Farmgirl At Large

Saving it up

2012-02-03T20:44:00.001-05:00

I picked up an exciting surprise package from UPS today. A couple of weeks ago, I filled out a feedback survey for a new RNA isolation kit at work. My boss had signed our lab up to be beta testers for the company for future kits, so I mostly wanted to get familar with feedback system. The company was running a promotion that you could win an iPad if you fill out the feedback survey. I have to assume that very few people filled out the survey, because I won an iPad (and I never win anything). I picked it up today and just started playing around on it. So if anyone has any suggestions for fun apps, let me know!

That's not your place

2012-01-23T23:41:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago, I headed off to the AFI Silver to see the movie The Artist. The movie is about the transition from silent movies to talkies with a silent film star (named George Valentin) resisting the move. Therefore, the majority of the movie is silent with interstitial cards used occasionally throughout the movie. As a result, the score is a very important part in conveying emotions since there is no audible dialogue. And the score is really amazing and includes a little bit the score from Vertigo written by Bernard Hermann. The score (rightly so in my opinion) is getting strong Oscar buzz (as long as the score is 80% original material, it can be nominated). So I was surprised to read last week that Kim Novak (who starred in Vertigo), took out a full page add stating that she felt like a rape had been committed against her by the use of Bernard Hermann's score. Ignoring the extremely poor choice of words ( which seems to belittle the violence of an actually sexual assault), I don't think that it is really Kim Novak's place to make this argument. The composer got permission from Bernard Hermann's estate to use some of the score and furthermore Kim Novak didn't write the score. Also, she claims that she is the only one left to defend Vertigo because Alfred Hitchcock and James Stewart are dead. Vertigo is arguably one of Hitchcock's most famous movies (though not one of my favorites) and I'm not sure that the credit is due to Kim Novak. I think most of the credit goes to Hitchcock and the crew that worked on the film. So to me, this arguemnt came off as a slap in the face of anyone else who worked on that film. She totally overreacted to the situation and I think that she comes out in a poorer light than the composer or the director of The Artist (the director released a statement along the lines of Bernard Hermann was a great composer and we were lucky that were we able to pay our respect to him by using some of his work in this film). But besides this Kim Novak rant, I highly recommend The Artist, especially for people who enjoy old movies. The costumers, set directors, and make-up artists really capture the era beautifully and there is a great scene that feature some amazing sound design and sound editing. And I have to hand it to the actors, they did a great job adapting to a medium that I'm sure was foreign to all of the them. The cast is really great too, with nice supporting roles from James Cromwell, Missi Pyle, and John Goodman (who I usually forget that I like).

The Apprentice has become the master

2012-01-15T20:05:00.000-05:00

I have proof that I have seen too many film noir movies. I was watching The Killing today which is a film noir movie by Stanley Kubrick. And during the entire buildup to the heist, I was trying to identify which characters was going to get killed (there were about 2 characters I was sure were going to bite it, but they lived) and how the heist was going to go awry (I was pretty close on this one). I will still watch more film noir films, some for the titles alone( there is one called Hell's Half Acre!) and because during a certain period in the late 40s/early 50s, there were are lot of actors and actress that I really like in film noir pictures (not to mention one of my favorite old studios, RKO Pictures, is known at The House Noir Built).

Rich man, Poor man, Beggar, Thief

2012-01-15T10:00:00.002-05:00

Last Saturday, I went to my beloved AFI Silver Theater in Silver Spring to see the new movie adaptation of John Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. This adaptation was chock full of British actors that I know and like including Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Gary Oldman, Cirian Hinds, Toby Jones, John Hurt, Tom Hardy, and Benedict Cumberbatch (which means Sirius Black starred in a spy thriller with Sherlock Holmes, Mr. Knightley, Captain Wentworth, and Mr. Darcy). So I really liked the movie. Beyond the great casting, the director did a great job with establishing the fear and paranoia of the Cold War. And the set design and costuming was really good. But I have to say this is a movie that will benefit from repeat viewing. Once you know the basic plot, you will probably notice/understand more of the subtle plot points and will make the movie more enjoyable (this is how I feel about the movie Gosford Park, by the 3rdv viewing I figured out what the familial relationship and who the couples were). All in all, it was a good way to spend an afternoon. However, there was one guy at the movie who both did not turn off his phone (and then didn't seem to understand that his ring tone was ruining the movie, seriously someone had to tell him to turn off his phone) and then fell asleep during the movie (I could hear his snoring, he was only a few rows in front of me).

Beautiful Meloncholy

2011-12-21T20:10:00.000-05:00

Today I listened to a podcast called To The Best of Our Knowledge from Wisconsin Public Radio. This is a podcast that I really enjoy, but hasn't made it into my weekly rotation. And really it should, because the shows are really interesting and kind of similar to This American Life where they take a topics and do short news/non-fiction pieces about it. The episode I listened to today was called Why Do We Love Sad Songs. And I was introduced to this amazing piece of music called Adagio for the Strings by Samuel Barber:

It premiered on the radio in the late 1930s but gained popularity as song played at funeral after being played several times following the death of FDR.

Spelunking

2011-12-19T19:31:00.001-05:00

In honor of finally being able to hear the latest series of Cabin Pressure, a BBC Radio 4 show that I adore, I thought I would write a post about discovering shows like Cabin Pressure. While living in Ohio, I got used to listening to audiobooks from time to time (my local library had quite a selection). So when I moved home, I tried the website Audible.com which lets you download a variety of audio programs which, fortunately for me, includes BBC radio shows. The first thing I search for was David Mitchell and Robert Webb, who are the creators of a TV show I enjoy called That Mitchell and Webb Look. And then I decided to look up actors that I really like. The first was Marcus Brigstock, who wrote in and starred in a one season show called The Savages. And I discovered this weird but funny radio show The Museum of Everything (which I can't really accurately describe). This was followed by searching for Benedict Cumberbatch (who Steven Moffat or BBC fans will know plays Sherlock in the updated series). And through that I discovered the show Cabin Pressure which is a work place series that takes place in a small contract private airline. I really love this show, it is a great combination of warmth, cynicism, and humor. It doesn't hurt that is was written by John Finnemore who also worked on That Mitchell and Webb Look. But I think on my favorite discoveries is Richard Armitage (of North and South and The Vicar of Dibley) narrating the work of Georgette Heyer, who wrote Regency novels. And so those audiobooks represent the meeting of two things that I love. Until Alan Rickman starts recording audiobooks (can you believe that he doesn't? I would listen to him reading the phonebook), Richard Armitage will do in a pinch (I've listened to one several times while falling asleep). By searching for actors that I enjoy, I was able to find other projects from these actors that I truly enjoy.

Because it is that time of year

2011-11-20T21:07:00.001-05:00

In honor of Thanksgiving this Thursday, I thought I would write about a few things that I am grateful for:

My Parents: I am so grateful for my parents. Most things that I like about myself or my tastes are either a direct result of them (like my love for Paul Simon and Masterpiece Mystery) or due to the way they raised me (like my work ethic). I know we don't always agree on everything, but I know how lucky I am that my parents are so supportive and willing to help me (and really they have been so patient with the number of hobbies my sisters and I have picked-up over the years like beekeeping, raising goats, soapmaking, cheesemaking, and quilting to name a few).
My Sisters (and their husbands and children): My sisters are some of my favorite people in the whole world. Sometimes I complain about being the youngest but I know that my life has been easier because of my older sisters giving me advice and support (and their husbands in more recent years). And I love being an aunt so I'm thankful that my sisters and their husbands have given the opportunity to spend time with all my nephews.
My Job: Since the economy is still crappy, I know I am lucky that I have a job. But I am thankful that I have the job that I have now. I really love my job and it has given me a chance to explore a new part of the country and do something I love. And I really like my co-workers a lot as evidenced by the fact that one of my co-workers got me an Agatha Christie book (the HarperCollins reprints with the awesome covers) as a thank you gift and that my boss and I talked about how great Paul Simon's Graceland CD is over lunch last week. I know that I was lucky to be able to leave a job I didn't like and have time to really think about what kind of job would make me happy and feel fulfilled (thanks to my family and Rachel suggestion that I see a career counselor).
Technology: I know this sounds like a weird one, but hear me out. I love my iPod and I use pretty much every day. I listen to music or podcasts at work all the time and it makes the time fly by. Because of the internet, Facebook, and Blogger to name a few, I feel connected to my friends and family as well as the world at large and more informed. Plus, I am listening a Paul Simon concert from Indiana University as I write this and earlier today I watched 4 episodes of Law & Order.
NPR: It's just awesome. I get so much from listening to programs from NPR. I learn so much and every week there is at least one super fascinating story that I hear on NPR that I try to follow up on or learn more about. Ditto for PBS.
My Freedom: I was reminded of this while I was driving to work listening to a story about Saudi Arabian women fighting for the right to drive (and vote and walk in public places with men to name a few things). I think too often we take our freedom for granted so I want to remember how fortunate I am to live in a time and place where women have freedom.

I'm in a quilting sprint!

2011-11-14T22:46:00.001-05:00

I finished all the handquilting on a quilt that I made when I still lived in Ohio (so I think I've had it pieced for about 2 years). I had it mailed to me during my six month stay in Vermont and made a lot a progress on it but I hadn't put any real work on it for about six months. Then last month, I decided to get to work on it so when I saw my mother at Thanksgiving, we could put the binding on it and I could finish. After about 2 weeks of intense quilting almost nightly (with episodes of Midsomer Murders keeping me company), I finished it rather quickly. So spurned on by this success, I decided that I would finally finish the first quilt I pieced. I have worked on the quilting on and off for about 8 years. I wish I were kidding but I'm not. I set it aside for the first time to make a quilt for Bridget and then my sisters kept having babies (and I made a king size quilt for Rachel which took me about 3 years, I pieced that monster quilt throughout most of grad school). Now I am closer than ever to finishing it, I have about 1.3 pieces of border left to finish. Since this was the first quilt that I worked on, I can see how poorly my first attempts were and how much better my stitching has become. I kind of want to rip out those old bad stitches but I sort of want to be reminder of how I started. So now, I'm sprinting toward the finish line of Thanksgiving with a quilt that I made with my grandmother and for that reason alone, I will always keep it with me.

What I've learned from Film Noir

2011-10-30T23:14:00.000-04:00

I have seen 12 film noir movies over the past two weekends so I thought that I make a list of what I've learned from those movies (and well as the many many other film noir movies I've seen in the past):

If you have to see a psychologist or psychoanalyst because you may have murdered someone, makes sure the person is of the opposite sex. He or she will be more invested in your recovery because there is a 80% chance she/he will fall in love with you and help you clear your name.
Do not let yourself get locked in a house (yours or someone else) or a building. More than likely the person who is holding you hostage will be in the process of convincing anyone that could help you that you are crazy.
Do not install frosted glass in your house. In the case of the above situtaion, it makes it that much more difficult to get someone's attention. Plus your hostage takes could sneak up on you (I'm looking at you Ida Lupino in Beware My Lovely).
If you husband is trying to run you down on the street, make sure that someone else is dressed very similarly (and hopefully in cahoots with your murdering husband).
Do not work in a bank. At some point someone is going to either force you to rob the bank or rob the bank and make you the fall guy.
If you are a twin accused of murder and your psychologist is doing a word association exercise with you, it does not bode well for your twin if you answer to "mirror" is "death". And don't dress alike, especially if you are not under 5. It's just creepy.
If you are dealing with twins and one might be evil, only talk to the twins in person not on the phone.
Cats can either help you or draw unwanted attention to you. It's really a toss up. But trust dogs, they are always in the right.
If you have escaped from prison with a group of men and you've decided that you are going after a stash of money, things are not going to end well for almost your entire group. Best to escape with only one other person (and don't get attached then either).
Do not marry, work for, or live with a person that is very attached to the parent of the opposite sex. And for goodness sake, don't stay in his or her motel!
It is probably a good idea not to get in a car that you are not driving.
Don't be friends with a gossip columnist.
Sometimes the police a helpful and other times the police are completely useless. So sort of like cats. The FBI is usually helpful (like dogs).
If you are involved with a married man, he is never going to leave his wife. If he has a first wife, more than likely he did not divorce her, he killed her.
And most importantly, do not be a push-over. Be proactive, be aggressive, and be willing to trick your adversary in any way that you gives you an advantage, gives you extra time, or shows that you are willing to fight back.

Tales from AFI

2011-10-24T17:53:00.000-04:00

On Sunday, I watched 3 Film Noir movies: Laura, They Won't Believe Me, and High Wall. I'll skip over Laura since it is probably one of the better known films. They Won't Believe Me opens with the main character on trial for the murder of his wife/mistress (it isn't clear which murder he is being charged with, point is both are dead). I have to say I enjoyed this movie because for once, it is not a bad woman leading a good man astray. The ending was a little bit of a surprise mostly due to the change required under the Hayes Code. The last movie from Sunday was High Wall. The plot of the movie is the main character thinks that he strangled his wife but his a suffering from blackout due to a blood clot in his brain (which gets fixed by surgery). Because of the black out condition, he is sent to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation by Dr. Ann Laurson. She believes that he didn't kill his wife and tries to help him prove it. I liked High Wall even though on the most basic level it is a less good version of Spellbound (with a less good cast).

One other weird story from being that AFI for most of the afternoon: I went the bathroom before seeing High Wall and there was a man using one of the stalls in the women's restroom (and I only knew it was a man because he didn't close the door). I am not 100% sure that he was drunk, but he did do a very theatrical burp that was reminiscent of Barney Gumble (from the Simpsons) (alcohol is served at the theater but you can only buy one at a time so the guy either went back multiple times or is a lightweight).

