My latest video project is complete. I put the script together, shot it the next day (with an exceptional amount of help from Megan), and edited it together today. There are a few things I would have done differently, but I’m happy with it for the most part.
It involves an argument over what to have for dinner. I don’t want to give away the ending, but it involves my favorite type of meat.
I got up at 6:00 this morning, made myself a nice cup of Gevalia coffee… and started frying up some bacon.
Matt Blum of the Geek Dad blog, had a post about his recent experience making bacon pancakes and, since I’m a bacon aficionado, I thought I’d give it a try. My daughter was game, too, but we had to leave for a horse show at 7:45, so I had no choice but to get started early… on a Saturday, no less!
So I fried up a pound of brown sugar cured bacon. We didn’t eat the whole pound, but hey… I opened the package, so it might as well get cooked, huh? …there are worse things…
Having filled the kitchen with the spectacular aroma of bacony goodness, I went to work on the pancake batter. I will admit that I skimped on this part, as I used some Crusteaz pancake mix. Matt Blum made his from scratch and I will acknowledge his batter superiority, but hey… I was on a timeline here. [...]
I love this.
Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So that we are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically. That’s kinda cool! That makes me smile and I actually feel quite large at the end of that. It’s not that we are better than the universe, we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us.
- Neil deGrasse Tyson
Having dealt with global warming deniers and having read many of their claims (and rants), I’ve noticed a few common hypocrisies. I paraphrase my favorite one below.
Denier Claim #1: Global warming isn’t happening. In fact, temperatures have been declining for the last 30 years.
Denier Claim #2: The temperature record is too unreliable to conclude that global warming is happening.
That’s classic denialism and a good example of how deniers will just parrot arguments they’ve heard without really giving them much thought or taking the time to get more in-depth information.
Of course, if they did that, they might not be deniers.
I was browsing Netflix offerings this evening, specifically the streamable movies, and when you add a movie to your queue, Netflix presents a screen with recommendations for other similar movies.
I had added the movie Waiting for Armageddon, a documentary about evangelical Christians who believe the end times are near. The resulting screen led me to add Fall from Grace, a documentary about the Westboro Baptist Church, Fred Phelps’ vehicle for spreading bigotry and hatred.
The resulting recommendation screen can be seen below. I scanned the results, paused, and laughed out loud when I got to the third movie in the second row (click to embiggen).
Yeah. If I was putting together a list of movies in the "More like Fall from Grace" category, I don’t think Brokeback Mountain would be on it.
I’m fairly certain it’s not a documentary, either.
I’m at my brother-in-law’s house in Florida winding down from a Disney vacation and was musing about my choice of headwear for the trip. Those who know me know that I’m almost never without a hat… not a cap, but a hat. Generally, I wear a fedora of some sort, but always a hat with a brim that goes all the way around.
Since it’s summer, all my felt hats have been put away in storage and (almost) all my straw hats are out for the wearing. Montecristi Panama hats are my preferred headwear in the summer since they provide sun protection, are lightweight, and look good whether the situation calls for casual or dressy.
They are, however, not good in the rain. Since the weather forecast in Florida at this time generally includes an afternoon rainshower, I decided to take my Tilley T4 hat instead of one of my Montecristi Panamas because it can get soaking wet with [...]
UCB Comedy has a great sketch mocking BP for their oil spill and impotent and feeble attempts to stop the leak.
Megan and I went for a bike ride on the rail trail today. Last time we went, we only went about two miles (if that) and she was all tired out. This time, the situation was reversed… majorly.
Megan has been riding around the neighborhood a lot lately, up and down our hills… for hours with her friends. I, on the other hand, have not. We went about nine miles and she would have gone farther, but after we hit the 4.5 mile marker on our way out and she said, “Should we go to the next one?” I declined, so we turned around and headed back to our starting point to complete our nine-mile “out and back” ride.
For those who know me, nine miles of bike riding is practically unthinkable for me… at least for the past decade or so. For Megan, it seems that it’s no longer a big deal.
I think that’ll be good for me.
This past Sunday, May 31st, Lori, Megan, and I went to the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey circus. For Megan and me, it was the first time ever. Lori had been to one before, but it was so long ago (and so far gone from memory) that it didn’t really count, so for all practical purposes, it was the first circus for all of us.
It was Barnum’s “Funundrum” show and it was spectacular. At one point, I looked over at Megan and she was sitting there with her mouth hanging open in amazement. It was awesome.
One thing that was really surprising to me was that their clowns were not creepy… not even close. We’re talking less creepiness than even Ronald McDonald, and he pretty much sets the standard for non-creepy clowns.
There was so much going on all the time that it was tough to actually take pictures and watch at the same time. It was also hard to take pictures at all because nothing ever stops moving and the lighting is [...]
Ever since I saw the trailer for the movie Splice, I’ve been looking forward to its arrival. It’s been on my calendar with the appropriate emailed reminders.
Well, I just got back from seeing it and, in my opinion, it was well worth the wait. Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley were believable and each played the necessary emotional range with skill and clarity… which is probably what made the movie so engaging.
Brody and Polley play Clive and Elsa, two genetic scientists specializing in gene splicing. They’ve created a couple unique creatures that produce a protein used to treat diseases in livestock and have earned an almost rock-star reputation within their company. When the company threatens to shut down their operation (for reasons left out of this review so as not to spoil anything), they decide to wade into the land of questionable ethics and use human DNA in their next (secret) splicing project… just to see if they can.
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