Monthly Archives: February 2009

Does history remember Adam Worth?

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Caution: This post is a treasure trove of marshmallowy goodness, just like this awesome VCR hack.

The Holmes Part
I’m researching the history and motivation behind the creation of Professor Moriarty. He’s been showing up every ten chapters in Vanguard, doing his supervillain thing (being one of the first supervillains).

But have you heard of Adam Worth?

This is the original “Napoleon of Crime” that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle may have used as a reference point. Worth had been marked accidentally as killed in action in the Civil War. Having no identity, he floated from regiment to regiment earning sign-up bonuses and then leaving. He then took his earnings to Boston, coordinated a pickpocket ring, and then took the show over seas for bigger heists.

Having exhausted Tchaikovsky for the moment, I’ve been listening extensively to Johnny Cash. I don’t know if that can coexist in the Scion, but we haven’t had a matter/anti-matter baryogenetic explosion yet, so I think we’re cool.

So now, as I’m typing chapter 50 of Vanguard (remember: short, James Patterson-esque chapters), I wish I had Ghost Riders in the Sky or Folsom Prison Blues playing through my head as The Hessian Horseman tears apart Wilbur Gloaming Junior High.

Nope. Oh What A Dream. D’oh. (At least it’s not Ghost Chickens in the Sky.)

The Star Wars Part
Sadly, I’ve actually wanted to see this happen to Donald for a long time:

It’s better than if I wanted to see Minnie in a Slave Leia bikini. Oh, wait. I guess some guy at Disney thinks that’s important. Check out the figurines. The crazy part? Think limited edition Star Wars collectible. Now add a Disney character into the equation:

f(How much you’ll pay) = (Ability to name Ellorrs Madak)Number of Mickey shirts worn this year

The math is staggering.

Issue 1 of the Old Republic tie-in comic is now online

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Slade, you’ll be happy that the MMO has the marketing force behind it, meaning they’re committed to finishing the product.

Devin, you’ll be happy that it’s by Dark Horse.

Mike, you’ll be happy that “Peace” is a “Threat”.

Myself? I’m just happy it’s free. (Well, considering it may end up being more marketing than story, a la car commercials with Hiro and Ando.)

Click here to visit the webcomic. It does have Rob Chesney from Bioware as the head scriptwriter, so I am excited. Was the first issue only three pages, though? Definitely need to add the RSS feed.

If you learn anything tonight…

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  1. A straightforward bear is valuable indeed. Don’t give me excuses about needing to rearrange your sock drawers or how much you plan to work out. Just tell me it’s because you’re lazy. Thank you for your honesty, Nate Bear.
  2. Office is a re-run. Crime Aid was funny the first two times. Argh.
  3. Taylor Swift is a gelfling.

  4. Hunger, book two to Gone, is amazing (finished it in 7th hour today). Comes out in June and it will rock.
  5. Norman Gentle/Nick Mitchell will survive tonight. He must! (Slade, like Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln…”You must live!” whispered too close in my ear.) Much cooler than Sanjaya, he’s got a David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust thing going on.

Characterization: Musical Instrument

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I’m reading through a writer’s guide to characters, and I came across this:

Brass players are more extroverted and happy-go-lucky.
String players are more neurotic than other musicians.
Pop musicians have psychological problems.
Opera singers are extroverted and conceited.

Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

Quiz Results, Music History, and a General Thank You for Being Alive

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Given that I just put a Lean Pocket on a plastic plate in my toaster oven, I would like to say, “Thank you” to all who helped me to live this weekend.

Jim Gaffigan would say that the Lean Pocket was the most dangerous part of the weekend.

Our survey takers agree that Jack Bauer is the most dangerous part of dinner.
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And yes, anyone who grows close to Jack is either a traitor or is gonna die. I mean, look at the statistics.

Thanks again to Jeremy with the save on contact solution and children’s Tylenol.

While driving around this weekend (which, given my previous condition, is probably not wise) I’ve been listening to a lot of Tchaikovsky, specifically his Greatest Hits (Greatest Works? I don’t know…better than his Unplugged album). I remember playing the 1812 Overture in high school and loving it. (The quiet parts as well as the cannon parts.)

Another of my favorites from him is the Marche Slave. I’ll be honest, my first real exposure to the song was in one of the transition scenes in Karateka.

Karateka, grandfather of Prince of Persia and mispronounced by elementary school kids owning an Atari 7800

In it this weekend I heard some folk songs from other countries, but mainly I heard some themes from the 1812 Overture. Here’s the story: Tchai-guy wrote it in five days when his friend Nikolai Rubinstein asked for a song to honor volunteer soldiers killed/wounded fighting the Ottoman Empire in 1876. The whole bloodshed started when the Ottomans killed some Serbian Christians. The Russians felt a connection with their Slavic neighbors and volunteered to fight.

