Figurative Language

There's a sixth grader I tutor some evenings and tonight we were reading a book for his reading homework. The book was "Bridge to Terabithia," and there was a line I came across tonight that caught my eye:

Jess drew the way some people drank whiskey.

It's a nice line. I'm actually a little jealous of it to be honest. However, this is a book aimed at kids, so I question the appropriateness of it. Don't get me wrong, my questioning doesn't stem from the line refering to alcohol. Kids know what whiskey is, talking about it is no big deal. What I wonder, though, is how many kids can really decode this particular metaphor; hopefully there aren't too many of them that are whiskey drinkers.

Honestly, not being a whiskey drinker myself, I'm not sure I understand what it means. How can the way someone draws be like drinking whiskey? Any whiskey drinkers out there want to help me out?

The Blame Game

There aren't many politicians coming away from this bailout bill thing looking good, and it's because so many of them have fallen into the trap of name-calling and finger-pointing. This morning, when it was thought that the bill would pass, McCain makes a speech claiming some of the credit for the success and knocking Obama for not being as involved in the process, then when it fails, his campaign issues a statement saying it's all Obama's and the Democrats' fault. Now, I don't think anyone can realistically lay the failure of the bill at the feet of McCain anymore than he would deserve the credit had it passed, but if you're going to try to claim some of the credit for success then you have to be equally willing to accept some of the blame for failure. Meanwhile, the Republican leadership made a statement claiming that the decisive votes were lost because Speaker Pelosi made a partisan speech on the floor of the House shortly before the vote. I suppose the intent was to lay the blame for the failure squarely at Pelosi's feet (and certainly the Democrats deserve their share), but if I were to take the statement as truth (which I don't), it certainly paints a picture of House Republicans that is petty and short-sighted. The implication is that these twelve Republicans were ready to vote for the bill, and therefore, one would assume, believed it was in the best interests of the country. But then Nancy Pelosi said something mean so they decided to vote against the bill. I'm not so cynical about politics to believe that our elected officials are that childish. The real failure was selling the bailout to the public in the first place. Of course you're going to have a hard time getting votes for the plan when the majority of the public falls into the catagories of "opposed" or "undecided". It doesn't help that left leaning organizations have been trying to use the financial situtation to hit the Republicans for their past policies. It may be fair comment to say that the Republican policies are responsible, but right not pointing fingers is getting in the way of solving the problem. Really, it seems like, other than a few "Chicken Little" pronouncements, that our leaders have been talking to each other too much and to their constituents too little.

It's days like today that are to blame for so many people being so turned off by politics. What a mess.

Random Video featuring Double SNL

I'm almost ready to root for McCain to win in the hopes of getting four more years of Tina Fey's Sarah Palin impression.

Almost.

If Obama wins they're going to need to work on the Obama impersonation, it's not quite there yet.

A Word From Our Sponsors

Well, not really. I don't actually have any sponsors. I wish I had sponsors. For that matter, I wish I had a large enough audience to justify a sponsor.

LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! PAY ATTENTION TO ME!

Sigh.

At any rate, I do want to plug something. There's a site I've been using called BookMooch that I adore. Basically, the site facilitates the swapping of books between users. Here, I'll let the founder explain:



Cool, huh? So, why am I bringing it up here? Well, I've got a few credits burning a hole in my account, but despite the large selection of books already available, I'm having trouble finding books to mooch. The books I know I want to read are just too damn popular (and other users seem to be faster on the mooch than I am).

My hopes are two-fold. First, if I can get more people signing up and adding books, maybe I can catch one of the ones I've been looking for. Second, maybe some folks here will be good enough to recommend some books for me to look for over on BookMooch that I haven't thought of.

So, you've got your orders, now get to it.

200 Words: "Timelapse" Part 8

Previously . . .

The sun went down on this strange day and Jim found himself wandering up Pearl Street. The bar was a little more upscale than the crowd inside. This was due, in large part, to the daytime clientele from the surrounding downtown business district. After work hours, most of the bar's business came from the University's overflow dorm (actually two floors of a neighboring hotel).

Jim scanned the establishment for Carla and the other Jim, but they didn't seem to be here yet. He did, however, spot a familiar face behind the bar.

"Jenna," he greeted the bartender as he took a stool at the bar. "I didn't know you worked here."

Jenna stared at him blankly. "Do I know you?"

