very wrong. So here goes.

Rape is never funny. Period. You cannot have one of your main characters rape someone and retain any warmth towards that character. Now, Eastwick is a fantasy where at least three characters possess magic powers. One of the three characters in Eastwick has the power to make men do anything she wishes. And on last week's episode, she forced a man to have sex with her.

Sadly, that is rape. What makes it worse is that the tone of the scenes were all comedic. She did it after knocking back a few in order to get back at another guy who told her she was "not fun", a guy that they are clearly setting up for romance later on. But back to the sex. After finishing, the man's spouse walks in on them. And here's the surprise, the spouse was also a man. Yes, he was gay! So that makes it hilarious that our heroine just raped him.

Coincidentally, this was not the only fantasy series this week where sex under magical compulsion was contemplated. In the "Sword of Truth" series of books, a character also has the power of compulsion. And this week, in the T.V. series based on the books, "Legend of the Seeker", the same question arose--should she have sex with someone under magical control? LotS realized the magnitude of the question, and created a back story to make the choice far more difficult. In the end, however, she took the moral choice to not take advantage. Why? Because LotS realizes the important fact that if you are writing fantasy, you need to be more aware of the consequences of your actions, not less.

Are we in the black yet?

2009-11-27T23:22:00.000-08:00

My first Black Friday back in California! I decided to begin the day bright and early at 10:00 (that's when the stores opened, right?) at my local Toys "R" Us. Man was it packed! Packed but friendly. You'd never know they'd been open all night.

Next I headed over to the outlet mall. I figured it wouldn't be too bad, as they weren't the ones running doorbusters ads for the last two weeks. I was wrong. Couldn't even park it was so full. I guess the people headed to the outlets were there for the long haul.

So I turned by attention back toward Montclair Plaza (yes Claremont and Montclair are within spitting distance of each other, don't ask me who was in charge of names.) Anyway, J.C. Penny was full, but not packed--I didn't even have to wait in line (like I usually do at Penny's.) It is rare to actually see a person for every register they have.

I swung by Best Buy to see what the hot items were this year. People seemed pretty spread out through the store, but the line for the Geek Squad stretched across two aisles. I'd have asked someone in line why, but they seemed a grim lot. I had a good time checking out some new hardware, though!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T09:31:00.000-08:00

This was a year of tremendous change for me. At the beginning of the year, I had no clue where I would be living or whether I could find a place that matched my outlook and particular talents.

This Thanksgiving, I am thankful that life turned out great! I'm now most of the way through my first semester at Claremont McKenna College, and life is good. The class sizes are small, the students are bright and enthusiastic, and the teaching load is light enough that I still have plenty of time to pursue research.

CMC is part of the Claremont University Consortium, a collection of five undergraduate and two graduate institutions that yield a unique environment. Across the colleges there are about 50 mathematicians, which makes it large enough to support several colloquium series that I attend regularly. However, my own department at CMC has only ten tenure track faculty, which makes for a nice department able to move quickly when it needs to. Thanks partially to the free lunch that CMC faculty get once a week, I have had the chance to have lunch with almost everyone, and get to know people through the time honored way of lunch time chats.

Finally, I'm thankful for the invitation from Asuman Aksoy to join her family's Thanksgiving celebration today. Happy turkey day, everyone!

V and the Lost Effect

2009-11-15T15:54:00.000-08:00

Science fiction and Fantasy are hard. TV SF is even harder. In the 1990's, every science fiction and fantasy show that I can think of put forth by ABC, NBC, and CBS failed miserably. Earth 2, anyone? But on the off network side of things? Babylon 5, Farscape, The Outer Limits, Star Trek: The Next Generation. The WB then kicked in with Buffy and Angel. In the 2000's, this state of affairs looked to continue, with another failed remake of The Twilight Zone from the networks, while off the majors we had Farscape, Stargate: SG-1, and Battlestar Galactica. On the Fantasy side, Legend of the Seeker is a great successor to Hercules and Xena. And the (now CW) continues to produce a wonderful product in Supernatural.

So why can't the big three get SF right? My guess is the need for epic ratings. A show like Supernatural can pull in 2 or 3 million, and make it up in DVD sales later. This is peanuts compared to the 11 million viewers Grey's Anatomy pulls in.

Things did change this century, at least for ABC. The first successful SF series of the 2000's was Alias. Now, spy fiction is probably the most accessible form of SF, and the change in the world climate followed 9/11 probably didn't hurt. So it was no surprise that ABC turned to J.J. Abrams' production company again to create "Lost" in 2004.

And where Formula with a capital F sets in. ABC decided this season to launch not just one but two science fiction shows this season, FlashForward and V, and decided to push the Lost formula to the hilt. Both shows follow Lost in that they:
1) Begin with large explosions. FlashForward's are everywhere on the planet, V just over every major city. Apparently the Visitors still haven't developed the elusive giant-spaceship-muffler.
2) Keep the characters guessing as to what's going on. FlashForward has to result to gimmicks to keep the future hidden: one key character doesn't turn around, another is drunk during the info session. V has a bigger problem: it's a remake, so adding to the mystery is an extra challenge.
3) Stir in a touch of whimsy. Lost had its polar bear first season. FlashForward has a kangaroo occasionally run through. V has stayed away from the animals so far: will birds react to the Visitors the same way they did in the miniseries?

So far, FlashForward has been a disappointment, but I'm cautiously optimistic about V. The Visitors were upfront this time around about needing water, and the viewers learned of their reptillian nature in the pilot. So the question is: what do the V's want?

The writing seems to be much more careful in V than FlashForward. If they achieve the level of Lost, that would be great, because after all, it is the slowly woven mystery and makes Lost so entertaining. The V's have said several times now that humans are the first intelligence that they have encountered. What if that is a lie? What if the Visitors are themselves fleeing from a bigger alien threat? Or have they destroyed other civilizations (in which case there might be the odd survivor?)

The traitors to the V have only said cryptic things like "the plans for the humans." I find this fascinating, because it was phrased in such a way that the Visitors could really be working to help humanity (or at least see themselves as helping humanity.) There are a hundred different questions of morality that arise in these types of "needs of the many versus needs of the few" situations, and watching these play out could lead to some great stuff.

Here's hoping they can put out the ratings to survive, unlike the two SF shows from last year on Fox, Terminator and Dollhouse, both of which have now been canceled. At least Fox is planning to show all the episodes of Dollhouse they have, unlike what they did for Firefly.

Halloween

2009-11-01T16:43:00.000-08:00

This year for Halloween the Cartoon Network showed the 1990 version of "The Witches", based on the Roald Dahl novel. Like Willie Wonka and Dahl's other children's tales, there's a fair amount of fairy tale style horror in this one, brought beautifully to life by Jim Henson Company Studios.

Those who have seen The Dark Crystal and Farscape already have seen the creepy side of Henson's muppets, and that type of work is on full display here, as well as the more subtle mouse puppetry after the Witches test out their evil plan to turn all of England's children into mice.

In 1990 I was just graduating high school, meaning that I missed out on this delightful little film. Angelica Huston is perfectly cast, essentially playing the same role that she would later turn to comedic purposes the next year in The Addams Family. There's no gore (it is after all a movie aimed at kids), but for me transformations (a Dahl specialty) have always been extremely scary.

The transformation of human to beast is a thread that runs through multiple fairy tales, and it is easy to see why. It allows the tale-teller to emphasize the character (or lack thereof) of the transformed. Children are typically powerless in an adult controlled world. But if children are powerless, mice are even more so, being practically the smallest mammal around plus the object of revulsion. Yet it is in this form that the hero of the film has the greatest effect on events. Sometimes the ability to move through the world unnoticed can be an advantage. Actions speak louder than squeaks sometimes.

The Witches: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars

I love "Community"

2009-10-29T21:09:00.000-07:00

And it's not just because they think that Statistics professors are hot. Although that doesn't hurt. I mean, I knew it was true, it's just high time the rest of the world caught on.

For those who didn't see the Halloween episode, post credits finds Jeff ogling his stats prof while lecture is ending. She begins with "The Bernoulli distribution is the number of successes in a sequence of independent yes/no experiments."

Now anyone who has taken a probability course (and hopefully my students come next Wednesday's midterm) knows that is in fact the definition of a binomial distribution, not a Bernoulli. So as is my usual practice, I headed over to Wikipedia to make sure that no one had fooled with definition again.

To my delight, I found "...the binomial distribution is the discrete probability distribution of the number of successes in a sequence of n independent yes/no experiments". Now that is too close a wording to be an accident. The writers ripped a line right out of Wikipedia. Chutzpah of that level is to be admired, and that's reason enough for me to love the show.

But it goes further than that. If they lifted the line from Wikipedia, why the Bernoulli/binomial switch? Only after watching the show to the end did I realize that the character was going to exhibit a holier-than-thou attitude towards the students the whole way through, even going so far as to introduce herself later as "Michelle Slater, Ph.D.". Who does that?

So here's my theory: they intentionally had her make a mistake at the beginning to establish that while she thinks she's all that, in fact she's a bit of a dim bulb. Naturally I went trolling through the tape afterward to search for further errors.

And indeed, I was not disappointed! As my students should also know by this point of the semester, the square of the standard deviation is the variance. However, what was written across the top of the board was "Sqaire S.D. to get vairiance" Okay, so vairiance could just be another error, but "Sqaire". That had to be intentional. But there's more. On the board, a calculation appears that is equivalent to saying 2 + 3 + 3 = 12. You don't have to be Good Will Hunting to get that right.

The piece de resistance? The most well known theorem in probability, abbreviated CLT, is the Central Limit Theorem. What's written on the board? Central Limiting.

Here's hoping that these are intentional jokes, or some writers need to get their college tuition refunded, post haste.

FlashForward

2009-10-24T09:36:00.000-07:00

Time travel is tricky.