One more thing, I am pretty sure that the AFI Silver was only theater in the DC metro area that was showing Margin Call because the line was huge for every showing (and it was showing in the biggest of the 3 theaters).

It's getting dark

2011-10-22T23:44:00.001-04:00

It's the first weekend of the DC Noir Fest at AFI Silver so I spent most of my day in Silver Spring. I saw 3 movies today so I thought that I would do a little write for all the movies that I am going to see over the next few weeks.
Experiment in Terror: A bank teller gets grabbed in her garage and her attacker demands that she steal $100,000 for him or he will kill her and her sister (and he generously offers to give her 20%). She calls the FBI and works with an agent (played by Glenn Ford!) to find the bank robber. The movie was really enjoyable and it was interesting to see the what the idea of the FBI was in the 50s (because in the movie people called the operator and could speak to an agent). The ending is really good and the climax takes place at Candlestick Park after a Giants-Dodgers game.
Crashout: Very rare movie, not available on DVD. A gang of six men band together after a prison break (or crashout) with the plan of finding and splitting a $180,000 one of them stole in a bank robbery. And you can imagine how well this plan goes. Someone in the row in front of me complained that the movie end very ambiguously without totally tying up the plot. I kind of wanted to say both "Well, it is film noir" and "Um... try watching I Am a Fugitive From A Chain Gang, that might be most ambigous ending ever. It just fades to black after Paul Muni's last line. " (and that movie made me love Paul Muni!)
Loophole: Another rare movie, not available on DVD. A bank teller unknowingly gets almost $50,000 stolen from his drawer. The FBI agents who work on the case believe he is innocent but the special investigator working for the bonding company representing the bank, does not believe him and start relentlessly pursuing the bank teller in an attempt to get him to reveal the location of the money. After talking with the FBI agent, the teller (Donavon) remembers that there was a second bank examiner that counted the money in his drawer (and swiped the money). Donavon crosses path with the actual robber a few times, which lead to someone in the audience yelling "Come On!" during the movie. This is another interesting movie that is definitely of a very specific time. It takes place during the height of McCarthy-based paranoia and the relentless pursuit of an innocent man is very reminiscent of that time.

And once again it comes down the grammar

2011-10-06T21:12:00.000-04:00

I don't know if anyone else is following this story (if you heard the Two-Way blog on NPR, you've seen the posts about it), but ESPN will no longer being playing a Hank Williams Jr. song to open Monday night football. This is due to a Hank Williams Jr. comparing Obama to Hitler and then calling both Obama and Biden the enemy when talking about the golf game between Obama, Biden, Speaker of the House Baynor, and I think the fourth person was the Governor of Ohio (but I'm not sure). So EPSN pulled the song and then Williams Jr. released these statements:

"Some of us have strong opinions and are often misunderstood. My analogy was extreme — but it was to make a point. I was simply trying to explain how stupid it seemed to me — how ludicrous that pairing was. They're polar opposites and it made no sense. They don't see eye-to-eye and never will. I have always respected the office of the President.
"Every time the media brings up the tea party it's painted as racist and extremists — but there's never a backlash — no outrage to those comparisons... Working class people are hurting — and it doesn't seem like anybody cares. When both sides are high-fiving it on the ninth hole when everybody else is without a job – it makes a whole lot of us angry. Something has to change. The policies have to change."

"I have always been very passionate about Politics and Sports and this time it got the Best or Worst of me. The thought of the Leaders of both Parties Jukin and High Fiven on a Golf course, while so many Families are Struggling to get by simply made me Boil over and make a Dumb statement and I am very Sorry if it Offended anyone. I would like to Thank all my supporters. This was Not written by some Publicist."

And this is my response: It is unnecessary to say that this was not written by "some Publicist" because I would hope that a publicist, who by the very nature of the job needs to be careful about what is being said, would know when to and when not to capitalize words. And later he said this:

"After reading hundreds of e-mails, I have made MY decision. By pulling my opening Oct 3rd, You (ESPN) stepped on the Toes of The First Amendment, Freedom of Speech, so therefore Me, My Song, and All My Rowdy Friends are OUT OF HERE. It's been a great run."

Again, what is up with the crazy capitalization? He is protected by the First Amendment (and all of it's toes), but there is no reason to not follow grammatical rules.

DVD recommendation

2011-09-18T20:12:00.002-04:00

While I'm a run of movie recommendations, I am going to strongly encourage everyone to see the Japanese film "Departures" which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2009. It is about a cellist who loses his job in an orchestra in Tokyo so he and his wife return to his hometown to his mother's house (his mother passed away 2 years earlier). He ends up getting a job as a person who prepare bodies for burial or cremation. Given the premise, there are many scenes that take place at funerals so the movie could have been depressing but there are so many scenes that are funny or touching that make the movie really enjoyable. And the cello music throughout the film is really fantastic. The movie is available on DVD and Instant Watch on Netflix.

I must admit I was wrong

2011-09-18T20:05:00.001-04:00

Back in July, I did a little run down of all the trailers I saw during my Captain America/Harry Potter double feature and one of these trailers was for Steven Soderburgh's movie Contagion. I kind of blew it off saying that it looked like a remake of Outbreak. However, due to the good reviews that I had heard/read, I decided to go see it this morning (and since the showing I went to was a 10:30, it only cost $6). And I must say, I really liked the movie. The cast is superb (and almost tailor-made to me it seemed) and included Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Marion Cotillard, Elliot Gould, Jude Law, Matt Damon, Enrico Colantoni, Bryan Cranston, Demtri Martin (the first time you see him, he is a bioharzard suit and you only catch a glimpse of his bowl cut hair so I was hoping it was him!), and most importantly (because the character is fantastic!) Jennifer Ehle. A (somewhat biased) reason that I liked it the positive light that both the CDC/WHO and science were portrayed. And it reminded me that for about a year when I was 15, I wanted to be an epidemiologist (or at least work at the CDC, which I still think would be awesome). It also reenforced my nerdiness because I thought that the computer modeling of the viral protein structure was cool to see. It was make you want to wash your hands constantly, but overall it was an enjoyable movie (though I wish the blogger with shady reasons for peddling a homeopathic "cure" for the flu got a bigger comeuppance).

Reading history

2011-09-14T21:33:00.001-04:00

I mentioned on Facebook last week that I have several very thick (500+ page) nonfiction history books that I plan on plowing through this fall and winter. I have a book about the Balkans, post World War II Europe, English history, and the history of MI5 (plus I have a couple very long fiction books that I should start reading). But the books I am starting with is And The Band Played On which is about the early days of AIDS research (including the actual identification of HIV). I'm only about 30 pages into the book which opens around 1985. And as I was thinking about it, AIDS has been a public health issue for almost my entire life. So far it is kind of interesting to read about a world without the shadow of HIV/AIDS.

Art and Artist

2011-09-08T20:09:00.001-04:00

As a lover of movies, books, art, and music, there is an idea that I think about from time to time which is can you and should you separate the art from the artist? I think about this is for artists that I admire and those I don't admire (the artist personally not the work of the artist). Would I appreciate Van Gogh's paintings as much if I didn't think about his mental anguish he underwent while painting? But on the flip side, can I separate the ideals/beliefs of Richard Wagner from enjoying listening to the Ring Cycle? When ever I see a Roman Polanski movie I think about this. I enjoy his work as a director but I can't completely separate Polanski the director and Polanski the person. This kind of feeds into the idea that there is a thin line between genius and madness. To what extent should we accept the madness to experience the genius?

Being an optimist

2011-08-31T21:02:00.000-04:00

Two weekends ago I went to the AFI Silver in Silver Spring to see Hitchcock's Torn Curtain with Paul Newman and Julie Andrews. I didn't check the Metro website before I left so I didn't know that there was Metro station in Silver Spring was closed so I had to take a Metro Shuttle bus to the Silver Spring station. Which means that I was about 20 minutes late for the movie. But I actually didn't mind being late (I have seen the movie before). It was kind of nice to go on the surface streets of Takoma Park and Silver Spring versus the elevated and relatively secluded location of the Metro Rail (though I did recognize some graffiti which allowed me to determine that I was close to the Silver Spring Metro Station. But the most interesting thing about the bus ride was that it took me right based the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. It is a little strange to think that the center is closing in the near future but I was kind of cool to see the center before it closes. But kind of sad as well knowing the history of the Walter Reed Center, both good and bad.

East Coast Living

2011-08-26T19:10:00.002-04:00

It has been quite an exciting week for me, here in Maryland. As you may have heard, on Tuesday there was a earthquake with an epicenter about 90 miles south of here. And it was my first earthquake. Thankfully, nothing was damaged (I was actually working in the lab at the time). And then this weekend, sometime Saturday afternoon, hurricane Irene is expected to reach my little part of Maryland on her way up the coast. Since I live a little bit inland from the coast, I'm hoping that the rain and wind won't be too bad but I am fully expecting to lose power at my apartment. I was hoping to move into my new room and out of the government housing but moving during a hurricane is just a bit too adventurous for me (but I smartly created a huge pile of stuff in the middle of my room that I can run into in the dark whenever I feel like it this weekend, so that should a good source of amusement). So I'm just getting ready for losing power on Saturday. I have some bottled water (and lots of Coke) and I plan on cooking stuff in the morning that can be eaten hot or cold as well as lots of candles for reading/quilting/creating a fire hazard. Mostly importantly, I've charged up my jump box so I can charge my phone or iPod when the need arises. So heads to people whose number I have, I may be calling you when I get bored. I do have 3 Netflix movies (as long as I have a chance to get my mail on Saturday before it starts pouring) to watch as long as the power hold out. It will be a very interesting weekend. On the plus side, now there will only be a few natural disasters that I have not experienced (maybe I should spend a year or two in Hawaii so I can experience a volcano eruption).

I might be the only one

2011-08-19T21:06:00.002-04:00

If you haven't noticed, I am a bit of a film nut. In general, I prefer older movies but I enjoy more recent movies as well with a special enjoyment of period pieces. I especially love it when a movie is set in relatively recent time (20s-70s) and made by one of the old studios (Warner Brothers, MGM, Paramount, etc) and instead of using the most recent version of the studio vanity card, the movie will use the vanity card from time period of the film. I just finished Fincher's Zodiac (set in the late 60s) and they used the both an older version of the Paramount and Warner Brothers vanity card. Another good example is Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong. Now if only RKO Pictures still existed!

Quite the quandary

2011-08-18T17:15:00.004-04:00

So one my AFI memberships perks is half off a DVD from the Warner Brother Archive. A few years ago Warner Brothers basically released all the films from the Archives to be purchased on DVDs by demand for about $20 (so instead of making 10,000 DVD copies, Warner Brothers will produce one DVD when you order it) or you can download the film for $15. Now I am faced with a tough decision of what DVD to get and more than likely I haven't seen the movie, except I have found one so far that I have seen called Doctor Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (about Paul Ehrlich, those who have read Microbe Hunters will remember him). One of the first movie that looked promising was Above Suspicion with a Hitchcock style thriller with Fred McMurray and Joan Crawford. But then a few pages later I stumbled on Confession of a Nazi Spy with Edward G. Robinson which I confess was my laptop wallpaper a few months ago when it was on TCM. And since seeing the poster every day for about 30 days, I really want to see the movie. Most likely, I am going to look through the entire Archive and pick out a few gems. In the mean time, I am totally enjoying the made-for-tv movies and cheesy movies from the 60s-90s that are in the Archive. Let me just say there are multiple movies that feature ": A Love Story", including Champions: A Love Story and Divorce Wars: A Love Story. Any suggestions of old Warner Brothers movies worth checking out?

For your listening pleasure

2011-08-16T19:06:00.003-04:00

And because I've been obsessed with this song since Saturday night (and as a side note, this is the same composer that wrote the music for The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly)

And does anyone else miss pre-Waterworld Kevin Costner? And Andy Garcia for that matter?

A Single Drawback

2011-08-08T20:23:00.002-04:00

A drawback of living alone/with 1 other person, is that I am less motivated to want to bake something for the sole reason that fewer people means increased likelihood of having to throw away a stale baked good. Living with Rachel's family last year lead to baking in a weekly frequency to the point that I completely memorized a couple of recipes (pancakes and pita bread specifically). Now that I am living in a reduced household and without a mixer (when I moved out here, my job was temporary and to last 6-9 months), my desire/motivation to bake is greatly diminished. However, due a consistent craving for chocolate chip cookie dough and a well timed sale (thank you Target), I bought a hand mixer. And tonight, I made blueberry muffins using one of my favorite recipes from The King Arthur Cookbook. I have used all sorts of fruit in this muffin mix including blueberry, raspberry, cranberry, strawberry/blueberry combination, and once (for Ellis) chocolate chip. I love this recipe, the muffin always turn out really well with a nice crumb. And my favorite part of the recipe is that you alternately add flour and milk (which is similar to what you do when making a cake). What I love about this step watching the batter become too thick with the flour and then too thin with the milk until you reach this perfect balance between the two extremes. It's like baking alchemy. And it's delicious.

Please enjoy

2011-07-28T21:44:00.002-04:00

For all you anglophiles out there:

The panelists are Richard E. Grant, David Mitchell, Fern Britton, Martin Clunes, Lee Mack, and Sanjeev Bhaskar (from the Kumars at no. 42) and hosted by Rob Brydon.

