tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-98611032024-03-07T17:03:43.532-06:00Future PoltergeistDaily bits of my life. Friday pictures. And a neverending series of reading projects.Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.comBlogger3956125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-6245271874422838422021-04-01T07:52:00.005-05:002021-04-01T07:52:00.450-05:00The Artist - 2011<p> On the face of it, this movie is pure gimmick. It's a black and white movie, made entirely in the style of a silent movie. With few exceptions, the only sounds we hear are in the movie score. There are cards with quoted dialogue on them, just like in old times, but most of the movie is conveyed through the acting. </p><p>At first I was irked by this, because it felt very gimmicky, but it really grew on me. The acting that is needed in such a genre is different than in the "talkies" and it was interesting to experience it. It required close attention, and it drew me in to the story. The movie has a ton of heart and it's easy to see why it got so much praise.</p><p>The story is somewhat similar to 'Singing in the Rain'. A silent movie star (Jean Dujardin) has the rug pulled out from under him but the inclusion of sound in movies. He rejects it and feels that it will have no place for him. (Very late in the movie, we find out why.) The change in movie style happens just as the Great Depression hits, so he goes from stardom to poverty.</p><p>Early in the movie he meets a young woman with a great smile (Berenice Bojo) who wants to get into film. He helps her with some advice and she soon becomes America's sweetheart. She succeeds just as he fails, like two arms of a balance. Their relationship is interesting. At many other times in the movies, they would have ended up in bed together, but 'The Artist' really shows them as having a strong friendship, without hinting at more.</p><p>This won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2011, which I remember as being seen as a surprise. When I've watched all of the movies from that year, I'll circle back and say whether I thought it was deserving or not.</p>Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-26567092522654207262021-03-31T07:52:00.001-05:002021-03-31T07:52:14.216-05:00Oscar Nominees<p> Long time readers of the blog will remember that I've had a thing for watching movies that were nominated for Best Picture. In fact, the very first function for this whole thing was to record my watching of the 50 movies that had that distinction in the 90s. I still enjoy doing so, but marriage and kids have sometimes been an obstacle in watching arthouse style movies. </p><p>Sometime in the 00s I stopped being a completest when it comes to watching the noms. That was true by the middle of the decade and became even more of a thing when the Oscars expanded past five noms per year in 2009. I don't know that the quality of the movies declined, but carving out time to watch nine movies is simply a more daunting task. Harder to start and (much) easier to slough off. </p><p>A few weeks back, it occurred to me that I could fix that. I could watch the ones I haven't seen and rewatch some that I don't remember well. I like to have some kind of project going and if I approach this in a casual way, then I could finish it in a year or two. Plus, with all of the streaming options out there, it's easier than ever to catch movies without paying additional money. </p><p>So I did what I always do in situations like this and made a spreadsheet. By my count, there were 88 movies nominated for Best Picture in the '10s. Before I started this project, I had watched just under half of them: 43. Several of the movies that I haven't seen are available to stream on Netflix, Amazon Prime or with YouTubeTV. In addition, I'm one of the few (the proud!) that still gets DVDs from Netflix in the mail. In time, I'll see them all. </p><p>And, because I love you all, I'll put up some reviews here on the blog. </p>Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-77991002694771587582020-12-01T07:31:00.001-06:002020-12-01T07:31:18.136-06:00More Physical Media<p> In the spirit of my post from last week, I'm thinking about <a href="https://www.paradoxreview.com/2017/11/28/print-your-blog/">this article</a>, suggesting that we print our blogs before they disappear into the technical ether. </p><p>Thinking really hard about making this happen...</p>Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-31332715820309900732020-11-29T08:58:00.001-06:002020-11-29T08:58:31.046-06:00Comet Neowise<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqt5tVqWlvkICSCLd2Sd-B22UujAuZogFFxUcMLZ6MLBIFps0X4TNKzFNSTBrEnj9I6GMXVWdHgoFggoKB00Gf4GYOK3uHAcT0mf7RLN-IjuR6OhtE1kuzNhcjC53T_JFxy4r6/s4032/IMG_20200715_225153.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqt5tVqWlvkICSCLd2Sd-B22UujAuZogFFxUcMLZ6MLBIFps0X4TNKzFNSTBrEnj9I6GMXVWdHgoFggoKB00Gf4GYOK3uHAcT0mf7RLN-IjuR6OhtE1kuzNhcjC53T_JFxy4r6/s320/IMG_20200715_225153.