The first time travel story that I remember seeing on television was "The City on the Edge of Forever" from the original Star Trek series. That story went with the "future is not written in stone and can be changed" paradigm. I have seen dozens if not hundreds of time travel stories since, and they have become a beloved staple of science fiction.

And yet despite all the history, all the different renditions, time travel remains incredibly difficult to do right. I would say the last season of Lost is a shining example of how to do it correctly. Questions of fate intermixed with how knowledge of the future plays out beautifully. But one of the reasons it worked so well was that the writers were clearly aware that you need to pick a philosophy of how time travel works and obey the logic that follows.

FlashForward, ABC's latest science fiction offering, is a mess that drops time travel to new lows. The premise is that for two minutes the entire population of the planet blacked out, and saw two minutes of the future six months from now. But the show's writers made a fateful decision: the flash forwards people saw depended on the blackout event happening. That is, this was a glimpse of the future that depended on the blackout event. In fact, the main character bases his entire investigation of the blackout on clues seen during his flash forward.

And immediately everything breaks down. If you knew, knew, that you would have a glimpse of the future at a certain time and date, would you go about business as usual that day? Would you spend those two minutes calling your credit card company? Would you go to bed early that night? Of course not!

Stockbrokers would have a summary of the economy's performance in front of them. Scientists would be looking at six months worth of the top breakthroughs. Someone whose husband died of cancer detected too late would be pouring over medical tests.

The problem is: everyone would know that they had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to communicate with their past selves. They would not choose this unique event in human history to read the sports section while in the restroom. But the show expects us to believe that a field director of the FBI would do exactly that. And that another character would decide that these pivotal two minutes would be a good time to get drunk.

All this could have been fixed if the show designers had realized for one second that the flash forwards cannot depend on the blackout event. Then they could have realized their vision of flash forwards that represent random slices of the future. But knowing the time and date of the flash forward makes the entire concept of the show ridiculous from the get go.

In science fiction it is more important that basic logic and rules of storytelling be obeyed, not less. It really is that simple.

[Here's hoping they didn't screw up the remake of "V".]

And they say bad news travels fast....

2009-10-06T15:31:00.000-07:00

I received the following email today from Columbia:

Thank you for applying for the recently advertised position of Assistant Professor. The search for this position has been discontinued, without success in filling the position. We appreciate the time and effort you put into your application and we extend our best wishes on your job search.

Whew! The suspense on whether or not I got a position that would have started a month ago was killing me.

Toy Story double feature

2009-10-05T14:27:00.000-07:00

This weekend I headed to the theater to catch out the latest retro 3D showing from Disney. In this case, a limited engagement of Toy Story and Toy Story 2, now newly remastered in 3D.

Not having small children, it has been many a year since I saw these two great films (they came out in 1995 and 1999), and they have held up beautifully. Partially this is because of the inspired choice of using toys: the naturally plastic look of computer animation is perfectly suited to capture a Green Army Man in action.

My greatest surprise, however, happened during the opening credits for Toy Story. To my amazement, the first writer listed for the screenplay was Joss Whedon. In 1995, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the series) was still two years away, and that was the first thing that put Whedon on the map of SF lovers everywhere.

Dollhouse (Whedon's latest) Season 2 premiered two weeks ago, and so far has been great. The Dollhouse concept has always been ripe for questions of what is meant by mind and free will, but now they've jumped into these questions with gusto. Juxtaposing the dolls angst against Buzz's realization that he's just a toy is interesting, to say the least.

Anyway, for Whedon and non-Whedon fans alike, I would recommend seeing Toy Story and Toy Story 2 again in theaters. They have a ten minute intermission between the movies, but I recommend hitting the restroom during the Toy Story credits. As the first Pixar full length movie, this was before they starting putting cute things in the credits, and the intermission is really a ten minute show with some fun tongue-in-cheek trivia and a few 30 second vignettes with the characters. They've also got a nice 50's drive-in style countdown clock during the intermission, so it is easy to see if you have time to leave.

Toy Story: 5 out of 5
Toy Story 2: 5 out of 5

Heroes goes to college

2009-09-25T14:57:00.000-07:00

Heroes is the show that makes me feel like Charlie Brown. The series has such great character actors, high production values, and such a fun premise, that I keep tuning in again and again. Just to have the football yanked away by being repeatedly bludgeoned with plots and character actions that do not make a lick of sense.

They reached a new low for me in the Volume 5 premiere on Monday.

Claire has finally flown the nest to go to an unnamed college and meets a driven classmate who convinces her to take a placement test to see who gets into linear algebra.

Come on, linear algebra? First, this is a sophomore level course, we're not talking about the seminar in "thing-I-got-my-Nobel-Prize-in" course that only admits a few students. Every campus in the nation offers linear algebra, and it is no professor's "specialty".

Second, who goes to a placement test because their roommate told them about it? Colleges have these people called "advisors" that kind of work with freshman to set up their initial course offerings. Nobody decides on the spur of the moment I think I'll try to get in an advanced math class, one that is usually taken after the Calculus sequence.

Third, and this is what really killed me, Claire and her annoying friend arrive at the placement exam to find that it consists of solving a four equation, four unknown system of equations. Moreover, they are given 45 minutes.

This blows me away, because it reflects the sloppy nature of Heroes for the last few years. Here's the main issue: this is a linear algebra problem. You don't give a linear algebra problem at a linear algebra placement exam, you give whatever type of problem you'd like the incoming students to know. If they are passing out of the Calc sequence, you give Calculus problems.

Next, are you kidding me? This problem might look tough to someone who slept through high school algebra, but making the system 4 equations/4 unknowns doesn't make the problem conceptually harder, and forty five minutes is way to long for this travesty.

I can almost picture the email to some UCLA professor or whomever the show asked to consult: "Could you please send us a linear algebra problem that isn't very easy?" They couldn't possibly have asked their consultant for a problem that would appear on a linear algebra placement exam, because if they had they wouldn't have gotten such a joke of a problem.

If Heroes was on in a different time, such sloppiness might have gone unnoticed. But in a time where shows like Mad Men takes enough care to get the train schedules for its protagonist correctly, this shows an utter lack of respect for the viewer. Heck, even Star Wars: The Clone Wars shows more respect for continuity and its universe than Heroes. If a half-hour animated show can do it, why can't Heroes? It appears to be the one super power they have no interest in.

Crossovers

2009-09-15T16:33:00.000-07:00

This week I went to the movie "9", and finished the Shadow series by Orson Scott Card. Both struck me as having forms that were introduced in computer games.

"9" opens with what has become an adventure game classic: you awake in a dark room, not knowing who you are, with only a few random objects nearby to guide you. The mystery unfolds only when you exit the room and venture out into the world. Of course, the look of "9" also matches the lush detail of games such as Myst.

Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, and Shadow of the Giant owe more to turn based strategy games like Romance of the Three Kingdoms (which the author does acknowledge.) These games arose from simpler board games such as Risk, and were an attempt to use what computers are good at to make games more fun. Each country has but one or two statistics in Risk or Settlers of Catan, while in a modern computer game usually several resources and production numbers exist for each region. But the goals are the same: world domination!

I think this is a good thing. Direct translations of computer games to movies(I'm looking at you Super Mario Bros.) have rarely fared well. Uwe Boll alone has turned more than a half dozen computer games into horrible movies. But when the spirit of a computer game is incorporated into a movie or book, the result can be great fun. I do not think that "9" or the Shadow series are particular great works of art, but they are fun, and their use of computer game tropes sets them apart and gives them a unique flavor that I hope leads to more such experiments.

District 9

2009-09-01T17:55:00.000-07:00

Last day of summer (academic time, nothing to do with the Autumn Equinox) I went to see District 9. Wow! This is what science fiction is for: take some idea, any idea, and throw the twist of new science into the mix. Stir, boil, and see what happens. In this case, the central events take place in the midst of a refugee camp. The twist: the refugees are aliens with advanced technology but no clear leadership.

Naturally, it is the presence of the alien technology that drives the plot, and in our modern world, military tech is what the humans always strive for. There is some seriously great weaponry effects on hand here, the kind you can't see in something like G.I. Joe because District 9 is an R and G.I. Joe isn't.

But even more fun was reading the reviews afterwards. This is not a straight forward allegory simply because nothing like this exists on Earth. For me, that is what the best science fiction is about: when an utterly new situation arises because of the introduction of elements that are possible, but have never occurred. But for a generation of movie critics raised on Star Trek, science fiction is supposed to be a pure allegory for our current political and social situation, without the messiness that arises when things just do not translate.

Much as I loathe much of the Sci-Fi (not SyFy) channel's approach to science fiction, their ad campaign, "What if?", captures the essence of what the best in science fiction is all about, and District 9 is full of what if.

Now to the mechanics of the movie: District 9 is presented as a faux documentary, and that makes the special effects even more important. They've imported several important ideas. First, effects shouldn't look too good. You can barely see the mothership in some shots because of the haze over Johannesborg. That's a good thing, as it makes the effects seem much more real.

Also, sometimes the camera catches the action, sometimes it doesn't. This keeps the viewer off balance, and is a visual clue that perhaps that this is not all that the viewer is missing.

The story contains a wonderful expository style. The "documentarians" assume the viewer knows the basics of the story already, and so skips over details that someone in the world of the film would already know. This means that the information that is presented comes at a breakneck pace, and not always in the form you expect. For instance, the only clue to the viewer that the aliens landed in 1982? A quick video code shown on inserted footage to the documentary.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Orientation

2009-08-30T20:04:00.000-07:00

It's always darkest before the dawn, and its always quietest on a campus before the students arrive. Convocation and the start of the new semester is Sept. 1st, which means this week was the last where quiet reigned supreme.

I always feel some nervousness before starting a new job or position, and this time is no exception. No matter how prepared, how experienced I become, each new entering class of students is different, with unique needs and presenting unique challenges. Of course, that's one of the reasons I love the job--diversity keeps all the neurons firing full speed ahead.