The End of Harry Potter

2011-07-24T17:39:00.003-04:00

In the space of two days, I watched both parts of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In general, the end of things always make me a little sad, and the last Harry Potter movies were no exception. I thought back to when I first read the Harry Potter books, which was during senior year of high school, when I devoured the first four books in the space of about a month. And then I read those four again during the first year of college around the time the first movie came out. So while I might have been outside of the target age group for the books, I still have an attachment to the series. I was reading them during a point in my life when I was starting to become an adult so it was provided a source of nostalgia while still having a bit of a dark/adult tone to it, especially in the later novels. I cried at the end of the Deathly Hallows the book and both movies. I have to give credit to J.K. Rowling for her excellent series and while there were times when I didn't enjoy every subplot, I still enjoyed the books. And the commitment of the people behind the movies is amazing to see. While the first two movies were a little rough, they really hit their stride by the third movie (my favorite book) all the way until the end. So thanks to all those who worked on the movies, I'm sure I'll revisit them all whenever I need a little reassurance.

Trailer Round-up

2011-07-23T17:20:00.007-04:00

I've spent a lot of time at the movie theater today (almost 5 hours). And I saw a lot of trailers:

Contagion: Seems like a remake of Outbreak without the monkey but more A-list stars including Matt Damon, Jude Law, Kate Winslet and Gwyneth Paltrow. But it does have Jennifer Ehle and Enrico Colantoni (aka Keith Mars). I might catch it on DVD in about 6 months.
Planet of Apes: Rise of Apes (I saw the trailer twice!): You know just once I would like a movie in which science did not run amok. Pass!
Cowboys and Aliens: I feel like a trailer for this movie is kind of unnecessary because it is all right there in the title. There are cowboys and there are aliens. Carnage ensues.
The Adventures of Tintin: Looks kind of interesting, but it uses that weird motion capture from The Polar Express and Beowulf. But I do enjoy the CGI cowlick on Tintin.
The Amazing Spiderman: I am totally in the tank for this movie. I love Andrew Garfield a ton and this movie looks pretty good. Plus, Emma Stone is a lot less annoying that Kirsten Dunst!
John Carter: Meh...looks a little like Disney is trying the whole Prince of Persia thing again.
Abduction: Taylor Lautner is some sort of asset for a shadowy government organization. It might be more believable if he didn't look like he was thirteen. On the bright side, it does feature Sigourney Weaver which is never a bad thing.
Arthur Christmas: Some sort of animated movie that has to do with Christmas. The trailer didn't really tell you anything and the animation was pretty run of the mill so it did not peak my interest at all.
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol: When I saw the Bad Robot vanity card (J.J. Abrams' production company), I was hoping it was the trailer for the next Star Wars movies. Alas, this one featured Tom Cruise. The presence of Simon Pegg sucked me in a little but that Tom Cruise hurdle is a big to clear for me to want to see this movie.

That's right, I sat through 9 trailers (well actually 10, but one was a repeat).

Reflections of the Supremes

2011-07-16T21:51:00.005-04:00

So I just finished Toobin's "The Nine" and I have to say that I loved it (with no concern about any suggestions that I may be turning into Trey, though Trey would probably really enjoy this book). And here is a list of things I learned in last half of Toobin's book:

- Souter was assaulted by two men while on a run in 2004. And he made it to Court the next day.

- Breyer and O'Connor were BFFs. Ginsburg and Souter were BFFs. I can only hope that friendship bracelets were exchanged.

- O'Connor is/was a Goldwater Republican. Therefore, she was definitely not BFF with G.W. Bush.

- I love this response by Goldwater after Jerry Falwell suggested that "good Christians" should be wary of O'Connor's nomination: "I think every good Christian ought to kick Falwell's ass".

- Since O'Connor left the Court, Kennedy is the new swing vote.

-Breyer found about O'Connor leaving the court by hearing about it on NPR. And Toobin made it sound like Breyer was a little heartbroken.

- Stephen Breyer had the Philly Phantic come to a dinner welcoming Alito to the Court (Alito is a huge Phillies fan). Can I tell you again that Breyer is my favorite Justice?

- Thomas really know how to hold a grudge...especially against Nina Totenburg and Harvard.

- Harry Reid might be a evil genius. He was one of the first people to suggest that G.W. Bush nominate Harriet Miers.

- The Rehnquists kind of got screwed by both Bush presidents. Two days after Nan Rehnquist died (William's wife), Bush the elder nominated Thomas to the Court. And then two days after William Rehnquist died, Bush the younger nominated Roberts to be Chief Justice (this was a clear political move, Roberts was already nominated to fill O'Connor's seat, but due to a really bad week that included the fallout of Hurricane Katrina, the Bush White House needed some positive news and Roberts was well liked by most of Congress).

- Ginsburg must have been so happy when Obama signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

-O'Connor continues to be really interesting in her post-Court career. Since she left the Court to care for her husband (suffering from Alzheimer's), she been an advocate for Alzheimer's research (and even public sharing information about the difficulties of caring for an Alzheimer's patient) and working to educate both the youth of America and internationally about the importance of the Judicial branch.

- I think that in the end, O'Connor regretted stepping down from the Court. She left to care for her husband but he deteriorated to fast that she was really only able to take care of him for about 2 years before he entered an assisted living center.

-Stevens served in World War II. Due to his age this of course makes sense, but I had never thought about it before. He enlisted the day before Pearl Harbor and served in naval intelligence and worked on breaking Japanese codes.

Now I'm ready to start a new book. Right now it's a toss up between Jon Ronson's "The Psychopath Test" and John Waters' "Role Models". Or possible Agatha Cristie's "Pale Horse" to coincide with the Masterpiece Mystery adaptation from last week. Any suggestions/recommendations?

Other types of Nerdiness

2011-07-14T07:36:00.003-04:00

I've established that I am a science nerd but I have to say living so near DC has expanded my interest in policy, history, and law. Compounding this is the fact that I am reading a book about the Supreme Court that is very well written and makes the Justices relatable (even Thomas to some extent, though I still kind of hate him). So is it weird that I want to attend an oral argument when the Court is back in session?

Supreme Update

2011-07-12T22:23:00.003-04:00

I'm continuing to plug along reading the book The Nine and I and through the end of the Clinton years. And my favorite tidbit from this section is about when a snowstorm hit DC and Rehnquist refused to delay or stop the Court proceedings and Jeeps were sent out to pick-up all the justices. Except Souter, who being a New Englander and therefore adept at driving in snow, decided that he would drive his own car and then proceeded to get his car stuck in a snowdrift. As someone who has spent a winter in Vermont, I can't say this story surprises me. A close runner-up is the fact that the other Justices call Scalia "Nino". Oh and that Scalia and O'Connor didn't get along at all.

Reading Supreme

2011-07-06T21:23:00.002-04:00

I'm about 100 pages into Jeffrey Toobin's great book "The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court" and so far I am really enjoying it. I'm reading the section covering the late period of the Rehnquist court, with Breyer just getting appointed to the court. And with all things, this book is really appealing to my nerdy side and I have the opportunity to do one thing that I do a lot which is ranking the justices (I do this all the time with things I enjoy, just ask me about my Jane Austen novel rankings). Now I've also had a soft spot for Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginesburg. But after starting to read this book, Stephen Breyer might be my favorite Supreme Court justice. He was considered for Ginsburg seat but was not selected due to a disastrous interview with Bill Clinton (he was recovering from a serious bicycle crash, so please imagine a Justice on a bike). And once appointed, Toobin says he was the most optimistic justice on the court. Breyer also attended every State of the Union address out of solidarity with the other branches of the government. How can you not like someone who is optimistic in the face of a job like Supreme Court Justice and is still so enthusiastic for his job? Furthermore, Stephen Breyer played Not My Job on NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. But beyond letting me pick my favorite Justice, there is a lot of interesting information about the impact of previous justices on the current justices. I really recommend it.

Waiting for it on DVD

2011-06-30T18:57:00.004-04:00

I am an unabashed lover of renting TV shows on DVD from Netflix. One drawback of waiting for things to be released on DVD, but the advantage is that you can binge on back-to-back episodes with no waiting. Or for the even more extreme way, you can wait until the entire show is done so there you do have to deal with various hiatuses of the show throughout the year. This was/is my plan for watching the show Lost, which at some point I will do. I loved Lost during the first two seasons and then during the third season there was a lot of hiatuses throughout the season and I forgot plot points (which you really can't do for that show). The reason that I am thinking about this is that I am working my way through 2 TV shows at the same time. The first is Friends which is more for a nostalgic reason but there are parts of the show that hold up really well (i.e. the Beach episode at the beginning of Season 4 is still funny). The second show it the Battlestar Galatica reboot that SciFi made a couple years ago. I never watched it in real time but I always heard good things about it so I decided to bite the bullet and start watching it. And I have to say, so far I am really enjoying it. The show is way more emotional than I thought it would be. The casting it really good, I'm really enjoying Mary McDonnell. There is a total ringer in the cast (for me anyway) in Jamie Bamber, who I love as Matt Devlin on Law & Order:UK (and he was in the Horatio Hornblower movies on A&E, that I weirdly loved as a teenager; Ioan Grufford, I'm still in the tank for you but don't let anyone talk you into any more Fantastic Four movies). And now that I don't have cable, I'm loving Netflix more that ever!

Low Stakes Creativity

2011-06-20T18:00:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago, my roommate and I were at Hobby Lobby and ended up back by the paint-by-number kits. And so spurred on by generally goofiness, we decided that we should all get a paint-by-number to do together. After looking over all the options (there were a lot of animal ones), I picked out a Impressionist-like vista of a Japanese style garden/bridge. So I've spent a lot of hours over the last few weeks working on it (usually with my roommates) and yesterday, I finally finished it. And here it is:

Theater etiquette

2011-06-07T22:09:00.005-04:00

I've been going to the AFI Silver theater for the past 3 weeks and so far everyone I've shared the movie-going experience knows to be quite in the theater and not use their phones. Apparently this is not the case at the Alamo Drafthouse which is a theater is Austin with a strict no texting/cellphone use policy. A women used her phone to text and was asked to leave the theater. She followed this up by leaving a nasty voicemail with the theater complaining about being removed from the theater. Then the Alamo Drafthouse used the voicemail as a PSA about theater etiquette. And it is awesome (though there are swearwords).

Just for Funsies

2011-05-29T22:56:00.001-04:00

AFI

2011-05-29T22:43:00.003-04:00

I've seen this a couple times both on DVDs and at the AFI Silver Theater and I have to say, I love this commercial. Can anyone guess which clip is my favorite? I'll give you a hint, I love Joel McCrea (I think he was a totally underrated actor who was able to seamlessly move from comedy (The More the Merrier) to drama (Foreign Correspondent)).

Thoughts on Hitchcock

2011-05-29T22:23:00.003-04:00

Strangers on a Train was the Hitchcock movies this weekend at the AFI Silver Theater, so naturally I went to see it. I've seen the movie once, so I sort of remembered what happened (although apparently I only really remembered the first 30-40 mins). So as I was watching, I started looking at other elements beside the great cinematography. One thing I noticed was that throughout the movie Guy was almost always dressed with a white jacket and Bruno was in a black jacket, like a subtle reminder that Guy is good. And I didn't realize that a lot of the movie is genuinely funny. I never ranked this movie high on my favorite Hitchcock movies, but it improves on repeat viewing. And this made me think of when I got introduced to Hitchcock movies. I'm pretty sure the first one I saw was Psycho, which again is not my favorite Hitchcock movie, but there are definitely elements that are classic Hitchcock (like the excellent use of music and the creative shots like a character being pushed down the stairs). I'm pretty sure the next Hitchcock movie I saw was Rebecca followed by Spellbound and then I was hooked. A few years back (in grad school), I watched every Hitchcock movie available on DVD (except The Birds). I've really enjoyed going to the AFI Silver for the retrospective, and I thought that only people who enjoy Hitchcock were attending the screening. But I was proven wrong when I overheard someone saw "What's this movie? Strangers on a Train? I've never heard of it."

Silver Theater

2011-05-22T19:13:00.002-04:00

It's starting to warm up a little here, so I thought I would escape the heat by seeing a movie. So I went to Imdb to see what the movies are showing near me and to my suprise Notorious popped up under the AFI Silver Theater in Silver Springs. Turns out, the theater is doing a Hitchcock retrospective until the end of August. Silver Springs is a relatively short (about 40 min) Metro ride from here, so I decided to go to the screening last night. It short, it was great. Firstly, the main theater (there are 3 screen altogether) is beautiful with an old-fashioned look to it. And the seats are really nice with really wide aisle (so it's really easy for people to get through to the seats in middle). I've never seen a Hitchcock movie with an audience before, so it was a little weird to start out but in the end enjoyable because made for a great atmosphere (including someone doing an audible gasp during Hitchcock's cameo). Since I didn't know when the retrospective started, I missed some of my favorites specifically Rebecca and Spellbound, I still can see Stage Fright and two short propaganda films Hitchcock made during the war. So I found yet another really interesting place to take people if/when they come visit me (even people with kids because they have special screenings for childcare givers with kids)!