"What do you mean? It's . . .," Jim trailed off as a realization hit him. She didn't know him, at least not yet. They weren't due to meet for another two years.

"I mean," Jenna replied, "I don't recognize you. Have we met?" She thought for a moment and added, "Was it Jeremy's party last week? 'Cause I was completely out of it that night."

"Uh, yeah. Party. That's it," said Jim, covering.

"Ah. Hope I didn't act too crazy," she said.

Random Video featuring Joe Versus the Volcano

I like Joe Biden, but sheesh!

What's Wrong With Wonder Woman

I noticed some chatter on the web recently asking why Wonder Woman is the only one of DC's so-called "Trinity" (Superman and Batman being the other two) not to have a movie adaptation. Sure, there have been rumblings from time to time, but it always seems to fall apart fairly early on in the process.

Why is that? She's as iconic as Superman or Batman; ask a few non-comics readers to name a female super-hero and the only one most would be able to come up with would be Wonder Woman. So, what's the problem? It can't be the ties to Greek mythology. Hollywood's been mining the ancient world for story ideas for decades. Is it because the main character of a Wonder Woman movie would be a woman? True, unless I'm forgetting something, I don't think there's been a successful superhero movie with a female lead, but there are certainly other types of movies with women as the heroes.

No, I think the real obstacle may be that the comics don't provide enough of a blueprint to build a movie from. Her origin, molded from clay and given life by the gods, while interesting, lacks the inherent drama of an exploding planet or murdered parents. Her mission is a bit vague. Honestly, I'm not exactly sure I could clearly state her reason for being. She needs something catchy like, "Truth, Justice, and the American Way." Further, Wonder Woman doesn't really have any iconic stories, like Batman's The Dark Knight Returns or The Killing Joke to draw from. Then there's her villains. Honestly, they kind of suck. There's not a Lex Luthor or a Joker in the bunch. Wonder Woman's movie prospects have suffered from decades of comics writers having no idea what to do with the character.

So, is Wonder Woman an unfilmable property? I don't think so. As with anything, with the right combination of talent it could be a big hit. She's just a bit harder to get a handle on the boys in capes.

McCain's Bailout

I'm of two minds about Senator McCain's suggestion that Friday's debate be postponed. I'm not conflicted over whether it's a good idea or not. Oh no, I think it's a terrible idea. I just can't decide if it (along with his decision to suspend his campaign) in well-meaning but misguided or crassly manipulative.

I managed to catch Senator Obama's statement later in the day and found that he was expressing the same reaction I had had to McCain's decision. In a time of crisis it's all the more important for the presidential candidates to be out there making their cases to the people. I remember a week or two ago I heard one of the TV talking heads, I forget who, in a rare moment of insight make the point that this election is more important than the current economic problems. The next president is going to be the one who's in charge of leading the country out of not only the economic troubles, but all the problems we've got ahead of us. There's not much time left before election day, it would be foolish of both the candidates and the electorate to waste any of it. Further, as Obama pointed out, a president is going to have to be able to multi-task effectively in office. There's no reason that the candidates can't continue to campaign and do their part to help with the current situation. I could see changing the topic of Friday's debate to domestic issues (since those are the issues at the forefront of people's minds), but cancel it? Don't be silly.

I suppose the real question now is will the electorate be impressed by McCain's choice or will it come back to haunt him.

Chuck!

Chuck's back!

Well, actually it doesn't make it back to television until next Monday, but the season premiere is up online now. As an aside, I think NBC has a pretty clever Internet strategy; premiering certain shows (particularly shows like Chuck or Life that had truncated first seasons due to the strike) early on the web to build buzz.

Back to Chuck, I'd forgotten how much I loved this show. Not surprising given that there hasn't been a new episode since January. The season premiere, Chuck vs. the First Date, was a great reminder of why I like this show. It brings the funny as always, while at the same time keeping the characters and their internal lives and external adventures compelling.

The episode picks up where we left off last season. The government is preparing to activate a new Intersect (apparently built from a first generation Mac. No, seriously, look at it.) and Casey, played by Adam Baldwin, has orders to eliminate the old Intersect (aka Chuck). There's a nice moment in the episode, after Casey has been reminded of his orders, where he chambers a round in his gun and mutters to himself, "I used to like that sound."