At least now I know quite a bit more about CMC. Monday and Tuesday morning of this week I went to orientation, where everyone from the Registrar to the Library to Campus Services had their hour to fill the new faculty full of information. It was very different from my last orientation, though. This time around, with eight years experience as a faculty member under my belt, I knew exactly what I needed to know, and that confers a huge advantage. Braced with that knowledge, I knew what questions to ask and so I think that I have all the answers I need.

At least until the students arrive.

Moving On

2009-08-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

Settling in a new place is always...interesting to say the least. There are good aspects: the staff and faculty at CMC have been great about helping me learn the ropes and get up to speed on the local system.

But there are always bad aspects too. Most baffling is my new faculty housing. In many respects it is a wonderful small two bedroom house: the air conditioning is both effective and quiet, and the blinds are great. On the other hand, the laundry room isn't wide enough. Sure, it has both electric and gas hookups for a dryer, but the room physically lacks about four inches needed to fit a washer or dryer in there. This is the kind of thing you'd like a think a builder would know about.

So today I took my second trip to the laundromat. Not much to say there, as like most things in Claremont, the Coin-Op Laundry is clean, sunny, and modern. After a year or two of tramping over there I might feel differently, but for now it seems better than the last time I used a laundromat regularly by a wide margin.

Of quartz it is....

2009-08-14T16:16:00.001-07:00

My next to the last day of travel found me in the Petrified Forest National Park. I'd been here as a kid, but the burning sensation left my the merciless sun left no other room for memories.

The sun is still there, but oh nelly is this a wonderful place! Petrified wood is found all over the world, but only here was it found in true forest fashion--carpeting the landscape like a quartz reminder of the slow geologic processes of time. Of course, much of it was removed by tourists before the park became protected. Even today, the park says it loses about 1 ton of wood a month. This is both sad and sickening, when you realize that what makes this place special is the sheer intensity of the amount of petrified wood found. Outside the park? Well, it's just another pretty rock, of fairly low value.

Add to that the plethora of petrified wood available for sale in sizes large and small outside of the park, and I seriously wonder at the mental capacity of the visitors who steal the stuff out of the National Park.

Anyway, rant complete!

Now on to the next sight of the day: Meteor Crater! Words fail to describe the sheer awesomeness of this (privately owned) hole in the ground. They try: they've put a little tiny 6 foot astronaut that you can barely see through a high power telescope in the center of the crater, and that does give a bit of a hint as to the magnitude of the thing that lies before your eyes. It is a wonder.

So burned and seriously fatigued, the next day I finally made it into Claremont! Now for a week of hooking up (with cable and phone service at least) and learning the ins and outs of CMC.

Of Pecos and Pueblos

2009-08-08T19:13:00.000-07:00

I stayed the night in Albuquerque because it was on the road, but my goal for this day of sightseeing was the Santa Fe area. First stop, the tiny village of Pecos, next door to the Pecos National Historic Monument.

This was the home of the Pecos Pueblo builders, who picked a humdilly of a spot. From the top you could see the whole valley, and one pass to the north narrowed to be only 30 feet wide, allowing them to charge tolls and get a nice little city-state going.

The only problem? It was in the 1300's that things really got rolling for them. So just like the Aztecs and Incas whose empires were formed just before European discovery, they never really had a chance to go big.

They did have a really good spot though, so it took a few centuries before things went south. Today you can tour the ruins (I went on a very thorough Ranger led walk--took about two hours for 1 1/4 miles,) and they have a small museum.

Santa Fe has big museums, including the new New Mexico History Museum, which opened a few months ago. It's very nice, and has all the amenities of a modern museum--artifacts interspersed with interpretive text and paintings, a well thought out flow, and gorgeous theaters.

The Palace of the Governors Museum is somewhat more old school, but that can be nice too, and when I visited they had a photography exhibit and a special exhibit on religious art that were both very good.

Lunch was Nu-Mex at the Plaza Cafe, where they cheated by seating me right in front of the pie case. Boy was that Apple Pie with Caramel on top good though.

Heading to the great Southwest

2009-08-08T19:03:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I traveled from Oklahoma City over to Albuquerque in New Mexico, with a brief visit to Texas in the middle. Texas does have the coolest rest stops, and all of them have Wi-Fi, even if it is a pretty weak signal.

But the most fun I had was at the Mesalands Dinosaur Museum in Tucumcari, NM. They have a unique setup, with the museum being run by the Mesalands Community College. What do they have that most places don't? Access to a foundry.

Most of their casts are actually solid bronze, and I must say, that makes for a real cool dinosaur exhibit. They have a large number of fossils and casts that you can touch as well, which always adds a nice immediacy to the experience. It took me about an hour to see everything, then run back and pose for pictures--a nice little experience.

More on Pigeon Forge...

2009-08-06T06:15:00.001-07:00

Nested in the foothills of the Great Smoky mountains is Dollywood, Dolly Parton's paean to her Appalachian roots.

It's a fun theme park--even more family orientated than the Disney parks, but without the size of the budget. Therefore the rides tend to be simpler. For instance, for me the best ride in the park is the wooden roller coaster "Thunderhead". While it does not include any animatronic critters, it is a superbly designed ride where you feel like you are going much faster than you really are.

The music in the shows at Dollywood pretty much consists of country and bluegrass. The 50's and 60's rock revue was dark the day I visited, so I missed that. All of the shows I saw were top notch quality, in addition, the Kratt brothers were running an animal show for a week and they are as funny and charismatic in person as they are on their show.

As I stated in my previous entry, Dollywood has also partnered with a company to offer a zip line tour of the surrounding mountains. There is an additional fee of about forty dollars, for which you get to zip down four different lines. Two cross the park walkways, while the other two cross two nearby ravines. The longest is about 850 feet, long enough to get going at a pretty good clip. It was a great experience: they have it set up so that it is very easy for novices such as myself
to get started, and it really does give a different view of the trees to be able to stare straight down at them. Highly recommended!

Dollywood

2009-08-02T18:06:00.001-07:00

Good news! Dollywood has zip lines now!

Stairs, stairs, stairs

2009-08-01T18:09:00.000-07:00

It is truly amazing how much garbage a tiny one bedroom apartment can hold. But eighteen trash bags later, the remaining stuff barely fit in my car. And so, I was off on my great American cross country road trip!

Unfortunately, I live (or lived, I should say) in a third floor apartment, and so each trip meant two flights of stairs. It was a very long day.

So any sane person would have stayed away from hiking their first day of travel.

Fortunately, sanity has never been one of my weaknesses, and so i headed for Chimney Rock. A private tourist attraction up until 2007, now it is run by the state park system of North Carolina. Fortunately, they have an elevator to the top, so it was only on the down trip that my legs started to feel like rubber. Still the view was worth it!

On a side note: the Holiday Inn Express in Hickory and Lazy Bear in Pigeon Forge are both great places to stay!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

2009-07-17T21:02:00.000-07:00

It started so well.

There were wonderous effects. Okay, they weren't as good as Lord of the Rings, and they served a simple plot, but the makers of the Harry Potter series had a fully realized notion of what the world of Hogwarts should be like. The early movies were fresh and exciting and morphed over time into fare like "The Prisioner of Azkaban" where discrimination and childhood fears became themes that drove the fantasy.

That is now over with.

The latest Harry Potter installment is a vapid, slowly paced bore where our characters discover teenage love, and then proceed to begin caring more about who is going with whom to the Christmas party than the pesky little matter of the Dark Lord who is trying to kill them all. For two and a half hours, not much happens. Then a little happens, and then credits roll.

This is it? This is the training that Harry Potter has received from Hogwarts over the last six years? For this we sat through Order of the Phoenix, where it appeared as if Harry was actually about to, you know, do something about his situation? Instead we are treated to such thrilling scenes as Harry deciding who gets to be on this year's Quidditch team.

At this point we should be past the simple patterns of high school life: people have died, and Hermione has turned back time for crying out loud. But this installment has our players back to the mewling magical infants of the first movie. There is nothing wondrously magical here--only poor timing, cheap gags, and characters who have moved two steps backwards.

The set design and effects are better than ever, but only a shell of the former greatness remains for this series.

2 out of 5 stars.

Into the wild green yonder

2009-07-09T19:59:00.000-07:00

Futurama has always included parodies of the classic sci-fi Gen X grew up on (Exhibit A: Zapp Brannigan.) But I think it was at its best when it took those classic themes and made them the heart of the story.

That is what I thought that "Into the Wild Green Yonder", the last of the four Futurama straight-to-DVD movies, accomplished. It took the tried and true plot line of hero with special power needs to fight dark power and wrote a story around it that bounced between humor and action. Despite the name, it was not the wildest Futurama, but it had earnest characters trying to do right in their screwed up universe, and that is something that everyone can relate to.

I am glad to see that Comedy Central has ordered up another season of the show--Futurama is a unique gem written by people that love science fiction but who are not afraid to play around with its conventions. For the record, my rankings of the movies are:
1) Bender's Big Score
2) Into the Wild Green Yonder
3) The Beast with a Billion Backs
4) Bender's Game.

It breaks my heart to put Bender's Game last, given that D&D and fantasy gaming in general has always been near and dear to my heart, but the script did not rise to the same level as the others.

Festival for the Eno

2009-07-06T21:37:00.001-07:00

This year I decided I would head out to the Festival for the Eno for the full three days as a last blast of Durhamness before I embraced fully the need to pack. And I was not disappointed! There were lots of great acts this year, and some favorites of mine.

First, though, I feel I owe a plug for Ellis. Her music and lyrics paint pictures of the kind of soul that I want to be, and that is a wonderful thing. If that were all, she would be one of my favorite performers--but she also manages to deftly weave funny poignant stories in between her songs. It wasn't until Saturday that I realized that many of them were made up right on the spot.

And that brings me to why I owe Ellis a plug.