Advantage: Osprey

2011-05-14T20:51:00.004-04:00

Last weekend, one of my coworkers invited me to go with her to visit osprey nests in southern Maryland. For her research, she finds osprey nests and records number of eggs in the nest as well as watch the osprey hunt for fish (and takes pictures so she can determine what the species of fish the osprey are eating). We went to a state park near Mattawomen Creek (a tributary of the Anacostia and Potomic rivers) to observe the osprey. It was a beautiful day (not too sunny and not too warm) and the osprey were out in force. Now, I've never seen a life osprey before, so I was super excited to see them. They are really amazing to watch because the kind of hover in the air above the water and then dive down to catch a fish. And on top of that, I saw 2 bald eagles but multiple great blue herons. We were just about to leave when this happened:

So one of the ospreys attacked a great blue heron. It was really amazing to watch. And the state park was beautiful so if/when anyone comes to visit, I can take them there for some great bird watching.

Having a Bad Day?

2011-05-10T18:32:00.000-04:00

And now your bad day is better.

Don't say toilet

2011-04-26T16:57:00.001-04:00

From NPR and How to Do Everything, in honor of the Royal Wedding.

Hopping down the bunny trail

2011-04-24T19:53:00.003-04:00

In celebration of Easter, I went to the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. The two museum share the building (that used to be the patent office), and the building is beautiful. There are three floors so I did my usual routine, which is start at the top and work my way down. The museums are split in a east/west fashion so there are signs to let you know which museum you are visiting. As you might have guessed only portraits are displayed in the National Portrait Gallery, but the portraits are from all over the world. The American Art Museum is limited to the work of American painters and occasionally, (especially during the pre-Revolutionary period), work of European painters that are American subjects or landscapes. I loved these two museums. It was smaller than the National Gallery and a little better laid out (so you could actually work you're way through the gallery without having to backtrack). As usual, I took a lot of pictures, which you can see here, and again, there are captions. There was a wide variety of American Art, from American Impressionism to American folk art (which did contain some pieces that veered toward the world of the probot, but the early 20th century folk was good). The portraits were interesting because there were short biographies of the subject of the painting. However, no pictures were allowed in my favorite exhibit because it was a temporary exhibit and thus no photographs. But, happily, you can see it online. The exhibit was called To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America, which was by the folk art portion of the American Art museum. You can check out the exhibit online here. After spending about 5 hours in the museum, I headed back to my apartment to make my Easter dinner of Lemon-Garlic lamb chops, roasted potatoes, and fresh broccoli. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter, full of good food, hidden eggs, and time with family.

Thoughts about a world leader

2011-04-20T18:56:00.002-04:00

I must admit that I find Dmitry Medvedev, the president of Russia, kind of fascinating. Late last year, I read this really good book review in the New York Review of Books (which you can read here) of the book The New Nobility: The Restoration of Russia’s Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB by Andrei Soldatov and Iriana Borogan. The book is about the recent Russian presidency, specifically the jockeying for position between Medvedev and Vladimir Putin (current prime minister and former president). Medvedev's first term is going to end in 2012 and it seems Putin and Medvedev can't decide who is going to run for president. When Medvedev was elected as president in 2008, it seemed (to me at least) that Medvedev was kind of a puppet to Putin (and I kind of find Putin terrifying, he was ex-KGB). So I've kind of felt sorry for him because he seemed to not have a huge amount of control of what goes on in his political life. You might wonder why I'm thinking about Dmitry Medvedev today. This is why:

I kind of think he is super awesome now because he can't resist a song with a beat.

Ocean Hall, Animal Skeletons, Ruby Slippers, and Grace Coolidge

2011-04-10T16:12:00.010-04:00

Since the government did not shut down on Friday night, it meant that not only would I be going to work on Monday, but that my plan to go to the Smithsonian Natural History and American History museum was a go. I headed to the Metro station at about 9:45 which put me on the Mall a little after 10:30. I went first to the Natural History museum which is chock full of cool stuff. I went through the Geology, Gems & Minerals exhibit first which features volcanoes, rock formation, meteorites, a piece of Mars (which I touched), re-creation of mines, and various gems, including the Hope diamond which, it goes without saying is huge. It was start to get a little crowded of eighth-grader, families with strollers, and what seemed like every single high school senior class in the great DC area so I looked for a less popular exhibit to got through next. And I found it in the special exhibit of artifacts from Cypress which led to a small exhibit hall full of beautiful pottery from Korea. From there I went to the exhibit titled "Bones" which was an exhibit featuring reconstructed skeletons of probably 150 different animals including sea turtles, deer, bushbaby, various species of mice, toads, shrews, voles, moles, sea lampreys, crocodiles, storks, ducks, skinks, skunks, snakes, and even a small grey whale. Suffice to say this was probably my favorite exhibit mostly because I recognized some of the skeletons and I appreciated the amount of time it took to assemble each skeleton. Plus there were short discussions of skeletal development across the different species. I walked through the sneak peak of the upcoming exhibit about Egyptian mummies before going through the Insect Zoo (and reminding myself that centipedes still give me the hebby-joe-jebbies) before heading to Ocean Hall which features models of various marine life. Then it was on to the Mammal Hall before (again) getting annoyed with the huge mass of people and heading downstairs to the Birds of DC exhibit which was (shockingly) not very crowded and (not shockingly) full of various birds native to DC (including one of my favorite birds, the Red-Winged Blackbird). It was around noon, so I walked over to the American History museum, got and map, and when to the cafe for a bit to eat and plan out the order of my visit in the museum. The first exhibit I went through was called Invention at Play which was a mix of toys that focus on inventing as well as inventors taking about what toys they like to play with when they were younger (there were a lot of mentions of Legos!). Then I went through Julia Child's kitchen which was so amazing. They literally made her kitchen into a museum exhibit complete with her books (including 2 copies of the Joy of Cooking), her KitchenAid Mixer (in Cobalt Blue) right down to the magnets on her fridge (including a Magnet from King Arthur Flours!). I really enjoyed the part about the marriage between Julia and Paul. The amount of support Paul gave Julia throughout her work was amazing, it's clear that her cookbooks are a labor of love of the both of them. From there I went through Science in American Life which was full of all sorts of interesting artifacts of recent life in America including early modern lab equipment, examining the increasing popularity of various plastics in post-war life, an exhibit on the development of the birth-control pill, and life in modern cities. Then I went to the exhibit on Paper engineering which was all about pop-up books and the various types of pop-ups used, there are some amazing examples in the exhibit. And all this was only on the West part of the first floor! On the East part of the first floor, I walked through an exhibit about America and the rise of the automobile and highway system which featured lots of different cars and trains (and even a horse-drawn wagon) before heading to an exhibit that focused on American maritime pursuits. I then went to the 3rd floor to see the objects from 1939 (including Charlie McCarthy and the Ruby Slippers), Treasure of Pop Culture (which includes Kermit T. Frog and the Catsuit from Batman), and the musical instrument collection. The collection isn't very big, probably around 40 instruments, but they do have a Stradivarius quartet that are absolutely gorgeous and this amazing guitar that comes with a special case. For there I went through exhibits about Abraham Lincoln (crowded but interesting and had clothes from the Lincolns), American Presidency (which was split up into different aspects of the presidency from being commander-in-chief to the president in popular culture), and one about all wars with American involvement (the posters from World War II were my favorite but the section about World War I was surprisingly short). Then I headed to the exhibit that contains the flag that inspired the Star Spangled banner. The flag is huge with 15 stars and 15 stripes, with 1 star cut out of the flag as a souvenir (which was actually done really early in its history, there was a picture of it at the White House during the turn of the 20th century and the star is missing). The flag is stored under low light and so it gives the flag this ethereal quality because it looks like it glows. The last exhibit I went through was The First Ladies of the Smithsonian which features gowns, pictures, and stories about the First Ladies. The Inauguration gowns of recent first ladies are on permanent display (back to Mamie Eisenhower) while clothes belonging to older First Ladies are in rotation to decrease wear on the gowns (also sketches of most of gowns were displayed. The exhibit was really crowded but totally worth it because you could really see changes in fashion based on the gowns of the women. One of my two favorite were Grace Coolidge because she thoroughly embraced the flapper fashion, her Inauguration gown was a red flapper gown (not on display, just a sketch but there was another gown of hers that was a black lace flapper dress). Here is a picture of her evening dress:

My other favorite was Mamie Eisenhower mostly because I was surprised by her gowns. You don't really hear about the fashions of Mamie Eisenhower but her dresses were really beautiful; her Inauguration Gown was pink with rhinestones and her other gown on display was really beautiful red evening gown:

After that, I headed back to the Metro and back home. Again I took lots of pictures, which you can see here (and captioned this time!)

My top 3 Doctor Who episodes

2011-04-02T08:50:00.007-04:00

Let me start by saying that it was really hard to rank these 3 episodes.

3) Vincent and the Doctor
Episode 10, Season 5
Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith)
Companion: Amy Pond (Karen Gillam)
Plot: While visiting the Musee D'Orsay to see the painting of Vincent Van Gogh, the Doctor notices a weird creature in the window of a church in one of Van Gogh's paintings. Amy and the Doctor then travel to Arles in Van Gogh's time to determine the origins of the possible alien creature and interact with Van Gogh.
Why I Love this episode: I don't think that the could have picked an artist that appeals to me more than Vincent Van Gogh. I think he is probably the first artist I learned to identify, his style is pretty obvious even to a young child. So for me, the episode is doubly great because if features not only a lot of Van Gogh paintings, but the vistas that inspired the paintings. There is this amazing scene with Amy, the Doctor, and Van Gogh in a field staring up at the sky and as Van Gogh describes his view of the world, the sky becomes "Starry Night". Amy and Van Gogh has some great interactions including a scene were Amy (a redhead) says that if she and Van Gogh every had a child, it would be the ultimate ging. But I think hands down, my favorite scene is an art historian (played by Bill Nighy) says that Van Gogh was not only one of the greatest painters of all time but one the greatest men who every lived because he could turn his inner turmoil into beautiful paintings. I have never enjoyed a Bill Nighy scene so much (and I'm crying a little bit just thinking about it). This episode was written by Benjamen Curtis (who I love), who also wrote Blackadder, Mr. Bean, and The Vicar of Dibley.

2) The Unicorn and the Wasp
Episode 7, Season 4
Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Companion: Donna Noble
Plot: The Doctor and Donna land in 1926 England to attend a party in a country house, which kind of sounds like a set up to a Agatha Cristie mystery. And it should because Agatha Cristie is a guest of the party, as the hostess is a fan of her work. Soon people are murdered by some alien force and the Doctor, Agatha, and Donna must unravel the mystery. A further mystery is that this house party occurs a few days before Agatha Cristie's real-life 10 days disappearance.
Why I love this Episode: Agatha Cristie and Doctor Who prove to be two great tastes that taste great together. If I wasn't sure a huge Agatha Cristie fan, I probably won't have enjoyed this episode so much, or at least appreciate the excellent way it pays homage to Agatha Cristie. The set-up and unraveling of the mystery is classic Cristie. And then, the script is chalk full of references to the titles of Cristie novels like Nemesis, N or M, Endless Night, They Do It With Mirror, Cards on the Table, A Cat Among Pigeons, Crooked House, The Moving Finger, and Murder on the Orient Express. And again, Donna proves to be the prefect foil for the Doctor (she might be my favorite companion although Amy is really good too). I think this might have been the first episode of the reboot that I made my mom watch as a way to entice her to watch the rest of the series. If you like Agatha Cristie, you should watch this episode, even if you don't watch any other episode of Doctor Who. And this episode was written by Gareth Roberts, who wrote "The Lodger". Gareth Roberts is a self-admitted fan of Agatha Cristie and it is really obvious in this episode.

1) Blink
Episode 10, Season 3
Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Companion: Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman)
Plot: In modern-day London (2007), a woman named Sally Sparrow (a pre-An Education Carey Mulligan) enter a rundown house looking for photography subjects but instead find angel statues, one holding a Yale key (that she takes) and a message from "the Doctor" behind peeling wall paper warning her to avoid the Weeping Angels. She returns with her friend Kathy to explore the house further. Kathy disappears and at the same time a man claiming to be Kathy's grandson arrives at the house with a letter for Sally from Kathy. Kathy writes that moments after entering the house, Kathy suddenly found herself in the 1920s Hull. She married and had a peaceful life but want Sally to take a letter from her (Kathy) to Larry, her brother, telling him about Kathy's disappearance. When Sally visits Larry at a DVD store, he shows her a hidden message from a man named the Doctor on 17 seemingly unrelated DVDs. Sally then goes to a police station and meets DI Billy Shipton, who tells her that there are have been several disappearances near the rundown house and shows her a police box that was near the house. However, the police box seems to be a fake because it is not the right and it is locked. Sally leaves but then remembers the key she found and return to the police box but Billy has disappeared. She then receives a call from a much older Billy asking her to visit him in the hospital. Billy explains that saw the Weeping Angels trying to get into the police box and then suddenly found himself in 1969 and met the Doctor. He was convinced to start a DVD business that allowed the Doctor to record the hidden message in the 17 DVD. Billy urges Sally to watch the message and then dies. Sally then realizes the connection of the 17 DVDs, she owns a copy of each of them. Sally rejoins Larry at the DVD store to watch the message from the Doctor. In the message, the Doctor tells them that the Weeping Angels sent the Doctor and Martha into the past and now have the TARDIS in hopes of feeding off the huge energy that the TARDIS contains. The Weeping Angels with only move when no one is looking at them, but they move to quickly, that even in the blink of an eye, they can take you. Sally and Larry are the only ones that can help the Doctor recover the TARDIS, as long as they don't blink.
Why I love this episode: This might be the most tense and excellently paced 45 minutes that I have every seen. The fact that you can't close your eyes for any amount of time is so scary and so that aspect is so effectively terrifying (the BBC ran a warning before the episode saying that this was a very scary episode and that if children watch it, they should watch it with the lights on). So much of the episode depends on the acting skill of Carey Mulligan and she does a really fantastic job. And I love the last names of Sally and Larry, Sparrow and Nightingale. This episode was written by Stephen Moffat who really understands how to pace an episode and ratchet up the tension with out going overboard.