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> I want to share some of my favorite pictures of this past year. Right before we went up to Camp Van Vac this year, news broke about a comet that would be visible to the northwest, after sunset. I knew that this would line up perfectly with our nightly sunset watch and it did. We dutifully went out several nights and saw it. I got to play with the nighttime settings on my camera and I got this dandy. <p></p><p><br /></p>Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-62499459066328925632020-11-26T09:25:00.003-06:002020-11-26T09:25:36.633-06:00Thanksgiving<p> I don't know if I've done a "things I'm thankful for" in a long time - or ever. Today seems like a good day to change that. I'm thankful for:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>My family, of course. I'm thankful for my children who are (often) wonderful. And my lovely wife. This past year has been a taxing one, with all of us stuck at home together. But I've come to appreciate them more than I think I would have if this was a typical year. (I'm also thankful for headphones, both theirs and mine.)</li><li>The family I don't live with. I'm thankful for my brother and sister, who are both wonderful people. I'm thankful for my mom, who is also wonderful. I don't get to see them nearly as often as I'd like to and this year drove that home. The same is true of my aunts and uncles and cousins and so on.</li><li>My friends, who I'm still attached to thanks to social media. Places like Facebook have their downsides but being able to quickly talk to so many people I hadn't seen in years is great. And I get to do this every day if I want.</li><li>My health. In this year, with rampant disease, we healthy people should all be thankful for what we have. And I am! (Thankful that my family has been healthy as well!)</li><li>Our modern world. There are so many modern things that have made staying at home easier than it would have been. Thirty years ago we wouldn't have been connected with each other or to easy entertainment. Food delivery was a thing but nearly as robustly as it is now. Same with other deliveries. </li></ul><div>It's been hard but not unbearable and I'm thankful for that.</div><p></p>Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-80365344546222829632020-11-25T07:38:00.005-06:002020-11-25T07:38:45.604-06:00Time Passes<p> One of the strangest things about being stuck in the pandemic is how completely unhooked from the normal passing of time I've become. Before the plague struck, the routine was largely:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>M-F, everyone leaves in the morning and comes home in the afternoon. We spend the evening together (over a shared meal or otherwise) and then go to bed with some thought to the next day.</li><li>Sat/Sun, usually an outing. Possibly out for breakfast or brunch. Watch a sporting event one of the afternoons, possibly both. Sunday night has a feel of getting ready for the next week of work or school.</li></ul><div>This is no longer true. The FP Gal and the kids still have school and work but it's different. No one leaves home so it doesn't feel like they've broken away to a different thing. They simply go down to their various rooms and do their thing. The kids filter up at various times every morning and I try to keep the boys quiet. I see the ladies at lunch and again later in the afternoon when they're done with school for the day.</div><div>In the evening we may or may not eat together. (My kids are now all expert in getting their own meals ready.) During screen time the kids disappear, giving me the much needed mental break of not trying to keep them quiet. Then bedtimes happen and their day is done.</div><div>Sometimes I feel like the lotus eaters from the Odyssey. I don't have quite enough time to launch big projects of my own so I nibble at smaller things. A few times this year I've gotten hooked by a large book but those times have been rare. Usually I simply can't concentrate for the long times needed to really enjoy it.</div><div><br /></div><div>The seasonal thing has been harder. The pandemic hit in March and promptly canceled one of the big events in the sports calendar: the NCAA Men's basketball tournament. All of the other sports shut down too, including that annual harbinger of spring, baseball. By the time my White Sox came back it was July and it felt very off. Don't get me wrong, they were a lot of fun to watch this year, but the empty stands made it feel something like a huge succession of practice games.</div><div>More recently, we had a huge snowfall in October, the largest in recorded history for our area. We had significant snow on the ground and it felt like winter was starting six weeks early. The snow did melt as we had a very warm early November. In fact, here we are on the day before Thanksgiving and the ground is still clear of the white stuff. Which is fine with me, but it's still messing with my mental calendar.