On Friday I had gone to her concert and bought her new DVD set. While wandering the craft booths looking for a present for someone, I realized the perfect gift would be an Ellis CD. Besides, she's always friendly to chat with and signs her CD's, so that would be perfect. So I went back and bought another CD. Which is probably why she recognized me the next day.

On Saturday I went to her show at the Meadow stage at the Eno, which is notable for having a large area in front of the stage that is in the sun. On a day like Saturday with 91 plus weather, no one sits in the sun unless they have to.

So in order to get a picture, you have to get pretty darn close to the stage, and you will be the only one standing in the sun in full view. Okay, so I accept that, and I know that the performers all see you.

But I didn't think I'd be distracting, until I saw through the viewfinder that Ellis had taken a step back from the mike and turned to look at me. She smiled, so I didn't think anything of it, until she finished the song and started chatting with the audience again.

"I'm sorry I forgot the lyrics there for a moment. You see, the gentleman taking pictures down there was here the day before and we had a sweet interaction. And so when I saw him, suddenly all I could think of was...yesterday."

Everyone laughed, and it was the perfect segue into her next song, a lighthearted number about forgetting where her car was parked. The point is, obviously she couldn't have prepared the thought she had, she just used what happened naturally to make a joke and make a great show even better. It's a skill I'm constantly trying to perfect while giving lectures, and it is always great to watch a master at work. Thanks, Ellis!

Fiddlefoxx is now a trio, and remains a unique sound combining (unsurprisingly) the fiddle and Steve Foxx's beatbox skills. The Midtown Dickens throw everything they have at all their songs, and often are holding an instrument in each hand and running around to get more during their sets.

Finally, the big draw of the show this year was Albanach, a Scottish drum and pipes band in the US for the Highland Games in Linville next week. They are very high energy, and since so many in North Carolina are of Scottish descent, was a fan favorite. They did four sets, and all were very highly attended.

Happy birthday, dear blog....

2009-06-28T19:28:00.000-07:00

So my blog is exactly one year old today! Hurrah!

Anyway, on to today's news. Since Michael Jackson died last Thursday, I can tell that the data mining software at Amazon has been completely overwhelmed.

For example, today I was searching for some music by a Danish composer to put behind the videos I took in Denmark. I settled on The Champagne Galop by Hans Christian Lumbye. I traveled to Amazon to hear a sample, and as usual, they suggested several related best sellers in music that I might like to purchase.

Unfortunately, "Bad", "Off the Wall", and "Michael Jackson 25th Anniversary of Thriller" albums are not even tangentially related to either Danish music in general of Hans Christian Lumbye in particular. I have a hunch the searches Amazon is getting right now is simply crushing its normal algorithms operations underfoot and sending out all Michael all the time to its customers.

U-Haul's marketing genius

2009-06-23T16:35:00.000-07:00

So I bought several boxes from Home Depot the other day. They sell basic 1.5 ft^3 boxes for 97 cents apiece. A good deal, to be sure.

But it turns out 1.5 cubit feet of books is not such a good thing. So I went back to U-Haul, who sells 1 ft^3 boxes (as their "book box" size) for $1.43 apiece. They have an interesting marketing scheme.

It goes like this: buy as many boxes as you want, and if you keep your receipt, you can bring back the extras. Personally, I believe this is pure genius. I have never, I repeat never, had leftover boxes during a move. Everyone has more stuff than they want/expect/can fit into the boxes they bought, so there's always usually some emergency "throwing out" or "garbage bag suitcases" involved near the end of a move. U-Haul is basically removing the element of risk from buying boxes, and so getting people to buy the amount of boxes they really need, and so which they won't be returning. Like I said, genius.

Milestone

2009-06-20T13:24:00.001-07:00

So one year today I broke down and bought my first cell phone. I know this because I have a "pay-as-you-go" phone, and my minutes would have expired today had I not leapt to the rescue by adding additional minutes. In my plan, I am charged $1 for every day that I use the phone at all, plus an extra 10 cents per minute thereafter. Close study of my friends showed me that most of their calls nowadays are of the short and sweet variety--for long distance or international I might as well use Skype anyway, the quality is as good as a cell phone.

So I like to think of my plan as an $8 a month plan where I get 6 days of use and 20 minutes of talk time. Several months I used more, but several I used less. Of course, I'm a single guy, not an uber-parent attempting to coordinate with a clan. I'd place it's usefulness above most of the gadgets I own (sorry infrared thermometer) but still below that most important accessory of modern life, the microwave.

Digging into the past

2009-06-19T15:38:00.001-07:00

So I've started getting ready for the big move, and as usual this involves a lot of archaeology, trying to determine what of the detritus from the past should be kept and what should be thrown away or donated. "Rosetta stone paperweight", goodbye!

Probably the most fun is when I stumble across some bit I wrote for high school or earlier. I don't know if this is true of most people, but my personality and beliefs were pretty much set by the time I'd reached high school, and available video, photographic, and written relics of my high school years tend to back that statement up. I like to think that this is because I was exposed to such a wide range of thinkers by that time, and not a sign that I became a curmudgeon at age 16.

In any case, by high school, I had already realized how important the access to knowledge was to what I believed and thought. It is always daunting to realize that if I was raised in a different environment, or didn't have access to public libraries in a country that values free speech so highly, that my very psychology would be different. Submitted as evidence that I have always believed this: an English assignment from high school where various phrases were to be examined. For each phrase, I was supposed to write whether or not I agreed or disagreed, standard stuff. The teacher wrote after my essay: "Neat idea--Everyone else who wrote on this, disagrees with you."

The phrase was: "There are no walls, there are no bolts, no locks that anyone can put on your mind."

My response was as follows: "I strongly disagree with that statement. We build ideas on 20,000 years of the past knowledge of the human race. If you are deprived of this knowledge, you have to "start over" with learning. No one can possibly do this. So that is the most effective lock that you can put on someone's mind."

What do you think?

A room of my own

2009-06-18T12:50:00.000-07:00

At last, it appears that I will no longer be homeless in Claremont!

Claremont-McKenna has some faculty housing available, houses that they rent for 20% below market value. Once you start renting, you have to stay for at least a year, but you are allowed to stay for several years if needed. Today their agent wrote me and indicated that a nice little two bedroom had become available that will suit my needs just fine. Awesome!

My goal, given current prices, is to save up a new down payment for a home as quickly as possible. Half of my previous down payment was invested in stocks--so took a big hit this last year. Moreover, I was saving for a home in Durham, while homes in Claremont seem to run about 60% above value.

Ironically, rents in Claremont are somewhat more in line with Durham, which means that after the 20% discount, I might even be paying slightly less than I did for my apartment here.

There have been issues in the past with getting into faculty housing at CMC, but fortunately with the fall in housing prices many have been leaving the rentals in order to take advantage of the prices. My hope: after a year of saving I'll have an understanding of Claremont and its neighboring towns enough to purchase a home and finally install that sweet sweet home theatre system I've longed for lo these many years. It's good to dream.

Terminator: Salvation

2009-06-14T07:41:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm catching up on my summer movie going, and first out of the gate is Terminator: Salvation. This is a sharp break from the previous Terminator films, and a lot of critics did not like that one bit.

I, on the other hand, loved it. Apocalyptic films are tricky. The last four to grace my radar: Wall-E, I am Legend, Resident Evil: Extiction, and of course Apocalypto. The set design and photography in T:S takes the Wall-E approach: all that is left in the world is the rusting crap left by a destroyed technical civilization. In mood and props it is closest to The Road Warrior, or the Fallout series of games.

So that's the first break with the first films. This is a fully immersive vision of the future. The second break: John Connor isn't really the main character. Sure, he gets a lot of screen time and dialog, but he is pretty much just reacting to events through the film, rather than driving them. Really, this is the story of Marcus Wright: a death row inmate in the early 2000's who donates his body to Cyberdyne at the insistence of a dying scientist. The choices Marcus makes are the central plot of the film.

The third break is that is really an episode rather than a complete story. In the first Terminator, the story came full circle, and in the second, Sarah and son thought they had stopped Judgement Day. Even the third had all the loose tied up by the end of the movie. T:S, on the other hand, is the story of something that happens within the larger story. These are the early years, where John Conner is moving towards leadership of the resistance but isn't there it. Skynet isn't fully up to speed yet either: the first T-800's are just starting to stalk menacingly off the assembly line. In many ways this is a more personal film simply because it can't yet have the final battle. Of course, in Fellowship of the Ring everyone knew that was the way it was set up, here it was more of a surprise.

So what I liked about T:S was: the inventiveness of the humans, the inventiveness of Skynet, the integration of special effects, and the attention to details of the Terminator universe. The humans don't give up faced with Terminator's, they do what people always do: fight or flight. I especially liked the Kyle Reese approach. What do you fight a Terminator with: anything you've got. Still Skynet was equally on top of things, using it's machines in clever ways and the overall attack plan had even Machivelli in it to garner my attention.

The special effects achieved that place where occasionally you forget it's an effect. Okay, not the giant people snatching robot, but after watching, the smaller things that I thought about and realized had to be special effects just registered as reality at the time, and that's a good thing. Finally, the attention to detail was immaculate. There were callbacks not just to the earlier three Terminator films, but Terminator 2 3D at Universal Studios and the first trailer to Terminator 2. I'm sure I missed many more references, but at least we got to find out how John Connor got that great scar he sported at the beginning of T2. This was a lovingly crafted film.

What I didn't like: the utter seriousness and lack of humor. If they had interjected any emotion other than anger or fear I would have felt more for the protagonist's plight.

This is a solid sci-fi film. Those looking for emotional catharsis should look elsewhere. Those looking for the best depiction yet of a future war between man and machine, this is your film.

Terminator Salvation: 4 out of 5 stars

Last Day in Denmark

2009-06-13T07:27:00.000-07:00

On our last day, we headed to Århus, a city a bit to the southeast of Aalborg. They have the world's first open-air museum there, Den Gimle By, a collection of buildings that range from Renaissance times up to the early 1900's. (In fact, they are currently planning an extension up to the 1970's.)

