Healthy Gopher

creating a history of violence

2011-11-12T22:26:00.001-06:00

Overturning a similar decision in Indianapolis, Federal Court of Appeals Judge Richard Posner noted: "Violence has always been and remains a central interest of humankind and a recurrent, even obsessive theme of culture both high and low. It engages the interest of children from an early age, as anyone familiar with the classic fairy tales collected by Grimm, Andersen, and Perrault are aware." Posner adds, "To shield children right up to the age of 18 from exposure to violent descriptions and images would not only be quixotic, but deforming; it would leave them unequipped to cope with the world as we know it."

http://www.collegeotr.com/college_otr/mit_professor_debunks_eight_myths_about_video_games_10944

[movie review] Lock Stock, and 2 Smoking Barrels

2011-11-10T20:30:00.000-06:00

After my friend @ AnatomyofP confirmed that she liked Jason Stratham, I gave it a 2nd try. Okay, he's good; maybe not the most underrated, but this was a far more enjoyable movie. I'm not really sure if it was supposed to be a light farce, somewhat more serious than Shoot 'Em Up, but I liked the 2/3 of it I saw. Procrastination overtook me, and I decided that finishing my homework was more important. However, I've got to do laundry tonight, so I think I'll watch The Mummy and finish this.

Tentative:
4 - Definitely see it on video.

Greatest at what, exactly?

2011-11-05T00:01:00.001-05:00

I'm just SO sick of people older than I am going on and on AND ON AND ON about "The Greatest Generation". No offense meant to the actual members thereof, but Who The Fuck Cares?

These are the same people who piss & moan that my generation Does Not Love Our Country; that We Don't Appreciate What They've Given Us, etc. etc. etc.

Why should we bother to try to live up to your pathetic opinion of us? What do you actually expect a group of people to achieve who are told over and over that they're mediocre?

It's not as if we have a war to fight to keep up with them.
... oh, wait ...
It's not as if we have a war to fight that anyone actually approves of
... oh, wait ...
well, the THREE or FOUR goddamn wars that the "Greatest Generation's" Children got us into ('cause we sure as shit didn't get ourselves into them) are 3rd page below the fold news. We don't even have the courtesy of a daily body count.

I sit back and watch the Greatest Generation's Children, a.k.a. Baby Boomers, piss away my country's everything: economy, environment, international good-will, domestic integrity, etc. by looking at their parents' dreams and deluding themselves into thinking they deserved to have it all.

Expect life to get better? Who the fuck actually thinks that the Baby Boomers are going to leave the rest of us a pot to piss in? I don't. No one else I know does, either. And, if this is only just occurring to y'all, then it's because you haven't been stuck with some damn X to your name because the Baby Boomers didn't want to admit there was a future that didn't include their self-centered existence.

To choose or not to choose...

2011-11-04T12:44:00.000-05:00

Refusing to chose is a choice.

A group in Austria has published seven recommended changes to how the Catholic Church should function. I like the list. Their website has a guest book. Seeking some tool of procrastination, I wrote something there rather than here. Efficiency being holy, I'm writing here, too. It took a while, since I wrote it in German. One point I made, however, is that over the past 2,000 years the Church has changed; yet we still hold ourselves to be "one holy, catholic, and apostolic church". Of course these words come from the Nicean Creed, which any long-term Catholic knows. However, at this point, since I certainly don't know the Creed -or any other part of the Mass in German other than the offering of Peace - and wished to use that wording in writing to a bunch of German-speaking priests, I sought the text auf deutsch on that wonder of wonders, Wikipedia.

My education for the day: The American Catholic Church uses the Nicean Creed accepted in 381; the German Catholic Church uses the original version from 325. I didn't realize there was more than one. I like ours better. I'm actually quite surprised at how very close the current version is to the one from more than 1700 years ago.
The German ends with We believe in the Holy Spirit [boooooring], with nothing about Her role in our faith.
Ours ends with We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father, with the Father and Son She is worshipped and glorified, She has spoken through the prophets. We believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. [perhaps long-winded, but at least comprehensive in highlighting many of the differences with the evangelical/pentacostal sects]

As much as I approve of the social justice policies of the US Council of Catholic Bishops, they fall prey to the same limited vision as their fellows in the Vatican. The USCCB is changing the official text for the Celebration of the Eucharist (ie., Mass). I'm torn between thinking change is ok, after all, that's what I want the church to do and thinking "this sounds stupid and has no apparent purpose other than being closer to the old-fashioned version pre-Vatican 2 text". Here we go, back to mea maxima culpa. The new Gloria sucks. Just sucks. The only exception to my disregard of the new text is that the end of the Nicean Creed uses the first person, "I believe / I confess / I look". I confess I like the fact it makes the profession my personal. I really want to know who voted against the changes (173-29).

So, how badly do I think it sucks? How much is the change going to influence my decision to attend Mass? Will I go to the physical building, leave Mr. Gopher with the Jr. Gophers in our regular pew and go read a book in the social hall? Or sit there in silence? Yes, I'm emotionally attached to the current version. I've used it for the past 45 years. I have sympathy for the people who were confronted with the changes from the 2nd Vatican Council. But those changes were made to keep people in the church and to involve The People in the Mass.

What do these new changes provide?
a) A power trip for the Bishops to remind us of who has the power?
b) A sincere belief that the changes from Vatican 2 were detrimental to the pious and devout expression of our fidelity to the dictates of Jesus to achieve the Salvation promised by the Messiah?
c) Stupidity?
d) All of the Above?

Would I stop going to church because of these impending changes? I suppose it says something about my devotion to the holy Church of Rome that my answer is: hmmmm... I'm not sure.

Does the form of the Mass have such a big impact on enjoying it? Should enjoyment be a criteria for going to Mass? The annoyingly conservative parishes use the same words we do. It is, in part, what makes the church universal.

I go to Mass and belong to a Catholic parish when my adherence to the Church's teachings is at times tenuous. Why? The same reason I belong to the Green Party: no one has it all right. I'll pick the one that has the greatest proportion of what I think is right. The willingness of local parishes to pursue good works tips the scales. Does that make the Church a social organization? At times I think people look more at what their parish is doing, and consider a generic "Christianity requires us to do Good Works, I'm doing good, therefore I'm fulfilling my requirement as a Christian" to be the only justification for belonging to a specific denomination.

Yes, I realize being a member of a religious group is voluntary and if a person doesn't like it, one can leave.

I was confirmed my last year at university, when I was 21. I was questioning my choice to continue to return to the Roman Catholic church. There was, after all, no pressure from anyone to belong to any church. One evening at Mass, I paid more attention to the check list presented by the Nicean Creed: one god, check - creator of all, check - Jesus son of god, check - messiah, check... and so on. At the end I decided that I could agree with all of them as the core items of faith. Everything else is optional. Question answered.

I know so many Catholics who don't want to stop being catholic, but are frustrated by (i.e., fed up beyond human comprehension with) the Church's ~~apparent~~ blatant refusal to accept that any of the social changes of the last, say, 500 years are beneficial. The moral choices before us today may be the same (abortion, extramarital sex, divorce), but the social context in which those choices are encountered is different than it was 1500 years ago. Or 500 years ago. Hell, it's different than it was 50 years ago. e.g., Did the church want to know that Mr.Gopher and I were living in consensually blissful sin for a few months before getting married? No. 50 years ago we would not have moved in together before the wedding, even if we were ignoring the prohibition against pre-marital sex. Did we want children before we said "I do"? No. Did it happen? No. Why not? The genetic lottery wasn't selling tickets back then.

Birth control is almost universally ignored by young (or middle-aged) (or older) (hell, maybe all) Catholics. I don't accept the theological conclusions about why it's wrong. If virginity and the absence of sperm does not present an insurmountable barrier to the Almighty, a little bit of fragile latex shouldn't either. Theological flippance aside, it boils down to a question of who gets to choose when I have children: me or God. Why shouldn't I? Because God knows best seems equally flippant. The Jr.Gophers both spent a few months lobbying for a little sister. I had to explain to them that we thought 2 was a nice number for us. Tubal ligation isn't really in their vocabulary yet.

The boys in Rome present a bureaucratic and human (not divine) obstruction to our method of worship. The church runs on theology; theology is simply the human conclusions about what they think god is/wants/means.

I know many who have changed their relationship with the church; we just accept that the bunch of old men over in Rome are ignorant of the beliefs that we, the Faithful, have while concurrently refusing to accept that we should participate in any meaningful way in developing the Church's theology. I simply cannot imagine anyone, not one single person in the Vatican actually giving a damn about my opinion about theology. I could tell them Jesus Christ, Son of God was the Messiah and they wouldn't care.

A 2nd Reformation is not out of the possibilities for the Church. I'm sure they didn't think the first one would happen. I'm sure they don't think another could. I'm not familiar with the popular sentiment in Luther's era (the 95 Theses were written in 1517), but where would you go, if you refuted the Church of Rome in the 16th Century? You'd likely be socially ostracized, rejected by your family and friends. Today? Few would care. No one would even know outside of your immediate circle of friends.

The Church has a choice: they can change their relationship with me (us), or they can stay the same without me.

I have a choice before me: change my relationship with God or change my relationship with the Church. I can no longer be faithful to both.

xkcd.

2011-11-02T23:30:00.002-05:00

Finally get back here. Several things to write. Look at the front of blog. Think xkcd: I haven't read it in weeks. Half hour later ... uh ... it's time to go to bed. Try again tomorrow.

The comic strip is - however - really funny. Especially Password Strength
I think I need to change all of my passwords. Wow - it's a good thing they're all written down on a post-it note in my top desk drawer.

Fat & Lazy? How 'bout Criminally Stupid

2011-09-17T23:08:00.000-05:00

“After twelve years of being in power, you tend to get fat and lazy, and in some cases arrogant with respect to your positions,” said Saul Anuzis, chairman of the Michigan Republican party. “There is no doubt that we have had people who have gotten caught up in both illegal activities and immoral activities and none of that helps the party as a whole."

Never say the GoP are all inveterate idiots. Not even the ones from Michigan.

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Left Buttons vs. Right Hooks

2011-08-08T22:40:00.000-05:00

Movies are a window into other cultures when watching foreign films. Despite performing the same activity, it sometimes catches us unaware and leaves us thinking 'something's wrong'. Occasionally it's obvious: watching Irish films, the cars are on the wrong side of the road, which just feels wrong until you actively stop and think "oh, yeah, it's from [insert country that didn't bother to kick out the English before 1900]. There are other things which pop up, trigger "something just feels wrong".

Masterpiece Mystery: Sherlock is a modern re-take of Doyle. I highly recommend it - so much so that I'm planning to write a review of it. Holmes & Watson are going up an escalator. For you Americans, imagine a pair of escalators side by side. One up, one down. On which side is the Up escalator? On the right, right? Same as the side of the road we drive on. The scene on the English TV show, however, caught my attention by "something's wrong". The pair of escalators has the Up escalator on the left. It just looks wrong.

The Man with a Camera, a Russian film from 1929, is a fascinating look at ordinary life there. Short - a few seconds each - images of activities ranging from cars driving in town around horse-drawn carts, coal mining, factories, store fronts, and a woman waking up and rising from bed. The film returns to the woman several times, doing the various things one does, including getting dressed. With her back to the camera, she put on a bra. Again, my brain catches and my thumb hits 'pause'. The bra has a button/loop closure, and not a hook & eye. I've never actually seen a bra with that kind of closure. I'm left wondering if we used them here. I'm all the more amused because she's clasping it behind her back, rather than the hook-in-front-then-rotate method every women I know uses.

[review] Masterpiece Mystery! : Sherlock

2011-08-04T06:59:00.000-05:00

(Apparently the exclamation mark is required in the title.)

A Study in Scarlet is the first story/novella describing the meeting and beginning friendship between John Watson, a medical doctor invalided out of the British Army occupying Afghanistan, and Sherlock Holmes, an independent investigator and master of deductive logic. The stories are all written in the first person voice of Dr. Watson. I've read a few of the short stories and the longer Hound of the Baskervilles, and do not claim to be a fan of Doyle who goes off the deep end because of some bit of minutia. E.g., Holmes gets his nicotine from patches, since as he puts it, it's impossible to sustain a smoking habit in London these days.

A Study in Pink is the first episode of the 21st Century re-make. Not being a rabid fan, I can't tell you if the other 2 are directly based upon Doyle's works. A comment, though: I read Study in Scarlet after watching the show, wondering how this back-story of Watson matched up to Doyle, or if it was just a dramatic license to make it appeal to a 'modern' audience. Oh, the irony of history re-written upon modern flesh.

The most remarkable two points are the script and Martin Freeman. The script is sharp, witty, fairly representative of the characters from the books, and fairly non-stop with the only pauses for a breath being the (unfortunately repetitive, but at least infrequent) cuts of Our Heroes in a London taxi en route to something.

Martin Freeman, aka Dr. John Watson, is absolutely stellar. Subtle is the only succinct adjective I can provide for Freeman: not too much, not to little, perfectly aligned with the script. Rarely am I so impressed with an actor's work at first view. Given this fact, I am perhaps doubly looking forward to The Hobbit. This Watson is a 40-ish ordinary man, nothing physically remarkable, with a strong sense of the value of human life and curiosity. I can't imagine Holmes keeping an inept companion, so seeing a competent and active participant in the investigation is pleasant; I wouldn't have been able to take a bumbling doctor. He is still writing their stories, only today it's in a blog rather than the magazines Doyle used.

Holmes is, as always, an excessively arrogant and obsessively objective man, though Cumberbatch is an unexpected choice for his age; Mr.Gopher & I both had an image of a more mature man. He pulls off an elegant Holmes, always well-tailored, and smooth, but physically and verbally, but I still think he should have looked older. Rather like DI Lestrade (Rupert Graves), who looks like a senior detective inspector for Scotland Yard. Well, he totally pulls of an arrogant SOB, too, who nevertheless grows to rely upon the participation of his friend. He comes across as the primary hero, which is how he's written by Doyle's doctor.

The adaptation of things for the modern life are amusing at times: texting is sort-of like telegrams. And, for mild humor, the initial episode finds Watson confronting modern assumptions of why two men are living together when initially meeting their landlady.

Watson is a far more approachable character, either in the books or this film, finding our sympathy for putting up with a pain-in-the-ass colleague, balancing Holmes' absolute objectivity with emotional perception. As Doyle's Holmes states, "You see, but you do not observe"; Watson could return "you observe, but you do not feel".

As I haven't read everything Doyle wrote, I don't know if episode 2 or 3 is from original material. The plots are interesting. Other characters are introduced to some degree. If you know in which story Holmes first runs into Moriarity, I would like to know.

My only significant complaint is one element of an otherwise perfectly fine filming style. I notice most often in made-for-TV shows an over-use of the "Hey, This Is Significant" shot. There's a fight in an apartment, the dining room table gets scratched by the villain's weapon, Watson comes home, notices the table is scratched, gets annoyed at the disregard for the furniture, meanwhile being ignorant of Holmes nearly getting decapitated. I really don't need a close-up of the weapon making the scratch. In a show which should appeal to an educated audience, the patronizing use of these shots is just annoying. Again, luckily they're infrequent - it's just extremely annoying.