</div><div>Celebrations are all wrong, with only immediate family able to attend. We aren't driving to see family on any of the big family holidays. We aren't gathering together as a community to watch fireworks. There are no parades. All of the special things are . . . different. (I don't blame the planners, things <i>are</i> different. But that doesn't make it easier.) </div><div>I'm sure when we look back and try to communicate this era to later people, this will be the hardest thing to explain to them. Yes, we were afraid to be sick. Yes, we were uncertain of what measures were needed. We were especially uncertain of <i>how much</i> of the measures were needed. But for me, the hardest part has been the passing of time. Internally, I don't know when it is. </div><div>Maybe even more importantly, I don't know when I ever will again.</div><p></p>Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-7727091446178119112020-11-24T08:00:00.001-06:002020-11-24T08:00:01.523-06:00Status Updates<p> It's been so long since I've written anything that I should probably say something about how we're all doing. </p><p>Relia is now a teenager. She has a good, tight group of friends with which she is in constant contact. They're all good people and I'm very happy for her. She is artistic and capable and frustrated whenever she's told she can't do something Right Now. I'm impressed by how she will decide on a project and then jump right into it. At the moment she is leaning towards being a psychologist (psychiatrist? therapist?) and I'm sure she'd make a great one.</p><p>DF is ten and loves gaming. He plays video games whenever he has a chance and is thinking of going into the field someday. In many ways he is a copy of me. Physically he looks like my younger twin, except he started growing his hair long at a much earlier age than I did. I'm sometimes frustrated that he isn't reading the same books that I did at his age, but he is a reader. In third grade, he tackled all of the Harry Potter books. When we told him to stop after the third one, he checked the fourth one out of the school library and quietly advanced on his own. </p><p>LL is eight and I think the Covid has been hard for him. Second and third grade are a prime time for making friends. It's about the time that kids can push past their normal selfishness and care about how other people feel. He's been spending that time at home with his family and that's made connections with others hard. </p><p>Right now LL likes wearing dresses. We're fine with this (natch) and curious where he'll go from here. His personality has always been stubborn but he's starting to soften. He's incredibly artistic and beginning to love history. </p><p>The FP Gal has been teaching from home ever since March. She's thrived while working via video in a way that I don't know many others have. She likes the medium and works very hard to present things to her students in a way that helps them. I keep telling her that this may point to an educational career outside of the traditional classroom. We'll see.</p><p>Me? I'm fine. No, really, I am. I'm something of a homebody so not going out has only been an occasional issue for me. Having everyone home with me all the time hasn't been great but I'm getting used to it. Before the pandemic hit I had trained to be an independent bookkeeper but about the time I was ready to find clients, the economic situation got very uncertain. I still plan to do that but my writing is higher up in my brain. I have the stories and I'm confident in my writing ability. It's just harder to get things down on paper when the house is full. </p><p>And that, as of this moment, is how we are.</p>Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-65709696293360465722020-11-23T17:44:00.002-06:002020-11-23T17:44:24.105-06:00New Posts<p> Yesterday featured something unusual for this blog: a new post. Over the weekend I realized that I wished that I'd been blogging through this whole pandemic. It would have made for a nice record of this time period. I'm not sure why I didn't. Several people suggested keeping a diary. The fact that I didn't is purely my own fault. When I told this to the FP Gal she simply told me that the best thing I could do would be to start writing <i>now</i>.</p><p>Which is what I'm doing. </p><p>I don't want to make the classic mistake where I promise that I'll do this every day and then fail to write a single new blog post ever again. What I'm doing is quietly deciding to bring the blog back from the dead and . . . write some stuff. </p><p>This used to be a habit of mine and I know that people used to check the blog daily to see if anything new was there. Maybe that will happen again, though no promises! In any case, it feels good to do this. </p><p>See you tomorrow!</p>Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-44536795550761308662020-11-22T08:32:00.003-06:002020-11-22T08:32:20.779-06:00Physical Media<p> This past summer, I read some articles on the importance of buying physical media. Music on CDs, movies on DVDs and books in hard copies. There are several reasons for this, the most pointed one being that we live in an age where various people of influence have started to decree that some of things of the past should be kept away from people of the present. If you don't agree with them and still want to watch 'Gone With the Wind', you cannot depend on it being made available to you. Buy your own copy and the decision is completely in your own hands.