That explains why it has a funeral march sound at the beginning but then gets all crazy at the end (my oldest thought I had a new Star Wars soundtrack. She said, “It’s kinda loud, but I like it.”).

But what about some 1812 themes that show up in Marche Slave?

So, me being so proud of my non-American-centricness, thought that the 1812 Overture was about the War of 1812 (that’s a different song altogether (Vern, I think you’re familiar with this song)).

No, the 1812 Overture refers to the Russian defense of Borodino versus Napoleon’s army. It gave the little guy time to reconsider an invasion of Russia. The emphasis on the cannons in the song is because Napoleon showed up with roughly 1,200 pieces of heavy artillery.

Tsar Alexander I had commissioned the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour to commemorate the French defeat. The cathedral was almost done and once again Nikolai Rubinstein showed up to challenge Tchaikovsky to write some music. The song was supposed to be performed when the cathedral was done. They had planned on the church bells ringing alongside cannons firing and musicians going crazy. But then Tsar Alexander II was assassinated and the performance never happened like Tchaikovsky wanted. It became a very popular song, though, with the Russian people and has been revised by different composers who added in more Russian folk music/anthems.

What blows me away is that Tchaikovsky wrote the 1812 Overture in six weeks.

But why the similar themes between Marche Slave and 1812? Russian soldiers whooping up. (I’m sure that’s what your notes say from Music History, right, Slade?)

Click here for a full orchestral score of Marche Slave.

Skype yes, Spandex no

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The sick people of Peoria thank you.

That doesn’t sound right.

The people who had to stay home but wanted to go to the tournament thank you.

That’s more like it.

Thank you, Jeremy, for allowing my oldest daughter and I to watch the HWT wrestle. We hooked the MacBook up to the big screen TV to subject my parents to Jobing.com in all of its semi-finals glory.
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Here’s the Skype in fullscreen, with me in the bottom-left cheering.

Even though the season ended with this semi-final, I’m glad we got to see it.

Grammar in New York and a Promise Fulfilled by Zombies

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I stumbled across a really cool blog today about the New York Times stylebook. It’s interesting to see a non-MLA organization’s take on the written word. Check out why they capitalize Marine now, as well as a quiz to see if you can catch the real grammatical errors that showed up in The Times.

Check out After Deadline

Also, the Times revised their rules for whiskey vs. whisky (but long-time readers of the bloggh were already well-informed).

Slade, you’ll be pleased to hear Penny Arcade’s reactions to RE5:

Contrary to the industry’s building momentum toward welcoming new players into beautiful, gently designed spaces, this game is having none of it. This is not a game where you play some rascal zephyr in a flower’s dream. This is a game where you run for your [crazy] life, for hours, until you die.

And it’s co-op. Finally. No goofy Resistance 2 failings. Straight-up running from zombies. They’ve actually got a really interesting take on the race issue.

We’ve killed Middle Eastern terrorists in video games for how long?

For a more civilized age…

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I take for granted something like using a fork. It is a learned skill.

Star Wars guys – I finished creating Moff Cage just now, tactical genius. Very excited.

While we wait for budget decisions, let’s do something healthy with the news.

Oh, forget that. Let’s blame people.

Can entire global markets collapse based on one man?
The Moff says: Yes.
You just need a big enough turbolaser.

And did you see the presidential rankings? Clinton at 15?
Moral of the story: Nobody votes for Andrew Johnson.

Analysis of Progeny Cortex Based on Musical Progenitor

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This is what it looks like when I break it down. Shaq and the Jabbawockeez, like me walking into any restaurant.

The Study: Does pizza tell us about personality?

If the dad is a percussionist:
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If the dad is a guitarist:
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We appreciated R and J watching our kids last night so we could go to Texas Roadhouse and then Chili’s. (Roadhouse being an hour and forty minutes wait time.)
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I’ve determined that:

Valentine’s Day : Restaurant :: Christmas : Retail Store

We had a great time, but our server did not. She spilled water on me twice. I only spilled water on myself once.

Dollhouse was definitely different than Firefly, but we still enjoyed it. I wonder what more Evil Wash has to offer.

Ah, Master Predictor! Now I know where I’ve seen this guy before. Harry Lennix was the commander guy in Matrix Revolutions as well as the Muslim guy in the prison camp in 24. (Really, who hasn’t played a person stuck in a prison camp in 24?)(I’ll tell you who…Justin Guarini, and we’re all okay with that.)