Meanwhile, Chuck is excited by the prospect of getting his life back. Yvonne Strahovski as Sarah, does a great job of showing the conflicting feelings of happiness, that Chuck can go back to a normal life, but also a little sadness for herself; she'll miss him.

Looking forward to the rest of the season. The only downside to watching this episode early is that I'll have to wait two weeks for the next new episode. Sigh.

Re: Heroes Season 3 Premiere

Wow. And I thought the X-Men had bleak potential futures.

It seems like no matter what the characters do on Heroes, everything is destined to turn to shit at some point in the future. Season one there was a devastating explosion wiping out most of Manhattan followed by an immensely powerful psychopath becoming president (and so far that seems to be the best of the bunch). Season two we had a glimpse of a world devastated by some kind of super-virus (was it a virus, it's been so long and the season was so short, I've sort of forgotten). This season, in the first episode alone we get a peek at what I think are two different possibles. First we get Dark Peter's future, which seems to be shades of "Days of Future Past" (X-Men reference for my non-geek readers), then we get Hiro's visit to a future with some sort of massive disaster that looks to be wiping out Tokyo, if not the whole world. I'd ask why even bother trying anymore, but then I guess that's why the show's called Heroes.

Other thoughts: Yay, a speedster! And I hope we get to see more of her and Hiro interacting; they're powers are a great match-up. Yay, Kristen Bell's back! I didn't pay close enough attention to the credits to see if she's a regular or not, but hopefully she shows up in a good number of episodes. Yay, Malcolm McDowell's back! Hopefully we'll get to see a good bit of him this season as well, because he's all kinds of awesome. The season's off to a good start, and I'm looking forward to the rest of it.

On Friendship

I'm not exactly sure why, but I got to wondering, "What do our friends say about us? Why do we befriend some people and not others? What does that choice mean?

I think maybe we connect with the people we do because we see something of ourselves reflected in them; something we are or something we want. It's why we tend to be more forgiving of our friends' failings than we would be of the failings of strangers.

That's my hypothesis anyway. As I apply it to myself it seems to fit. Even in the friends of mine that are most different from each other, I can identify that piece of me in them. Though, I may not be the best test case for a couple of reasons:

A) I'm a major league narcissist, so it's no great shock that I see myself reflected in others.

B) I'm a bit . . . picky about who I call friend, so my sample size might be a bit on the small side.

There would seem to be an interesting, additional implication to this idea of mine. Take any two friends, no matter how close, and they probably each have a trait that the other finds at least mildly annoying. It would stand to reason then, if my hypothesis holds any water, that within the two overlapping circles of friends, each person would have someone who'd annoy the hell out of the other.

Just a thought I had.

200 Words on Vacation

My 200 Words project is taking the week off. Last week's installment was the end of the first part/chapter/act of the story, so it seems like a good time for a short break. I'll be back next week with the beginning of the next part/chapter/act.

Random Video featuring SNL

Wow. Tina Fey nailed the Palin impression.

Frappr Update

I've gotten a few pins in the map. Just throwing this up here to see if I can attract some more.

200 Words: "Timelapse" Part 7

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

It was early afternoon by the time Jim was ready to mail his completed letter. He dropped the letter in a mailbox across the street from the library and he waited.

Jim wasn't exactly sure what he was waiting for, but wait he did.

He waited. And waited. And waited. After two hours, Jim had nothing to show for his waiting aside from loose change tossed at him by passersby. Had the future been changed? Would at least some of the events he had listed be averted? Apparently he'd have to wait and find out along with everyone else. That realization left Jim with one question: What now?

He was still ten years in his own past with no clear purpose and no way to get back. That meant he was going to have to live this part of his life over again. This was not good news.

It's not that this was a bad time in his life, he'd just done it all before. Beyond that, there was the problem of memory. He remembered general things about this time of his life, but many of the details had been washed away by the intervening decade. He needed a guide.

Mr. Smith

I caught a little bit of Mr. Smith Goes To Washington on TV last night. It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that I really identify with the worldview seen in Frank Capra's films, but what really gets me about this one is how it's still relevant to politics today.

I think Capra's movies sometimes get a reputation for being simplistic or naive. I think this reputation largely comes from people who's only contact with his films is ignoring It's A Wonderful Life every year at Christmas. It's not a world without darkness or corruption. Mr. Smith is a film all about corruption, but it's a realistic portrait of corruption. Sen. Smith's main opponent within the Senate is Senator Paine, who's in the pocket of the corrupt political boss. Paine is clearly corrupt, but you can see that he was once a good man, in fact I think he was probably once just like Smith. But then he realized he had to make compromises to get things done and it just snowballed from there. We all know what the path to hell is paved with. The idea that Capra is so good at capturing in his films is that a good man can make a difference.