They also have a collection of posters advertising other such museums, including Colonial Williamsburg and Sovereign Hill.

Århus itself is a very old city at over a thousand years old. We headed downtown to see the Cathedral, but it was closed for Sunday services. They did have an excellent photo exhibition sponsored by a group trying to raise money to slow climate change in the courtyard, though, so that was fun.

So that was it: a week of the top sights in Denmark! I want to thank Jesper Møller for inviting me to Aalborg in the first place, and Robert Wolpert for humoring me in the Viking Ship Museum and accompanying me on the trip. Safe travels!

To be or not to be

2009-06-12T07:34:00.000-07:00

The next day we headed north to Kronborg Slot, in Helsingør. This Renaissance castle was the inspiration for the Danish castle of "Elsinore" in Shakespeare's Hamlet. It was built in order to successfully levy taxes on shipping entering the Baltic Sea, but remains a gorgeous sentinel by the sea.

The tour of the royal apartments covers about half of the castle, including the enormous ballroom and collection of tapestries that tell the history of Denmark. There is also an underground tour where you can view the casements underneath the castle. The chapel was one of the few things to survive an early fire, which meant the intricately carved and painted pews survived as well.

After a picnic on the grounds, we then headed southwest towards Roskilde and the Viking Ship Museum. Five ships that the Vikings sunk in a sound to protect the harbor have been retrieved here, in surprisingly complete condition.
They have rebuilt the ships as well, and experimental archeologists have sailed them as far as Ireland and back to learn more about how well they operated in northern Europe. But the most fun was the room were they keep the Viking outfits and weapons. Being a Viking is fun!

Under Copenhagen

2009-06-10T18:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, so Copenhagen has had extremely bad luck with their royal castle. During the time of absolute monarchy, they built a lovely new castle: Christianborg Slot. It burned down. Undaunted, they built another. It burned down.

You've got to admire the pluck of a people who would choose to build it back a third time, but that's exactly what the Danes decided to do. And in doing so, they found a hidden treasure. While excavating for the third incarnation of Christianborg Slot, they found the ruins of the original fortress built by Bishop Absalon when he founded Copenhagen in the 12th century, as well as the later Copenhagen Castle built after the Hanseatic League decided to tear down most of Absalon's place.

You can go down on a wonderful tour below the current Christianborg Slot to see these ruins, in a very nicely put together museum that not only gives archeological insights into the ruins, but provides a timeline history of all the palaces built on the location.

Next we went above ground to see the current palace, at least the rooms set aside for royal receptions and the like. Since Christianborg Slot houses the Parliment, the judiciary, and the royals, it is enormous, and the tour is lots of fun. They do hand out baggies for your feet so the marble extra shiny, too.

For lunch we went to a place recommended to me by a friend and in the guide books, Ida Davidsen. The food is unbelievably good here. A favorite of Denmark is the open-faced sandwich, but the ones served here seemed to exist on a different plane from everything we'd tasted so far. We each had two--one seafood and one meat, and the combination of flavor was exhilarating to say the least. The chef walked us through the choices up at their counter, but I have a hunch anything we would have picked would have been heavenly. The best place we ate in Denmark, hands down.

Next was the (free!) Statens Museum for Kunst. Containing not only Danish works of art but paintings and sculpture from around the world, this is a museum full of works that I wish I had hours to study. Again, highly recommended!

Moving at a palacial pace

2009-06-08T18:34:00.000-07:00

The next morning we started with a little more walking. First past the Little Mermaid by the water again, and then down to a victory monument.

But the big thing was Amalienborg Slot, the current royal residence. Fortunately, it consists of four palaces, so while one is home to Queen Margarethe II, another serves as a museum to the royal family that covers from the 1860's up to current times.

Next on the list was Frederick's Church, popularly known as Marmorkirken: the Marble Church. It's not hard to see why. The dome is visible from around the old town, and inside it is indeed something special. That effort to complete it (it took about 150 years owing to funding difficulties) paid off.

Finally we rode the tour bus some more and ended up at the eclectic Nationalmuseet. Sure they covered the Vikings, but they also had an extensive collection of ancient pottery, statues and mosiacs, and a great history of Denmark as a country told through artifacts of the time, right up to modern times.

Copenhagen

2009-06-07T18:39:00.000-07:00

At last it was time to hit the big city, Copenhagen!

Copenhagen is a walkable city, in many ways similar to Paris. Both offer excellent and easy to use mass transport, both have world class museums and a fascinating history that draws you in at every corner.

So naturally, faced with the daunting task of unraveling Copenhagen in three days, I took the easy way out by getting tickets for the hop-on hop-off tour bus. This was actually a good idea, and a better one was buying the add-on ticket to make it a two-day, all four lines ticket. Of course, the line that I had initially bought, the "Mermaid" line, did hit most of the highlights, the other lines also have some cool stuff on them, especially when it is pouring down and you don't feel much like walking anyway.

But I get ahead of myself! The first day the sun was shining and it was a great day to see the statue that is inextricably linked to Copenhagen: The Little Mermaid. Isolated from shore by a few feet of water (cuts down on the "stealing her head" type of events, apparently,) she patiently sits and gazes outward from the harbor while (again like Paris) nearby vendors try to sell small copper replicas.

After finishing the Mermaid line of the bus, Robert and I were oriented, and headed off on a winding route through the Old Town towards treasure. Our first stop was the Rundataarn, or Round Tower, a lovely way to view the city. The distinguishing feature of the tower is that there is a wide (about 15 feet) ramp all the way to the top, so the inside is one continuous space.

Next up was Vor Frue Kirke, the cathedral of Copenhagen. An airy and spacious interior that caught the sunlight and spread it out over wonderful statues of the apostles made this an uplifting place. Turns out they were the work of Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, and I was to get to know his work very well over the next few days.

Finally we made the main event of the day: Rosenborg Slot. This started as a getaway for the king outside the city. Now of course it is smack in the middle of Copenhagen, but ended up being the royal residence for a number of centuries. In the mid 1800's the king decided to turn it over to become a museum, and so the interior covers the history of the monarchy up until that point. In the chambers below the castle lie something even more interesting: the Crown Jewels of Denmark. In fact, they have several sets and a wealth of treasure down there for viewing. Definitely the highlight of the day!

But, being only 4:00 in the afternoon, there was still plenty of day to go! First, we wandered over to Nyhavn, which two centuries ago would have been the place you didn't tell you Mom you'd been to. Today, it's pretty touristy, but that's because sipping a Carlsburg by the water and watching the people go by is so much fun.

For dinner we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe and I expanded my collection of T-shirts by one. There was two reasons for this: first, its harder to find a good burger in Denmark than you might think. Second, it was next to our final stop for the evening: Tivoli Gardens.

Tivoli goes back about a century and a half. Designed to keep the Copenhagen residents from rioting, today it has well tended grounds befitting its name, some very cool rides, and entertainment throughout the day. We listened to both the orchestra for a while and the Big Band music. There was also a Pantomime show, carnival games, and a vast array of restaurants for fine dining and snack shops for not so fine. The day ended with "Illuminations", a laser light show down by the fountain, and then we took the S-train back for the night. Whew!

Okay, so there's more pictures than I can fit into my entries at this point. For those wanting to see more, check out http://markhuber.shutterfly.com/.

"I will not waste chalk."

2009-06-05T17:11:00.000-07:00

The next day found us searching for a church, and led to the most blatant error I've ever seen in an Eyewitness Travel Guide. Robert and I had located the village where the guide said the Fanefjord Church was located. However, after stopping in at a local bank to ask directions, a loan officer kindly informed me that in fact it was on an island on the other side of the water, and that the ferry could take me there.

Okay, so I've never had the Eyewitness Guide place a tourist site on the wrong island before. Undaunted we headed over there (taking the bridges) and it was worth the hunt.

You see, this church had two sets of frescos covering the interior. One from the 13th century, and another set from the 1500's. Both were then later whitewashed over, and only rediscovered in the 1930's. They are quite detailed and beautiful.

The second stop of the day was Møns Klint, graceful chalk cliffs that rise hundreds of feet above the sea. The wooden stairs up and down to the rocky beach let you know exactly how tall they are, as well. They have great trails around the area, and it is one of the those very rare natural phenomena that are just breathtaking up close.

Monday, Monday

2009-06-04T17:35:00.000-07:00

So after visiting Legoland, we stayed the night in Odense. I hadn't realized when booking the hotel, but Odense is the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen.

So you know the next morning I was all like: "Let's go see where Hans Christian Andersen was born!". Ah the adventurous life of the vacationer!

Except of course, it was Monday. And in a cruel twist of fate, Hans Christian Andersen's birthplace (and museum!) was closed Monday's until June. Okay, maybe not as cruel a twist of fate as happened to many of the characters in his stories, but it was sad nonetheless.

Still, downtown Odense also has the Saint Canute's Cathedral which is totally cool. Besides the gorgous interior and incredibly old and detailed alterpiece, it has the skeletal remains of Saint Canute and his brother Benedict are out in the open for visitors. I have to admit, this was a first for me.

After leaving Odense, we headed for the grounds of Egeskov Slot. The castle itself serves as a museum, but their are also a variety of other museums around the grounds. A car museum, motorcycle, even one dedicated to the private company Falck that runs much of the rescue operations in Denmark.

In addition, there is a walk among the tree tops, and several hedge mazes. Winding fun!

Legoland

2009-06-03T17:18:00.000-07:00

I had a lot of great toys growing up. My Steve Austin action figure went on many an adventure. And my Big Wheel had a lot of miles on it.

But the best toy of all were my Legos. With them I could build pretty much anything, although with the space themed ones that were my favorite space ships and star bases ruled the day. Over time pieces got misplaced or lost, and so the ships started to look more and more like they were products of a deranged junkyard--a mishmash of different ships, but with that distinct lego look.

