My wife and I went on our first date since March 2020 for both of us to get our first shot of vaccine and then coffee and a snack at Starbucks. It felt great to go out together.
Rejected images for driving update post
Mar. 16th, 2021 06:30 pmI decided to not use the following two images for CNBC explains why the pandemic caused a bicycle boom, plus a double driving update: Pearl and Snow Bear because it was taking me too long to write the post and I had to cut them for time.
A tweet about the election
Nov. 4th, 2020 05:24 pmYesterday, I responded to ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
theferrett on Twitter that "My wife read a tweet that said that today was like Christmas Eve and the Apocalypse are having a baby and the mom is still in labor." She's still in labor today, but the contractions are only a couple minutes apart.
ETA: I see Ferrett has deleted his account. I was wondering why I hadn't seen anything from him here lately.
theferrett on Twitter that "My wife read a tweet that said that today was like Christmas Eve and the Apocalypse are having a baby and the mom is still in labor." She's still in labor today, but the contractions are only a couple minutes apart.ETA: I see Ferrett has deleted his account. I was wondering why I hadn't seen anything from him here lately.
Defunctland on Videopolis
May. 26th, 2018 08:14 amI'm still voting on the Saturn Awards, so I'm not ready to post my movie votes. In the meantime, here is another Defunctland video, this time on Videopolis.
The video mentions the proximity of Videopolis to the fireworks launch site. That reminds me not only that I may have mentioned that the last town in California I lived in was Anaheim and that I could hear the fireworks from my condo, but also that my ex-wife and I took our son to the other side of the freeway from the back of Disneyland on July 4th to watch the fireworks. It was the best view of the pyrotechnics I ever had.
The video mentions the proximity of Videopolis to the fireworks launch site. That reminds me not only that I may have mentioned that the last town in California I lived in was Anaheim and that I could hear the fireworks from my condo, but also that my ex-wife and I took our son to the other side of the freeway from the back of Disneyland on July 4th to watch the fireworks. It was the best view of the pyrotechnics I ever had.
Three thrillers for the Saturn Awards
May. 14th, 2018 09:16 amDuring the past week, my wife and I watched three movies nominated for Best Thriller Film Release at the Saturn Awards. While we both watched it for the entertainment, I was also evaluating which one of the three would get my vote, as I am a Saturn Awards member.
"Murder on the Orient Express" was a remake of a movie I watched with my parents in the 1970s, so I wasn't surprised at the twist; it was the same. I did enjoy the all-star cast, the settings, and the lavish production values. I was surprised it was not nominated for an Academy Award. It was obvious Oscar bait, probably too obvious.
"The Post" won Best Film about Politics and Government at the first Coffee Party Entertainment Awards for movies. It deserved it. It was indeed a thriller, although a low-key one. It also had the best ending.
"Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri" had great acting, a decent amount of action, and great performances. Unfortunately, my wife and I found its ending disappointing. I'm not voting for it, although I'm still considering voting for Frances McDormand for Best Actress in a Movie. Instead, I think I'm casting my vote in this category for "The Post."
"Murder on the Orient Express" was a remake of a movie I watched with my parents in the 1970s, so I wasn't surprised at the twist; it was the same. I did enjoy the all-star cast, the settings, and the lavish production values. I was surprised it was not nominated for an Academy Award. It was obvious Oscar bait, probably too obvious.
"The Post" won Best Film about Politics and Government at the first Coffee Party Entertainment Awards for movies. It deserved it. It was indeed a thriller, although a low-key one. It also had the best ending.
"Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri" had great acting, a decent amount of action, and great performances. Unfortunately, my wife and I found its ending disappointing. I'm not voting for it, although I'm still considering voting for Frances McDormand for Best Actress in a Movie. Instead, I think I'm casting my vote in this category for "The Post."
A koan for 'The Last Jedi'
Apr. 17th, 2018 08:29 amMy wife and I watched "The Last Jedi" last week and my reaction was a Zen koan: “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!” The film did it twice and nearly succeeded a third time.
While I wrote that I probably wouldn't post a song, the key word was probably. I have just the song for this post, Shriekback's "Gunning for the Buddha," which is inspired by this koan. Listen to what Barry Andrews calls "the first Zen pop song."
While I wrote that I probably wouldn't post a song, the key word was probably. I have just the song for this post, Shriekback's "Gunning for the Buddha," which is inspired by this koan. Listen to what Barry Andrews calls "the first Zen pop song."