</p><p>Another good reason to actually own the goods, especially with movies and TV is that we don't know when things will drop off the face of the earth and become completely unavailable. Check out <a href="https://uproxx.com/movies/cocoon-streaming-wilford-brimley-ron-howard/">this article</a> about one person's attempt to watch the movie 'Cocoon' earlier this year. It's unavailable to stream and long out of print. (The writer eventually buys a used DVD copy for $25.) 'Cocoon' was a popular movie when it came out. It was the 6th highest grossing film of 1985. There is no reason for it to disappear. </p><p>After reading about 'Cocoon', which isn't a big movie for me, I decided that it was time to grab some movies that do hold special value for me. Older ones, sure, but more recent classics too. Just because something is a staple of cable TV for now, doesn't mean that I won't be hard pressed to find it 20 years from now. As a bonus, this is a good time to find cheap copies of DVDs and CDs, as other people have decided to leave physical media behind.</p><p>This is a long winded way of saying that my family got me some DVDs for my birthday, yesterday. Thanks to them, I can add to my home collection:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Time Bandits</li><li>Good Morning Vietnam</li><li>The Birdcage</li><li>The Social Network</li><li>Interstellar</li></ul><div>The last three of these are pretty widely available, often for free. But I don't know how long that will be the case. And now, I don't have to worry about it.</div><p></p><p><br /></p>Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-18566143609984578372019-12-05T09:38:00.002-06:002019-12-05T09:38:44.514-06:00Nearby Olympic Sites<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Last week, during the Falcons game, they showed an overhead view of the nearby Olympic plaza. I realized that I'd never visited an Olympic site before and that I'd really like to. It would be cool to see the infrastructure and to see what's being commemorated. What would be the easiest place to do that?<br />
I told the FP Gal and we tried to figure out which site would be closest to us. I thought it might be Calgary. She mentioned Lake Placid. I said that Salt Lake City would probably be in the mix. I tried to Google it but Google was having problems so I put it on a mental shelf and moved on.<br />
The next day I looked up the results. Per Google, from my home location:<br />
<br />
Lake Placid, NY is 1250 miles away.<br />
Salt Lake City, UT is 1238 miles away.<br />
Calgary, up in Canada, is 1201 miles away.<br />
<br />
That's pretty amazing. Three sites, chosen for their Olympic pasts, are almost equidistant from us. Less than a 5% difference between the extremes. Pretty crazy.<br />
Only after figuring this out did I realize that I should look into the distance to Atlanta, the site that kicked off the whole idea. According to Google, it's only 1085 miles away. I had no idea that Atlanta was closer to us than Salt Lake City. To my mind, it's an east coast place and we live on the edge of the Great Plains. We should be closer to a mountain city, but obviously that's not true. US geography is tricky.<br />
But wait! There is another site that I'd forgotten about! Way back in 1904, one of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1904_Summer_Olympics">crazier Olympic</a> games was held in St. Louis, MO, only 532 miles away. The events were part of a five month exhibition. Very few other countries sent athletes and the US cleaned up in the (newly introduced) medal count. This <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-1904-olympic-marathon-may-have-been-the-strangest-ever-14910747/">Smithsonian article</a> does a good job of capturing the weirdness of the whole shebang.<br />
Would a trip to visit Olympic sites be worthwhile? I'm not really sure. A few of the buildings from the 1904 games are still in use at Washington University. A couple of years ago, an initiative sprung up in St. Louis to commemorate their Olympic history. <a href="https://www.stlouis1904legacy.org/">Their website is here</a>. It looks like a dedicated fan could spend some time there and find some good stuff.<br />
My original question was where the easiest past Olympic site would be to visit. After quickly coming up with three wrong answers, I seem to have stumbled upon a right one. If I want to check out a former Olympic area, I should go to St. Louis.<br />
<br /></div>
Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-78170539278956254462018-08-29T13:00:00.003-05:002018-08-29T13:00:33.591-05:00List from an *Anti*-List<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I love my reading lists and this one came from an unexpected place. The <a href="https://lifehacker.com/you-shouldn-t-have-to-read-these-books-in-high-school-1828549376">whole article</a> is worth reading but I think I most want to focus on the books that the author wants kicked out of high schools.</div>
Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-31543084905953033792018-02-05T14:41:00.002-06:002018-02-05T14:41:29.684-06:00Suggestions for Winter Olympics<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Back in 2014, right before the Sochi Olympics, I did a list of suggested winter Olympic sports. I put those suggestions out, one by one, on Facebook but I didn't have them all collected anywhere. I have since found the word document that I used while brainstorming the list and I thought I'd put the suggestions here for posterity.<br />
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">1. Paint ball on ice </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">2. Competitive polar bearing</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">3. Capture the flag</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">4. Ice sculpture racing</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">5. Snow fort construction</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">6. Winter bike commuting</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">7. Dog sledding (actual suggestion)</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">8. Getting a toddler dressed and into a car seat</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">9. Ice yachting</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">10. Snowshoe long jump</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">11. 4 X 100 Driveway shovel relay</span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-6f36d6c4-67b2-85d4-c3fe-de9589e25350"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">12. Snow ball fight</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Some of these are obviously jokes but there are some that I like quite a bit. </span></div>
</div>
Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-11659466552425168742017-03-29T07:38:00.004-05:002017-03-29T07:38:49.116-05:00LL's Birthday<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As a snapshot of where he is, here are some of the things LL wants for his birthday:<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>mirrored sunglasses</li>
<li>a nerf dart gun/suction cup darts</li>
<li>a builder playset (I'm not sure what this is)</li>
<li>colored foam, like the kind with colored paper that makes it stick together (?)</li>
<li>NOT a younger brother (maybe a younger sister)</li>
<li>after explaining the long odds against a younger sister, he said that he simply wanted help making one out of a paper bag</li>
<li>a fun day</li>
</ul>
<br /></div>
Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-86772542260488105192017-03-25T08:01:00.001-05:002017-03-25T08:01:59.206-05:00Dearth of a Salesman<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The other night the FP Gal and I were talking about classic literature that we read in high school. This conversation was started because I was talking about my interactions with my classmates in my college literature course. My class has been sub-divided into smaller groups of five or six and my group consists of several young high schoolers, mostly women. Their approach to the poems and stories that we've been reading is very different than mine. This is understandable and not at all meant as a criticism. An 18 year old must have a very different perspective on fundamental issues like death and marriage.<br />
Anyway, this lead me to talk with the FP Gal about what 'classic' stuff we had read while in high school. I mentioned that I'd happened to read 'Death of a Salesmen' twice and didn't feel the need to read it ever again. She calmly told me that it's probably a piece that isn't meant for high school. We both agreed that it might be valuable for me to read it now, as a middle age man who is frustrated in his work career.<br />
Alas! I was pretty sure that it was all packed up. I probably have five or six copies of it in different collections but I've already packed the drama section of my bookshelves. I told her that I'd feel some obligation to follow up and reread it, but I couldn't.<br />
You can see where this is going, can't you? Two weeks from now, in my lit class, we'll be reading 'Death of a Salesmen'.<br />
<br />
Joy.</div>
Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-56508136436037991142017-03-21T07:26:00.002-05:002017-03-21T07:26:53.859-05:00More Musical Education<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The musical education continues apace. This morning I played this gem for Relia and tried to explain to her what I loved about it:<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TEOKJe3QqoE" width="560"></iframe>
I spoke about how smooth the music is. And indeed, when people speak of music being 'silky', this is what they mean. The strings and the back up singers all help, but George Michael's voice is simply gorgeous here. I then played her the original, which I also love, but maybe not as much as this recreation. As I was finding that, I found a version from Adele:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sLfWPLLn-QI" width="560"></iframe><br />