One thing that I did notice as I was watching last night, that I've never noticed before, was that the film seemed to have something to say about race. The thing that stuck out is late in the film. The Boy Rangers (the Boy Scout stand-ins, because the real Boy Scouts organization thought the film was too subversive) are working together to get Smith's message out to the people. Right there, working along with the white boys is a young African American boy. Nothing is said about it, and other than race the kid is just like his compatriots, he's just doing his bit like everyone else. This may not seem like much, but let's put it in context. This movie was released in 1939, not a point in history particularly well known for racial tolerance in small town America. Would black and white kids be interacting so freely with each other? More to the point, for this young boy to be in the film, wouldn't Capra have specifically set out to cast an African American child? Wouldn't the default have been to have had another white boy? Maybe I'm making too much of this small detail, but it just stuck out to me for the first time last night.

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington should be required viewing for every American. It's a great showcase for our political system, both the good and the bad. And, of course, the fact that a number of the most oppressive governments of the last century have banned the film certainly argues in its favor as well.

That Will Teach Him To Be Folksy

"You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig."

How dare Senator Obama make such a mean and sexist comment about Governor Palin.

What? You don't see Palin's name in there anywhere? Why, it's clear as day! He uses the "lipstick," the same word she used as a punchline in her convention speech. She owns the word now. From now until November, anytime someone uses the word lipstick, they're clearly talking about Sarah Palin (and I think she gets a nickle for each use, too). At least, that's what the Republican Party seems to be suggesting.

Sigh. Whatever happened to the John McCain I was happy to vote for in the 2000 primaries? The one who seemed like a decent and reasonable guy. The one who wasn't afraid of speaking unpopular truths. One who fought against the corrupt politics that we've all gotten tired of. The one who's 2000 campaign was tanked due to a vile smear campaign. I guess he's taken an "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" philosophy. He's been adjusting his positions in a crassly political way in the years since 2000 trying to get this year's nominations, still, when it became obvious that he would win the Republican nomination this year, I had hopes that we might have a higher level of discourse this year. Maybe, just maybe, the candidates would debate policy rather resort to this old-school childishness.

Silly me.

Synchronicity

The universe is trying to tell me something.

Specifically, it's trying to tell me something about fainting goats. For those that aren't familiar with this breed of goat, here's a short video:



Three times in the past week I've happened across some reference to the goats on TV. First came last week's episode of Mythbusters (great show, by the way), where they put the breed's reputation to the test. Next, I happened on a ten year-old movie, "Addicted to Love," on cable while channel surfing. At one point while I had it on, one of the characters begins talking about fainting goats. Finally, tonight, I flipped past CNN and there was Anderson Cooper talking about . . . you guessed it, fainting goats.

This cannot be a coincidence. Clearly the cosmic forces are trying to tell me something about these goats. Now if I could only figure out what.

Would it kill the cosmic forces to be a bit clearer?

"Do you really want to go there, Senator?"

The McCain campaign has released a new ad making misleading claims about Senator Obama's sex-ed record. Putting aside the misleading nature of the ad, is this even a topic McCain wants to get into? His running mate supports abstinence only sex-ed (is this McCain's position as well? Does he have a position) in defiance of all common sense and an example in her own family of the uselessness of such a curriculum.

Look, I've got nothing against abstinence as a concept, and certainly it should be included in a sex-ed curriculum, but the idea of it being the only inclusion is ridiculous. It's like trying to teach the alphabet by only discussing the vowels, it's woefully incomplete. If human history has taught us nothing else, it's taught us that people, especially hormonal teenagers, will have sex. Better to arm them with the knowledge of how to protect themselves from pregnancy and disease than leave them to fumble around in ignorance.

It's always baffled me that so many pro-life advocates are against effective sex-ed. If you can reduce unwanted pregnancies through education it won't matter whether it's legal or illegal.

Bah. It's really frustrating when peoples puritanical hang-ups get in the way of sound public policy.

It's. . . Science!