Overall, they're wonderful. Carefully considered modernization, good cast, great script-writing. And since I could watch it on Netflix, great price.

Gopher Rating: Worth paying for.
hmmm. I don't have a rating scale for TV shows, so "See it on the big screen" isn't really an option. I'll have to come up with one. Everything boils down to money, though: either its worth paying for or it isn't; either it's worth an hour or two of your life or it isn't.

post script
Everyone in the world seems to want to make movie versions of Sir A.C. Doyle's master detective. Netflix isn't streaming the 1930s versions w/ Basil Rathbone, so I can't compare them, since I think I saw one of them on Channel 9's Saturday Afternoon B&W Matinee on LBI 25 years ago. The Downey/Law version that came out in 2009 looked like a souped-up action-adventure movie with the same names. Robert Downey is awesome when his game is on, but the preview left the impression of what would happen with Tony Stark playing Sherlock Holmes. Perhaps unfair, but the trailer is what's supposed to entice me. As I write this, I pause and search for a trailer for the TV show ... well, perhaps that wouldn't have enticed me, either.

by the way:
Who assigns idiots to making movie trailers? The worst EVER was for Terminator 4.

Fruit salad

2011-08-03T01:16:00.003-05:00

Neighborly Fruit Salad

2 C. mandarin orange slices, drained
1-1/2 C. crushed pineapple, drained
1/2 large tart apple, chopped
1 C. peaches, chopped
1 C. pears, chopped
1-1/2 C. diced celery
1-1/2 C. slivered blanched almonds
dried cherries
dried cranberries

Mix fruit, celery and almonds. Sprinkle dried fruit as garnish. Serve cold. Adjust proportions as desired.

The almonds and celery provide a pleasant crunch with the sweet fruit. Make sure the fruit is ripe and soft, otherwise use canned fruit to make sure the crunch isn't from the fruit.

bumper sticker of the month

2011-06-29T00:52:00.003-05:00

Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.
-Napoleon

like many amusing/intriguing quotations, one can find multiple repetitions of it on-line, but not anything vaguely resembling a citation thereto.
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where am I?

2011-06-23T11:27:00.002-05:00

Wow - I just realized the last post was 6 weeks ago.
It's not as if nothing has lit a fire under me in 2 months.
I've just been hiding out from my regular life.
I haven't been to Stammtisch often.
Many friends @ St. Albert's haven't been after Mass recently.
I don't know where I am myself.
sigh...

Thou Art My All

2011-05-10T21:51:00.003-05:00

O never say that I was false of heart,
Though absence seemed my flame to qualify.
As easy might I from myself depart,
As from my soul, which in thy breast doth lie.
That is my home of love; if I have ranged
Like him that travels I return again,
Just to the time, not with the time exchanged,
So that myself bring water for my stain.
Never believe, though in my nature reigned
All frailties that besiege all kinds of blood,
That it could so preposterously be stained
To leave for nothing all thy sum of good —
For nothing this wide universe I call,
Save thou, my rose; in it thou art my all.

Sonnet 109, William Shakespeare

7 words

2011-05-09T07:44:00.001-05:00

George Carlin’s 7 deadly words - transcript of his monologue. This is sort of wandering.

I tried to think of what they were, and could only come up with 3. I asked Mr.Gopher and he came up with the same 3. (definitely not allowed to hog the dictionary for Quiddler, honey!)
Fuck, Cunt, Shit, Piss, Motherfucker, Cocksucker and Tits.

The FCC stated that it would address the legality of broadcast language on a case-by-case basis. Depending on the context presented, use of the “F-Word” [fuck] or other words as highly offensive as the “F-Word” [fuck] may be both indecent and profane, if aired between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

and then there's: highly offensive vs. indecent vs. obscene vs. just-a-little-offensive??

FCC rule bout what is okay
#3. whether the material appears to pander or is used to titillate or shock. No single factor is determinative. The FCC weighs and balances these factors because each case presents its own mix of these, and possibly other, factors.

And they apparently think it’s okay for Fox-TV to have a bunch of sex fetishists running around dressed up in horse-bondage paraphernalia on a TV show at 7 p.m. ...??? What the hell else is that, if not intentional titillation (does that count as “tit”?) or shocking? I was pretty shocked. Admittedly, I was shocked because of the time of day and the fact it was on regular TV. After 10 p.m. would have surprised me that it was on regular TV, but it wouldn't have enraged me.

How many shows are there with a message “some content may be unacceptable to children” at 7 or 8 p.m. (because "local time" here = EST not CST) where there’s . Fine, if you need to put it there to make some righteous idiot turn off the TV to avoid seeing some woman’s cleavage = the one in front, ‘cause if you ever watch the beginning of CSI:Miami, you sure as hell have seen the one in the back with no warning notice. And that's not titillating? [well, I don't think it is, but I'm also not the target audience for them] Except, I've never seen that warning with sex, only with blood/guts/gore.

This came up with discussion about regulating cable more. Strange bedfellows, with some fearing any increase in the Fed's ability to regulate anything vaguely involving the 1st amendment on the same side as those arguing that "free market" forces means letting the customer pick which cable channels she wants, rather than be forced to buy bundled channels.

I would be very, very leery of any additional regulation given to the FCC over cable companies. They already bend & spread 'em to the wimpy wimpy wimpy whiners over those 7 words. Have you seen movies where the "offensive" language was cut/re-dubbed? It's like the Daily Show - any idiot with a 1/2 baked brain knows perfectly well what they're saying during those little bleeps. Watch Battlestar Galactica (the new one, obviously) - the F-word is 'frak'. I can't figure if it is to avoid some FCC/idiot problem [yes!] or if it is simply an effort to make something familiar yet different. Because it is patently obvious what the script writers mean.

Then Jr.Gopher#2 yesterday exclaimed "darn it!"
hmmm... I'm confronted by where to draw the line about what's acceptable abrupt language. Is Sheiße okay? 'Cause Mr.Gopher uses it, but doesn't like me to say shit. In our house, being in a foreign language doesn't excuse it from acceptability. However, what happens when a word isn't as offensive in German as it is in English?

Back to Carlin ... tits? That's banned?? Well, shit. What cocksucker thought that was obscene, but 'boobs' isn't? Does fucktard become a banned word? How about infixes? (As opposed to suffixes or prefixes, an infix is inserting the extra part into the middle of the word, e.g. holy fucking cow, whoopty-fucking-do, et fucking cetera).

I'll go back to science, and the Boltzmann distrifuckingbution.
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peace & quiet

2011-05-08T21:30:00.000-05:00

I have a supremely enjoyable memory of sitting on the shore of Lake Michigan and watching the sun set. This was during the phase of "my life has just completely fallen apart". I was at a gathering of friends up north at some one's "summer cottage". [What a disingenuous euphemism: it was huge.] After a delightful dinner with so many of my closest friends, I simply wanted to be alone for a while. I took my weekend-sized glass of scotch and walked down to the end of the backyard, i.e., Lake Michigan. A pair of chaise lounges there sat far enough from the house to be encompassed with quiet. No one else was on the beach. Peace and quiet.

A while later, BirdMan came out, apparently with the same intention. We were both, actually, right in the middle of the exact same "my life has just fallen apart". He apologized for disrupting me, and asked if he could join me. Sure, I said.

He pulled the other chaise lounge over next to mine, and settled in with his own weekend-I'm-not-driving-anywhere glass of scotch. We sat for at least half an hour in the mutual quiet, holding hands.

It was so pleasant. The intimacy of simply being together with a dear friend. With no distractions: no traffic, no radio, no TV, no loud neighbors, no conversation, no children screaming, no expectations of good humor. A supremely peaceful moment.

I am looking for more opportunities to have this peace & quiet with Mr.Gopher. To simply be together. Maybe our next Date Night can be dinner and silence.

Parental Rejection

2011-05-06T17:05:00.000-05:00

The Author posed the question about a person who was becoming more reclusive and socially/emotionally strange:

"...Where was the trusted person who could tell him it wasn’t a good idea, ..."

I would also ask:

Who benefited from his bad choices?
I wish I could recall which novel I read, but a central point was that a powerful figure is manipulated to the benefit of another via his bad choices.

Of course, if you don't trust anyone, it's hard to benefit from their loving/unloving advice.

Sometimes it's easier to not give advice. My older son is old enough to really resent some of my edicts (chocolate chex is the current issue). It would be soooo easy to just cave in & buy a box to get him off my case. He doesn't know enough about life to understand either my reasoning or understand the idea that he needs to trust someone else's reasoning. Many parents want to be loved by their children without realizing this is *not* synonymous with being liked by one's progeny. They cave in in order to be 'liked'.

I can easily see someone else with a weak personal security wanting to give Jackson good advice and fearing to do so, in fear of losing his good opinion. Which rejection, in an adult, easily transmits to losing personal contact.

Becoming a parent has drastically enlightened me into the idea of seeing God as a parental figure. Christianity (at least my flavor of it) teaches that God is all loving; that you cannot make God stop loving you; that Her love is always there. I struggle to recall this when I have to deal with my own children.

People find themselves in such a totally screwed up point in their lives that they cannot believe that God could still love them. They then refuse to ask for God's help, fearing an active rejection without realizing there won't be any. A real parent, admittedly, is far more likely to reject a child. Even if they weren't, the child could easily fear rejection so much that they never ask for help.

The same applies to adults. Perhaps Jackson realized how totally screwed up his life had become and feared the loss of public/friends approval, so he didn't change his path. It's better to screw up your life than to realize the decision you made to fix it actually resulted in losing your friends, even if your life is otherwise better for the change you made.

I can look at my parents (and spouse now), and realize that they may not always like my decisions or my choices. My parents probably care just as much about me loving them as they always did. Me being an adult doesn't change that (I hope). I will always desire my children's love. Consequently, I need to take the risk of them disliking me or even [esp. in adolescence] rejecting me.

[review] Green Zone

2011-05-05T22:34:00.000-05:00

eliminate subtitles

It's not often that I am struck in the first 20 minutes of a movie by "I would have done it differently". Subtitles are a nice feature to communicate information while concurrently trying to provide the viewer with the "feel" of foreign-ness. And face it, dubbed movies look stupid.

Subtitles are not the only tool at a director's disposal, though.

The further through the movie, and given the movie's major Theme, the movie really should have just left out the subtitles altogether. Several scenes later on were wonderfully done to avoid dialogue all together. The opening should have done the same thing - provide a visual story which didn't require dialogue and then add the foreign language in without subtitles.

Generally, though, I enjoyed it.

Book of Mercy [review]

2011-05-04T10:17:00.010-05:00

Psalm 33
You who question souls, and you to whom souls must answer, do not cut off the soul of my son on my account. Let the strength of his childhood lead him to you, and the joy of his body stand him upright in your eyes. May he discern my prayer for him, and to whom it is uttered, and in what shame. I received the living waters and I held them in a stagnant pool. I was taught but I did not teach. I was loved but I did not love. I weakened the name that spoke me, and I chased the light with my own understanding. Whisper in his ear. Direct him to a place of learning. Illuminate his child's belief in mightiness. Rescue him from those who want him with no soul, who have their channels in the bedrooms of the rich and poor, to draw the children into death. Let him see me coming back. Allow us to bring forth our souls together to make a place for your name. If I am too late, redeem my yearning in his heart, bless him with a soul that remembers you, that he may uncover it with careful husbandry. They who wish to devour him have grown powerful on my idleness. They have a number for him, and a chain. Let him see them withered in the light of your name. Let him see their dead kingdom from the mountain of your word. Stand him up upon his soul, bless him with the truth of manhood.

Book of Mercy, Leonard Cohen, Villard Books, NY 1984.
yes, that Cohen.

Written without a pause, without a break, without artistic & artificial separations one sees in the visual presentation of poetry, this pushes, his words driving in passion, giving you no opportunity to emphasize one thing over another.

These psalms absolutely must be read slowly. Cohen's music and lyrics are powerful, often presented in an extremely blunt style in his recorded music. (you gave me head/on the made bed) These poems are straightforward, direct, but not blunt. From an extremely talented user of the English language, each sentence should be considered carefully.

As one would imagine from the title, the majority revolve around Mercy, seeking or seeing God's mercy in the various aspects of Life. I wish I could include some of the others** which were poignantly moving for me, except you'd likely get bored.

The psalms in the Old Testament are poetry. Some are exquisite in pain (Ps. 22) or overwhelming in joy (Ps. 118) comforting in their traditional use (Ps. 23) or just nice (Ps. 150). I have a psalter (book of psalms) which is translated from Hebrew into modern poetry.* Here, Cohen has simply written his own. These are not renditions of biblical passages from the King of the Israelites or some other dead Jewish guy 2100 years ago; they are cries from a man today, which might not be in print in another couple millenia. Although if they were, they would cry out, appealing to man's soul and God's Mercy.

Gopher rating:
2 - definitely buy a copy, you'll read it more than once.

*I'm not at home, so I can't cite it.

** Why not? Copyright allows me to present material for purposes of criticism. So, from my lips to God's ears:
Psalm 40
Let me not pretend you are with me, when you are not with me. Let me close down, let the puppet fall amoug the strings, until, by your mercy, he rises as a man. Let him dare to call on you from the dust, when there is nothing but dust, and the coils of his defeat. Enter me again into the judgment, I who refuse to be judged. Enter me into the mercy, I who have forgotten mercy. Let me raise your kingdom to the beauty of your name. Who do you welcome me? asks the bitter heart. Why do you comfort me? asks the heart that is not broken enough. Let him lie among the strings until there is no hope for his daily strategy, until he cries, I am yours, I am your creature. Then the surface of the world is restored, then he can walk and build a will. Blessed are you whose blessings are discerned by those who know your name. The evil are seen clearly, and the good are beyond safety, and in the panic the whole world prays. Let us not be tested. Blessed are you who creates and destroys, who sits in judgment on numberless worlds, who judges the present with mercy.

.

famine

2011-05-02T11:50:00.000-05:00

We will feast when the rich become road kill.

bumper sticker of the month

2011-05-02T11:31:00.000-05:00

Unions: the folks who brought you the weekend

more family photos

2011-03-18T10:03:00.000-05:00

more photos from the Minnesota gophers:

A bit more recent - since the big blizzard in January through a couple weeks ago. Misplaced the camera for a while. I'm not sure, but I might bring it to the Tae Kwon Do next weekend for JrGopher#1's yellow belt test.

Minnehaha

The hike en route to the falls:

Further on the hike - please note the fact that Jr.Gopher#2 could just sit on the snow without sitting down.

Playing ice hockey over @ the But-Palskis

Yes, we will show this to Jr.Gopher#2's girlfriends. He said he wanted to be a princess, and the neighbor girl assuredly had the accessories to do this. (Lord, don't get me going on the revolting Disney Princess obsession.)

MPR's modern station, 89.3, had their annual Rock the Cradle a couple weekends ago. It's a music splendor at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. All focused for children, I would assume about 10 and under. A kiddie disco, where the DJs were the radio station's DJs. One program was an Instrument Petting Zoo, where the kids could pick up and actually play different instruments. Violins, cellos, an electric piano, a drum set, a couple hand drums, electric guitar, and lots of different little percussion item. The boys both found the string instruments interesting and fun.

holy cow ...