Power still out
Mar. 3rd, 2018 08:26 pmFirst, the Facebook update: "Two updates from DTE. The first said that everyone in my area would have power by 11:30 PM tomorrow. The second was that they would try to get to my house today." So far, DTE hasn't and probably won't get to it by midnight. They crew will need to see to remove the tree and re-string the lines. I hope they get the job done before sunset tomorrow. Otherwise, my wife will have to join our dogs and I while we have to sleep in a cold, dark house another night.
The silver lining is that every place I've gone for coffee and a hot meal has had good, friendly service, including where I'm posting from right now. I just hope I don't have to take advantage of it any longer than I have to.
The silver lining is that every place I've gone for coffee and a hot meal has had good, friendly service, including where I'm posting from right now. I just hope I don't have to take advantage of it any longer than I have to.
Thursday, I had to stop for a flock of wild turkeys crossing the road a mile from my house. The last time I did that was more than a decade ago, when I lived in the Irish Hills. That really was the country. The village I live now just pretends to be, as it is completely surrounded by the Detroit suburbs in Oakland County.
Friday, one of our dachshunds got out. My wife and i looked and called, but there was no response. My wife asked "how could a dog go so far so fast?" I told her "because someone picked him up, that's how." Sure enough, that's what happened. My wife called the nearest animal hospital a mile and a half away, and the dog had been dropped off there. We immediately went there to pick him up.
Saturday, the power went out. It came back on after an hour and a half, but it threw off the rest of my day. I was still making up for my disrupted Coffee Party work last night.
Fortunately, nothing eventful happened Sunday. My wife and I needed the rest.
Friday, one of our dachshunds got out. My wife and i looked and called, but there was no response. My wife asked "how could a dog go so far so fast?" I told her "because someone picked him up, that's how." Sure enough, that's what happened. My wife called the nearest animal hospital a mile and a half away, and the dog had been dropped off there. We immediately went there to pick him up.
Saturday, the power went out. It came back on after an hour and a half, but it threw off the rest of my day. I was still making up for my disrupted Coffee Party work last night.
Fortunately, nothing eventful happened Sunday. My wife and I needed the rest.
Car trouble is stressful
Feb. 22nd, 2018 09:07 amThis week and last, both of our cars had to go into the shop. Last week, it was my Prius. Its 12 -volt battery went dead and had to be replaced. I had to call out two different people to jump it. The owners manual showed the terminals in the front. They're not. The 12-volt battery is in the cargo compartment. The first person to come out didn't know that. The second did. Good thing it wasn't the hybrid battery; that costs $6000. I hope that lasts 500,000 miles!
This week, my wife ran over a pothole and blew out two of her tires. Good thing I was able to cancel office hours to keep her company until the tow truck arrived and then drive her home before returning to school to teach. Also a good thing -- my being able to borrow her car last week while mine was first buried in snow and then unable to start. Marriage can be very useful.
This week, my wife ran over a pothole and blew out two of her tires. Good thing I was able to cancel office hours to keep her company until the tow truck arrived and then drive her home before returning to school to teach. Also a good thing -- my being able to borrow her car last week while mine was first buried in snow and then unable to start. Marriage can be very useful.
And now, the last UCLA marching band performance of 1979.
On the whole, this is a good performance by the flag line. The issue that I had earlier in the season, that one side was visibly less together than the other, had pretty much cleared up. My one regret was that I didn't have the flags do a brief routine while the band was halted in the middle of "Long Time." Looking at the video, that would have helped the entertainment value. Still, I am a lot happier about the amount of flagwork in this halftime show than I was in the pregame show.
As for the show itself, it felt ironic to extol all of UCLA's then-record 30 NCAA championships, particularly playing "We are the Champions," while the football team was being blown out and UCLA was about the complete a 5-6 season. Then again, we knew our team sucked by that time, so losing this game hurt less than losing the previous two, 1977 in particular. That we lost in the last minute and UCLA went from going to the Rose Bowl to not going to a bowl game at all.
On the whole, this is a good performance by the flag line. The issue that I had earlier in the season, that one side was visibly less together than the other, had pretty much cleared up. My one regret was that I didn't have the flags do a brief routine while the band was halted in the middle of "Long Time." Looking at the video, that would have helped the entertainment value. Still, I am a lot happier about the amount of flagwork in this halftime show than I was in the pregame show.
As for the show itself, it felt ironic to extol all of UCLA's then-record 30 NCAA championships, particularly playing "We are the Champions," while the football team was being blown out and UCLA was about the complete a 5-6 season. Then again, we knew our team sucked by that time, so losing this game hurt less than losing the previous two, 1977 in particular. That we lost in the last minute and UCLA went from going to the Rose Bowl to not going to a bowl game at all.