I've been catching up with my podcast listening lately. Today I was listening to an episode of Studio 360 from a couple of months ago where they were talking about the Large Hadron Collider over in Switzerland (which, a quick check of the news-sites reveal, is being switched on sometime tomorrow). As a science dilettante I find this interesting for the sense of perspective it give. Look at how far humanity has come in not only our knowledge and understanding, but also in our technical ability over the past 100 years. Of course, the other reason it's interesting is for the apocalyptic doomsayers claiming that it will bring about the end of the world. I mean, really, who doesn't like a good apocalypse?


Besides, doesn't it just look cool?

As an aside, Studio 360 included an interesting, speculative short story in their piece:



Am I worried? Of course not. While I personally don't have the knowledge or experience to evaluate the probability of some extinction event arising out of this machine, I'm reassured by the fact that those who do have that knowledge and experience have determined that the risk is infinitesimally small. It does raise and interesting question (at least in my mind), though. How large does a risk have to be before it becomes a concern? If you play it too safe, you'll never learn anything new, but if you're too daring the consequences could be quite far reaching. Where's the balance?

Personally, I don't know, but it is an interesting question to think about.

Save Superman's Birthplace

No, not Krypton, the house where Superman was first created needs to be saved. Here's a video about it:



It can be difficult to justify logically the historic preservation of places, but historic places have an emotional power, the ability to create a visceral connection between history and an individual. For that reason I tend to be a big fan of historic preservation, and the creation of Superman (and by extension an entire genre) seems pretty historic to me. Besides, if we can preserve the birthplaces of boring things (kidding) like Google and HP, surely we can preserve the birthplace of something cool like Superman (nerd-fight!).

200 Words: "Timelapse" Part 6

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

"Think big?" Jim asked. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well," Carla replied, "you said your character is ten years in the past, so think about disasters or atrocities that have happened in the last ten years."

"Oh," said Jim, becoming very serious.

Carla continued, "So, he could try to warn people about one or more of them."

"How?" Jim asked. "Would anyone believe him?"

"There's your story," Carla said smiling. "Answer that question and the thing'll write itself.

Carla noted that Jim's mind seemed to have moved elsewhere as he was now staring off into space.

"Well," she said, "I really should be getting back to work. Thing Two and I were going to check out that bar on Pearl tonight, wanna come?"

"Huh," Jim replied distractedly, "uh, no, I've got too much to work on." As an afterthought he added, "Maybe some other time."

"Oh, okay." Disappointed, Carla disappeared into the bookshelves.

Jim sat down at a table and pulled out paper and pen from his bag. He wrote:

To Whom It May Concern:

I know this sounds unbelievable, but I have advance knowledge of the next ten years. The following events will occur on or around the following dates:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we've officially run out of ideas."

Fox has a new reality/game show coming this fall called "Hole in the Wall". The concept behind the game is that the contestants try to match the shape of their bodies to shapes cut into a big yellow wall moving toward them. If they're successful, they pass through the wall as it goes by, if not they get swept into the swimming pool behind them.

That's it. That's all there is to it. This is how Fox proposes to fill airtime this fall.

It's really hard to defend TV sometimes.

The Ache

For me, the best feeling in the world, and the one I end up devoting the most mental resources to analyzing, is the one that comes at the end of a near perfect story. I call it "the ache." It's that feeling that is at once joy at a well told tale, sadness that the story is over, and a desperate hunger for more. There's nothing quite like it, at least not for me, and it is far too rare. I tend to experience it the most with movies, though there have been books, plays, even one or two songs.

And so I consider this feeling, analyzing it, dissecting it, trying to pick out its secrets. There is nothing I'd rather be able to do that engender this feeling in others with a story of my own. Maybe someday.

This of course assumes that the ache is universal and not something unique to me. If it is mine alone, then I feel an enormous amount of pity for everyone else.

Random Video featuring Better Know A Lobby - Atheism

Just Answer The Question!

I had CNN on earlier today, and they were saying that McCain had pulled out of a scheduled interview because of this segment from last night:



The McCain campaign contends that CNN crossed the line with this questioning. How? It seems to me that the problem was that the spokesperson was evading the question that Campbell Brown was putting to him.

Well, actually, the problem was the spokesperson trying to assert that being commander, as governor, of the Alaska National Guard equates to significant military experience. That's just silly. Almost as silly as the assertion I heard earlier that the fact that Alaska is the closest state to Russia means that Palin is an experienced foreign policy hand.