I like this too, but not as much as the others. It's faster, which can be ok, but doesn't do the song any favors here. Adele also uses that modern thing where singers must 'shake' their voices. (If I was smarter about this, I'd know the term I mean. Tremelo? Or am I making that up?) My personal feeling is that a little bit of that goes a long way. The industry feeling seems to be 'if a little bit is great, then a lot of bit would be even greater'.<br />
Anyway, this allowed me to point to concrete comparisons so that Relia can see what I enjoy in my music.</div>
Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-22996452972115226512017-03-15T20:45:00.003-05:002017-03-15T20:45:40.683-05:00Underwear<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Me to Leo: No, no, no. Your daily schedule is not so busy that you don't have time to put on underwear.</div>
Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-55320707141644828972017-03-14T20:19:00.002-05:002017-03-14T20:19:32.895-05:00Relia Music<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Lately Relia has been working me to listen to more of her music. Her purpose for this is so that I'll let her play the radio while we drive, but I'm trying to give it deeper meaning. I remember various times that I tried to bridge a gap with my parents by impressing them with the music that I'd fallen in love with and I want to give her that same opportunity.<br />
So far...it's not really moving that fast. She is big into Taylor Swift and a handful of other people that seem a little 'flavor of the day' to me. She's convinced that Taylor Swift is 'country' music and that may have once been true. But when I hear Tay-Tay, I hear pure pop music. Which is fine. I like pop music. But it ain't country music.<br />
The other day while I was driving (and controlling the music!) this song by Morrisey came on:<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
She called it country music. Well...maybe not. I asked her what made it 'country' and she said that she could hear the guitars. Ok, fair enough.<br />
So she's working on me and lord knows that I have a long way to go. I'm hopeful, somewhat hopeful, that this will become a two way street.<br />
Wish me luck!</div>
Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-59129766913558866632017-03-13T08:57:00.002-05:002017-03-13T08:57:52.977-05:00Middle of the Night<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We're working our way past Daylight Saving Time and it's not been easy. Lately, LL has been getting up sometime in the middle of the night and going downstairs. We don't know exactly when he gets up but sometimes he has made changes to his environment, like bring his clock downstairs. Last night I woke up about 4a (3a for my personal body clock) and I found him downstairs watching TV. I shooed him upstairs and back to bed.<br />
From what I can tell, he went back to sleep pretty quickly, which makes me think he'd been up for some time. Unfortunately, I couldn't get back to sleep for at least an hour or so. Eventually, I made it back to bed. The FP Gal left around 7a and told me what time it was. I got out of bed around 7:20 and (incredibly) no one else was up. I had the whole place to myself!<br />
Relia got up about ten minutes later and then LL. This made him late for school but that's no biggie. DF was still in bed at 8:30! All of our schedules are messed up.<br />
Which...this is my long-winded way of saying that DST needs to be eliminated.</div>
Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-12957115492287141362017-03-12T21:15:00.000-05:002017-03-12T21:15:00.368-05:00What We Know as Kids<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
One thing that I was very curious about with having children, is what kind of things that my children would just 'get' that I didn't at their age. This happened with me and my parents, most obviously with space travel. I grew up with rockets being a common thing. I literally never lived in a world where man had not walked on the moon. When it came to aspects like gravity in outer space, I feel like I just 'got' it in a way they didn't.<br />
(This isn't to suggest that my parents are stupid, by any means. We simply grew up in different times and with different things happening.)<br />
Anyway, the FP Gal just showed Relia this video:<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
Relia saw it and simply said, "Yeah, I knew it would do that." Either she just wants to look cool in front of her old parents, or she has grown up with people in zero gravity and just 'gets' how things operate there.<br />
In any case, I think that the video is cool.</div>
Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-77488674549962792042017-03-12T08:48:00.000-05:002017-03-15T22:57:13.358-05:00Raising Kinder or Raising Cain<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It's been some time since I've written about the kids. There is a simple reason for this: I'm not sure how to do it anymore. The older they get, the more worried I am that I'll over-share and embarrass them. They probably don't want people to be able to search their childhoods when they're older. That...seems fair to me. The worry that I'll do that has made it hard to write. That's one of the big reasons that this blog has become semi-abandoned.<br />