2011-03-17T10:34:00.001-05:00

Tone of awe: oh, my god.

Parking lot of Cub Foods @ 60th & Nicollet.
Someone just told me there used to be a gas station there before the grocery.

[review] Careless in Red

2011-03-16T12:33:00.000-05:00

Wow - I just realized I've never written a review for an Elizabeth George book. I own almost all of them and am eagerly awaiting the latest being available at the Mpls Library.

Which is which?

2011-03-16T10:18:00.014-05:00

updated photo selection: okay if you are the one person who actually look at this often (Hi, mom), you'll be able to tell, since only one changed - I got a much better photo from Japan (thank you, Der Spiegel).

Tell me which one is Fukushima (Tokyo) and which is Chernobyl (Prypyat)?

Photograph #1

Photograph #2

A Ukrainian Liquidator, one of the first on site at Chrnobyl & surprisingly still alive, compliments the Japanese. "We wore normal clothes and a face respirator. As we went in to the reactor we were given an iodine preparation which was normally the first emergency aid..."

Today, 50 are remaining to control 3 reactors, hoping to keep them cooled. Or more, depending on which source. The Ministry of Health increased the acceptable exposure limit to "to 250 millisieverts from 100 millisieverts, five times the maximum exposure permitted for American nuclear plant workers."

Despite the demands of occupational safety experts here to protect workers, I can't imagine the Dept. of Labor (i.e., OSHA) actually being capable of moving overnight to change an exposure limit. The cynic in me thinks this is, in part, because after-the-fact the safety professions would turn around and demand to have all of the other 30-year old limits changed, too.

I'm surprised the Green Party in the US isn't going more ballistic, given its absolutist platform on nuclear power. The party chair for Die Grüne [the German Green Party] was making this point in a rather restrained manner Sunday, anticipating the impending state elections in Baden-Württemburg. Given the party's platform on feminism, I suppose referring to her as the chairman would be gauche.

Interestingly in the German news, the Greens are confronted with 'warming their hearts' [ihre Seele wärmen] over the opportunity to renew one of their core beliefs coming to conflict with their desire to create a Black-Green coalition government, i.e. CDU/Green, which to the American bipolar condition sounds strange with the conservatives & tree-huggers. Admittedly, the German Conservatives are still in touch with reality, unlike ours.

#1 = Chernobyl
#2 = Fukushima

Financial whining

2011-03-12T13:10:00.000-06:00

I'm so sick of listening to complaining about cutting government spending. Let's back up and look at it again, folks. How to fix the country's budget/spending problem:

1. Figure out how much money is actually coming in
2. Make a list of everything that you want the government to pay for.
3. Make a list - it'll be reeeaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllly long - of every last damn dime spent by Uncle Sam. Do NOT make this list first. Ignore, completely and totally ignore what we're spending today when you make the list of what you actually want to pay for.
4. Start spending and stop when your balance sheet hits $0.

The financial wizard/con-men are trying to screw you by including point #3 above. This is completely irrelevant to the solution. Ignore today's reality when trying to create tomorrow's. Really. Seriously.

"Cutting Spending" is the modern mantra. It's bullshit. You don't want to pay for the state's maternal and child welfare (a.k.a. WIC) ... just don't put it on the We Want To Pay For It list. Cut everything!
Start from Zero. Not from the current budget.
What do you want? Can you pay for it? Figure out what you can afford. Everything else will be eliminated anyway, so stop arguing about whether or not to cut it.

Back up.

1. Decide whether or not you want to live with Capitalism. If you don't, please go away. If you do, please wake up and smell the coffee. You don't live in a capitalistic economy, if you live in the USA. I hate to break it to you, but all of you already live in a socialist state which has NOTHING to do with whether GW or Obama is in office.

2. Eliminate every last goddamned penny of federal subsidies. Take the resultant $1.6 Trillion* and cut the federal deficit by half.

Subsidies are economic engineering. A True and Pure Capitalist would refuse to take them. A real capitalist would ... well, actually she would take them. And any other damn thing the federal government threw her way.
Then she would start to rely on them.
Then she would demand them as her due.
Then she would claim they were her right as a business owner.
Then ... one day she might look in the mirror and realize that she's been sucking off the teat of the American Taxpayer and has committed Capitalistic Heresy and Apostasy.

If you want subsidies, that's fine. Just don't ask for them and then delude yourself into thinking you're a Capitalist.

As I listen in painful agony every weekday morning to 91.1 FM, I hear people of all parties saying they want to cut spending. And I never ever ever ever hear them say exactly what they want to cut.

The following need to be removed from any conservative (that is, the American ones) whining about social problems. None of this would be a problem if you just sucked it up and did what you're supposed to be doing according to the Word of God and Conservative Society:

birth control: if you ain't married, you don't need it because you aren't having sex
abortion: since the only way you'd get pregnant is if you're married, you can't need an abortion
financial aid: if you can't afford to pay tuition, you need to get off your ass, get a job, and save up your money. You cannot sit back and expect me to pay for you to go to college.
unemployment benefits: you'd have a job, if you just got off your ass and made a real effort
unemployment benefits: if you'd saved your money like a responsible person, you wouldn't need to worry about a year of being without a job because your neighbors and fellow parishoners will be helping you like Good Folk Should
job safety: if you just do your job properly, there wouldn't be any accidents.
drug safety: if we just let Pharma alone, they'll be more than happy enough to let us know if there's a problem with their products
food safety: if it isn't safe, don't buy it and the market will realign itself to reflect the customer demand.

Holy cow - think of how much money we could save by eliminating all of the government agencies or laws which regulate the above items?
OSHA
MSHA
USDA/APHIS/PHS
EPA
CSB
FDA

This, plus cutting all subsidies should fix the Whole Financial Crisis and we could get back on with our lives.

Nigeria v. France

2011-03-10T14:55:00.000-06:00

So, unless I'm becoming even more chronologically illiterate ... the opening game of the 2011 Women's World Cup in Germany, hosted by the current World Cup holders, Germany, is between ... drum roll, please ... Nigeria and France in some city somewhere named Sinsheim.

???

oh, yeah ... later on that day, Germany will be playing Canada in Olympic Stadium in Berlin.

Sinsheim, fyi, according to FIFA "lies at the heart of the Kraichgau region".

... uhhh...

I probably know more German geography than the Average American -- terrifying, considering how limited my knowledge actually is -- and I have not only no idea where Kraichgau is, I've never even heard of it, either.

To put this statement in perspective, I can't actually tell you exactly where Mecklenberg-Vorpommern is ... but I do know it's a state, I can spell it, and I'm pretty sure it's in the former DDR somewhere in the vague vicinity of Berlin. Okay, so just about all of East Germany was in the vague vicinity of Berlin, so sue me. And, yes, I picked that state at random after thinking "hmm, which state sounds the coolest & do I know where it is?" I didn't look at a list of states, I already knew it was one. Really. Being inveterately curious, I of course had to go look. It's in the north-west corner of modern Germany, north of Brandenburg, which is the state surrounding but not including Berlin.

Further on, from FIFA, I read that it's in Baden-Württemberg and is 22 km. SE of Heidelberg.

At least, unlike most Americans, I know what a kilometer is.

Cancer sucks

2011-03-07T13:12:00.004-06:00

We got totally shitty news Saturday. The 6-year old son of some friends at church, whom we haven't unfortunately seen in a while, discovered he has cancer. Not some pansy-ass whimpy thing like leukemia. The name is 2" long and ends with -carcinoma. It's highly aggressive & highly malignant.

Something so rare in kids that the docs at the Mayo Clinic [just down the road from here] initially said, "that can't be right", go get another opinion. 4 opinions later ...

There's only 2 cases reported in the literature about kids. Which translates to "we're sort of clueless about what to do".

He started chemo over the weekend. A whirlwind saga of options on chemo, surgery, and lots of medical terminology.

They aren't telling him the extent of the extremely poor prognosis. It hadn't occurred to me that there would be a psych specialist for the parents. Managing the information flow to their child, to help him stay informed enough about what's being done to him without nuking his still-positive outlook.

I'm not sure if Jr.Gopher#1 remembers the boy - right after we started going to St. Albert's, there were four boys all the same age who really enjoyed playing together.

A friend of the family is in the home stretch dealing with pancreatic cancer. Did I mention cancer sucks? He's 78. As unhappy as I will be, and likely contemplating the age of my parents, it will not be a life cut tragically short. 6 years, though ...?

Explaining to Jr.#1 that Don is sick and probably won't live much longer seemed a beneficial situation. After all, he intellectually knows that old people die. I am assuming [?] that Don's death won't be emotionally traumatic. Raven the Cat dying will probably be more emotional.

We told the boys that Mr.Gopher's uncle died - but this was 2 years ago. We could have said any other stranger died, for all it mattered to them. They had never even heard of this man.

So, thankfully at least, their first exposure to Death will be the death of someone they actually know, and it won't be their grandparents. But this boy? Even if Michael doesn't remember him all that well, trying to explain that a 6-year old boy probably won't live through the Summer...? God. No wonder people want to be atheists.

I was the Lector yesterday at Mass, and read the Prayers of Intercession.

These are the prayers that include:
lector: "For the healing of the sick, we pray."
Response: "Lord hear our prayer"

I was sooooo close to simply adding the boy's name to the list of the sick and realized I didn't know if the parent would want me to ... it made me feel so sad to refrain from asking people to pray for him.

So,
For the healing of Will Newll and the courage of his parent, we pray.
Lord, hear our prayers.

If anyone can, please say a prayer - or whatever intervention method you want - for Will Newell.

I'm usually one who cries at the drop of a hat. This ...? Mr.Gopher told me on Saturday night. It was this afternoon before it hit me. I'm sitting in the StPl library, trying to finish my thesis, and I can't stop crying and don't have any kleenex.

photos - past 6 mo. or so

2011-02-15T12:59:00.010-06:00

Good Afternoon, everyone!

So I've been slow on the uptake. Or at least up load. Photos from the past 6 months or so. From last Summer's vacation to Michigan to late autumn. I'll try to get the Christmas/New Years/Birthday photos. When the German School posts the pictures from last Friday's school performances, I'll post a link there, as well. Of course, if they have a video of the 1st Grade singing a ditty about boogers [ein Popel ein Popel ...] I'll link to that, too. I could tell which parents in the audience spoke German based upon where the laughter was.

Michigan:

We got some up-close and personal exposure to the birds at Potter Park Zoo in Lansing

One of Jr.Gopher#2 favorite stuffed animals is a llama; he finally got to see a real one in person.

Beale Gardens at Michigan State University

The hat was to hide my horrible self-inflicted hair-do. The ferret was just to make the boys laugh.

Here in Mpls, Fall 2010

Not 100% discernible, but the silver thing behind his head is a duct-taped mummified water fountain.

No, you really don't want to be giving him a license yet.

Near where the Minnehaha Falls flow into the Mississippi River

The Minnesota River flooded this year, a bit higher than usual. The submerged trail here is normally a mile from the river bank. To imagine the amount of water involved, consider that it is pretty flat out here. Someone mentioned the excess water flow in the millions of gallons. Too bad BP didn't schedule the gulf oil spill a bit earlier - this could have flushed it all away from the shore.

Halloween 2010

Lufthansa Flight 596 en route to Dusseldorf departing from Minneapolis-St.Paul International Airport, we'll be flying with the plane named after Gladbeck. Yes there is one, and we've flown on it.

Jr.Gopher#2's rocket ship required registry with some nation. But he refused to put BRD or USA on it. I am glad, however, to have avoided hand cramps since he didn't want "Deutschland", either: the other side of the costume reads "Germany" with its flag.

Near Mississippi River, Autumn 2010

Playground

The Minnehaha Falls are somehow more impressive when they're frozen. I should find a Summer vs. Winter photo pair.

Walking w/ Papa

earlier section of trail

Computer Engineering & Game Design 101
Jr.Gopher#1 decided to build his own laptop, since I wouldn't let him play games on mine. This also required, of course, designing his own games to go with them. He insisted on the keyboard layout, since - as he informed me - he was perfectly well aware of the fact that B, and not S, comes after A.

Jr.Gopher#1 and I took in an ice hockey game: U of M vs. U of M. [The photo is Goldy the Gopher on the ice.] After the debacle of his emotional melt-down at the state soccer championship game, when we randomly picked the team geographically closest to S. Mpls to cheer for, "our team" lost 0-3, I convinced him we could cheer for both teams, since he was born in Michigan, and I am going to school a Minnesota. Luckily, U Minn beat U Mich 5-3. It was the first time I've seen someone get a 10 min. penalty, too. Double luckily, it didn't occur to him to ask why grown-ups who break into fist fights and hit each other with sticks only get a 2 min. time out, whereas he gets 6 min.

Rammstein & Sesame St.

2011-02-09T14:28:00.000-06:00

Krümmel Monster mit Ich Esse den Keks a la Rammstein
Cookie Monster with "I Eat the Cookies"

Winnie the Pooh - again, in German - Ich Will
was removed by youtube
I guess Disney didn't like being coopted by Rammstein. sigh ... it was really good.

oh, them!

2011-02-08T10:37:00.003-06:00

Jr.Gopher#1 was speaking with his phys. ed. teacher last Friday. I caught part of the conversation:

PE teacher: ... you like Gopher Sports and ice hockey.

PE teacher: Who do you think is going to win the game this weekend?

Jr.G #1: huh?

PE teacher: The big game this weekend - who are you cheering for?

Jr.G #1: huh?

Me to teacher: No one in our family follows American football.

Jr.G #1: oh! football!

PE teacher holds out her hand with her nails painted green & yellow.

PE teacher: Whose colors are these?

Jr.G #1: Brazil

racism?

2011-01-10T09:30:00.002-06:00

After hearing the news on MPR this a.m. about Rep. Giffords, my first thought was "god, I hope he wasn't Mexican".
How sad.

What's Your Rank?

2011-01-10T09:16:00.000-06:00

What's your job score?

Ms. Healthy Gopher:
Occupational Safety: 89

STFU&GBTW:
Motion Picture Editor 19
Computer Programmer 18
not sure which would apply - maybe you count as 18.5

Mr. HT
Computer Programmer 18

Mr. Gopher
Electrical Engineer: 62

Dr.Nuke: Physicist 12
Heather: Attorney: 82
The Author: Author: 93

Of course, there's always top and bottom rank:
Mathematician: 1
Lumberjack: 200

2011

2011-01-07T11:37:00.002-06:00

Where did 2010 go?

Am I actually going to finish my taxes before April?

Am I actually going to finish the Christmas/New Year cards tonight & post them tomorrow a.m.?

Holy shit ... am I really going to be 45 in 4 days?

is Jr.Gopher#2 actually going to be 4?

Is the Lansing City Assessor's Office going to spontaneously implode due to the amount of financial b.s. exceeding critical density?

sigh...

Bumper Sticker of the Month

2010-12-18T19:52:00.000-06:00

Don't bitch about it
Start a Revolution

reading review style

2010-12-17T19:45:00.000-06:00

I found an interesting series of novels - sort of a noir-wizard-Sam-Spade. On the Brain Candy level. This certainly isn't Raymond Chandler. Pleasant distraction and quick read. Review likely to be coming after finishing my thesis. Uhh ... thesis ... that reminds me of something ... something ... OH! that thing on my desk.