So those are my top 3 favorite episodes. All three are actually a good episode to get introduced to Doctor Who because for most part they are stand alone episodes (with maybe the exception of Vincent and Doctor, where there is any scene with Amy that is the fallout of an incident from the previous episode, but it isn't too confusing). All these episodes are more a fusion of science fiction and a mystery/thriller and or dramatic genre. I hope if you haven't seen an episode of Doctor Who yet, these posts have whetted your appetite and encourage you to explore the world of Doctor Who.

A Musical Sorbet

2011-03-31T22:52:00.003-04:00

Just to cleanse you palette from all the Doctor Who talk, I'm going to write a little bit about band that I love: Vampire Weekend. I listened to their first album a lot when I was living in Ohio, often when I was driving up to see Rachel et al in Ann Arbor. Once I hit the exit for Ypsilanti, I could start the album and be at the house before the album was over. They got a lot a flack for sounding like they ripped off Paul Simon's Graceland (mostly based on the fact that they incorporated the African drum rhythms). Now since I'm a huge Paul Simon fan, one might think that I wouldn't want to listen to the album. But my take was, Graceland was such a great album, even an album that a diluted version of Graceland would still be great, and it is.

Doctor Who - Part 3

2011-03-31T20:57:00.006-04:00

4) Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead
Episodes 8 and 9, Season 4
Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Companion: Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) and River Song (Alex Kingston)
Plot: Donna and the Doctor arrive at planet in the future that is one giant library due to an anonymous request for help that comes to the Doctor through his psychic paper. There is not one in the library despite the computer noting that there are millions of life-forms in the library. All that is in the library at robots called Nodes that has a donated face of a human being. It warns the Doctor and Donna to count the shadows. Suddenly, the overhead lights go out one by one and the Doctor and Donna are told by a security camera others are coming. It is Dr. River Song with a team of archaeologists to find out what happened in the library. The last communication for the library was "4022 saved, no survivors". Dr. Song has knowledge of the Doctor's future and recognizes Donna's name but doesn't know Donna. The library seems to be tied to the imagination of a little girl. The little girl is under the supervision of a child psychologist, Dr. Moon. Dr. Moon tells her that the library is real and there are people in the library that need to be saved. The Doctor determines that they all are people stalked by the Vashta Nerada with are microscopic creatures that hide the shadows before completely devouring their prey. The Vashta Nerada then take control off the body of one on the team members and begins stalking the remaining group members. The Doctor attempts to send Donna to the TARDIS to be safe however something happens and she doesn't materialize properly. As the Doctor and the rest of group tries to outrun the Vashta Nerada in the space suit, the Doctor discovers a Node with Donna's face on it with the node saying "Donna Noble has been saved." Things get worse for the group when not only the possessed space suit is chasing them, but the shadows of Vashta Nerada is closing in on them.
Why I love this episode: The Vashta Narada is the most awesome name ever. Try saying to yourself, don't you just feel cooler? The fact that they hide in the shadow, to the point where a human has a second shadow, is really effective way to scare the crap out of you. This episode introduces River Song, who is a really great character. She has this whole history/future with the Doctor that is a lot of fun to try to figure out. The endings for both River and Donna are really fantastic, both sad and happy at the same time. The second episode of the story has some really got moments with Donna, that really soften her and show her as a sympathetic person that you didn't really see before this two-part episode. And it was written by Stephen Moffat (are you noticing a trend?)

5) The Lodger
Episode 11, Season 5
Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith)
Companion: Amy Pond (Karen Gilliam)
Plot: The Doctor steps out of the TARDIS is modern day Colchester and the TARDIS immediately takes off with Amy still inside and is unable to land again. Amy and the Doctor suspect that it may have to do with a disturbance on the second floor of the apartment house that that TARDIS landed in front of before taking off. The Doctor then rents the room on the ground floor of the apartment house from a man named Craig (who is in love with his best friend). The Doctor attempts to blend in with modern day England while at the same time try to figure out what sinister happens are taking place upstairs.
Why I love this episode: Firstly, this episode is probably one of the funnier episodes in the history of the reboot. The Doctor and Amy still have really good interactions despite sharing very little screen time (they are separated throughout most of the episode and can only talk to each other). Secondly, this episode does a great job dropping little hint for the two-part season finale without being too heavy-handed as well as do a call back to previous episodes (really that last 4 episodes of season 5 are really good). The resolution of Craig's story line is fulfilling (and I read that Craig is going to be back in Season 6). And I enjoy episodes that feature the Doctor interacting with human beings because I think it really humanizes him (because from time to time, there can be a little too much hero-worship). The writer of this episode, Gareth Roberts, wrote another episode that will appear on tomorrow's entry. And the fact that the writers get such high billing in the credits (the writer usually appears right after any guest star that may be on, before the director) makes it obvious that writing is really prized by the show runner (and the BBC and subsequently the fans).

6) The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
Episodes 9 and 10, Season 1
Ninth Doctor (Christopher Ecceleston)
Companion: Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) and Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman)
Plot: Rose and the Doctor are following a metal ship through a time vortex and end up in Britain during the Blitz. As the Doctor goes to nightclub to ask for information about the metal ship, Rose spot a little boy with a gas mask up on a roof. She climbs a rope to get closer to the little boy and finds the rope is attached to a barrage balloon. At that moment, the air raid sirens go off. The Doctor go outside to look for Rose and finds that the non-functional telephone on the TARDIS is ringing. A young girl, Nancy, warns the Doctor not to answer the phone. He does anyway and hears a young boy asking "Are you my mummy?" The Doctor then follows Nancy and she and several other homeless children enter a house to eat while the family has gone to the air-raid shelter. As the children (and the Doctor) are sitting down to eat, a young boy in a gas mask starts knocking on the door and trying to get in. Nancy warns the Doctor not to touch the boy, or he will become "empty". All the children leave the house and the Doctor tells Nancy that he thinks there is a connection between the fallen metal ship and the "Empty Child". Nancy mentions a bomb that fell from the sky that wasn't a bomb and tell the Doctor to go see Dr. Constantine. The Doctor and Nancy talk about her taking care of the children due to her guilt over losing her brother Jamie in a air-raid. Meanwhile, Rose is rescued from the barrage balloon by Captain Jack who immediately determines that Rose is a time-traveler like him. He claims that he is free-lance Time Agent who has something that might interest her but she says she must first find and consult her companion. The Doctor has found the hospital and Dr. Constantine. The hospital is filled with corpses of people with gas mask on their face and identical physical marks (like a scratch on the hand). Dr. Constantine says that the first victim was discovered shortly after the bomb fell and then anyone who has been in contact with that victim has developed the same external physical symptoms including a gas mask fused to the skin. The first victim was Jamie, Nancy's brother. However, before Dr. Constantine can explain much more, he turning into a gas-masked zombie before the Doctor's eyes and asks "Are you my mummy?". Rose and Captain Jack find the Doctor and Jack explains that the metal ship was a Chula ambulance and there are only two hours before another bomb will fall and destroy the metal ship. The corpses then get up and walk towards the Doctor asking "Are you my mummy?" while the original empty child asks Nancy the same thing at an abandoned house. The Doctor, Rose, and Jack, then have to figure out what happened to the empty child before the plague spreads or a bomb drops and destroys the ship and the hospital.
Why I love this episode: I am sucker for movie/TV shows set during World War II and this episode really show what London was like during the Blitz. There is a great exchange between Rose and Nancy about how difficult it is to live during the Blitz and how Nancy can't imagine the world ever getting better and Rose assuring her that Britain wins. The Doctor and Captain Jack really play off each other well especially since they have different views about using weapons (and there is a long exchange in which Jack disparages the sonic screwdriver). I would also like to note that Stephen Moffat also wrote this set of episodes so there is a great mix of both funny moments and really emotional scenes. And the resolution of the story is surprisingly uplifting. Plus, adding Captain Jack is a really great addition as he adds a bit of much needed light-heartedness.

Doctor Who - Part 2

2011-03-27T08:41:00.005-04:00

7) Time of Angels and Flesh & Stone
Episodes 4 and 5, Season 5
Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith)
Companion: Amy Pond (Karen Gilliam) and River Song (Alex Kingston)
Plot: After traveling to a museum in the future, the Doctor and Amy discover a message from River Song written on a flight recorder for a ship that crashed 12,000 years earlier. Amy and the Doctor travel back to save River before the ship crashes. The cargo of the ship is a Weeping Angel, a being that lives on energy (like electrical or human) that looks like a statue. As long as someone is looking at the statue, they can't move but anytime you look away, that Angel can move. If two Angels look at each other, they are trapped immobile forever; as a result the Angels will cover their eyes when stationary and so look like they are weeping. River Song and a team of clerics (which is more like a military unit) want to recover the weakened Angel before its proximity to the radiation of the ship will make is powerful enough to threaten the population of the planet. The is a four-second recording of the Angel that River, Amy, and the Doctor view while discussing a book written about the Angels (by an insane man) that states "That which holds the image of an angel becomes itself and angel". Amy looks away from the recording and the Angel start emerging from the recording and see is trapped in the viewing room (and she looks the Angel in the eyes). Amy is able to freeze the recording at a certain part of the loop and causes the Angel to disappear. To get to the Angel statue and the ship, the team must travel through a stone labyrinth filled with stone statues called the Maze of Death. Doctor and River discover that the stone statues are slowly turning in Weeping Angel due to massive amount of radiation coming from the crashed ship. As the Doctor, River, Amy, and the clerics race toward the ship followed by the Weeping Angel, the image of the Angel is embedded in Amy's brain so she is slowing becoming a Weeping Angel and so must keep her eyes closed to slow the transformation.
Why I love these episodes: The Weeping Angels are probably the most terrifying creature/beings that has ever been on Doctor Who. The addition of River Song is great, because she knows the Doctor in various points of her/his life and they have some sort of relationship. Being able to piece their relationship together is really fun. And this episode was written by my favorite Doctor Who writer (and current show runner) Steven Moffat. I like the special effects for the Weeping Angels because instead of using CGI (which would probably be less scary), the Weeping Angels are played by women in costumes and painted to look like stone.

8) Partners in Crime
Episode 1, Season 4
Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Companion: Donna Noble (Catherine Tate)
Plot: Donna and the Doctor costarred together in a previous Christmas special (after season 2, before season 3), and she declined the Doctor's offer to travel with him, a decision she later regrets. As a result, Donna becomes a little bit of a conspiracy theorist in an attempt/hope to met the Doctor again. Donna and the Doctor are separately investigating Adipose Industries that markets a diet pill with the slogan "The Fat Just Walks Away". Turns out the slogan is correct, the pills use body fat to create an alien named Adipose. The pill can be altered to use the entire body to create Adipose. Donna and the Doctor work together to make sure that doesn't happen.
Why I love this episode: Donna Noble is my favorite companion (and Amy Pond is a really close second). Unlike the two previous companions, Donna has no romantic interest in the Doctor. So this episode is just hilarious and really light-hearted which is a nice change from the dark tone of the last two episodes of season 3. And the Adipose aliens are actually really cute. Plus, the guest star was the actress who was Mrs. Hurst in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

Doctor Who - Part 1

2011-03-26T10:30:00.005-04:00

9) Amy's Choice
Episode 7, Season 5
Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith)
Companion: Amy Pond (Karen Gilliam) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill)
Plot: The Doctor, Amy, and Rory keeping moving between 2 realities. In one, it is five years into the future with Amy and Rory married and Amy is pregnant. Rory is the village doctor in their hometown of Leavenworth that has a very large elderly population. The elderly people of the village are actually aliens that can vaporize anyone with their poisoned breath. In the other reality, all three are trapped in a powerless TARDIS that is slowly traveling toward a cold star (so they are slowly freezing to death). They must choose between with world is real because if they die in the false world, they will return to the real world but they will die if the chose the wrong world.

What I Love about this Episode: I love unraveling a mystery so I was fun trying to decide which world was the real one. You get to see more interactions between Amy and Rory which is really nice. And how the whole situation gets resolved is interesting and emotional. Seeing Rory using garden tools to fend off the aliens is pretty hilarious. Plus Toby Jones!

10) School Reunion
Episode 3, Season 2
Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Companion: Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) and Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke)
Plot: the Doctor, Rose, and Mickey are investigating strange happening at a local school. And while checking out the school, the Doctor runs into an old companion, Sarah Jane Smith who is played by Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane was a companion of the Third and Fifth Doctors). Turns out the the school administrators are aliens in disguise who are increasing the intelligence of the students and then using them to solve the Skasis Paradigm (the theory of everything).
What I love about this episode: This episodes ties the reboot Doctor Who with the original Doctor Who is a really good way without being too over the top. And it is interesting to see what happens to a Doctor's companion after he or she stops traveling with the Doctor. There are some really funny moments, and Mickey starts becoming less of a complete idiot and more competent.

Honorable Mention: Love & Monsters (a Doctor-lite episode that focuses more on a group of people who come together because of the Doctor but all members of the group blossom in each others company, plus ELO!), Eleventh Hour (a fantastic introduction to the new Doctor as well as Amy and Rory), and all Season finales (the build up during the 2 part episodes are so good, a great mixture of adventure and emotion. And in the finale of season 4, all the of Doctor's companions/allies come back which makes it like a reunion with old friends).