So when I got a chance to go to the first Legoland in Billund, Denmark (they celebrated their 40th anniversary last year), you can believe I took it!

The best part was the model garden. Some, like Neuschwanstein Castle and the Golden Pavilion, I have already visited. Others, like Nyhavn and Amalienborg Slot, I planned to visit this trip. In all cases, the models are spectacular, and worth the price of admission alone.

The rides are geared towards a younger crowd, except for one. At the far end of the park is a build-your-own-roller-coaster ride. You construct a ride by piecing together multiple elements, like flip upside down or side to side. The ride is downloaded onto a smart card. When you get to the front, you give the smart card to the operator. The ride itself is a carriage attached to an arm that moves around at high speed. Very fun!

They don't sell the ships I remember when I was young anymore, mostly the space legos are used in conjunction with the Star Wars license today. Still, I was able to buy a vintage set of lego people--including my favorite little lego guy with his planet logo and space helmet. He'll be flying again soon.

It's a zoo out there

2009-05-31T16:21:00.001-07:00

Saturday, and the Aalborg Carnival had begun! Robert and I had noticed the preparations of some of our neighbors--which mainly involved hauling massive numbers of cases of beer up to their apartment.

When morning dawned, the streets outside looking at 9:00 am much like Franklin Street in Chapel Hill at 9:00 pm. Most were in costume, and headed out to be part of the parade. Since both of us had seen that sort of thing before, we were headed in a different direction--towards the Aalborg Zoo. As we got farther from the site of the parade, costumes became less common, but there were still a steady stream of people headed towards the center of town.

Until we got close to the Zoo, and discovered another group of people streaming in to see the animals. It was a great day to be at the zoo, sunny and the forecast had very little rain in it. This is a relatively compact zoo, but the African animals have quite a bit of room, and the feedings throughout the day give a nice way to learn more about the animals. The polar bear and her cub win the cuteness award, though, for their carefree play with a tire and ball both above and below the water.

Vikings and Stilts

2009-05-24T13:05:00.000-07:00

Well, Robert's and my last two days in Aalborg were exciting, to say the least! After finishing up the draft of the paper Friday morning, we took the bus out to a Viking cemetery, now also the home of a really good museum detailing Danish history from prehistory up to medieval times. It's called Lindholm Høje, and has an older part showcasing objects retrieved from the gravesites, while the new part has a very accessible introduction (in both Danish and English) to the history of the area.

After satisfying our yen for knowledge, we headed back toward the old center of the city, and discovered, to our delight, a parade about to start! Turns out that this is the weekend of the Karnival Aalborg, and we were witnessing the "Battle of the Bands", where carnival groups from around the world have been invited to compete for a prize. Before their competition, they have a 40 minute or so parade so that everyone can see what they've got to flaunt. The tallest were the stiltwalkers from Belgium, but my favorite were the animals--giraffes mobile enough to interact with the crowd, and a beautiful diaphanous elephant.

We finished the day at an authentic Danish Chinese Buffet. Yummy!

Finishing up

2009-05-22T02:53:00.000-07:00

So this has been a really great week for research. My talk went very well (and is now up on my website here.) Robert and Jesper and I believe that we have finished up the main details of the first paper together that all three of us were working on here in Aalborg, and the city itself is delightful. The Prinsens Hotel in Aalborg where we are staying is very close to the old city area, and (as usual in Europe) the city transportation is both fast and easy to use.

We ate at the Stygge Krumpen restaurants on Wednesday, where I had some great seafood. On Thursday Jesper had us over to his place in a small town outside the city, and we rode the train back to our hotel. Very convenient that no one was driving--as that way we could celebrate our research success properly!

Denmark

2009-05-20T09:03:00.000-07:00

I flew in to Denmark on Sunday, together with my coauthor and collaborator Robert Wolpert, into the town of Aalborg. I gave my talk at the University of Aalborg today, but on Monday and Tuesday I was in Skagen on the north coast, where my host Jesper Møller has a house.

He showed us around in the morning before we got to work, and we visited an intriguing piece of the coastline where the oceans Skagerrak and Kattegat collide. There are two sets of waves moving in different directions colliding just a few meters off the shoreline. Very cool. (That's Jesper in the background of the picture below--he had wading boots, Robert and I did not!)

Yesterday we also saw the largest sand dune in Denmark, the Råbjerg Mile, a nice climb. Today we were at the University, meeting people and each of us gave a talk. The weather's been relatively kind to us, with the occasional rain storm, but also a lot of sun. Here's hoping that continues!

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

2009-05-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

Bleh.

Ok, sure, there are some nice action scenes in here, but they are wrapped around a plot that we already knew. Most of Wolverine's (movie) history comes from X-Men 2 and the taunts of Colonel Stryker. Origins fails to deliver much more in the way of background. Sure, it fills in the fine details of why Wolverine "volunteered" for the Weapon X program, but did anyone really think Wolverine entered because Stryker was such an upstanding guy?

No new characterization and no important revelations make this movie a nonstarter. Still the continuity was much better thought out then some other prequels (cough *Star Wars* cough) I could name.

In the end, the movie fails mainly because there is too much in it. There are too many mutants to give any one fight the attention it deserves, the outcome of each fight is predetermined early by the needs of the plot, and despite the fact that our hero is onscreen most of the time, we come away knowing very little more about Wolverine than when we started.

2 out of 5 stars

To boldly go

2009-05-08T12:27:00.000-07:00

The new Star Trek move is out, and it is glorious!

I'm one of those fanboys who was full of misgivings about the new Star Trek. J.J. Abrams is one of my favorite entertainers: Alias slowly sunk under the weight of its mythos, but Lost has thrived even as the complexity grew. And Mission Impossible III gave me hope: it is the only one of the series that seems even tangentially related to the original ethos of its show.

Fortunately, Abrams has managed to capture the essence of the original Star Trek here. While the exterior of the Enterprise and interior are quite different from the original series, the only thing that really matters--the characters, are alive and well.

This isn't simple mimicry of the original actors, although a few choice maneuvers such as Kirk's "I'm thinking in my chair" command posture and Spock's raised left eyebrow have been brought along for the ride. More, it's an acknowledgment of the the fact that the Star Trek universe is the ultimate argument for multiculturalism. Kirk's bravado, Spock's logic, even Bones' grumpiness and Scotty's enthusiasm are by themselves not up to the task of solving anything. But put them together, and a team capable of saving the universe emerges.

Star Trek has always walked a fine line tackling bold topics. One of the funniest episodes of the original series, "The Trouble with Tribbles" was a thinly disguised allegory for Superpower politics in the developing world. Wrapping humor around serious plot lines is not easy, but is accomplished with skill in this newest film.

4 1/2 out of 5 stars

Day 6 in Scotland

2009-04-30T18:27:00.000-07:00

My last day as a tourist I decided to go for the ocean. Specifically, I decided to take the ferry to the Isle of Bute. This was a great little trip--despite the wind that was kicking up on the top deck. (I think it was just me and a guy walking his dog up there--the rest of the ferrygoers had more sense.)

The island itself is compact, and consists of quite a few hotels with an ocean view along a winding road. But I was here to check out another castle within walking distance of the ferry landing: Rothesay castle. Rothesay is about 800 years old and a classic. Moat, check. Round towers at the corner, check. Imposing square gatehouse tower with drawbridge, check. Attacked by Vikings, check, check.

There's no audio tour, but some of the rooms inside have been turned into a museum, and there was more than enough information inside to get a sense of the history. This was built by the Steward to the king. The family name morphed to Stewart over the ages, and later became the Stewart line of kings. It was the lynchpin in the defense of Western Scotland against the Norse in the 13th century, and later on saw action during the Scottish Wars of Independence.

After seeing the castle and a chapel dating back to the first millenium, I returned on the ferry to the mainland. I drove south along the coast then to my final stop of the trip, Culzean Castle. Unfortunately, weather had caused some damage, and the castle was closed for the day. Still, there were great views of the ocean from the ramparts.

This was a much different castle than Rothesay. Culzean was built in the 1700's and was an extension of a manor house. So it lacked the primary focus on defense, and concentrated more on looking pretty. Which I have to say, it is lovely, even as the rain clouds rolled in and out.

That was my trip to Scotland! It's a great place-full of history and ruins, as well as breathtaking scenery. Plus you can drive from one end to the other in a day or two! Next stop, Denmark...

Day 5 in Scotland

2009-04-26T15:18:00.000-07:00

The next day I took the bus back to the airport (very cheap from Ediburgh--about six pounds) and rented another car. This time I was heading to the lowlands, still hilly, but with a markedly different character than the area around Loch Ness.

First stop was Rosslyn Chapel, just south of Ediburgh. This is a small chapel covered with intricate carvings, many of which are linked to symbols from the Knights Templar. Very few tourist attractions can claim to have been transformed by a book. As the ending for the search for the Holy Grail in The Da Vinci Code, Rosslyn has become a bustling little landmark. The good news (according to the tour guide) is that they are five years ahead of their fundraising schedule due to the order of magnitude jump in visitors. The bad news is that the limestone carvings are in danger: unless the swell in tourists subsides, they might even have to limit the number of people coming into the chapel each year.

While heading to the south, I stopped at the Loch o' the Lowes to have some lunch. The area is far less green that the lochs farther north, but still a nice place to take a walk and admire the everpresent flocks of sheep.

The end of the day found me in the south of the country at Caerlaverock Castle. This castle dates back to the 13th century, and still has a water filled moat. On the grounds is also a working trebuchet. The castle belonged to a Catholic family, the Maxwells. Being on the border with England, it saw quite a bit of action, finally being abandoned in the 1600's after Protestant forces destroyed the south wall.

If touring the history of Scotland has taught me anything, it's an appreciation for the separation of church and state and the simple idea that multiple religions can exist peaceably in the same culture. For me that ranks pretty high on the list of good ideas that I wish would catch on worldwide.