Finally, this was my sister's last performance with the UCLA Band. She left after seeing the new uniforms and having to deal with all of the politics of the band going to Tokyo.
That's it for 1979. Stay tuned for four posts with performances from 1980.
To celebrate today's eclipse on the main blog, I posted Vox on the Great American Eclipse. Here, I'm observing the occasion, if not the eclipse itself, with something sillier. Take it away, Unipiper!
Keep Portland weird, Unipiper!
Next, a bit of history about the song itself.
This song is about a romantic relationship with a vampire? First, if I had known that 30 years ago, when it became "our song" for myself and my ex-wife, I might have realized that it could be a bad omen for our relationship. Second, I have just the icon for that!
Leaving California
Aug. 22nd, 2014 11:56 pm
Twenty-five years ago today, I left California with my son and ex-wife as we moved to Michigan so that I could attend the University of Michigan to earn a Ph.D. in Biology. That happened. However, the original plan was to move back to the west. That never came to pass. All of us, plus my younger daughter, are still here. I repeated that with my second wife, who moved here from Wisconsin to marry me. Looks like I've been doing my part to reverse the trend of people leaving the state during the past few decades. The result has been something like the image below, except that the heart in Michigan should be in Detroit, not Grand Rapids.
While people moving into Michigan, particularly from California, has not been much of a trend* people moving out of California during the time I've lived here has been. Click on the link below for the relevant excerpts from two entries on The New York Times' The Upshot blog that give the details.
Leaving California at Crazy Eddie's Motie News
As part of the opening to Debate, endorsements, and a poll from KPBS in San Diego, I observed in passing that yesterday (at least here in Michigan) is a holiday. I made no further mention of the day, which is odd, because I stated in Happy Festivus! that I love holidays, including fake ones. I realized that I should have posted something about Martin Luther King Day, at least as much as last year, when it was combined with Obama's Inauguration. Today, I'll mark the occasion by describing my most vivid memory about the holiday, which ironically has nothing to do with the intended meaning of the day. Instead, it's about experiencing the Northridge earthquake from afar through television, a story I tell my students.
Before our daughter was born, my ex-wife and I had agreed that I would take the second feeding of the night, which means that she was bottle-fed. After several years, that meant that I was in charge of my daughter's breakfast. On the morning of MLK Day, my daughter woke me up by saying "Daddy, I'm hungry." So I got up, prepared her breakfast, sat her down in front of the TV in the basement, and then put one of her favorite Disney tapes, which was either "Sleeping Beauty" or "Cinderella," I forget which. Just before the tape started running, I saw the announcement on Good Morning America that there had been an earthquake in Los Angeles. "Yeah, yeah, what else is new," I thought. Then the movie started and I lay down on the couch to sleep. After all, it was a holiday, and I didn't have to go to school or work. When I woke up, Regis and Cathy Lee were not on, as I expected, but news coverage. I recognized immediately that this was a bad thing. The last time I saw news instead of the mid-morning show was when the Challenger exploded. I grew even more horrified when it was about the earthquake and the location shots were all of places I knew and had been. There was damage at the university I had attended before I moved,* damage to the apartments my sister had lived in, damage to the mall where I had shopped. I may have been 2,000 miles and five years away, but it still struck close to home.
I could go on, but I'll let Peter Jennings and the ABC Evening News do the showing instead of me doing the telling in 1/17/94 1st Segment of "ABC World News Tonight" Northridge Quake.
For the rest of the entry, including two embedded videos, surf over to Twentieth anniversary of Northridge earthquake at Crazy Eddie's Motie News.
A tale of two macros
Recyclemania!
Happy Paczki Day!
More Paczki Day videos from WXYZ
Gas prices going up again
WOOD-TV on rising gas prices
Winter has returned
Lou Dobbs thinks "The Lorax" and "The Secret World of Arrietty" are liberal propaganda
Gingrich pledges $2.50 gas; President Obama hits back
Sustainability-related news from Reuters for 2/23
Yes, I'm on break. Why do you ask?
A second week of Relative posts
Feb. 11th, 2012 05:13 pm
I've been continuing my blogging for Nablopomo over at Crazy Eddie's Motie News this past week. The entries that conform to the "Relative" theme, in terms of comparison, finding the connection between two unrelated things, or just spouting my opinion, are:
A sustainable Super Bowl?
Newt Gingrich and the Republican National Committee demagoguing Agenda 21
A moment of science
Two Super Bowl ads about Michigan
Worth 1000 words on Santorum
Two Deep Forest fan videos
Halfway though winter, it finally looks like it