Delving into my nerdiness

2011-03-25T21:46:00.002-04:00

This time last year, I was a month into my six month stay in Vermont. One by-product of my time in Vermont, is that Rachel re-introduced me to the BBC show Doctor Who. Now, I had seen all of the first season right when it came out (back in 2005, I watched it while I was quilting Rachel's giant king size quilt) and I really like it. And then I forgot about it, mostly because I think there was quite a gap between the release of the first series and the second series. But by the time I got to Vermont, Rachel had watched all the four seasons and kept encouraging me to watch the show again. So over the course of about 2 months (maybe less), I watched all the four seasons, plus all the related Christmas specials and the send-offs for David Tenant. And then Rachel and I watched the fantastic 5th season starting in April. And now, the new season (season 6) will be starting in less than a month. So I thought in honor of the new season, over the new few days, I am going to write about my 10 favorite episodes of the first 5 seasons of Doctor Who.

Sunday morning/afternoon adventure

2011-03-20T17:14:00.004-04:00

As I am getting more confident in using the Metro system, I am trying to make trips into DC during the weekend. Last weekend I went to Pentagon City, where there is huge mall but more importantly, there is a World Market nearby (I was craving some Curly Wurlys). Based on a good suggestion from a co-worker, I decided to go to visit the National Gallery this morning (she said Sunday mornings are less crowded). And the Gallery is amazing. The Gallery has such a vast and varied collection from 15th century Dutch artists to Jasper Johns. I went through the Main floor of the West Gallery first and then stopped for lunch at the cafe that is in the concourse between the East and West Galleries and then went to the East Gallery to the see the 2 special exhibits (Gaugin and paintings of Venice) and the Modern Art (the west Gallery has most of the older paintings, through the Impressionist and immediate Post-impressionists, I think that most recent piece I saw was painted in 1939). The Gaugin exhibit was interesting but really crowded so I didn't get to be that close to the paintings. It was not very crowded in the main floor of the West Gallery, mostly because I was there right when it opened. After going through the East Gallery, my last stop was the Chester Dale Collection on the ground floor of the West Gallery. And the Chester Dale collection is great, it has lots of works/sculptures by Impressionists including Degas, Renior, Rodin, Monet, and probably my favorite Van Gogh. It's hard to pick which part was my favorite, I really liked the British/Irish/American rooms (lots of lovely landscapes, before that lots of religious paintings), the really beautiful still-life paintings ( spread out throughout a lot of the rooms), or the Chester Dale Collection. I took lots of pictures of the paintings and you can check them out here (some might be a little fuzzy, sorry about the quality).

There are about 500 ways this video is great

2011-03-18T18:15:00.002-04:00

The excellent Darcy hair, the fact that the conga is involved, the outburst at Caroline Bingley and the freestyle dance at the end. Love it!

Doctor Who Starts April 23rd

2011-03-15T18:00:00.001-04:00

I'm not sure I can wait that long!

Banjo and Violin

2011-03-14T20:47:00.002-04:00

I first heard this band while watching the Australian show, Rain Shadow. The music really stuck with me, and it's not really hard to see why.

The cure for any bad day

2011-03-13T22:59:00.001-04:00

Rules Governing What May Become An Outdated Object

2011-03-09T21:53:00.004-05:00

If you have read more that a few entries of this blog, you may have noticed that I enjoy reading a great deal and hold books in general in high regard. I am one of those people who will tolerate less well written novels, for instance the Twilight books, in the hope that those books will inspire readers to turn to better novels (in the case of the Twilight books, Stephanie Meyers mentions Jane Austen novels and novels by the Brontes so I can hope those tween girls are turned on the better authors who are out there). A by-product of my admiration and love for books, is that I am borderline anal about the books I own or lend out. I hate cracking the spines of my books so I am really careful when I read a book for the first time. I do own several books with cracked spines (like most of the Austen and Bronte books) but those are a result of intense re-reading and searching for references for college papers. There a several books on my bookshelf that I have read that look brand new. And I make sure anyone that I lend books to know that I do not appreciate cracking the spines on my books (and don't even get me started on people that fold the cover all the way around the book, I get hives just thinking about it). Since I own so many books (we are talking multiple bookshelves that are 2 books deep), space is at a premium. So this have lead me to purchase fewer hardcover books and more paperback books and I am part of a online book-rental service that only uses paperback books. As a result, when I hear about a new book (or see it in the bookstore) I usually write down the book title (one reason to always carry something to write on and with) and look it up on Amazon later and add to my wishlist (which means that are hundreds of books in my Amazon wishlist). Then periodically I will see if certain books are in paperback yet. This of course leads to very delayed gratification/reading of a book and then I am excited about a book about 9 months after it is first published. And today was one of those days, because a books I've been dying to read but due to unwillingness to pay for a hardcover and being transient (and therefore library-less) for the better part of last year, I haven't read. This books is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. In a nutshell (a very small nutshell), it is story of one of first cell lines discovered and the effects on this cell line on science as a whole as well as the family of the woman who produced the (cancerous) cells that gave rise to this cell line (HeLa cells). I heard about this book on NPR, a part of the book was presented on my beloved podcast RadioLab (in a episode about famous tumors), and the tri-fecta(for me anyway) was that it inspired an episodes in the last season of Law & Order. I am so excited to finally read this book; I just have to decide if I should buy it (and then lend it out to people who will not wrap the cover around the book) or rent it (and I am open to input).

The Wonder of Hearing the Written Word

2011-03-03T20:43:00.002-05:00

Earlier this month, the author Brian Jacques passed away. You might not know who he was, but I assure you that there is a subset of youngish adults whose parents probably watched a lot of PBS and received a Chinaberry catalog that contained the first three of Jacques series of Redwall books. I, my sisters, and a few cousins are some of those adults. I remember my mother reading Redwall to Bridget, Lucy, and I one chapter a night and having special voices for all the characters (and I seem to recall that on most nights, we begged and pleaded for an additional chapter). And Redwall is a great series, and I encourage parents with kids that are about 8 or 9 (there are some emotional parts of the book) to get the first book and read it to their children.
There is something so comforting and slightly hypnotic about hearing a story. And I think that are a lot of people who enjoy being read to beyond their childhood years. During our last few days in Europe, Lucy and I would read to each other (again a chapter at a time) from the first Artemis Fowl book. I often enjoy listening to books on CD, especially books read by the author (shout out to David Sedaris, whose books are best experienced in an audio format).

Eavesdropping pays off

2011-02-21T21:53:00.001-05:00

This is a conversation that I overheard on the Metro (on my way to visit Abby and Deirdre on Saturday):

Son: Mom, guess something that I need everyday at school. It's not a backpack, it's something inside me.
Mom: Your brain?
Son: Yes! What else?
Mom: Your heart?
Son: Yes! It's like you're reading my mind!

Modern Mamas and Papas

2011-02-20T12:18:00.001-05:00

Awesome art meet Law and Order

2011-02-19T21:17:00.004-05:00

I love these works of art based on one sentence description of episodes of Law and Order! There is this one:
It's Needlepoint!

And this one is pretty good: (with the title of Sugar Daddy Suspected of Murder)

You can check out the rest of them here.

Reflections on Musicals

2011-02-17T22:36:00.003-05:00

It is very obvious that I love NPR and I learn a lot from the podcasts that I listen to (just ask me about the tricks/car information I learned from Click and Clack) but one of my favorite things is being introduced to new (to me anyway) music and as I've been listening to a backlog of NPR podcasts, I've been introduced (and then obsessively humming) a few songs. The first one is music from the Broadway show "Promises, Promises". Terry Gross (of Fresh Air) interviewed Sean Hayes about his role in the revival of Promises, Promises and then she interviewed Burt Bacharach and Hal David (who wrote the music and lyrics) and played clips from the original recording. And the songs are really great, there are catchy and very obviously written by Burt Bacharach. But what made me fall in love with the songs is that there were sung by Lenny Briscoe in his previous life as Broadway regular, Jerry Orbach. So I invested about $4 in a CD of the original Broadway recording and besides containing a picture of a very young Jerry Orbach, just listening to him sing (as well as the rest of the cast) is making me very happy. The other musical discovery I have made in the past week (another one from Fresh Air) from a movie called Evening Primrose that was aired once (once!) on ABC Stage 67 in November 1966 with the music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. It starred Anthony Perkins and the plot is that a poet named Charles (Perkins) decides to live in a department store after hours and discovers other people living in the store as well including a woman named Ella who has lived in the store since she was six. There is a beautiful duet called "Take me to the world" in which Ella tries to convince Charles to take her out of the store and live in the real world together. The song is so beautiful and memorable; Anthony Perkins had a really nice singing voice and the harmony in excellent. The movie has just been released on DVD (after a black a white 16mm was discovered) and the movie is at the top of my Netflix queue thanks to an introduction from Fresh Air (and I purchased a version of the song on iTunes).

Look for the Liono cameo

2011-02-15T17:56:00.001-05:00

His name is Alan

2011-02-10T18:22:00.000-05:00

I can't decide

2011-02-10T17:39:00.004-05:00

which one of these NPR Valentine's I like more. This one:

Or this one:

But one thing is clear, I love NPR.

The Superbowl brought to you by the letters N, P, and R

2011-02-06T16:05:00.001-05:00

If only Law and Order: LA was like this

2011-02-03T18:24:00.002-05:00

I bemoaned the death of my beloved Law and Order and hoped that Law and Order: Los Angelos would be just as good as the original. It is not. But Law and Order:UK is pretty damn good.

He's too strong for my tiny magic

2011-02-02T21:46:00.002-05:00

Most people who read this blog know that I love Netflix. I am one of those people who watches the movie the same day I receive it and mail it back immediately (although while I was at Casa Schek, I was a bit more relaxed about it). And this is especially true while I'm in Maryland since my entertainment choices are more limited (but I do have access to the internet now so my choices have increased). Of all the movies that I have seen in the past 5 years, about 98% of them have been through Netflix. Netflix is great for seeing smaller films with limited releases and foreign films that were not released in America. But the greatest thing for Netflix is watching TV shows on DVD. Netflix is the perfect system for watching TV shows on DVD. You get 1 to 2 discs at a time, and you can burn through a disc in a night (or over a weekend) and then you have a day or two so you have a little bit of time away from the show. So basically you have the best timing for watching a TV show. You can watch all the episodes in a short enough time to remember the story lines (especially important for a show like Lost and those of its ilk) but there is a enough time so you don't get sick of the show (you can have an overload). And Netflix is pretty much the only way (except for BBCAmerica or possibly a good PBS show) to watch shows from the BBC or CBC.

I'll be back tomorrow-week

2011-02-01T20:49:00.002-05:00

Hello Internet, I'm back. That's right, now I have 24 hour access to the internet.

I think the students apperciate it when I get down verbally

2011-01-12T13:59:00.002-05:00

And I'm back to getting down verbally. Work is going well, I'm really enjoying working in the lab again. And I'm getting around the area pretty well. I had a good (but very short) visit back to the farm for Christmas. I flew home early on the 24th and was picked by my mom at the airport and got the chance to visit my aunt and cousins in Indy for about an hour (which was my only chance to see them) before helping mom with last minute wrapping before Rachel and family drove down from Ann Arbor. And I got to make the traditional Maddox egg casserole for Christmas morning. We opened most of the presents (and stocking) on Christmas day and Lucy got me an awesome quilting book (for jelly rolls) and a jelly roll, as well as a nice weekly calendar, and most importantly donated a flock of chicken to Heifer international in my name. And my mom got me a great laptop lunch box, which was my only request for my mom. I'm packing my lunch for work everyday, and the lunchbox is about 1000 times nicer than the Target plastic bag I was using. It is a nice laptop lunchbox which I got used to packing during my six months living with Rachel and family in Vermont (after the first 2 months, I think that I was the exclusive lunch packer). Bridget and family arrived on the 26th so I was able to spend some time with them all including getting to read Emmet "The Adventures of Lowly Worm" which was one of the 3 books that I got for him for Christmas. Although my visit was short, I really enjoying it. I had time to play with all my nephews (individually for a little bit at least) and enjoy delicious meal of chicken cordon bleu (made by Lucy and Josh, with a tiny bit of help from me) as well as the key component of any Christmas/New Year's celebration in the Maddox household, doing a jigsaw puzzle (however, I was only there for piecing together the outside of the puzzle, so I missed out on Rachel's sound effect for placing a piece in the right place). And mom drove me back to airport (after one delay) only to find out there was another delay, but I was able to get back to Regan a little after 9pm and got back to my apartment before 10pm. The rest of my holiday time was pretty low-key and I did spend New Year's Eve watching Jane Austen movies, in order of publication of the books except I saved Pride and Prejudice for the end so I could actually watch all the of the rest and there isn't an adaptation of Mansfield Park that I really like. I guess that I will just have to wait for Andrew Davies to get on the stick and adapt that one (see awesome adaptations done by him of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, and Wives and Daughters). I have Martin Luther King Day off and I will be attempting to visit Carol in PA, but the trip will depend on the weather in PA, but I hope it won't be too bad and I can see her (for her birthday!).