The author has written 13(?12) books in the series about the same character. Do I want to actually read the reviews of any beyond the next one? I really don't want to know that John and Mary wind up romantically involved. Really blew some of the romantic/sexual tension in the book I'm reading right now. Of course, that information was in a review of it. So, when you're writing reviews for Amazon (or whatever) - please don't add in tangential information about the further plot/character development.

I guess I'm over-organized on something. I only read books in the order they're written (chronologically for the story line, not publication date). I read all of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin opus. Once I decided to read all 20 of them ... well, I didn't want to find out what happened in the next one. I already completely enjoyed them, so I never bothered to read the reviews. Admittedly, the existence of other volumes does allow one to draw the conclusion that Our Heroes survive. The trick for a truly good author is to make you forget this when keeping you on the edge of your seat for the book in your hands.

Hennepin County Library - please remind those two people that I'm waiting for #4.
.

History, revisited

2010-12-16T10:50:00.003-06:00

Kingdom of Heaven was a visually . beautiful movie. Now that Orlando Bloom is no longer riding the LotR / PotC wave, I suppose it might be easier to watch it without seeing Legolas in the Holy Lands. The biggest visual draw-back of the whole movie is Eva Green. Jeeze... can't she ditch the over-done icky eye makeup that's in all her work?

This is the Crusades done to Eyes Without a Face, Billy Idol.
At least the focus on this isn't so bad, as long as you don't make it full-screen.

Yes, this is a simplistic summary of the Crusades. It is also much, much better than the 6th Grade history textbook I looked at a few years ago. At least it mentions
a) that there were more reasons than "for the glory of god"
b) the Children's crusade
c) other consequences of the wars beyond "Europeans got their ass kicked by the Muslims"

and, if you want Kingdom of Heaven on screen - watch in on a big-screen if possible. The big battle scenes and the long shots of Jerusalem/surrounding lands are better big. The costuming and visuals are really impressive. It's Ridley Scott, a.k.a., Gladiator, in his historian (and unfortunately not Alien) mode. Balian's "rise a knight" speech is Hollywood-esque overdone "ain't the little peasant peon really the center of all that is Right and Good, who are the True Good Guys". It's one of those "sort-of-based upon a story we think the scriptwriter once read", but at least they didn't hire a WASP to play Saladin.

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1418789145/
sorry, can't figure out how to imbed it from IMdB.

How often did I tell students ...

2010-12-14T21:45:00.003-06:00

Well, at least Mr.Gopher married a woman who labels her axes.

and right now, every single one of them is:

y-axis: critical fraction (by-pass/through)
x-axis: charge burden (n)

let's see if this choice makes it past my adviser

statistics - bizarre indeed

2010-12-09T14:35:00.003-06:00

Blogspot has a new tab/function on my page (well, I assume everyone else's too): Stats. I don't know if you can see it, or if it's only available to me. Being inveterately curious, I - of course - looked. It has a graph of page views vs. time. I can't tell if that includes me or not. (update:yes, it does) One tab in Stats provides a list of post titles and number of views for that particular page. The maximum by a looooong way was Scary Hairdos in the Reichstag on Election Day.

It also has a "traffic source", which makes no sense to me. It also leaves me wondering which country/corporation uses .tr This tab lists "Referring URL" and "Referring Sites". Neither one makes sense to me. Given this ... what's the point? I've been interested recently in how statistics is used to further misguide the ignorant/uneducated (which ever you think is less offensive a term, though I really do mean both). If so, these statistics are simply incomprehensible and therefore harmless. I think.

That said, the other function, Audience, is actually interesting, since it's graphic: a world map with countries (and US states) in different colors based upon viewing traffic, a text list of those countries, and pie charts indicating which browser program is used for looking at the page. I realize a large number of the US views might be myself, if the system doesn't consider whether or not I'm the viewer. But the rest of the world? Germany: a couple of friends & in-laws there. France: one in-law there. UK - French resident moved there. But ... Canada, Russia, Netherlands, India, Luxembourg, and Malaysia??

Inveterate curiosity sated: Went to list of how many views per post from today. My viewing is included in the numbers. Therefore the number of views from the US is not really *that* impressive, since a significant - if small - % is mine. I'm not in Turkey or Malaysia, though...

what took you so long?

2010-11-30T14:06:00.002-06:00

Overheard comment from woman probably 25-30 yr. old: "I'm going to get a passport..."

You don't have one?

How else are you going to convince the FEMA internment death camps that you're actually a US Citizen?

How else are you going to escape from the Idiots running the country & seek asylum somewhere else, if you can't get across the boarder?

Bumper Sticker of the Month (sort of)

2010-11-30T12:24:00.005-06:00

so this is a while afterwards, but still funny:

Signs @ Rally for Sanity:

Sure there are more, but I don't want to go back through all of the ones I read, so here's a limited selection:

I came here Illegally. I went 5 mph over the limit on I-95

If you don't want the 1st Amendment, you can't have the 2nd.

I screwed you all, but thanks for blaming the black guy. w/Bush photo.

Really must see the photo.

I can't put the math symbols here, so just click here.

I have no problem paying taxes because I'm an adult and that's part of the deal
I'm ok with the mosque - but WalMart really scares me

If screaming makes you right ... the 3-year old won the street is a friggin' genius

I wouldn't presume to tell God who He hates.

Another sign you just have to see, but probably can't read the fine print.

God hates flags.

The following are still funny, but you probably don't want to read all of this, so the top ones are my favorites.

Taxes aren't why your life sucks.

Critical Thinking: The Other National Deficit
I'm a Marxist. w/Groucho photo

I scare Juan Williams at airports. sign held by female, brown-skinned woman wearing hijab

Facts have a well-known Liberal bias.

Glenn Beck brainwashed my grandparents. I want them back!

Vote Cthulhu. Why pick a lesser evil?

Pssst...if you see my mom in the audience, tell her I'm working on my dissertation

Pi is all the irrationality I need

Empowering the Powerful - RepubliCorp

Thanks Honey 4 staying home w/ the kids

I've only got hair under my scarf. wearing hijab

I want to see Sarah Palin's birth certificate

Repeal Civil Rights -- I was happy at the back of the bus. held by black man

No more unqualified candidates: show me your grades in
US Gov't
Environmental Sci
Stats & Econ
or STFU

Give Us Back the Colonies & we'll give you health care. under UK flag

.

science geek

2010-11-29T12:38:00.003-06:00

Once a geek, always a geek
bonus Geek Points if you understand the bottom frame

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/guest_week_bill_amend_foxtrot.png

Questionable Success?

2010-11-17T11:44:00.000-06:00

Watch the full episode. See more Mark Twain Prize.

OMG -HOW much did you say?

2010-11-10T14:59:00.002-06:00

Christmas shopping > Jr.Gopher#1 > obsessions >
Legos
Soccer
Legos
Soccer
Legos
... ...

Possible gifts:
soccer jersey > german national team > OMG!
are you serious? That's more than a ticket to see the Red Wings play here in town.
And I can't even find them in kids' sizes.

Hmmmm ... link to sales in US ... OMG!
The Euro IS NOT that high against the dollar! And they don't even have Özil's number in the white home colors (and Real Madrid's jerseys are just ugly). I don't want to explain to Jr.Gopher#1 that #8 hasn't always been the same person.

Sort by price ... OMG
Do you seriously think I would buy a vuvuzela for my child? Yours, maybe, but not mine.

Found in kids' sizes ... guess it doesn't matter how expensive it is, since the sizes offered don't even appear on the chart...

sort by personal aesthetics ... why can't I find the 2006 jerseys? They were nicer looking. And, while I'm at it, why can't I find the women's team - not sizes, but die Frauenmannschaft? Power of popularity? The US Women's team has its own page, right? I live in a country where women's sports isn't hidden in the back closet ... we've got representa... uh, yeah, that page has one item: black training pants. And, seriously, who designed the US men's jerseys they had at the World Cup this year? Lord, how ugly...

I guess over-priced Legos might be higher on the shopping possibilities.

Scales & arpeggios

2010-11-09T14:20:00.002-06:00

My 6-year old currently struggles to read, letter-by-letter. Consequently, he doesn't get the emotional impact of the text. Whereas, I can just let the letters pass and I get it. I found an analogy to music.

When I first learned to play an instrument (piano), it made sense to me as an 8-year old that one would somehow need to provide directions, i.e., the written music - probably not intuitively, afterall I'd spent my whole life seeing my mom play the piano. I could read words by that time, but learning to read music proved very difficult, to get both the bass & treble clef going at the same time. It was (and to a great extent still is) like reading two different books at the exact same time.

Later in life, when I finally pursued wind instruments, and fell in love with music as a hobbyist musician, I finally learned to read music, not just notes.

The same child has recently fallen in love with playing on my electric keyboard (a residual tool from singing in a choir and struggling to overcome hearing my own voice on/off pitch). The other day, while he was playing around with it, I reached over and started playing a scale while concurrently singing it. He was astonished, but promptly remembered the scene in The Aristocats, where one of the kittens is practicing singing her "scales and arpeggios" while the mom-cat plays the piano.

So far, Jr.Gopher#1 seems much more fluent reading in German than English. I think I'll need to check the availability of more German-language kids books to entice him to enjoy reading. Unfortunately, all of the sources for them domestically are really expensive - - and the trans-Atlantic shipping prices from amazon.de are horrifically high since they don't do surface shipping. I guess I'll need to ship it free deutsche-domestically to OmaGopher and have her ship it to us cheaply. sigh ...
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Ad spending for election here in MN

2010-11-04T12:16:00.001-05:00

Some of the TV stations are not releasing independent expenditure buys related to state races, including the governor's race, saying they are not required to do so under state and federal laws.
... therefore it's
1) a wonder the law has actually lasted
2) obvious the law will be repealed ASAP

Based upon the information contained therein about candidate spending,

1) the GOP will do anything legally possible to win the governor's race because they'll be horribly embarrassed if they out-spent Dayton more than 2:1, but still lost
Emmer(R): $1,713,780
Dayton(D): $ 889,330

2) the GOP voters apparently charge more, but the DFL votes are worth more
Emmer(R): 1,713,780 / 910,382 = 1.89 $/vote = 0.53 vote/dollar
Dayton(D): $ 889,330 / 919,238 = 0.97 $/vote = 1.03 vote/dollar

3) you can't win a state-wide seat on a shoe-string budget.
Governor: Hakeem = 6,187 votes (0.3%)
Auditor: Young = 54,152 votes (2.7%)
Admittedly, this might be interpreted as personally knowing me guarantees you can't win state office.
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Conspiracy? Likely not, but still ...

2010-11-03T14:42:00.000-05:00

Air Freight is a vulnerability in the war on terror.

I must admit, the first thing which crossed my mind when I heard this is wow, I bet the Government did this in order to maintain the crisis-panic subsidizing their power.

Do I actually think so? No. Nonetheless, it speaks volumes.

Flow chart - diagrams

2010-11-03T11:27:00.005-05:00

click on image to get it into a larger format to see the whole thing ... sorry I can't get it differently...

Problem solving flow chart - now this is my humor of the month:

Circuit diagram:

the holy water is my favorite part

civic duty

2010-11-02T11:51:00.002-05:00

I just helped someone find their local polling place. Beyond doing my civic responsibility, I've helped someone do theirs. yea.

I'm waiting to go vote until after school, so that I can go with Jr. Gopher#1.
Get 'em young - train 'em right.

So far, I'm planning to vote for people from 3 different parties; can't find any worthwhile GOP candidates this time.

Publication: Professional or not?

2010-10-21T13:45:00.001-05:00

The Author questioned on her blog whether blogging is a publication credit for an author.
My answer: It depends.

If you head off to a different realm of publication, one finds scientific, peer-reviewed journals. There is a distinct quality issue here. One can't get 'published' unless one convinces the journal of the quality and value of one's work. This is no different superficially than publishing at Bantam or Vintage. One difference, as I understand it, is who does the 'approving'. These journals get reviewed by others who do the same type of research, who are therefore better able though not perfect to identify the scientific quality and value.

I am never going to "get published", to use the phrase as scientists do. My thesis research isn't really all that great, especially in the absence of about 1/2 of the data I wanted. Hypothetically my adviser could include me as a "secondary author" when he publishes the bigger research project which mine leads into, though I can't imagine him doing so.

This is an option I only notice on scientific journals: primary authors and secondary authors. The primary author's name is first, and if it's the first name, it's the primary author. Everyone else gets listed after that. I don't know if journals have a rule about the order. I did get included as a secondary author once, many years ago, and it wasn't alphabetical. Actually, the list was:
Boss,
VP of R&D,
Worker with More Hours, and
Worker with Fewer Hours (me)

I see novels and non-fiction published with more than one author, but I have the impression that there are simply more names listed, and the first name is likely chosen for marketing value.

The key factor in my decision to include a blog under 'publications' on my resume would be the same as any other item: how relevant is it to the job requirements?
If I was applying for a job which required extensive writing of any kind ...? Yes I would include my blog.
If I was applying for a scientific job, and I thought my blog was scientifically fantastic, I would include it only if I thought it was make me look good.

The catch -for me as a professional looking at the healthygopher blog- would be how much profanity or socially unacceptable things I had made. I write my blog for purely personal enjoyment that might not always be appealing to all readers. While I don't go whole hog with obscenity, I do occasionally use it. This -again for me as a scientist- is really unacceptable. I really can't imagine mentioning it on a scientific job application because of this reason alone. Similarly, if it was a scientific blog, I would completely refrain from profanity and make an effort to be more objective in my writing. More professional, basically.

I guess at the end of the day - if you consider it a professional method to distribute your professional writing... it's a publication. Perhaps the question isn't the method (internet), per se, but how the method is used. Are you making and maintaining your blog as a professional tool? For you, the answer is yes. For me, the answer is no. Therefore you're publishing and I'm not.
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Requiem of Doom

2010-10-13T14:10:00.000-05:00

Riddle of Steel / Riders of Doom: if you remember Conan the Barbarian, you'll remember the tune (track 2). Lord only knows, but parts of it, esp. 3:50 make me think of the Requiem mass: Dona eis requiem aeternam to a pounding, driving over-the-top Williams-esque heroic tune. Rather appropriate, in this case: eternal rest grant unto them as Conan is killing everyone.

The tune is not exactly the version in the modern Gregorian tradition or even Mozart. Yes, yes, the picky adherents to the Church of Rome will point out that the 'official' order of the text is 'requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine'. However, given the glory of Latin declination of nouns, it shouldn't really matter in which order they are used.

Failing my current profession, perhaps I can turn to a life setting the Latin Mass to new settings.
et lux perpetua luceat eis.

pushing band candy

2010-10-12T13:51:00.001-05:00

hee hee hee hee

Parenting 202

2010-10-10T12:12:00.002-05:00

Thank you for the kind words. I spent so much time (time = $) seeing a shrink; I want my children to avoid repeating the process. I learned so much from that experience that has made it easier to deal with the rest of the world. One part of which is respecting another's boundaries.