But I'm trying to work past that.<br />
If Relia wants to, she can look back at her first couple of years and read about what was happening and how her parents dealt with that. DF can to some extent. LL can't at all. In many ways this is the classic third child syndrome, just moved from baby albums to blogs. It's too late for me to go back and write more about the previous four years, of course, but I'll try to throw a snapshot in here.<br />
<br />
LL is now almost five. He's smart as a whip and constantly surprises us with his word choices. A few weeks back I was in the car with the boys and he found out that DF had said something false to tease him. (I don't remember the exact topic and it isn't important.) LL said to him, "When you do that, I become concerned!"<br />
What great word choice!<br />
LL sometimes has no regard for other people's feelings. The FP Gal tells me that this is normal for a youngest child but I don't know how true that is. He is learning some empathy with the cats, especially Ozzie. As I'm writing this, he is nicely petting Ozzie very nicely.<br />
I'm starting to revise my long held belief that he will grow up to be a famous serial killer.<br />
<br />
At times, he is very sweet. This is usually a) if he's very tired or b) if he's with the FP Gal. I'm hoping that he can branch out a bit and become sweet at other times too. </div>
Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-79976214863894847102017-03-11T08:24:00.002-06:002017-03-11T08:24:22.174-06:00Great American Novel List<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
List found <a href="http://lithub.com/a-brief-survey-of-great-american-novels/">here</a>.<br />
<br />
I'm trying to figure out if I can resist this or not. I've already read nine of the books. It wouldn't hurt me to read the other 15.<br />
<br />
Hmmm, will have to think about this...<br />
<br />
The list, for those who don't click through:<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>The Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald</li>
<li>Moby Dick - Melville</li>
<li>To Kill a Mockingbird - Lee</li>
<li>Huckleberry Finn - Twain</li>
<li>Mason & Dixon - Pynchon</li>
<li>American Psycho - Ellis</li>
<li>Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck</li>
<li>Underworld - Delillo</li>
<li>Lolita - Nabakov</li>
<li>U.S.A. - Dos Passos</li>
<li>Invisible Man - Ellison</li>
<li>Blood Meridian - McCarthy</li>
<li>Light in August - Faulkner</li>
<li>Absalom! Absalom! - Faulkner</li>
<li>Rabbit, Run - Updike</li>
<li>Infinite Jest - DFW</li>
<li>Adventures of Augie March - Bellow </li>
<li>Gentlemen Prefer Blonds - Loos</li>
<li>Beloved - Morrison</li>
<li>Kavalier and Clay - Chabon</li>
<li>Freedom - Franzen</li>
<li>Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Diaz</li>
<li>These Dreams of You - Erickson</li>
<li>The Flamethrowers - Kushner</li>
</ul>
My, my, that's a tempting list.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-27274597451728012992016-08-29T08:19:00.002-05:002016-08-29T08:19:43.813-05:00Medals by Population - Rio<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Back in 2014, I put together <a href="http://futurepoltergeist.blogspot.com/2014/02/sochi-2014-medals-by-population.html">this post</a> in which I figured out how the medal to population ratio played out during the Olympics. I'm now doing the same thing for the Rio Olympics. From the Sochi description:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Anyway, the idea was to sort the medals by population of the country. Therefore smaller countries would get more credit per medal. This makes some sense. The larger the country, the easier it should be to find an elite individual. So I decided to crunch some numbers.
Note: I'm going to figure medals per million people. My population numbers are from Wikipedia and I'm simply hoping that no one cared enough to mess with this info. Also, I rounded to the nearest million so there may be some messiness with the numbers. Also, I'm not doing the entire medal count. Just the top ten, with a few extras that are special.</blockquote>
This time I'll do the top thirteen. I have my reasons.<br />
<br />
13. China - 19.66 medals per million people. The Chinese did very well in this Olympics with 70 medals, the second most overall. They are penalized by their very large population. In a sense, this measure will never be fair to them. If they had medaled in each competition, they would have gotten their number down to 4.48.<br />
12. Brazil - 10.79 medals per million. Brazil won 19 medals for their 205 million people. This was their best at a summer Olympics and they won gold in men's soccer, getting revenge over the German team that whipped them a couple of years ago in the World Cup. I bet they're happy.<br />
11. Japan - 3.1 medals per million. It will be interesting to compare this number in four years in Tokyo. In 2016, they won 41 medals. Can they do better while hosting?<br />
10. United States - 2.68 medals per million people. The U.S. did a <i>fantastic</i> job at these games. They won 121 medals for 324 million people. This included domination in gymnastics and swimming. I wonder when that domination will stop?<br />