So the big news is that some Peter character is leaving to work for Microsoft. Erin wins Best Present 2009:
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Oh, the places you’ll go…someone’s probably already been there.

It’s better than some of the gifts you get:
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Yeah, the live kind. Not calamari.
My niece followed appropriate grieving procedure.
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Some strange signs have been appearing throughout town:
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The citizenry is in upheaval.
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Slade, this one’s for you:
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A tie-dye-wearing tiger going fishing – right up your alley

I can’t believe I have a Wii Points card. How will I decide?
Obsession Pictures, Images and Photos
Correction. My wife has the Wii Points card.
I trust my wife. I really do.

What, are you Highlanders?

Get the Facts about the Education Cuts

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There are a lot of quotes floating around (just like anything about politics) and I want to make sure people get the facts about the education cuts that are happening.

The Legislature already approved Bill 1006 to cut education. As a state, we’ve already had our budget cut by $133 million dollars. We’re looking at $800 million next year. What’s being frozen are things like soft capital (book purchases) and maintenance costs (why my library is running on 50% lights (literally half of the bulbs)… I feel like I’m in freakin’ Das Boot over here).

I am thankful that I have a job, even if it looks like we’ll lose 301 funding. We made cuts already this year, but we are expected to cut an additional $12 million from our district next year.

What the big deal is is that Jan Brewer is expected to approve these cuts this Saturday.

The instigators behind these cuts have been Appropriations Chairs Russell Pearce and John Kavanagh. Give ‘em a call.

If you see these fugitives on the street, consider them armed and dangerous.

To be fair, I hope that they think they’re doing the right thing (and not being thieves). Here’s a quote from Pearce:

“It doesn’t matter whether the public likes it,” Pearce told Capitol Media Services. “They can’t afford it.”

It should be noted that this year we moved on the state rankings for education. We went from 49th to 50th. Enjoy your victory lap, Mississippi. You’ve beaten us fair and square.

Here’s Bill 1006.

We’ve been hit hard, but we know it’s rough all over. Across the state murmurs of a walk-out are forming, but for now we realize that the state would just hire emergency certified replacements, many lacking the training and strategies to engage our students.

It’s rough all over and I hope that the stimulus plan works (versus hating it just because I didn’t vote for the guy). It’s the plan that’s out there right now.

For more information on an educator’s perspective on the cut, the superintendent for Florence schools set up a website that has great information on it: http://respectforregularfolks.com/.

Jesus Rejects Norm

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I picture a sad man sitting next to Cliff Clavin, but I think we’re talking about a different Norm.

I’m one for predictability, so much so that this morning one lunch lady handed me a breakfast burrito while another yelled for the back room to go get a strawberry milk. Not once did I actually place an order. (For scientific purposes, the same happens at lunch. Orange chicken with lo mein and apologies if they don’t have any more strawberry milk. You should see the panic if I’m in a hurry and ask for a slice of pizza – straight up dogma shift.)

The trouble is that Jesus is all about relationships.

Formulas are not about relationships.

This is where a majority of Christian self-help books break down, when they start forming lists. We can’t norm interactions with Jesus. He heals by saying, “Get up!” one time (Matthew 9) and for a blind guy in John 9 the healing doesn’t happen until he washes out the mud. But before we start to say, “Well, one couldn’t walk and the other couldn’t see”, check out Mark 10.

Addition: Should we norm Christian leadership? “Follow Christ, stand up for what you believe in, be stoned by the community – The All-New Stephen Method!” “Have everyone respect your religious heritage, become blind, be healed by Jesus, go from town to town getting beat up – Four Steps to a More Paul You” “Reject God, get swallowed by large water creature, have your shelter eaten by a worm, reluctantly see God’s perspective – Daily Devotionals to Read by the Beach”

The trouble, then, is that Jesus works differently in different situations. No formula. Donald Miller is quick to point out, though, that a formula, by making it predictable, takes away the relationship aspect and instead turns Jesus into Jeannie (maybe without the outfit and the blinking, but just as silly).

The formulas propose that if you do this and this, God will respond. When I was a kid I wanted a dolphin for the same reason.

If you haven’t read Searching for God Knows What, pretty cool read.

It’s tough to prescribe a process for change aside from

  • Step 1: Connect with Jesus.
  • Step 2: Repeat Step 1.

Granted, we feel like there needs to be more, but how much stems from our fear? Maybe I’m the only control freak around here, the fact that I obsessively update a bloggh being prime condemning evidence. Or was that my desire to re-write every episode of Heroes to make it better?