"What's wrong?" sounds nice and considerate, but it isn't. There's no simple way of refusing to answer without sounding like you're rejecting the person's care for you. "Can I help you?" or even better, "Do you need help?" are easily answered with yes or no. If someone is that distraught, they're probably already at the point of monosyllabic answers. Last night I was talking to someone, who I noticed is more stressed out than usual. I care about this person and want them to be less stressed. Will demanding "what's wrong?" reduce the stress? No. Better question: "Do you know what's bothering you?" My next sentence is going to vary dramatically depending on whether his answer is yes or no. I try to apply this to the Jr.Gophers, to respect their feelings.

Additionally, I try to get them to express their emotions, something others aren't very in-tune with. I've tried to find a way to tell them how I'm feeling when they really, really piss me off. But i want them to have some gradation in this. I don't want them to think there is an on/off switch - Mom's angry or she's not. I had to deal with this with my mom's boyfriend, who singlehandedly contributed to a large amount of stupid shit hanging like an albatross around my psyche. I try to let them have free rein to tell me that they're angry with me (or anything else). Or tell them "you're starting to aggravate me". So, don't be surprised if you hear Gregor use that word - I heard it last week. "mama, you're aggravating me". It took so much effort to keep a straight face while asking him why.

Rather than paint Life as right and wrong (which, yes, DO exist), I try to leave that to morality or ethics, and not apply that black & white polarity to things like table manners or other mundanity which are categorized as rude/polite or appropriate/inappropriate.

One of the things I heard which drives the point home about expectations we have of children: seriously, he's only 3 years old! Now, just keep adding a year to this as he grows up. We don't often stop and consider that our expectations of children shouldn't be the same. This approach should segue into assessing our expectations for adults as individuals, rather than en mass.

Man, it gets so frustrating hearing a child ask you the EXACT SAME QUESTION repeatedly. Not just a few times in one day, but without any other communication in between.
Where are we going? Michigan. Where are we going? Michigan. Where are we going? Michigan. Where are we going? Michigan. Where are we going? Michigan. Where are we going? Michigan. Where are we going? Michigan. Where are we going? Michigan. Where are we going? Michigan. Where are we going? Michigan. Where are we going? Michigan. Where are we going? Michigan. Where are we going? Michigan. Where are we going? Michigan. Where are we going? Michigan. Where are we going? Michigan. Where are we going? Michigan. Where are we going? Michigan. Where are we going? Michigan. Where are we going? Michigan. Where are we going? Norway. ... no we're not, Mom!

Right around the 3rd answer, I have to keep telling my self "does it really matter how many times I give him the same answer? Really, is it going to kill me to say "Michigan" 40 times?" The answer to *that* question is obviously, no. So, I might as well do it. It's just that after the 10th or 15th time, when I'm SOOOOO bored, I occasionally resort to changing the answer in a radically different way. Inevitably, he notices and laughs.

Keep asking yourself "Does this REALLY matter?" no matter what the situation is.

Ask yourself: Do I ABSOLUTELY NEED to say anything? Quite often the answer to this ought to be no. Hell, you're not even obliged to answer anthing to the police or the judicial system. Why feel that way socially? e.g.

Person #1: I hate your shirt.
I am likely to say nothing, and get on with my life. So she hates it? So what? What would I get by disagreeing with a personal opinion? Not to mention, this isn't a question and grammatically requires no response.

Person #1: Do you know your opinion is wrong/stupid/etc?
This is a question, but so what? You're not obliged to answer it, are you? If you're not obliged to, why give yourself the stress of interacting with this person at all? Ignore her completely. Are you obliged to interact with someone who's rude to you? No! We too often feel we must respond to someone just because the spoke to us. Boy, that took a long time to realize. Of course, the response to their question can always be your own:

Person #1: Do you know you look like a dyke with that hair cut?
You: Did you know you're a rude asshole who's interrupting my lunch? Go away.

I try to treat the boys the same way I want to be treated, or the way that I want them to treat other people. I lose my temper occasionally; no, I'm far from a saint. It's given me practice dealing with inveterate assholes in the Adult World, too.

"That Is Totally Inappropriate" can usually be substituted for "Go Fuck Your Self" without adversely effecting one's professional status. I have yet to experience an occupational situation where the latter was really called for, although I can imagine one or two where I might. And I actually contemplated it once.

Yes, I can look at my parents and think "what in the name of all that's holy were you thinking?" just as much as I know both of my children could say the same thing in 40 years, God willing I'm still alive to hear it.

My mission statement about parenting:
I want my children to grow up to be men who are capable of loving themselves and loving others.
Anything else is just icing on the cake.

Really, what else is truly necessary in life? Being self-sufficient? Self-sufficiency is an American Myth and doesn't exist. Why brainwash my children to seek something that doesn't exist? Literacy, monetary wealth, children of their own, their own home, ... ?? How will those make you a better human being?

If there is anything else that you can point at and say "You failed as a mother because your son can't _____", be prepared to be told your opinion is inappropriate.

huh?

2010-10-09T12:19:00.000-05:00

I had to answer yes/no to the following question on a job application form. I split it up to parse, since I couldn't figure out what the answer was.

Are you or an immediate family member (spouse, child, parent, brother or sister) currently or ever have been employed by a U.S. Federal, State, Local or Foreign Government (either as a civilian or in the military), or in a Reserve or Guard component of the Armed Services, or in any other position that may either: (1) prevent you from being employed by [us] or (2) place restrictions on what work assignments [we] may give you, if hired, due to U.S. Federal, State, Local or Foreign Government "revolving door" or conflict of interest laws?

... huh?

Are you - ok, that's me, good so far

or an immediate family member (spouse, child, parent, brother or sister) - that's a lot of people

currently or ever - if they care if I've ever done it, why mention 'current'?

have been employed by a U.S. Federal, State, Local or Foreign Government, - that's a lot of work

(either as a civilian or in the military) - is there any other possible category?

or in a Reserve or Guard component of the Armed Services, - didn't they just already include the military?

or in any other position - so basically, in any job anywhere with anyone by anyone genetically related to me or with whom I've genetically created some of these others

that may either:

(1) prevent you from being employed by [us] - god, I hope not

or (2) place restrictions on what work assignments [we] may give you,
If I haven't seen the job description (which we all know is NOT the one posted to get me to apply), how can I possibly answer this?

if hired, due to U.S. Federal, State, Local or Foreign Government "revolving door" - is this the "don't let it hit you in the ass on the way out" door?

or conflict of interest laws?
-- right now I'm thinking that the entire government system within the USA is in conflict with my interests.

... huh?

You know a lawyer spent an entire month trying to come up with this. I'm more accustomed to simply being asked "have you ever been convicted of a felony?"

how accurate is good?

2010-10-08T14:51:00.001-05:00

Far better an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than an exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise.
—John Tukey,
quoted on flowingdata

succinctly put philosophy

2010-10-07T12:58:00.002-05:00

Besides for a small group of the rich and powerful achiever/business tycoons, Rand, I believe, appeals to those who philosophically can’t move beyond their own feelings inadequacy. They see heros[sic] that society puts down and trashes their selfish desires. I think most Objectivists sit in their middle class suburban houses and think “Yeah, if society was like that, then I’d be a CEO making the big bucks too!” And there are also those who see these people, and use this selfishness and lack of self esteem and use it to manipulate them. Probably why it appeals to segment of the tea party folks. -- Richard Banet, #39.

This is it, people: the rich & powerful realize you, too, wish you could be rich & powerful just like them, so they convince you that you can be rich & powerful if you just act like them and let them run the country. After all, they're rich & powerful, so they know how to get into The Club, so if you put them in charge, they'll get you into The Club, too. So you buy their homes, and their vacations, and their life style. They suck in that money you're spending (because they're the ones who own the businesses selling this stuff), and you elect them to office. And, brother, are you fucked. Because chances are they got the money the good, old fashioned, guaranteed way: they inherited it. And you're sliding further into the hole because you're buying all that stuff from big companies owned by the already-rich, and not from your neighbor across town. And by now, the rich & powerful are elected and have enacted laws to only benefit the rich & powerful. But you still believe you can get into The Club, so you keep electing them. Because one of these days, you will be just like them and then you'll get what's coming to you, by God.

Only problem is, they're already in office, and you have already gotten what was coming to you. And now we're all fucked.

The above paragraph does not mention political party affiliation. Because it applies to all of them.

I've never met anyone from any party that thinks fiscal irresponsibility is a good idea. Every non-Republican (not to be confused with sane Conservatives like Mr.Gopher) I have ever met knows that everyone in the government is corrupted by the current fiscal system, regardless of their party membership.

spongy white bread on the great buffet

2010-10-06T11:36:00.005-05:00

An insanely funny review of Atlas Shrugged. I couldn't stop laughing.

I can't imagine it being that funny, if you haven't read the book, which the reviewer describes as "nerd revenge porn". Several of the reader comments (well the 1st few, I"m not going to read all 396 of them) are really amusing, as well. "Regardless, I may have to read it now, just so I can picture John Galt as a sentient cup of yogurt the whole time."

commenter #39 stated:
I think most Objectivists sit in their middle class suburban houses and think “Yeah, if society was like that, then I’d be a CEO making the big bucks too!” And there are also those who see these people, and use this selfishness and lack of self esteem and use it to manipulate them. Probably why it appeals to segment of the tea party folks.
-- nailed it in one. This explains my personal opinion of tannin-containing-idiots quite succinctly.

I read it in high school and it was the first significant piece of literature that really impressed me socio-politically. Sure, I'd read a bunch of Heinlein, Asimov, and I might even have read Dune, and quite a bit of Cherryh's more social-focused works. All of which came across as clearly SciFi. Atlas Shrugged was presented as more clearly 'it could be real', since it didn't have interstellar space traveling aliens wielding laser guns. I clearly disagree with the reviewer about how plausible the objectivist-world is. Just look around, man, and listen to the politicians today.

... I forgot

2010-10-05T13:56:00.001-05:00

I need to start using that little notebook in my bag to remind myself of stupid things.
or things i think would be nice to share here.
or things i actually really need to remember.
or things i need to remember but really don't want to do.
or ...
i forget

When is it "safe" to be American?

2010-10-05T13:41:00.000-05:00

When I heard the story on MPR ~~this~~ yesterday a.m., the "advice" from Sec.State was to avoid attracting undue attention as Americans. For example, don't wear American flags attached to clothes. My first thought: "fly the flag, but only at home?"

What's the message?

"You will be derided by certain tannin-containing groups as unpatriotic if you don't display stickers/signs/pins/etc of the American flag, but ... now you must show that you're patriotic, but only if you're inside the US."

What good are signs of patriotism here? Everyone knows I'm a rabid progressive who hates my homeland and refuses to conform to the desires of the Conservative One True Faith by ny embracing a socialist government. All those dipshits don't even know what socialism is. If they did, they wouldn't think I'm a socialist. Of course, I doubt they actually understand what communism or marxism or any other economic policy is either. If they did, they'd realize the "conservative" economic policy is actually stupid.

Now, seriously ... how can anyone fail to notice I'm American? I sound American when I speak, regardless of how I dress. I sound American, no matter what language I'm using. By the way, I have been assured my accent is 'cute' by one of my friends.

Ah-ha!

That's it! Speak some language other than English. No one will believe I'm American if I actually speak another language!

I am far more likely to be killed or maimed this afternoon at 15:00 (don't want to sound American when I tell time) en route (French!) to pick up my son at his foreign-language-(chic - more French)immersion school while driving my (German import) Volkswagen since my (foreign immigrant American-job displacing) Husband is at work than if I was in Europe somewhere (spending my American dollars supporting foreign businesses).

The State is always harping about being safe when abroad. Yes, stupid people need to be reminded that traveling in some places is a decision involving more risk than others. No, I don't particularly want to visit Nigeria or Cameroon or Palestine. That decision was reached without needing to consider my nationality. If it's a place where my nationality will be bad ... I assure you that I don't want to go there anyway. The Central African Republic has roaming gangs of rebel militia; Mauritania has terrorists kidnapping & killing French and Italian travelers. I don't know about you, but if I was a German citizen, I wouldn't be going there.

But now, as I review the State Department's travel warning website, apparently I shouldn't go anywhere. And, please take note, Europe is not on their travel warning website. Wouldn't want to piss off our mutually-euro-centric allies too much.

As observed by Mr. Ivey, he would be going to Europe: With a Teflon coated platinum walking sphere with radar and explosive sensors. I experience Europe through a small tube, but hey, no extremist is going to bag this American!

Safe is a relative, subjective word.

You're never safe.

Never.

I need to go find my car keys ...

why?

2010-09-28T14:13:00.003-05:00

Seriously, why bother?

It isn't as if my vote or anything else I do can possible overcome the immensity of corruption and money.

I keep asking myself whether or not American politics has always been this god-awful. Or is this simply a new and refined style of corruption?

yup ... new & improved!

why bother? god almighty, it's so depressing. almost as bad as the retarded idiots sitting over in St. Paul. Not at the capitol. The ones in the cathedral. That's even more remote from human influence.

why bother?

incompetent self analysis

2010-08-21T12:53:00.001-05:00

From 'The Agnostic's Dilemma' (NYTimes):
When people are incompetent in the strategies they adopt to achieve success and satisfaction, they suffer a dual burden: Not only do they reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it.

the article also cites:
Justin Kruger and David Dunning, “Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties of Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-assessments,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1999, vol. 77, no. 6, pp. 1121-1134
these authors have several related articles

summum bonum

2010-08-14T11:42:00.002-05:00

My book,” says Skinner, ”is an effort to demonstrate how things go bad when you make a fetish out of individual freedom and dignity. If you insist that individual rights are the summum bonum, then the whole structure of society falls down.”

- Time Magazine, 1971

http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/07/07/extinction-burst/

[pre-review] This Body of Death

2010-08-12T14:37:00.000-05:00

I can't take it anymore.

This Body of Death, latest endeavour from Elizabeth George, is up to par with her fantastic writing. Normally, her books start with an opening chapter which leaves you wondering which one of the people are going to bite it before Chapter 2. This opens in a totally foreign style, quickly identifiable as a formal report. Being about a group of 3 twelve-year old boys and a toddler, who is implied to be the victim of some horrific events. Chapter 2 comes. We still don't have a body or any police. We have, however, gotten a chapter which seems much more as expected. But no body. Back to the little boys. No body. At this point, I'm ready to ask "so where's Death, dammit?" Finally a body appears. But it is clearly an adult victim with an equally adult perpetrator.

As the plot progresses, it keeps popping back to the criminal report of the three boys and toddler.

I am at the point where I simply cannot read that part any more. The implication seems to be that the older boys killed the younger one with premeditated horror. If I knew the little tyke lived, I'd be okay with it. The writing is so bland and emotionally detached that I simply can't take it. Sure, the style is appropriate for some sort of review-report. But the sheer lack of emotional contact is driving me nuts.

Yet my response "why isn't anyone dead yet?" was in expectation of an adult victim. What's wrong with me, if the expectation of an adult dying is okay (in a literary sense), but a very young child completely horrifies me?

The new character on the force at Scotland Yard is an alcoholic woman, who like any alcoholic expends a lot of energy to avoid being revealed as such. An interesting approach to character is that she is far more worried about the vodka than in whether or not she's getting respect from her male subordinates, although if asked would claim the sexism was the biggest problem.