9. Russia - 2.57 medals per million. It will be interesting to see how much this number changes over the next few years as various athletes are stripped over their medals. Russia should have been barred from these games.<br />
8. South Korea - 2.43. I think of South Korea as more of a winter Olympics champion but maybe I have that wrong. Let's see, in 2012, they actually won 28 medals compared to the 21 this time. So, yes, I'm wrong. <br />
7. Italy - 2.18 medals per million. Italy has about 61 million people and they won 28 medals. I think of any country with a population over 50 mil as being a 'large' country, so they definitely qualify. Good games for Italy.<br />
6. Germany - 1.95. The Germans break the '2 medals per million persons' barrier. I continue to be surprised that Germany has 81 million people. I don't have a good grasp on the size of various countries, I guess.<br />
5. Canada - 1.64 medals per million. Canada has about 36 million people, so they are outside of my arbitrary 'large' country category. In Rio, they won 22 medals and I bet they're happy with how they did.<br />
4. France - 1.60. A great year for the French, too. With about 67 million persons, they fall into the 'large' category. ('Gros'?) Anyway, very good numbers.<br />
3. United Kingdom - 0.91. Great Britain won 67 medals for 61 million people, the best ratio for the 'large' countries. That's two more than they won in 2012, so I'm sure they're happy.<br />
2. Netherlands - 0.89 medals per million people. Back in Sochi, the Dutch won an insane amount of medals from speed-skating. This time, they won 6 of their 19 medals for cycling. Not quite as dominating, and more spread out among other sports.<br />
1. Australia - 0.83 The Aussies won 29 medals for 25 million people. By my quick count, 21 of those medals had to do with the water (swimming, diving, sailing, etc.). They are very good in the water. They have a strong claim to have 'won' the Rio Olympics!<br />
<br /></div>
Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-38694133080999730102016-08-14T08:25:00.002-05:002016-08-14T08:25:17.739-05:00Books About the Olympics<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
How could I not click on a <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/13/the-10-best-books-about-the-olympics.html">link called 'The 10 Best Books About the Olympics'</a>? (Btw, I think I've read precisely zero of these.)</div>
Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-42742869361610008102016-08-03T07:29:00.000-05:002016-08-03T07:29:33.754-05:00Past Olympics<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In the summer before the London Olympics started, I 'live-blogged' a coffee table book about past Olympics. It was wildly successful. The FP Gal even said she was enjoying it. The posts are findable under the 'Olympics' label but I'm going to put them all in one place.<br />
<br />
1896-1906 is <a href="http://futurepoltergeist.blogspot.com/2012/06/olympics-past.html">here</a>.<br />
<br />
1908-1924 is <a href="http://futurepoltergeist.blogspot.com/2012/06/olympics-past_04.html">here</a>.<br />
<br />
1928-1932 is <a href="http://futurepoltergeist.blogspot.com/2012/06/olympics-past_06.html">here</a>.<br />
<br />
1936 and 1948 are <a href="http://futurepoltergeist.blogspot.com/2012/06/olympics-past_08.html">here</a>.<br />
<br />
1952 and 1956 are <a href="http://futurepoltergeist.blogspot.com/2012/06/olympics-past_10.html">here</a>.<br />
<br />
1960 and 1964 are <a href="http://futurepoltergeist.blogspot.com/2012/06/past-olympics.html">here</a>.<br />
<br />
1968 and 1972 are <a href="http://futurepoltergeist.blogspot.com/2012/06/past-olympics_19.html">here</a>.<br />
<br />
1976 and 1980 are <a href="http://futurepoltergeist.blogspot.com/2012/06/past-olympics_27.html">here</a>.<br />
<br />
1984 and 1988 are <a href="http://futurepoltergeist.blogspot.com/2012/06/past-olympics_30.html">here</a>.<br />
<br />
1992-1996 is <a href="http://futurepoltergeist.blogspot.com/2012/07/past-olympics.html">here</a>.<br />
<br />
1998-2004 is <a href="http://futurepoltergeist.blogspot.com/2012/07/olympics-past.html">here</a>.<br />
<br />
These were a bunch of fun to put together.</div>
Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9861103.post-42404262127776272352016-05-31T21:08:00.002-05:002016-05-31T21:08:51.926-05:00Overheard<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
When I put DF to bed, he asks me questions before we turn on his music. Tonight, his last question went like this:<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
DF: What does a cowboy wedding look like.</div>
<div>
Me: ...uh, I don't know.</div>
<div>
DF: (thinking) Would the pinata be shaped like a horse?</div>
<div>
Me: ...</div>
<div>
DF: Maybe with a crown on it. (pause) And a cape?</div>
<div>
Me: I have no idea.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I love the way his mind works, but I won't pretend that I understand it.</div>
</div>
Pederhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16979481342103258777noreply@blogger.com1