Dispatches from the East

2010-12-15T16:12:00.002-05:00

For those of you who didn't know, I have started a new (temporary) job in Beltsville, Maryland. I am a government contractor (but not a black-ops one) working for a USGS lab that is researching hormone disruptors (more specifically deciding the best way to determine if a compound is a hormone disruptor). My first three weeks mostly involved collecting samples from the test animals but I think that is over for near future so I will be doing more lab work (with a smattering of data entry from said sample collecting). I'll be prepare samples for a hormone assay this week (until the Christmas holiday for sure) and then I think that I will be doing a lot of PCR (polymerase chain reaction) work after the holidays. My contract is for six months so I will be in Maryland until May (and looking for a job again, woo-hoo). But I've enjoyed getting back into the lab after no doing any significant labwork for about 2 years. I'm hoping to pick-up a lot of new techniques while at the job (I've talked to one of co-workers who does work with proteins and she is willing to teach me some protein techniques, which is cool to me and therefore makes me a total nerd). I live about 10 mins from work in government housing near the research center. The house is nice with a suprising wide array of furniture provided including a roommate (and a part-time roommate) who is very nice and always able to answer the question "where is location x and how do I get there?". The only drawback of the housing is that there is more internet which is a pain but actually not that bad. There is a Starbucks not too far away that I go to once or twice during the week and I've made a habit of going to a Panera for a bagel and email-checking/job-hunting/podcast-downloading on Sunday morning (I wait until Sunday so I can get the podcast for CarTalk and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me). And my super awesome phone means I can check my email during the week, which usually decides when I go to Starbucks during the week. I've been exploring the nearby area in that past few weeks with plans to get familiar with the metro system in the near future so I can visit DC in the spring (I haven't been to DC since I was in the 8th grade on a school trip). This weekend, a co-worker invited me a fine arts gala at her children's school which was amazing. The high school has a long commitment to the arts and the gala was to celebrate the new fine arts wing which includes large band rooms (for the band and orchestra) as well as rooms for the several guitar classes, television/film courses, and a dance studio (and after seeing the high school, it totally makes sense that she and her husband moved to that county for the schools).

One Drawback of a Kindle

2010-11-18T22:27:00.002-05:00

You won't have beautiful covers like these:

And while I already have a copy of the Women in White (that I purchased in France), I would totally spend $20 for this:

I really like the new covers that Penguin is producing for the covers of classic hardbacks.

I Think I've Watched too Much Hitchcock

2010-10-24T00:02:00.005-04:00

I was watching On Dangerous Ground Thursday night and due to a score by Bernard Herrmann, I kept having flashbacks to Psycho and North by Northwest (even through the score for On Dangerous Ground was done 8-9 years before either of those movies).

First Star

2010-10-23T22:41:00.003-04:00

Judy Holliday (1921-1965) was foremost a Broadway star and made only a handful of movies (about 10 in all with many of her earlier roles being uncredited extras). She was investigated in 1952 for ties to communism that resulted in her being blacklisted from radio and television for about three years. She died of breast cancer in 1965, but while her career in film was relatively short, she made some really great films and here are my favorites.

Adam's Rib (1949), Directed by George Cukor - The main stars of this movie is of course Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn but Judy Holliday definitely lights up the screen in all her scene (she was nominated for a Golden Globe). In the movie, Tracy is responsible for prosecuting Judy Holliday for shooting (in the shoulder) her cheating husband and is defend by Hepburn. Without being in the movie, Judy Holliday would not have be cast in her signature role of Billie in Born Yesterday. When the rights to the play were purchased, the study was hesitant to cast a Hollywood unknown in a major role. Tracy and Hepburn were instrumental in getting her cast in Adam's Rib and based on her performance in this film, she was cast in Born Yesterday.

Born Yesterday (1950) Directed by George Cukor- This is truly Judy Holliday's masterpiece. She was an understudy to Jean Arthur (another actress that I will being writing about later) while it was on Broadway until an illness forced Jean Arther to leave the play. Born Yesterday is the story of the girlfriend of a less-than-honest businessman (Broderick Crawford) and her transformation from a "dumb blonde" to confident and independent woman under the tutelage of an honest journalist (William Holden). Holliday is able to be vulnerable, strong, funny, sympathetic, and intelligent throughout the film and shifts between these attributes so seamlessly and effortlessly. How fantastic was Judy Holliday's performance? She won the Oscar over Gloria Swanson for Sunset Boulevard, Anne Baxter for All About Eve, and Bette Davis for All about Eve. In Born Yesterday, Judy Holliday single-handily show that it can take a lot of intelligence to play and not everyone can do it. For more proof of this, see the 1993 remake with Melanie Griffith. It is worth watching this movie for the scene that Broderick Crawford and Judy Holliday play gin alone. And the rest of the movie is pretty good too.

The Bells Are Ringing (1960) directed by Vincent Minnelli - This is Judy Holliday's last film and although it is not her best, it is the only movie in which she sings. Like Born Yesterday, Judy Holliday played the lead (Ella Peterson) in the Broadway play and translated her role to the screen version. The plot of the movie is Judy Holliday's character works at an answerphone service and gets involved in her clients' lives. Mistaken identities and misunderstandings can make the movie feel a little cliched at time, but Holliday is able to rise above the rough patches in the plot and making the movie enjoyable. I'm not the biggest Dean Martin fan, but Judy Holliday is so charming, warm, and funny, that I had no problems watching the Dean Martin parts. And since Judy Holliday was a singer throughout her career, The Bells are Ringing is one of the few chances modern audiences have to see Judy Holliday sing and dance.

There are a few more Judy Holliday films (including It Should Happen to you with Jack Lemmon), but I think these 3 films are good jumping off point. In a majority of her roles, Judy Holliday played a dumb blonde but she played it with such warmth, humor, and intelligence, it's hard not to love her.

While writing this post, I realized that I really enjoy films directed by George Cukor, so I will have to add him to the list of potential directors (any one who can direct both The Women and Gaslight (1944) deserves to be celebrated). And he also directed to most men in Academy Award winning performances despite being known as a "woman's director".

An new motivation

2010-10-22T10:52:00.002-04:00

I've been inspired by a recent Facebook conversation with my cousin to talk about classic movies that I love. Instead of just blabing on and on about a single movie at a time, I've decided to add a little bit of structure by picking a favorite star and then discuss what movies of that actor that I enjoy the most. I'm hoping to do this on a weekly basis or at the very least a bi-weekly status. Most likely, I will include some directors in the mix but directors may show up much later than actors (I think the director's catalog that I have seen in its entirety is Alfred Hitchcock). I'll be working on it this weekend, so check back on Monday or Tuesday. Hopefully, any one who reads this blog will enjoy it.

Watching Sandra Lee

2010-10-22T10:51:00.002-04:00

has made me appreciate/understand this YouTube Video so much better!

Song time

2010-10-10T17:17:00.001-04:00

I've been listening to this song (Cosmic Love) from Florence and the Machine at least twice a day since I heard an interview with the lead singer on NPR (she was discovered singing on the bathroom in a pub). Here is the video:

Papercrafts

2010-10-10T16:38:00.005-04:00

I'm often blown away by people creativity and the time they put into their craft. Example below

And I just like this video:

Portland, Part III: Revenge of the Laser

2010-10-08T21:25:00.003-04:00

I'm finally getting around to finish my 3 part series about my fab birthday trip to Portland. On Sunday morning, Lindy and I walked to Mother's Bar and Bistro for breakfast. It was really busy but we we lucky to get two seas at the bar within 10 minutes of getting there. Lindy was convinced that one of the waitresses was the sister of Gretchen from this season of Project Runway. In addition to our (semi-conceived) brush with someone who is a little famous we both had a delicious breakfast (I had the pork apple sausage and cheddar cheese scramble). We walked off some of our breakfast/brunch on our way to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Lindy and I decided to splurge and get tickets to both a IMAX show and a laser show. We went to the IMAX show first which was about dinosaurs and Lindy loved it (I enjoyed it but not as much as Lindy). Before the laser show, we walked through the exhibit about Einstein. There was a really nice display exhibiting Einstein's theory of relativity. Then we headed to the Michael Jackson laser show which was super awesome. Thriller was the best by far but I enjoyed fact that the 15 other people were also singing along with the music. After the museum, we headed back to Lindy's apartment before I was able to convince Lindy that we should go back to Powell's so she could get a copy of the Joy of Cooking. We decided to have sushi for diner that night but on our way Lindy was nice enough to let me stop at the Spice and Tea Exchange. I got my souvenirs for my sisters and parents there as well as 3 really nice teas for me (earl gray, vanilla bean, and mountain blackberry). We got to the sushi place that had sushi delivered via train (like the conveyor belt places except with a train) except both Lindy and I ordered specialty sushi (mmm... spicy tuna roll) and split tempura and a noddle dish with chicken. We walked back to Lindy's apartment and then watched a the latest episode of Project Runway and a romantic comedy on Netflix (obvs. we were being very girly at this point). On Monday, Lindy and I headed towards the airport and had breakfast at FlavourSpot which is a food truck that serves freshly made waffles. I had the Black Forest which was Nutella and raspberry jam and Earl Grey tea. After a time-killing short trip to Target, Lindy dropped me off at the airport. The lines through security was a it long but the flight to Dallas was fine. I had time to get something to eat (a relatively fresh piece of pizza) before the flight to Indy and meeting mom at the airport late that night. I had a really good time and I want to thank my mom and dad and all my sisters for sending me!

Portland in Review, Part II

2010-09-21T22:28:00.005-04:00

On Saturday, Lindy and I went to the huge Portland Farmer's Market on the campus of Portland State University. The farmer's market is huge and we were able to sample some delicious bread, sausage, and fresh peaches as well as try some organic milk from a co-op of dairy farmers. And Lindy and I took an awesome picture together:

After getting back to Lindy's apartment, we got ready to head to Edgefield, which is were the concert was held. We got there super early (like about 7 hours before the concert started), so after lunch (and a ruby ale), we went to an outlet mall to walk around and kill some time. This mostly consisted of us trying on dresses and looking at jewelery but we did have a good time. We went back to Edgefield and tried a few more of the beers from the brewery and split an order of their delicious tater tots while in line to get to our seats in the concert venue. Our seats were excellent, we were in the center and about 8 rows back. The opening act was Tift Merritt who is a interesting singer-songwriter who sounds like a cross between Emmylou Harris and Judy Collins. Her set was pretty short but was really good. And then Ray LaMontagne's set started and I thought Lindy was going to hyperventilate and then pass out. I didn't know his catalog as well as David Gray's but I liked his set. And then a little before 8, David Gray took the stage and was incredible (I thought I would be the one to hyperventilate and pass out). He was great and he played my favorite song (Say Hello, Wave Goodbye) as his encore. After the concert was over, we stopped at Jack in the Box for Oreo Shakes before heading back to Portland. And, I'll post the last part in the next few days.

The Portland Review, Part 1

2010-09-18T22:45:00.002-04:00

The most exciting thing that has happened to me since moving back to Indiana is my birthday trip to Portland to visit Lindy and attend a Ray LaMontagne and David Gray concert. I flew into Portland last Thursday night and Lindy picked me up in Voldermort (her super cute silver Fit). After splitting fries with rosemary and truffle ketchup from a foodcart, we each got a crepe (mine was ligonberry jam and lemon curd with chevere) and headed to her apartment. I'm not sure the proper name for a Murphy bed that stores horizontally is, but that is what Lindy has in her apartment (essentially you pull the bed out instead of down). We talked for a couple hours and Lindy got a few maps for me to look at since she had to work on Friday. The next morning, Lindy treated to a delicious breakfast at Pine Street Biscuits and dropped me off at the her apartment and headed to work. I (like the giant nerd I am) planned out a little route to the shops that Lindy suggested. After walking to the first store, I realized that none of the stores opened until 10 so I stopped at Starbucks have drank some tea and read for about an hour before heading to Kathleen's Of Dublin. My final destination was this huge bookstore/used bookstore that is legendary in Portland called Powell's. It was a little overwhelming at first but then I decided to just browse in the mystery section and I limited myself to just 3 books (a collection of 3 Agatha Christie novels she wrote under the name Mary Westmacott, the debut mystery novel of Hugh Laurie, and a collection of short stories that are mashups of Charles Dickens and mystery). I stopped at food truck and had really good Korean tacos before heading to a ribbon store and then back to Lindy's apartment for a little rest. That night, Lindy and I went to Beauty Bar for Margaritas and Manicure before going to an Irish pub to enjoy a Guinness (on tap of course) and Shepard's Pie (Lindy) or curried chicken (me). And the last stop of the night was at another Portland landmark, Voodoo Doughnuts. Lindy got a Triple chocolate donut (complete with cocoa puffs) and I got a Raspberry Romeo. And I'll write all about the concert on Saturday (complete with a reenactment of a light saber fight using milk cartons) tomorrow.

On the road

2010-08-13T11:12:00.005-04:00

So just like Strawberry Shortcake, I'm packing up and moving out back to Indiana after staying with Rachel (and family) in Vermont for almost 6 months. I'll miss being with Rachel, Trey, Ellis, and Maddox but Rachel is convinced that she can entice me back to VT after the trip to the farm. As for future plans, I will mostly likely be heading back to school next year or looking for a job. Any takers?