An Adult screwing up her life, and screwing up other Adults' lives, is much more emotionally palatable to me than trying to read something piecemeal that I just know is going to be truly horrific (as the report-author keeps stating). I think it's just the victim's age which is bothering me; I wonder, however, what my response would be if it was an adult. George's book With No One As Witness had a psychotic killer luring teenaged boys to their death; for some reason that wasn't so bad. In that situation, though, the kidnapping and murder were only mentioned distantly with details coming out only with the police investigation. This just drags out and out in excruciating detail, leaving me in fear for the child's life. Obviously this is extremely well written to provide such a strong response. Nevertheless ...

Sorry, Ms. George, I just can't take it. I am certain the two plot lines will merge; if the toddler survives, I might go back and read the whole thing when I re-read the book eventually (which I'm sure I'll do).

Who were the good guys?

2010-08-11T11:13:00.000-05:00

God help me. I mindlessly told Jr.Gopher#1 that he couldn’t see some movie because it was a ‘war movie’. What, of course, did he say?

What’s a war, mom? uuuuhhhh...

me to self: ... pay attention to the road construction; being late to the dentist is better than needing orthodontic reconstruction surgery after a car crash ... oh, my god, what am I going to say?... pay attention to the road ...

uuuuhhhh...

I said something I hoped would avoid a more detailed answer, which included something along the lines of
‘when two countries get so angry with each other that they start fighting over it. Except in a war, the people also get killed. War is horrible.’

Thinking - stupid, stupid, stupid! - to put this in some sort of not-so-vague point, I said that Oma’s dad had been a soldier and had been in a really big war in Germany.

“Was he one of the good guys?” fuck

“Well, sweetie, sometimes it’s not so easy to tell who’s the good guys.” so much for wanting to avoid weasel-worded answers...

“Did he die?”
“No, he came home from the war. He died later.”

Yes, I avoided mentioning he came home in 1953 after enduring god knows what as a Soviet POW. I’m not totally stupid, thank you.

Jr.Gopher#1 was hung up on the good-guy vs. bad-guy idea. I tried to think of a way to explain to a 6 year old the difference between stupid governments and nice people who happen to get sucked into fighting as soldiers for them.

“Some times countries go to war over stupid things. America got into a war like that when I was a little girl.” wow, I’m batting almost 1,000 on the stupidity scale in a mere 20 minutes

Again stupidly thinking of putting a more direct face on the matter, because he’s actually met my father, I added,

“Grandpa Bob was a soldier and fought in a war.”
“Did he die?” huh?

“No. Your grandfather? You met him. He came to my party and went to the zoo with us.”
“Did he kill anyone?” uhh...

In all the years since I discovered he had been in Viet Nam, I have never once considered whether or not he had killed anyone.

“Well, you can ask him. I’m sure he’ll tell you.”
I’m really curious about the answer.

My child not only doesn’t know what a war is (thank God), he has a terribly absolutist view of good and bad, like most children. How am I supposed to explain within such a polarized Weltanschaung that his great-grandfather was a soldier in the German army during World War 2, when the Germans were the Bad Guys, while I assume still being a nice man? Or that Uncle Joachim’s dad had fought in the same war, and the two men in question were apparently both devout Catholics who didn’t want to be in the war. Or that Opa’s father and Oma’s father had both fought in yet another big war in Germany, where Americans said they were the Bad Guys. Or that the German government being Bad didn’t make all of the soldiers Bad?

That’s right ... don’t explain it at all!!

Damn. I should have thought of that.

Damn. I should have just stopped while I was ahead.

Damn.

I was also confronted with the realization that I’m not sure how I would have answered him, if the great-grandfather in question had been one of my grandfathers, i.e., American. Would I just off-the-cuff have said “yes, he was one of the Good Guys?”

101 Things To Do

2010-08-06T22:30:00.000-05:00

101 Things (apparently) All Sports Fans Must Experience Before They Die:

Come visit us & you can do the following:

40. Town ball in Minnesota (summer, towns throughout Minnesota). Town ball (baseball played by amateurs for their local town teams) is the last pure sport in America. You know the diamond in "Field of Dreams"? There are at least a dozen such fields in Minnesota where the local teams play a couple of nights a week each summer. Many of them have a cornfield on one side and a cemetery on the other, which is a fitting arrangement: life and death with baseball in between.

66. U.S. Pond Hockey Championships (January, Minneapolis). How cool is this tournament, played the way hockey is meant to be played (on a frozen lake shoveled off by the players themselves)? Brian Bellows played in it after his 10-year NHL career.

82. Minnesota high school hockey tournament (March, Minnesota). As with Indiana basketball, this tournament isn't what it once was when all high schools competed together regardless of size (Roseau, with an enrollment of about 400, won the last single-class tournament). But it remains as much a part of state culture as Prince, tater tot hot dish and "Fargo."

Not here, but you could probably stop by and say hi to my in-laws while you're there:

101. Driving the Ring (daily, western Germany). There is no speed limit on Germany's autobahn (somewhat of an exaggeration, there are speed limits) and there is nothing quite like doing 100 mph only to have a family in a station wagon honking at you to pull over and let them pass. But if the autobahn isn't fast enough for you, try out the 14-mile, 170-turn Nurburgring. The former Grand Prix course was closed to Formula One racing for decades before returning this year (too dangerous) but it's open to the public to drive at speeds of up to 150 miles per hour. Just promise one thing: That you won't attempt this until you've accomplished the previous 100.

So far, I have accomplished the following on this list:
#66 - Pond Hockey Championships. Went this year with the Jr. Gophers. Only got to see about 20 minutes of play before the games were called off due to the ice melt being too deep for the puck to slide.

#88 - Monday Night Football. Well, in all honesty, I can't recall if the Steelers-Dolphins game was on a Monday Night or not. The WVU Marching Band was playing for them. Not nearly as impressive as the WVU-Pitt or Penn State games, though

#101 - above - driving on the autobahn - I tried it in Baden-Württemburg, near Stuttgart, and got passed by 2 Porches and 1 Ferrari which were all doing at least 120 mph.

What's on the list that I personally really want to see?

#56 - an All Blacks game. I wouldn't even care if it was in New Zealand, but I'm willing to suffer if I'm already there. In which case, it might co-incide with #64, camping out for tickets to anything, because in this Age of Electrons, I'm not camping out anywhere other than at my laptop.

#20 - Stanley Cup Playoffs. Preferably when it's Detroit on the ice or here in St. Paul.

#11 - Premier League soccer. I will make the assumption that the author is not a complete idiot despite some of the items on his list, and further assume that what he actually meant was Professional European Big League Soccer, and therefore this includes the Bundeslige. In which case, I'll head with Mr.Gopher for a game at his favorite team, Borussia-Mönchengladbach (how's that for a name?) or Schalke/Borussia-Dortmund/Köln (which are vaguely near the in-laws). Although Jr.Gopher#1 would no doubt bounce around insanely lobbying for Werder Bremen, where Mesut Özil plays (#8, his totally favoite player from the Weltmeisterschaft this year).

#2 - World Cup. The US is supposedly considering lobbying for hosting the games again in 2018. If so, and if the Gophers are still here ...? Sign me up along with the other million people who want to see it. At least if it's here, it'll be a sure thing that we're playing. And I really can't imagine Germany not at least qualifying.

What's not on the list that I personally really want to see?

A - Women's Ice Hockey NCAA Championships
Face it, there aren't going to be any women playing in the NHL. Ever. If I want to see top-notch women's hockey, it will only be at a university/college. And I'll need to do it before we leave Minnesota. Luckily we have several teams in-state, increasing the probability of access to the championship games. I've promised Jr.Gopher#1 to take him to a Gopher's game this season. Given the price difference, it will be the Women Gophers. I plan for this to be a gender-identity-expanding event: i.e., women a big sports players, too. This should precede next years Women's World Cup. Expect and brain-popping insane rant if the U has a female-version of Goldie the Gopher.

B - Women's World Cup. Although I will accept that the author just ... uh ... forgot? that there are two of them and thus forgot to mention this in passing with #2

C - stupifyingly, I don't recall college hockey being on the list. Maybe it's just not as cool as the Stanley Cup (true) or Pond Hockey Championships (maybe). The men's NCAA championship is on my list, too. Cheaper than seeing the Wild [I think...?] or any game in the Cup playoffs [for sure].

D - I'm sure I'll think of something else...
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Old Cook Books

2010-08-04T09:04:00.001-05:00

I learned how to cook using my mom's 1964 Fannie Farmer and Joy of Cooking. To this day, if I could only have 1 cookbook in my house, it would be Fannie Farmer. Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone would be the 2nd, if limited to 2. Of course, given the content here, you could also buy a modern re-print of the 1896 original Fannie Farmer since it's not on Proj.Gutenberg. Oh, so tempting...

While in the SCA, I had occasion to enjoy the fruits of others' labors in producing medieval (or close to it) foods. It opened my pallet even more. So, for my friends who are interested in cooking, there are quite a few interesting books at Project Gutenberg published prior to 1920. I also have several friends who are on a more limited diet or who are vegetarian - so I've included many of those.
The "historical" (i.e., pre-1700) recipes are listed 1st, being the fewest (3.5)
The vegetarian-only are listed 2nd
the others are included either because they're just old or the title amused me or the content looks good (19th century cookbook devoted to chocolate). Caveat emptor - don't even imagine I've read all of these, much less tried them

Pre-1700
see bottom for other really old stuff not in English

The Closet Of Sir Kenelm Digby Opened, Receipts For Mead, Metheglin, And Other Drinks, Cookery Receipts, pub. 1910 as a re-print of 1669 original text. The introductory biography is truly historically fascinating.

The accomplisht cook or, The art & mystery of cookery, 1685

The Queen-like Closet or Rich Cabinet, Stored with all manner of rare receipts for preserving, candying and cookery. Very pleasant and beneficial to all ingenious persons of the female sex, 1672

Old Cookery Books and Ancient Cuisine, 1902, while published in '02, it is actually a treatise on ancient cuisine

Vegetarian

veggie The Golden Age Cook Book, 1898

veggie Vaughan's Vegetable Cook Book, How to Cook and Use Rarer Vegetables and Herbs, 1919 for 4th ed., it was the 'rarer' that caught my eye, although that designation might not be applicable in today's global market; however, the "distinction about toxic & non-toxic ... may not conform to modern knowledge" is inspiring me to read it.

veggie Dr. Allinson's cookery book Comprising many valuable vegetarian recipes, 1915

veggie Cassell's Vegetarian Cookery, A Manual of Cheap and Wholesome Diet, 1891 - you'll have to page through quite a few advertisements for interesting products

veggie Food and Health, pre-1923, Canadian, pub. by Lydia E. Pinkham Medicine Company, recipes don't include their products, but there are copious testimonies about the efficacy thereof, leaving me wondering what exactly their "Vegetable Extract" was.

veggie Chocolate and Cocoa Recipes and Home Made Candy Recipes, pre-1923, but I'd guess closer to 1900, published by Baker's Cocoa company

veggie Food for the Traveler, What to Eat and Why, 1916, the content looks really intriguing, from directions on how to become a vegetarian to "foods not to mix" (not all of which are self-evident to me) and other things which should appeal to the modern connect with some nature-based philosophy life-styles. For Alison especially. Have absolutely no clue why "traveler" is in the title.

veggie No Animal Food and Nutrition and Diet with Vegetable Recipes, pre-1923, advocating everything from vegetarianism to eugenics, is more of a treatise, but does have recipes.

veggie Let There Be Cheese, 1955 on frontispiece, but it must be out of copyright.

veggie .New Vegetarian Dishes, 1892

Everything Else

The Suffrage Cook Book, 1915,

Science in the Kitchen, 1893, the Kellogg author is from the Kellogg company -- includes a section for Evils of Bad Cookery -- key words include vegetarianism

A Little Book for a Little Cook, 1905, published by Pillsbury

Foods That Will Win The War And How To Cook Them, 1918

Good Things to Eat as Suggested by Rufus, A Collection of Practical Recipes for Preparing Meats,
Game, Fowl, Fish, Puddings, Pastries, Etc., 1911 -- for Renaud

The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, Adapted to the Use of Private Families, don't see a publication date, but the author died in 1828. Yes, 1828

The Cooking Manual of Practical Directions for Economical Every-Day Cookery, 1877

Twenty-Five Cent Dinners for Families of Six, 1878
sure, I have no idea what inflation has done to an 1878 dollar

Twenty-four Little French Dinners and How to Cook and Serve Them, 1919

A Poetical Cook-Book, 1864, each recipe is prefaced by a poem or verse about the food in question

Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Household Science in Rural Schools, 1918

other really old & intriguing stuff that's not in English
Le viandier de Taillevent, author died in 1395, in French
Apicii librorum X qui dicuntur De re coquinaria quae extant, 1922, in Latin - don't ask, I've no clue why a German publishing house would publish a Latin text on cooking in '22 - since I don't read Latin, I don't know if this is a re-print of something much older. The introduction has standard modern-ish citation forms for a couple of articles, which I just don't want to bother looking up, although they are in German journals. I simply can't imagine a cookbook being published in Latin unless it was so old that Latin was still the vernacular. -- although it does look like it's citing mss. from 15th-16th C. Hell, I'm taking it on faith that it even is a cookbook, although there are words I recognize which are food (vino, pices, oleum).
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[def.] Success

2010-08-03T09:00:00.000-05:00

My mission statement about parenting:

I want my children to grow up to be men who are capable of loving themselves and loving others. Anything else is just icing on the cake.

Really, what else is truly necessary in life?

Being self-sufficient? Self-sufficiency is an American Myth. Why brainwash my children to seek something that doesn't exist?

Being educated? That's nice, but if they have a 6th grade education, what bearing will that have on Life? Sure, they won't be a nuclear physicist, but so what? It will be harder to get a high-paying job ... but is that critical to having a Good Life?

Yes,
I want them to have relationships with people which are fulfilling;
I want them to have a good education;
I want them to have hobbies which they enjoy;
I want them to be able to put a roof over their head and food on the table;
I want them to be able to travel the world and appreciate it in all of its glory;
I want many things.
But you know what ... I cannot control any of that.

I can't make any of that happen. So why should my relationship with my children revolve around whether or not those things occur? Will any of those things mean I'm a good mother? No. Will any one say, "Your child failed out of college, therefore you suck as a parent!" I suppose. Not more than once in my presence, though. "Your child just isn't capable of having a meaningful, healthy relationship with other people." Now that I will consider to be the death knell of my maternal efforts.

Reminding myself of this mantra is a key function to reducing parenting-ability stress. So he's not reading up to grade level? Well, yes, let's fix that. But there is only so much I can do about it. Why give myself unending stress about being a Bad Parent only to discover he has an inherent reading disability?

Can you Do Anything About It? if not, get over it. Get help, if necessary, but get over it. Get over it and get on with making sure they grow up to be loving people.

Is there a smoker in the house?

2010-08-02T12:41:00.002-05:00

Futilely trying to light a baptismal candle yesterday, Fr. Joe finally sought assistance: "Is there someone who will admit to being a smoker?" No one answered.

never voted - yet

2010-07-29T12:54:00.000-05:00

There was a fellow sitting across the table from me @ May Day a few days ago. His companion had asked where he was from, as he had an odd accent. Their discussion verged into his impending U.S. citizenship.