Day 4 (Afternoon) in Scotland

2009-04-23T07:11:00.001-07:00

For my last afternoon in Edinburgh, I headed toward the museums and galleries.

The National Museum of Scotland is everything that you hope for in a museum--uncluttered but comprehensive, innovative, and just full of surprises. There are smaller rooms showcasing artifacts from prehistory days up to the present, like the Bute Mazer, a communal drinking cup. The shields surrounding the lion are thought to represent Robert the Bruce and his close comrades.

There are also large airy spaces enclosing giant machines such as some early automated looms, a two story tall machine for digging mines, and enormous copper tubs and tubing for whiskey distillation. Plus I learned that Scotland had its own version of the guillotine, called "The Maiden".

You can go up on the rooftop at the National Museum, which gives great views of Edinburgh castle and the Royal Mile. For my last stop I headed over to the National Gallery (open late on Thursdays!) to check out the collection. This is a wonderful gallery, full of the 16th and 17th century paintings I love so much. And like the National Museum, all of the Gallery buildings are free!

End of classes

2009-04-18T08:14:00.000-07:00

This Wednesday marked the end of graduate classes at Duke (well, plus Thursday for a snow day.) Naturally, I always view the end of classes with great optimism: now I'll finally catch up on everything I planned to do a month ago (like finishing my dispatches from Scotland before I forget entirely what I did.)

In fact, I have an even more ambitious goal that catching up on my blog: finish four papers by mid-summer, when I'll have to begin moving. Yep, that's right, for those who haven't heard I am now once again officially gainfully employed. This fall I'll be starting at Claremont-McKenna College, back in Claremont, CA.

I'm looking forward to being at CMC, but glancing around my apartment, I'm not so much looking forward to moving, a whole different prospect. I could pretend to myself that it's an opportunity to take stock of what things are actually important to me in my life, but of course its really just a pain to wade through piles of old clothes and junk. Still, it's hard not to enjoy the Spring weather in Durham with the gorgeous flowers everywhere. Ah, packing can wait!

Day 4 (Morning) in Scotland

2009-03-28T11:35:00.000-07:00

At the other end of the Royal Mile from Edinburgh Castle is the Palace of Holyroodhouse, still the Queen's residence when she is in Edinburgh. This is a delightful Palace with a well thought out audio tour.

I've noticed in general that audio tours are much better than they used to be. Early attempts at such tours tended to just dump all the information the curators has on the place into the guide. Today's tours are better thought out: timing is as important as information content. The best tours add extra numbers for special items in a room--find a room interesting and you get extra information, find it boring and you can quickly move ahead. More and more places are getting the hang of this, and the one at Holyroodhouse is excellent.

As an aside, I'd recommend for any traveler to bring your set of earphones as you travel whether or not you commonly use an MP3 player. So many place offer only low quality headphones or in the worst case you have to hold up a player to your ear, which makes your arm tired and tends to make you want to cut the tour short.

The Palace gets its name from the Holyrood Abbey next door. The Abbey was believed to have a piece of the True Cross (the "Holyrood") in its possession. A few centuries later is was attacked by an anti-Catholic mob and left in ruins. Today is has been cleaned up, and is now a beautiful ruin, especially when the sun shines out.

After the tour, I went over to the new Scottlish Parliament Building. Architecturally, this building is a mess, a mishmash of styles and symbols that make it look like it was designed by a committee of elementary school children. I heard it looked better inside, but a tour group just beat me in, and the long line at the security station deterred me.

Instead, I headed for the highest point in the city, Carlton Hill. This is a giant park with also contains a monument to civic misplanning, the Scottish National Monument, an incomplete replica of the Parthenon that only contains 12 columns. Since it was never completed, it has become known as "Scotland's Disgrace" or (according to my tour guide from the day before) if you are from Glasgow "Edinburgh's Disgrace".

In any event, there are great view from the top--I don't have any pictures to back that up, however, since the weather went from sunny to windy and rainy in a matter of moments, so I broke early for lunch. I heartily recommend Howie's, which had really great food.

Day 3 in Scotland

2009-03-20T01:43:00.000-07:00

Walking down the Royal Mile, I noted several tour companies operating out of Edinburgh. That night, I checked out my options on the Web and decided to use Rabbies Trail Bruners for a trip to Stirling Castle. I was not disappointed: our tour was a small van with only eight people, and our driver/guide kept us informed and entertained throughout our travels.

Stirling Castle (like Edinburgh) dates back to the early part of the seoncd millenium, and has seen many wars and expansions. Wallace captured it early in the Scottish wars of Independence, and Robert the Bruce won his final victory over the English within sight of the castle.

It's not hard to see why the castle has been so important to the Scots--it lies at the border between the Highlands and the Lowlands of Scotland, giving it wonderful views over much of the countryside. No wonder by the time of King James VI (James I of England) this was the royal castle. I couldn't enter the royal apartments because they are undergoing a multimillion dollar restoration at the moment. As part of that resotration, seven tapestries are being woven by a team that is working for several years. Four of these are currently on display in the Chapel, and this may have been the first time I have seen medieval style tapestries in their original brilliant colors.

After leaving the castle, the tour headed into the Trossachs National Park area. Lunch was at the idyllic town of Aberfoyle, and I can certainly recommend the food at The Carriage House.

After lunch, we headed for shores of Loch Lomand, one of the more photogenic regions in a country known for its landscapes. A short hike brought us to the top of a hill with views of the Loch as it wound around the hills.

Day 2 in Scotland

2009-03-17T15:02:00.000-07:00

Edinburgh is a gorgeous city, divided between the Old City along the Royal Mile leading up to Edinburgh Castle, and the New Town built much later.

Today I began with the hike up to the Castle. Built at the top of a volcanic structure called Castle Rock, the Royal Mile leads from the bottom (near my hotel) an old Scottish mile (about 1 1/8 modern miles) to the top.

At the top is a Castle that has seen it all: warfare, seige, betrayal, and in between those times, an ever increasing series of fortifications as whatever potentate in control sought to improve the defenses.

Since it is at the top of Castle, Rock, the views from the Castle are outstanding. An audio tour runs for a few hours or can be completed much quicker, depending on your inclination. Naturally, I was there a long, long time.

There's lots to see and do here. Starting with St. Margaret's Chapel, the only original part of the castle (dating from the 1200's) to remain, there is the Scottish national War Memorial, two museums devoted to specific regiments of Scottish soldiers, the Scottish National War Museum, and the Royal apartments, part of which now houses the Royal Insignia of Scotland. That alone is worth the price of admission: the rest makes for a heady immersion into Scottish history.

After finishing the Castle, I started down the Royal Mile. Notable along this route is the High Kirk of St. Giles, also known as St. Giles Cathedral. The tower has the same shape as the crown, with interlacing arches. Inside, many of the side chapel and decorations are open to entry.

Next I headed back to the top of the Royal Miles, and the Camera Obscura. This is a five story building with what amounts to a periscope attached to the top. Every twenty minutes or so, a group is ushered into a darkened room, and the image from a postcard sized mirror is projected down onto a simple white table, resulting in about a 50 times magnified image. The controler below can spin the camera and move it slightly up and down, giving a 360 degree tour of the sights of the city without having to leave the room. There are other camera obscuras out there, but this is the first that I have visited, and I would highly recommend it.

Of course you can always then head outside to see the city for yourself. In addition, the other four floors are devoted to all manner of optical illusions, holograms, and giant kaleidoscopes.

Next, I headed over to the smallish Museum of the Mound. This is a museum run by the Bank of Scotland, and not only gives a history of the banking industry in Scotland, but also has many of the early bank note printing methods on display. It only took me about 30 minutes to run through, but very informative.

The nice thing about staying at the bottom of the Mile is that getting back to your hotel at the end of the day is a much more restful experience!

Day 1 in Scotland

2009-03-15T04:54:00.001-07:00

My first day in Scotland, I decided to learn everything I could about the Jacobites, their goals, their wars, and the consequences of their defeat.

This was not a conscious decision, but one born of lucky circumstance in the places that I decided to visit my first day here. Just a few miles out of Inverness is Fort George, built starting in 1744 as a response to the Jacobite uprising of a few years earlier.

This fort reminded me a lot of Fort McHenry, and the reasons why are unsurprising. Both were built in the mid 18th century and faced the same artillery. The result is similar: stone fronting thick walls of earth to absorb cannonballs. Both are also situated on the coast, although only Fort George has a view that sometimes includes dolphins. They were a no show on this winter day, unfortunately.

They have an excellent guided audio tour at the Fort, and (unlike Fort McHenry) this is still a working military installation. This makes for a fun visit. The chapel and the seaward views are great, and places such as the inner moat shown below are in great condition.

Next stop for me was the Battlefield of Culloden. This battle was the reason Fort George was built: after crushing the Jacobite uprising here the Hanoverians decided that a fort was necessary to keep the highlands in line. The Jacobites under Bonnie Prince Charlie were decisively defeated here, putting an end to the hopes of restoring the Stewart line of kings to English rule.

Their is a wonderful new visitor center here chock full of artifacts which tells the story from both the Jacobite and Hanoverian side. This is not Gettysburg where hundreds of thousands of men clashed over three days of feints and maneuvers: instead the lines where formed, the Jacobites charged, and five minutes later it was over.

After the Battlefield I drove down past one of Scotlands more famous bodies of water: Loch Ness. Nessie was a no show, but I did get to see Urquhart Castle, blown up in 1692 so that (wait for it) the Jacobites could not use it as a base of operations. After over 300 years lovely ruins remain, and a modern visitor center puts it all in perspective.

Spring Break!

2009-03-10T14:36:00.000-07:00

Ah the joys of flying when the seat next to you is empty. Is there anything better? Well, I did almost have a whole row of 3 to myself, but I can't begrudge the guy who grabbed the other aisle seat in my row when he had the chance. Still, watching the women in front of me stretch out in luxury over all 3 seats was hard.