2 tastes that taste great together

2010-08-06T22:12:00.001-04:00

Somehow Mark wasn't there but this clip is still awesome. And today Rachel and I rediscovered the hilarity that is Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Same Day

2010-08-02T14:55:00.002-04:00

Here are some famous people with the same birth date as me:

Myrna Loy (she is so good as Nora in the Thin Man movies)
Carroll O'Conner
Peter O'Toole
Jack Leonard Warner (One of the Warner Brothers)
Isabelle Allende
Kevin Smith
and a surprising large number of composers (and a few members of royalty in various European countries)

Fun with Mitchell and Webb

2010-07-30T21:30:00.003-04:00

Here is a British duo that Rachel introduced me to (although I did see another show with these two actors called Peep Show, so really Rachel just introduced me to That Mitchell and Webb Look):

This needs no explanation

2010-07-20T22:04:00.004-04:00

An infinite jest or maybe not

2010-07-15T09:39:00.002-04:00

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I've only read a little bit of David Foster Wallace, but maybe I should be adding more footnotes, and footnotes for those footnotes. But apparently

I write like
J. K. Rowling

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Needless to say, I've read all the Harry Potter books, some twice. But also

I write like
Chuck Palahniuk

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

But most awesomely:

I write like
Jane Austen

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Although I may have skewed the results a little bit, because I used a super long blog post about Persuasion

On the Flipside

2010-07-10T23:07:00.006-04:00

I know I complained about the BBC version of The 39 steps yesterday, but I am not repeating that today. New BBC episodes of Miss Marple have been airing on PBS, and I've really liked the two new episodes "The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side" and the "Secret of Chimneys". And I get to play my favorite game of spot the British Actor; there was a good one in The Secret of Chimneys, which feature Jonas Armstrong (who was Robin Hood in the recent BBC series). He was almost unrecognizable from Robin Hood because he was clean, shaved, and gained about 15 pounds. So unlike the 39 steps, the casting in the new Miss Marple is fantastic (I won't talk about the Miss Marple with Geraldine McEwan because I'm totally conflicted about those; I enjoy watching them but I know they could have been so much better). I am enjoying the last new one called The Blue Geranium (right now) because one of the characters is a super bitch (and she gets killed). Here are two of my favorite lines of hers:

"No not those, the truffles you useless girl"
"But not you, you are being annoying. It's alright if bad things happen to you"

Sorry Rupert, you are just too young

2010-07-09T22:56:00.005-04:00

I finally watched the PBS/BBC version of The 39 Steps. I've seen the Hitchcock version and I love version very much (which is pretty much a given, because I love about 85% of all Hitchcock movies). But I was kind of disappointed in this version. This version was closer to the book but the plot was a little bit of mess and the end is kind of a downer. The cast wasn't too great either ( I did get to say "Hey, it's Rick from Bleak House" and "Oh, that guy from Little Dorrit" which was pretty special). I'm sorry Rupert Penry-Jones, you are just too good looking (and young looking) to be convincing in an action role. The first thing that I saw him was Cold Comfort Farm where he has basically eye candy. I have no problem watching thriller/action movies that do not have typically action stars in them (like probably every Hitchcock movie, except maybe Foreign Correspondent because Joel McRea does look like he could beat some people up), but Rupert-Penry Jones just looks too boyish. And as my mom can attest, I was really mad when I saw the more recent BBC version of Jane Austen's Persuasion because there is no way this man:

spent anytime (let alone eight years) on a navel ship in the West Indies.

Lotion Attempt No. 1

2010-07-09T15:40:00.004-04:00

Over the long holiday weekend, Rachel and I finally made our first attempt at making lotion. We settled on making a diaper cream for Maddox and after looking a a few recipes, we ended using the recipe from the class we attended but made a few changes. We used beeswax, cocoa butter, and calendula infused olive-oil for the oil part. I have to say that it is quite an adjust from soap making where changing the type of oil can wreck the whole batch if you don't adjust for it with the lye and water. For the water part, we used lavender water and a bit of aloe vera juice. We also added a little bit of liquid lecithin to make the cream thick (the lecithin is the consistency of honey, but about 30 times for sticky and 1000 times harder to wash off). The lotion didn't quite come together all the way (we think the batch size was too small for effective mixing), but just like in my soap making experience, a little bit of blending with the stick blender made the lotion come together better. We added some zinc oxide to the lotion and now it in a container on the changing table with the name "Diaper Creme". And it smells like chocolate and looks like pale yellow butter cream icing.

Now Summer is here

2010-07-09T15:27:00.002-04:00

In the midst of this heat wave that the whole East coast is having (it feels like I'm living in Indiana for the summer, I thought it was supposed cooler in place of higher latitude), Trey and Rachel put in an air-conditioner in the office but Rachel declared that to be not enough and so she and I put a second one in the kitchen (and then put up blankets to keep the cool in and the heat out). Despite the increased area in coolness, Rachel, Ellis, Maddox, and I went to Sand Bar Park yesterday to cool off. The park is on the shores of Lake Champlain by a sandbar (hence the name) which means the water is pretty shallow until about 50 feet out (I didn't go that far out because Ellis was with me in the water). The park was really nice with lots of trees and picnic tables and not overly crowded. We all waded out in the water when we got there, but Maddox didn't like to water to much (he liked it when it was just his toes dipped in, but he didn't like his upper thigh and butt in the water) so Rachel and Maddox headed back in while Ellis and I floated about. We had packed a little picnic lunch of egg salad sandwiches, sweet cherries, yogurt, cheese, granola bars, and yogurt covered raisins. After finishing lunch, Rachel hung out on the blanket with Maddox to do some editing work while Ellis and I went back out to the water. My attempts to teach Ellis how to float on his back did not go well but he did seem to enjoy being in the water. Or at least he enjoy hanging onto my neck while it swam around a little bit (I now understand why my mother hated us doing that to her. Rachel and Ellis did spend a little more time in the water while I packed up everything. I think everyone had a really good time, except I got a sunburn on my shoulders and back. But it wouldn't really be summer if I didn't get a sunburn.

Silly or Scary

2010-07-02T10:14:00.007-04:00

The past two weeks have been full of changes around here. Ellis's last day of school was the 18th so now, I take care of both boys during the day. Fortunately, Rachel changed to going to the lab part time, so I have Ellis and Maddox alone for only 2.5 days a week. The first week was a little rocky, but this past week was a lot better. Wisely, Rachel stocked up one some crafty activities for Ellis and I to do together. So far, I have tattooed Ellis (with tattoos from Toy Story 3), done a paint by number, and Ellis has painted 6 plaster masterpieces. But, his favorite activity by far has been the monster puppets. For 3 days straight, the morning began with making monster puppets (the pieces have Velcro on the back, so they are reusable). Here are 2 of Ellis's masterpieces:

Just sing random vegetables

2010-06-02T11:55:00.002-04:00

I find this song hilarious for one reason only, the guy who just sings/names random vegetables.

The Defender

2010-05-27T22:41:00.003-04:00

So one of the first things that I did with my career counselor was to figure out my personality type on the Meyers-Briggs scale. I had taken the Meyers-Briggs in high school and I sort of remembered what I was so we were able to get through it in one session. Turns out I'm an ISFJ which means that I'm Introverted, Sensing, Feeling, and Judging. A couple websites have giving little names for each Meyers-Briggs personality type, and an ISFJ is known as a defender. Here is a good website for more information about personality types (and it has a list of famous fictional and nonfictional ISFJ including David Copperfield and Melanie from Gone with the Wind which now makes sense why I like both of those characters). On that same page (towards the bottom) is a list of good careers for ISFJ and the 3 careers that I am looking into are on that list. Any guesses?

I'm in the depths of despair

2010-05-18T08:17:00.004-04:00

Last week I read the news that NBC canceled Law and Order after 20 seasons. And this totally bums me out because (at it has been documented on this blog more that once) I love Law and Order. For at least 4 years now (since grad school), watching an episode in the evening, usually while making dinner, was the way that I would unwind after a day at the lab or work (and I watched L&O pretty regularly before that). I first discovered the show back when it was in syndication on A&E (so probably the mid-90s) and followed it when it moved to TNT. Let's just say that I have seen enough to be able to rank my favorite pairings of the detectives (Briscoe and Green), my favorite lieutenant (Van Buren), Executive ADA (Jack McCoy), ADA (a tie between Jamie Ross and Connie Rubirosa), and DA (Adam Schiff). As I explained to my mom, one reason I like L&O is because the story line is always neatly tied up at the end and you can watch the shows out of order and not be totally confused. I know that the show will still air on TNT until probably the end of time, but there won't be new episodes. Although I did read that Dick Wolf is trying to find another network that may be interested so let's hope that Ted Turner will be willing to make more Law and Order. Until then, enjoy some short clips from Law and Order.

One of my other favorite pairings:

And the most awesome thing Law and Order ever produced:

By the way, I've watched a couple episode of Law and Order:UK, and it is really good. But I shouldn't be surprised as it a pairing of my 2 favorite things: Law and Order and British Television.

Too much

2010-05-05T15:50:00.002-04:00

Coldplay, a village fete, a power slide, puppets, and Punch and Judy and in 1 video.

Like making Mayonnaise

2010-05-05T13:09:00.002-04:00

If there are some readers of this blog that I don't talk to on a regular basis (which there are probably none), then you most likely don't know that I am currently living in Vermont with my sister Rachel and taking care of her new(ish) baby. I left my job in January and within a month I was out in Vermont. During this transitional phase, I've been thinking about the kind of career I want (since I was only really every lukewarm about my last job). And to that end, I've been seeing a career counselor to help figure all that out (hopefully I will write a post about in the next couple of days). In addition, Rachel (using her usual subtle ways) has encouraged me to start taking classes or doing other things that I didn't really have time for before (I am considering learning how to sail and I was not living in cities near a huge water source). There is a really nice herb shop near Burlington so Rachel and I took a lotion making class there a few weeks ago. Lucy and I, in addition to experimenting with making our own soap, have had some interest in branching out and making other cosmetics ourselves. The lotion class was really informative especially since I was familiar with some of the oils used (like coconut, sweet almond, jojoba, etc) but only in the context/use in soaps. In the end, making lotion is like making mayonnaise in that you are trying to get oils and water to mix. Rachel and I hope to start making some lotion ourselves soon, so stay tuned and maybe I will post some pictures of our progress.

"Apparently this door has some kind of anti-opening device." - Dale Gribble

I might take up this idea

2010-03-15T22:55:00.001-04:00

you got chocolate in my peanut butter

2010-03-11T07:12:00.001-05:00

The NBC show Parks and Recreation has been so hilarious this season, it is probably my favorite show right after the Office (and sad to admit, more consistently funny). Anyway, here is an awesome mash-up of two things that I love: the opening credits (and fun theme song) to Parks and Recreation and Star Wars.

Suprisingly sweet commercials from the Olympics

2010-02-28T15:30:00.003-05:00

Reflections from 31 days of Oscar

2010-02-17T00:28:00.003-05:00

When you've only really seen Robert Vaughn like this:

It's a little weird to see him like this:

(in Bullit which I saw last Friday). Looking at that scene, please notice the size of that fax machine (and the fact that the phone has to be placed on top of the fax machine). Secondly, Bullit is such a cool last name, and you pretty much have to be in law enforcement with a name like that.

Laughs in less that 140

2010-01-18T18:51:00.003-05:00

I understand that some people are really into Twitter and I am one of those people. I don't tweet at all but I have a twitter account that I check from time to time for one reason, some people on Twitter are really hilarious. I only follow about 15 people including Rain Wilson and Jim Gaffigan. But the most consistently funny person I follow on Twitter has got to be Tim Siedell, who is a creative director living in Nebraska. Here are a few choice tweets from him:

My bad back just got me out of a meeting. I'm never fixing this thing.

Full disclosure, America. I entered us into a pact with the devil 18 years ago. But something had to be done about those California Raisins.

A panic room seems overindulgent. I can panic in any room.

The only way my sinuses could get more painful is if they suddenly started speaking dialogue written by George Lucas.

My Top Ten Lists of 2009: 1) Grocery, 2) Wine, 3) Bucket, 4) Email, 5) Bullet Point, 6) To-Do, 7) Craigs, 8) Nice, 9) Top Ten, 10) Guest.

More Funny Tweets

There and back again

2010-01-03T16:36:00.003-05:00

Now that the holidays are over, I can recount my lovely trip to Vermont to see Rachel (and the rest) for Christmas. I flew out of Cleveland on a direct flight to Burlington (I was surprised to find a direct flight, I was afraid that I would have to have a 13-hour layoff!). I got to the airport a little earlier that just in case it was really crowed but fortunately check in was super fast (Cleveland is a Contential Hub, so there were tons of check-in terminals, including one between the actually terminal and the parking garage, which I used). And even better, going through security took about 5 minutes (seriously, there were 2 people in front of me). The flight left a little late (people on a connecting flight were a little late so we left about 15 minutes late) but we made up plenty of time in the air and I got to the Burlington airport before Trey was there. But it wasn't quite so cold on Christmas eve, so the wait wasn't bad at all. We had a lovely Christmas breakfast of egg casserole and orange rolls and slowly opened presents (with only a few children-related incidents of temper). And then everyone pitched in to make a delicious Christmas dinner (mom made an excellent crusted tenderloin). Dad, Trey, and Orrin worked on updating the laundry room (including installing a sink) while Mom, Rachel, Bridget and I traded off supervising the kids and painting Ellis's room (hopefully Rachel with post some pictures). The girls went out to King Arthur's store (and left all the kids with the boys). And despite sitting in traffic for an hour due to an accident (and some snowy weather) we had a wonderful trip (and a good conversations!). One the morning of my flight back to Cleveland, most of us went to the Ben and Jerry's factory for free ice cream (and then an additional scoop later) before Rachel and mom dropped me off the Burlington airport. And it seems that I brought the cooler weather from Vermont because it has been really cold here for the last couple days. So there is lots of tea to be drunk!

"I've dealt with this before in Montana. Nobody lick any poles!" - Peggy HIll