He is from South Africa, sort of. Born in the UK, he was an English citizen, but promptly left. Growning up and spending most of the first half of his life in South Africa, he never voted. "There was not point." he said. He never bothered to for 2 years back in the UK. He's lived here for 20 years. He can't vote here. In fact,

He's never voted.

Never.

There was a tone of amazement and eagerness in his anticipation of elections in November.

The first time I voted was in 1984. Walter Mondale & Geraldine Ferraro and John Rockefeller were on the ticket. The last time I voted was in April at the nominating convention for the Green party. I wish more American citizens would look at the opportunity to vote with the same awe.
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don't make fun of the zeta function

2010-07-28T00:36:00.003-05:00

Comic:
frame 1> lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, she asked me what I was thinking about
frame 2> I should have made something up
frame 3> The Bellman-Ford algorithm makes terrible pillow talk.

me: read the text of the comic aloud, then asked if Mr.Gopher knew what this algorithm was. The comic was already amusing, whether or not I knew what it was. I got the point.

Mr.Gopher: didn't have any idea.

I was surprised.

me: it could just as easily have been the Rhiemann-Zeta function makes terrible pillow talk.

Mr.Gopher: No! continuing enthusiastically It's one of the most important problems in mathematics. It was on the list of significant unsolved mathematical problems 100 years ago; it's still on the most recent one. It's fascinating. Don't make fun of the zeta function!

me:

me:

me: hee hee hee hee hee hee

Mr.Gopher: what's so funny?

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My first thought

2010-07-27T23:53:00.005-05:00

Really, the first thing that crossed my mind was: God, I really do look like my brother. Okay, they're not great pictures, I took them myself.

2nd thought: hey, I'm still a brunette.

It would have taken much more effort to get my hair-do worse than it was. This, seriously, is an improvement. At least I don't look like a walking q-tip.

I think the last time my hair was this short was when I was 6 months old. Cool - it only takes 10 minutes to dry, not 10 hours. but ... I think I look about 10 years older than I did as a long-haired red-head. ah, well ... it will grow back. The whole purpose was simply to get rid of the horrid 'do.

Identity matrix doesn't function normally either

2010-07-27T23:49:00.003-05:00

Cute website. My favorite it even made Mr.Gopher smile:

creative profanity

2010-07-23T22:32:00.002-05:00

Periodic Table of Swearing.

Done by an English(wo)man, based upon the prolific use of 'sod'

Respecting the Law ... but not my intelligence

2010-07-20T10:16:00.006-05:00

I am perhaps more critical of writing which starts by pissing me off.

America, we have a problem. Millions upon millions of people want to move here. Permanently. Even a country as prosperous as ours cannot possibly absorb so much humanity.
1st sentence of the NRO article Respecting the Law

bullshit.

So what happens now? The bullshit detector is on.

next sentence:

As problems go, however, this is not a bad one to have. For the day that “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” no longer besiege America is the day we will have to admit that America has lost its “magic formula.”

well, maybe an intelligent neo-nationalist

8th paragraph, following rah-rah-ain't-we-wonderful self-aggrandizement of the United States of America:

Respect for the rule of law seems natural to most Americans, what America does he live in? and can I get a visa? but it is largely an anomaly in the history of other nations. really? Would this be the 'other nations' whose legal system we adopted, like England? Or China, the oldest country in the world, which has had a rule of law for centuries? Or maybe he really means a 'democracy', which really has little to do with a rule of law? Nowhere is this more evident than in Latin America. South and Central America have seen scores of military dictatorships and autocracies, despite endorsing democracy and democratic institutions, since freeing themselves from the shackles of Spanish colonialism. Because we keep funding the groups which remove the democratically elected people we don't like. ... Far too many of the region’s leaders have learned the fine art of manipulating electoral politics FROM US in order to install themselves as autocrats or dictators with our money and political backing.

The inconsistent adherence to the rule of law has made it difficult for democratic institutions to flourish in Latin America. there? what about here? Moreover, repeated flouting of the law by political and military leaders undermines respect for the law among the general public. only if you're a progressive This is evidenced in everyday life: Consider the streets of many Latin American countries, where simple traffic laws are violated almost universally, and with near-total impunity. Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Has this man seen the streets of America? oh, right ... we've already established he doesn't live in the same America I do. Like Michigan, which treats stop signs as general guidance, and Minnesota where running red lights is a local sport on par with jay-walking in Michigan.

It’s no surprise, then, that some immigrants from Latin America evince a residual disrespect for the rule of law in this country. trans: I come from a country without traffic enforcement, therefore I will become a felon here, rape your daughters, steal your dogs, and suck on the teat of American social security.

It explains why so many ______ remain convinced that they have done nothing wrong by _________. Their desire to work hard and provide for their families is, for them, enough to justify their actions — the rule of law is an extraneous concept.

Now, class, let's fill in the blanks above. Is the correct answer:

American politicians // fucking the poor
American politicians // fucking our children's future
American politicians // waging unfunded wars abroad
unemployed illegal aliens // being hired by American companies
undocumented workers // entering our country illegally

If you answered a, b, c, or d - your head is sufficiently far enough out of your ass to smell shit when it's there.
If you answered e, you read Mr. Ortega's article.

Why is it that I think they assigned this piece of propaganda bullshit to a person with an Hispanic family name?

So, in summary:
Latinos have no traffic control and therefore are inherently incapable of obeying any law and therefore are unworthy to enter the hallowed borders of a country which worships the rule of law.

by the way ...

I filed suit yesterday in small claims court against someone in this Rule of Law Worshiping Society who rear-ended me, stove in my back hatch, and has no insurance while driving a vehicle belonging to someone else with no insurance, who then drove off before the cops came, after being monumentally stupid enough to stop and talk to me. If she'd just driven off, no one would ever have been able to prosecute her, since it wasn't her car.
She must have been an illegal immigrant.

I write like ...

2010-07-15T09:59:00.010-05:00

cut & paste your writing to find out "who do you write like?" ... although I'm pretty sure it has a really simplistic tool. After all, look at the comparison of the topics and the writers below. It's not my writing style, it's the content. Because while I like Vonnegut, I do not write like him.

This is from my term paper on comparing dry and wet deposition following the Chernobyl disaster.

I write like
Arthur C. Clarke

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

This is from a blog post on my surreal experiences in a Staasi prison in Berlin, Germany

I write like
Kurt Vonnegut

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

From a chapter of a fantasy book I wrote for some friends:

I write like
H. P. Lovecraft

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

Who in hell is David Foster Wallace?
With its baroque subplots, zany political satire, morbid, cerebral humor and astonishing range of cultural references, Wallace's brilliant but somewhat bloated dirigible of a second novel (after The Broom in the System) will appeal to steadfast readers of Pynchon and Gaddis. But few others will have the stamina for it. -publisher's weekly

So ... on 2nd thought about the content-only ... I had never heard of this Wallace fellow - but the text I pasted in was a pretty explicit erotic short story. The publisher's review doesn't make it sound like sex.

I write like
David Foster Wallace

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

and, of course, out of scientific curiosity, I tried something from a famous author, Upton Sinclair, who apparently writes like Arthur C. Clark.
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World Cup, pt. 9

2010-07-09T11:25:00.001-05:00

yup - this is long - I don't know who reads this anyway, so if you give up in 3 paragraphs, I'll never know.

The next World Cup starts on June 26, 2011 in Germany. Yes, 2011. This will be the 6th cup for women. Germany is the 2-time-in-a-row defender. We have won 2 of the 5; Norway has the other. In comparison to the men, no one is going to be surprised if the US or Germany makes it to the semifinals.

Now this won't be a rant about women's sports getting the short end of the deal with support from their various national sporting associations or governments. I might, but it will be later. And will involve tea sets.

Oh, what the hell, I'll do it now.

I realize that women's sports doesn't have the draw that men's do. It's stupid, but it's reality. I could argue, rather than about women's sports, about gender discrimination in sports in general. Or the down-side to Title IX in sports. The stupidity of society in general about sports.

Oh, what the hell, I don't know where to start.

Tea sets:
In 1989, after winning their 1st UEFA championship, the German National Women's team received a tea set. Not even a really nice one, either. Not even one in black and white with red & gold highlights, or with the Deutsche Fußball Bund logo, or even the ordinary German eagle, not a really modern design, not even a completely goofy one with the pot designed to look like their jerseys. Nope - a quaint, old-fashioned pastel floral design. Yes, in '07 for winning the World Cup, they got a 50,000 € bonus. You can buy a lot of tea sets for 50k €.

Why doesn't American society want to spend the time or money on sports other than the Holy Trinity (basketball, baseball & football)? Ice hockey I understand being a geographically limited sport. The expansion of the NHL has made it more appealing in warmer climates, where they now have easy access to it. E.g. Hurricanes, Coyotes, Stars. I understand, given the already limited audience, the limited opportunity for women to have a pro hockey league. But soccer? Not even men's soccer gets the coverage that the lower-Nielsen-rated NHL does. But why not?

If sports are subsidized by commercial advertising dollars, and these companies want to make more money, I would think the opportunity for yet more commercialization would appeal to them. You would have different companies "sponsoring" the women's teams. Victoria's Secret isn't going to advertise for the NFL; although I don't understand why not. If the point of advertising is to a) get name recognition and b) increase sales, why not try to get the guys to buy sexy stuff for their girlfriends? Or themselves? More women are watching pro sports. Why not appeal to them through this venue? Are these feminine-appeal companies worried about being associated with men's sweat? If advertising at women's sports, are they worried about their name being associated with Brandi Chastain's bra?

Look at the sheer volume of ad dollars spent by Nike & Adidas impacting couch potatoes who aren't going to buy actual sporting gear. These guys are the ones buying ordinary clothes with the little swoop/3-stripes adding 175% to the otherwise expensive item. An activity equally participated in by women.

FIFA's general website is pretty thin for the women's branch. The page for the women's world cup is pathetic. Why can't they at least put more stories there? I'm not expecting the same level of coverage as the men. Afterall, the women don't have as much opportunity for professional play and therefore there is simply less to report. Nevertheless, the "recent news" for tournaments has no stories about the women. Sure, you say, the men's world cup is going on as you type, what do you expect? I expect to have one link - just one! - to the story that the first group of teams has been qualified for the women's tournament next year. If you go to a national teams' page, the "honors" doesn't distinguish between men's and women's. For some reason, I'm sure the Dutch women's team wasn't in the 1924 Olympic finals.

Sexism is pervasive in society. Men's discrimination is generally ignored (who cares?) or refuted (it can't possibly exist) or justified (what goes around comes around & they deserve to see what it's like). Title IX has been a godsend to women's sports opportunities. This is good for general public health**, encouraging participation from a location other than the couch. Of course, long-term spending on public health is all too often considered a waste of time. This is good for men. However,

Colleges/universities eliminating men's teams in order to offer women's sports is equally sexist. Of course, it's equally total bullshit offered to deflect their obscene expenditure on Football and Men's Basketball and blame it on the federal government's 'interference'. It's bullshit offered to blame women. Double-dipping at the discrimination trough - make the men blame the women teams and the women defend their desires to have teams. All the while claiming "but football brings in money that we claim to spend on the educational parts of the university". Without exception I don't believe this. Okay, maybe 10 cents on the dollar goes to education. Because we can't in the same sentence acknowledge that the average football coach makes 5-25x what the average professor makes. (ibid, In 2001 the Gopher's coach made $1,300,000 per year.) Plus maintenance for the stadium, a cost no one mentions in arguing the bond issues for building these stadiums on tax-payer dollars, which must also be kept-up on the taxpayer purse.

Some men's teams get screwed under Title IX; some sit back and reap the benefits of the men's gymnastics team blaming the women's soccer team for lower funding.

The Girls of Summer (review possibly coming out later) is interesting, if not so well written. The title, however, pisses me off. Why can't a publishing house, who wants to publish a book about how women's soccer in the US has struggled against sexism and who presumably wants to market it to a primarily female audience, use the word woman rather than girl? grrrr... How about cover art similar to The Women's Room? Despite the content of the book, does the publisher fear female sports are really seen as ok only for little girls who haven't become real women? Or are they worried about turning off the idiots who still think professional women athletes are all lesbians whose uterus is now incapable of functioning properly? Seriously, I remember hearing b.s. like this when I was in jr. high (i.e., ~1976). Stupidity which fails to match the epic don't go swimming when having your period because it will suck the water up into you. It's not idiocy safely relegated to the 1950s or Terms of Endearment.

Googling Germany+national+women+soccer yields a wikipedia page on the national team, which is actually the men's team. Of course, that page was written likely by a political-idiot American who also states that "Germany" has never technically won the world cup. Implying only West Germany has. Ignoring this is the fact that only the English-speaking world called it "West Germany", and it has since May 23, 1949 always technically been the Federal Republic of Germany, which won the Men's World Cup in 1954 . So, depending on how you choose to look at it, either
a) "Germany" really did win the world cup in 1954 because the team fielded was from the Bundes Republik Deutschlands (i.e., the Federal Republic of Germany) and every single year since the team team fielded has been from the Bundes Republik Deutschlands
or
b) In 1990 when the "west" won, reunification had "technically" been agreed upon.
And, the suggestion from Google asking if I really meant Germany+national+women's+soccer still doesn't even result in the German team, only the general page about women's soccer. I realize Google is a responsive tool, but really, to fail to provide the page on Germany when googling the exact title of the wikipedia page?

Of course, some women are self-defeatingly stupid, too. What fucktard thought playing in mini-skirts over hot-pants was a step forward for women's sports? Probably the same ~~person~~ ~~retard~~ ~~lunatic~~ ~~man~~(you really expect me to believe a woman came up with this idea? ... okay, I guess that is my point) woman who thinks playing beach volley ball in a thong as an Olympic sport was a Bright Idea. Elegant? If the Dutch think this is elegant, I'd really hate to see what they think is unattractive. Look at the team photo - if you're posing and the first thing I think is "wow, you can see up their skirts" ... it ain't elegant, sister, it's selling sexy. Do you really need to look elegant to play soccer? What athlete driven to compete and win is going to care if she looks pretty when she's sweating like a stuck pig and gasping in exhaustion after running non-stop for 45 minutes? Do they seriously think this will encourage 12-year old girls to be aggressive and self-assertive? I gotta tell you, if wearing skirts had been required to play soccer, there is no way in hell you could have gotten me onto the pitch when I was 13. I was all for sports; and all for contact sports on top of that. Karate, judo, SCA-fighting, yes. Mini-skirts? Fuck no! Maybe skirts aren't the reason they're #16. This is Holland, the same team duking it out Sunday for the Men's World Cup Championship. It's not as though they come from a nation devoid of world-class examples, say, Botswana. Afterall, skirts are ranked higher than two shorts-wearing teams from countries with power-house men's teams (Spain & Argentina). Two.