I used to drop out of consciousness like a petrified bird out of the air when the plane took off, but those days are gone. Still, I feel I accomplished a lot during this time. I caught up on "The Amazing Race", and read another set of pages from my student's Dissertation, and contemplation the existential mysteries of the universe. Alone time in a darkened plane will do that to you.

Anyway, to wrap this story up, we landed! And how! I think Heathrow is a very nice airport once the trek from the gate to Passport Control was completed, with a very inviting atmosphere. Of course, I knew I was leaving, and had soon caught my domestic flight to Edinburgh.

From Edinburgh I rented a car, and tried to reacquire the "driving on the left hand side of the road" skill I had worked so hard to master in Australia. In fact, it was easy--it was the snowstorm that caught me a bit off guard.

When they say "the Highlands of Scotland" they mean it, and blinding snow (for a few miles at least) is par for the course in getting from lush green valley to lush green valley. I stopped in the quant town of Dunkeld for a bit, but for the most part pushed through driving to my first stop at Inverness. My hotel was right along the bank of the River Ness, which made for a picturesque view at night.

Jumping the pond

2009-03-08T03:55:00.000-07:00

Whew! Job interviews are over. Now the hard part begins--choosing among some incredible institutions. I consider myself lucky to have the opportunities that I have had this semester on the job market given the current economic situation.

Still, after seven journeys in six weeks, I'm glad to be done flying. Too bad all the domestic travel was just a warm-up for the international jaunt that I'd planned for a good long while. There is a conference on Monte Carlo Markov chain methods at the University of Warwick, and like most of the conferences organized there, this one looks to be top notch.

I am really looking forward to this, and to top it all off, the RDU to Heathrow route is now officially at fire sale prices. I don't know how long that will last, but for now taking a ten minute car ride (thanks Bianca!) to RDU and then jumping onto a seven and half hour flight to another continent seems the height of accessibility. The plane was half empty, which makes economy seem like first class. I've got a few days to play tourist in Scotland before heading to Warwick, and so I'm going to do my best to see as many ruined Highland castles as I can get a camera lens on.

I'll be keeping an eye out for Nessie, too. It's good to have high hopes!

My new skill

2009-03-01T18:21:00.000-08:00

Like so many Homo Sapiens living in the time of electronic devices, I have developed a new skill: the ability to shut off my alarm clock in my sleep.

Normally this ability does not get me into so much trouble, but today was an airplane flying day. I had set the alarm for 4:30 AM, and so my surprise when I awoke at 6:23 AM (thinking my flight was at 7:05) was substantial. Panic would not be too strong a word.

Fortunately I long ago implemented a policy of getting everything ready the night before, not only packing my bags but also laying out clothes for the morning and putting things like my ID in pockets. If there's one thing I know about myself, it is that I cannot be trusted to remember anything at 5:00 in the morning.

So I threw on my preselected duds and ran for the door, drove like a maniac to the airport and splurged on the parking garage next to the terminals. Then, of course, I went to the wrong terminal. Sigh.

Luckily, the TSA agent noticed that I was flying Delta and sent me on my way running to the other terminal (there is a shuttle as well to take people from one terminal to the other, but I had NO TIME, NO TIME, NO TIME!)

Of course, after all that the plane was actually leaving at 7:25, not 7:05 as I thought. Moreover, it was late getting boarded, and so I had more than enough time to calm my racing heart and stop in for a quick wash up so as not to frighten my fellow passengers on the plane.

The flight itself went smooth as silk--while both planes were full, most people nowadays are obeying the put your smaller carryon below the seat in front of you rule, thereby leaving enough space for everyone's primary bag. Why, after my exciting trip to get to the airport, the plane ride itself was positively tranquil.

Oscar night

2009-02-22T20:54:00.000-08:00

It was Slumdog Millionaire's night for sure. Best Picture, Best Director, even Best Original Song. But even more amazing is that it is actually wrapping up on time. I'm typing this from the West Coast, and having watched the show from the East Coast for the last 7 years, I'm still disorientated from leaving off before midnight.

I still think Wall-E was the best movie of last year, but am not surprised that Academy wasn't ready to give an animated film a Best Picture nomination. There have been solid animated films before, but Wall-E smashed through barriers in terms of complexity of the shots, use of focus and close-up, and a multilayered plot.

And yet, I do have to admit: Jai Ho is a catchy tune.

Dollhouse

2009-02-20T19:16:00.001-08:00

Well, I just got done watching the second episode of Dollhouse. My faith is renewed!

I have to admit, despite being one of those rabid Joss Whedon fans who loved Firefly and watched Angel and Buffy religiously, I was a bit taken aback by the pilot to his new series Dollhouse. It was pedrestrian--telegraphing the plot and moves with all the subtlety of a brick through a window. It was competently done, but nothing special.

Tonight was completely different. This is a story to sink one's teeth into. And despite the previews for last week giving away the main plot, it was the subplots and background that gave it life and made it interesting. The unanswered questions and the intimations of catastrophe always keep things hopping. I'm looking forward to the next week of Dollhouse, a pleasant surprise!

Crown of Gold

2009-02-11T17:32:00.000-08:00

So a three month long saga of dentistry came to an end today.

Just before my trip to Japan last year, I cracked a filling. This unfortunately seemed to happen every year or two. I like to think my jaw has superhuman strength, but really there was probably just some weird Tacoma bridge thing going on.

Anyway, my dentist decided enough was enough with that tooth, and it was time to put a crown on it once and for all. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time before my travels, so I left with a hole in the tooth and the hope of getting in fixed when I could.

There being just one week between my Japan trip and my Christmas trip, that wasn't going to happen, so I still tried to be careful with it for another few weeks.

Then job interview season began. I thought I had a one week window of opportunity. So I had my dentist drill out the tooth where the crown would go, and put on a temporary.

Then I got an interview the week I was supposed to get the permanent crown put in. Time to be careful, and hope the temporary crown lasted. One week went by, and then two. And finally last week, the temporary cracked.

That was bad. Since the hole had been drilled, I could not put any pressure at all on that tooth without it giving me pain. So I went on the job interview, and tried not to seem a complete lunatic chewing on one side of my mouth and occasionally wincing as a stray chunk of food managed to escape and land on my poor tooth.

Today, however, all that came to an end! My dentist put on the permanent crown, and I have to say, it feels great. For the first time in three months, I don't feel a hole in my tooth when I run my tongue across it, and that's a nice feeling. It's a gold crown, and it slipped twice while he was sanding it down to size, so I got to feel how heavy it is. Now to crunch something!

Coraline

2009-02-09T18:44:00.000-08:00

This is good stuff.

This is scary, not in the thrill ride way, but in the slow exploration of dark things that go bump in the night kind of way. This is a movie where insects and black cats, rats and the demonic shadow selves that lurk around the corner of reality just out of sight behind the corner of your eye get to come out and play.

This is life writ large--hopes and dreams of a perfect world contrasting the drab eventuality of gray uniforms and candy that's been in the cupboard too long. But there's always a price to pay for perfection.

This is handcrafted, in the way only a stop-motion film can be, where every detail, every second is the work of days. Behind every scene lurks a woodcarver, a precision painter, an intricate machine to move the puppets and control the world up on the screen.

Coraline. This is good stuff.

ORD to RDU

2009-02-07T19:55:00.000-08:00

So I've been flying around the country on various interviews, and I've learned one thing.

Nobody flies from Raleigh-Durham to Chicago anymore.

Not that I'm complaining. On my last trip, on two different airlines, both from RDU to ORD and back again, the plane was half empty. Now that is luxury. I can grab the middle seat and recline without fear of crushing some poor sucker behind me, and break out my laptop without worrying about the guy in front of me crushing me. All in all, it's a great experience.

Now if only that holds when I fly to London next month, I'll be a happy camper!

Farewell, Weekend America!

2009-01-31T14:31:00.000-08:00

The last show of Weekend America aired today on the radio. Now, I have to admit, that I never much cared for the show--I thought it veered wildly from deep interviews to bubbly fluff that undermined any credibility the more serious reporting might have built up.

Still, I was somewhat sad to see it go. For one, as someone in the middle of a job search, I can empathize with the process that everyone who works on the show must be going through. Will I find a new job? Will I have to move somewhere I won't fit in? Why now, as the economy is going through such troubles?

On the other hand, all things have to end. Otherwise, the world wouldn't be life, just some Garden of Eden lite. Of course, everyone who's played video games understands this. Games that are too easy where there are no setbacks, no challenges, are boring as all get out. As we get closer to creating virtual worlds, the same rules apply, and act as tests that can be applied to reality. What is typically regarded as a frivolous activity--video games--may provide a new form of scientific philosophy where experiments can be directly used to test the big questions.

In any event, I'll miss Weekend America--mindless fluff included.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

2009-01-24T06:57:00.000-08:00

This week's cold front did a number across the whole country. In Durham it brought the first snows of winter.

Durham isn't a big place for snow, but it does happen maybe once or twice every winter. And when it does, schools close down big time. Except for Duke of course, which has a policy of "we don't close for anything". Which is fine, because let's face it, if a prof really can't get into town all they have to do is call in and have class canceled anyway. Fortunately, I live near the intersection of several major traffic arteries, and so the snowplows are always out in full force, so it is never an issue for me.

Galactica is back!

2009-01-17T15:03:00.000-08:00

Watched the first of the last episodes of Battlestar Galactica today, and I was completely blown away. Usually a long hiatus like BSG had--in the middle of a season, no less--pulls me completely out of the storyline, but five minutes into the opening and I was back firing on all emotional cylinders.

The episode had all the nice touches that have come to characterize this show: great acting, nice art direction, and imaginative ways of turning the emotional screws to the viewer. Other sci-fi shows have had emotional resonance, but BSG seems to be the first to reach outside the hard core fans of the genre.

I am definitely looking forward to the next 9 weeks!