Speaking of which, if one looks at the 16 teams who were in the quarter-finals of the men's world cup this year, you have:
country ---- men's rank --- women's rank
Germany --- 6 --- 2
Paraguay --- 31 --- 116
Uruguay --- 16 --- 116
Argentina --- 7 --- 29
Brazil --- 1 --- 3
Holland --- 4 --- 16
Spain --- 2 --- 20
Ghana --- 32 --- 44
USA --- 14 --- 1 ... yes, yes, I know we weren't in the quarter finals, but our women are #1
mind, this is national ranking and not tournament placing.
The difference between the Dutch men's and women's teams isn't sooooo big. It's not the absolute difference in ranking. Just because one team is ranked higher doesn't mean there's something wrong with the other. But the ranking does compare women, not both. though I am curious about the points - Brazil, men's #1 has 1611 points; USA, women's #1 has 2233. They both use the 3/1/0 point system. Why do the women's teams have so many more points than the men's? This is a serious question and I would like an answer, if you have one.

Ah, I need to stop

**website might not be there, article is:
Physical Activity and Public Health -- A Recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Sports Medicine, JAMA, (1995) 273, 402-407.

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World Cup, pt. 8, 1954

2010-07-08T13:17:00.002-05:00

We're out. Germany is out. Jr.Gopher#1 is in tears. Mr.Gopher is disappointed. I'm resigned. It's not as if I expected the USA to get to the finals. No one is surprised that we qualified, nor are they surprised we made it out of the Group round. I would have been surprised for the to make it to the semifinals. No one, on the other hand, is surprised that Germany made it to the semi-finals; and once you get that far, I think it's simply a shot in the dark who's going to make it to the finals.

Bastian Schweinsteiger bekommt das Trikot von Andrés Iniesta. Er legt es sich um den Hals wie ein Handtuch, spricht lange mit Philipp Lahm. Dann geht er als letzter vom Feld wie ein Kapitän von einem sinkenden Schiff.-Der Spiegel
Bastian Schweinsteiger received the jersey from Andres Iniesta. He draped it around his shoulder like a towel, spoke with Philipp Lahm for quite a while. Then he left the field as the last one, like a captain from a sinking ship.

Not every year can be a miracle. Not edited well, but highlights of the '54 finals:

Deutschland 4 : 0 ...??

2010-07-03T20:59:00.009-05:00

Argentina????

Ole! ole ole ole ole ... ole ... ole ...
Ole! ole ole ole ole ... ole ... ole ...
Ole! ole ole ole ole ... ole ... ole ...**(hear below if anyone I know doesn't actually know what this is)

Jr.Gopher#2 was standing next to me singing in the middle of the 2nd half of the game. He looked pleased that he could sing with the grown-ups. Which is good, because I'm not sure he quite understood why the adults had been going bezerk.

At the end of the game, after screaming themselves hoarse, the Germans looked at each other and wondered: "4 to zero! ... but, against ... them...??"

Maybe because I'm not German, or perhaps because I'm not a serious soccer fan ... I've noticed the Germans, almost uniformly, seemed stunned at the score. Rabidly enthusiastic, but stunned. I don't get it. Sure, Argentina is good; but did these people assume their national team wasn't all that good? Sure, even I'm surprised, but my non-German mind says "wow, we won, cool. Pass the pretzels."

Goal #3 was a thing of technical beauty.

Goal #2, however, I think demonstrates why Germany won: they simply never gave up once they got the ball.
From 66:50 until the goal, Der Mannschaft just passed and passed and passed and scored. Müller (I think) slips, goes down while the ball hits him, he spins on his butt on the ground to kick the ball while practically lying down, straight over to Podolski and then the video clips pick up letting you see the goal.

Messi might be the greatest soccer player in the world, but you don't win the World Cup by being the best player. Or by fielding the best players. Germany hounded him and simply kept him from doing what he does best; it interrupted Argentina's flow of play. Germany just ran them into the ground.

Ahhh ...

Jr.Gopher#1 got to sit next to another boy 2 grades ahead of him at the German school; they at least got to socialize a bit with someone their own age. One of the teachers @ the German School was there, as well.

I hear the jingle for the ESPN world cup highlights coming from the front room...

I can't find a short version with the chant/song - The first 20 seconds or so of this is all you would need to hear; the rest is icky.

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[lie d'jour] Separation of Church & State

2010-07-02T12:44:00.000-05:00

"The tenet of the separation of church and state is an unconstitutional doctrine," she said.

"The separation of church and state arises out of the Constitution," Ralston replied.

"No it doesn't, Jon," Angle said. "Thomas Jefferson was actually addressing a church and telling them through his address that there had been a wall of separation put up to protect the church from being taken over by a state religion, and that's what they meant.

Washington Post, 30 June 2010, Amy Gardner, Sharron Angle grilled on Social Security, Medicare, and 'taking Harry Reid out', retrieved 1.Jul.2010

Now, I will certainly admit that the Founding Fathers probably didn't envision the current understanding of this separation. And, I suppose someone might technically argue that she is correct, in that the separation of church and state is actually in the Bill of Rights, and not the original Constitution. This doesn't change my assessment of this as a Lie.

A church being taken over by the State...?
They would have LTAO.

Lecturing to a congregation to fear the government's actions? This would be the same Thomas Jefferson who espoused:
"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear." [emphasis mine]
as well as
"Because these Pseudo-evangelists pretended to inspiration, as much as the others, and you are to judge their pretensions by your own reason ..."
Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, Aug. 10, 1787*

This would be the same Thomas Jefferson who, with James Madison (another Founding Father) waged "a long and successful campaign against state financial support of churches in Virginia." [emphasis mine]

These early American Citizen-Politicians' experiences would have been that the State already had a religion (The Church of England), and they were Out of Luck if they wanted to hold office and weren't Anglican. If you were Roman Catholic, you were just fucked. The majority (Protestants) were probably just pissed that they were being lumped in with the Catholics by being denied.

The C of E had the power, and the American colonists wanted it. The King was the head of the C of E (like the Pope, but with more wives). So, the Founding Fathers' experience was that the only way to get real political freedom was to get rid of the British Government which was run by the British Parliament, which required you to be Anglican to get in, and which required you to consider George III God's Vicar here on Earth.

So - their solution was to eliminate the possibility of an entire government be stuck adhered to one specific sect. How? Prohibit anyone in the new government from setting their flavor of Christianity as the Preferred Choice. In other words: "Let's have no state-mandated religion so we can all equally seek earthly power".

Their solution:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Anyone who is running for a seat in the U.S. Senate should be expected to know and understand the contents of the Constitution of the United States of America. Which is unfortunate, since I am under the impression that the only parts of the Constitution most politicians read is a few sentences within the Commerce Clause. They tend to be much more likely to quote from the Bill of Rights, especially the First, Second and Fifth Amendments.

It is doubly unfortunate they don't read it, since it is one of the shortest constitutions in the world. This one document has had a greater impact on the entire world in the past 220 years than anything imagined by the men who wrote it. I think they would be shocked at the scope of the impact of these 4 pages.

I think the early Americans would also be shocked at the idea of acknowledging the populist religion (evangelical/pentacostal Christianity) as the de facto Religion of Choice for the operation of the government.

*Thomas Jefferson, letter to his nephew Peter Carr, from Paris, August 10, 1787; Merrill D. Peterson, ed., Thomas Jefferson: Writings, New York: Library of America, 1994, pp. 900-906.

as an afterthought ... I really hope she isn't elected; I might have to add another woman to the euphemistic category She Who Must Not Be Named.

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Lie d'Jour

2010-07-02T09:19:00.000-05:00

bumper sticker of the month? What a silly idea! Who needs a bumper sticker? We can have

drum roll

the Lie of the Day!

This ought to be just as amusing, and probably much more closely related to reality.

So, here we go:

in order for it to be considered for the Lie d'Jour, it must

a) be a lie
As I'm trying to explain to Jr.Gopher#1, it is rude to call someone a liar. This is because I'm not sure he can understand the longer version: "It's rude to call someone a liar if you just don't like what they say, or if you don't happen to agree with them." My definition of a lie, so far, is: "When you say something that isn't true, and you know it's not true, and you want someone to think it is."

Because my best effort at a "real" definition has another item: "when you say something that isn't true and you know it's not true, and you want someone to think it is, because you want to take advantage of them ... it's a lie"

There is a sometimes fine, sometimes incomprehensible, distinction between a LIE and JUST PLAIN STUPID. Lying will get you ridiculed by me here.
So - looking ahead at the 1st entry from Ms. Sharron Angle, contender for the U.S. Senate from Nevada.
She claims the separation of church & state is not based in the Constitution. LIE: it is based on the Constitution, even if the current incarnation isn't what the Framers had in mind.
She claims that God has a plan for everyone and therefore victims of rape/incest aren't allowed to have abortions. STUPIDITY, but not a lie.

and last, in this description ...

It needs to be either demonstrated by evidence or by very convincing logic that the Liar actually knew they were wrong. Just getting something wrong doesn't make you a liar. At least not immediately.

b) come from a reputable source (as defined by me)
Wikipedia is not a reputable source. The footnotes in Wikipedia might be.
My blog is - if I put references with it.
The New York Times or Pittsburgh Post-Gazette or the Strib or Der Spiegel might be.
If you personally heard someone say it, and I believe you, it is.

c) be significant to the public or me

Tiger Woods saying "i've never screwed around" might make it for criteria a and b, but totally fail on c because I don't care.

d) be so gross a mis-representation of the Truth as to create a Lie

This is to cover the Idiots who lie to themselves so often for so long that they believe it. Like the people who think the Founding Fathers wanted to establish a Christian Nation. Some people espousing this idea are Liars. Some are Just Plain Stupid.

e) be relatively recent or so far back in time as to provide historical amusement

Within the past month or so, preferably in the past few days. Otherwise, it gets stale.
Otherwise, Chester A. Arthur stating he was the 22nd President of the U.S. might count, especially if he said Rutherford B. Hayes was his Vice President.

Submissions are welcome and will be posted if I think it's funny enough or produces enough Road Rage. If you want me to post it, you need to provide

the lie
where you found it -- provide links or else standard references
why it's a lie
why I should care

so, we're off to the races:

#1: separation of church & state unconstitutional

bumper sticker of the month

2010-07-02T00:19:00.001-05:00

Of course you can trust the government:

Ask any Indian!

Groundhog groovin' @ Glockenspiel

2010-07-01T18:43:00.000-05:00

This past Sunday at the Glockenspiel, St. Paul
Germany 4 : 1 England
- or -
Germany 4 : 2 England
- depending on who you ask - a normal human being or a FIFA ref

Groundhog Groovin' @ the Glockenspiel

exhausted after the soccer weekend

American news media & soccer

2010-07-01T13:49:00.003-05:00

Just to demonstrate how out of it American media are about soccer, Yahoo's sports report on some amusing story was in English. The YouTube clip, however, was narrated in German.

Scary hairdos in the Reichstag on Election Day

2010-06-30T12:38:00.022-05:00

Our political ally and cultural partner, the Federal Republic of Germany, is holding elections today for President.
BTW: the new president is Christian Wulff. Merkel looks relieved.

In order to promote and facilitate marital harmony, I recommend Mr.Gopher not read this if he's already in a bad mood. I would write this about anyone, not just Germans.
In fact, you probably shouldn't read this at all.

Really, sweetie, I'm sure you'll be offended on general principles.

Has someone told this poor woman that blue eye shadow went out in 1963? Unless you're Dolly Parton.

If Ms. Luc Joachimsen assumed office of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, it would be sociologically notable that a woman held office as the official mascot of the BRD. yup, Mr Gopher, that's fairly derogatory of the office. If we had one, I'd make fun of ours, too. In fact, if we have one and I haven't noticed because I'm American, please let me know so that I can do so. However, I don't particularly care if yet another 60-year old white man holds office, either. Now, tell me you elected a Turk of any age or sex, and I'll seriously think Germany has changed its social opinions.

Sure, but can you really see that hairdo standing next to Chancellor Merkel's?

I realize you can't control what your physical features look like ... but seriously, your hair-do is the singular aspect of your appearance over which you have almost total control.

Please note I didn't use Ms. Merkel's photo from Wikipedia or any other relatively 'official' source, just to be fair. These were taken on the same day in the same location, probably by the same person, credits weren't given. I also didn't use the scariest one of Ms. Joachimsen. I assume someone showing up for such a major event in the Reichstag** would be an more representative image, rather than air-brushed political propaganda. I still assume that one would make a point - on an election day?! - of looking one's best.

Despite the dearth of public restrooms in Germany, I'm sure the Reichstag has one. And a mirror.

In a short search, I looked for the least appealing hair-do photo I could of the current Chancellor:
wow - maybe its a wig. It never changes. I found some pretty unflattering pictures of her, but not her hair. Now, I think I'd have a pretty dazed look if Putin was talking to me. I'd be wondering where they planted the bugs in my hotel room. Or when he was going to change his middle name to Josef.

Admittedly, I was surprised to find a Merkel Barbie:
"The flattering interpretation of the 54-year-old German leader..." flattering? What person in their right mind would even think this is Ms. Merkel?

I noticed that the majority of the political cartoon-caricatures of Chancellor Angela Merkel look like Secretary Hilary Clinton. Maybe they share a hair dresser?
The website actually has a clown-caricature of Clinton, too. And Cheney. etc.

If you had asked me who this was ... my first guess would have been Clinton.

**There's a really cool picture of the interior of the Reichstag taken today. I've only seen the interior from the glass cupola on top.

which is a distinct improvement of 1934:

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10 worst worth a giggle

2010-06-30T12:28:00.003-05:00

#4
The godforsaken vuvuzelas! Make them stop! One of the charms of soccer is the singing that fans do. There is always loads of singing and chanting because every game is 1-nil, so there's plenty of time for singing and chanting. Soccer fans sing and chant inane hilarious things like, "We are from Norway! We came on a plane! And we are very drunk!" But we don't get to hear the singing and the chanting because of the horrible, hideous, heinous vuvuzelas! My god, they should take them into the mountainous caves region of Pakistan and play them until Osama bin Laden comes running out, screaming, "OK, OK! I give!"

ok, so I wish I wrote this, rather than Rick Reilly.

The list is worth reading, though.
As is the post on an industrial hygiene blog about the noise exposure due to vuvuzelas, since Mr. Reilly devotes #1, 4, and 10 to the ~~instrument~~ thing.

#10
Don't tell me it's discrimination to want them to stop. Don't tell me it's an essential part of South African culture. If it is, it's an annoying part of their culture. Yes, I know that centuries ago, the vuvuzelas were made from animal horns to call the village elders in for a meeting. And I'll bet you five wildebeests that when the elders finally got to the meeting they said, "Would you STOP already with the blowing? You're making me crazy!" I've been to Africa four times. They do some of the most beautiful singing you can imagine. At the World Cup, I'm hearing no singing. I'm hearing no chanting. I'm hearing 80,000 kazoos on steroids.
But it still sounds better than Ace Young.
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@ Capacity part 2

2010-06-28T22:27:00.008-05:00

Germany 4 : 1 England.

In the continuing saga of "boy, did you get fucked by FIFA's refs" comes the English soccer team. Who were totally robbed of a 2nd point. Totally. That was even more gross a failure than the off-sides disqualifications on us.

How gross a failure of referring was it? The crowd at the Glockenspiel looked at each other in confusion and said curiously "wasn't that a goal...??" and then a pair of the more rabid German fans looked at each other and said "but that was a goal, that was clearly a goal!"

Jr.Gopher#2 actually made it through 30 minutes of the game before he & I headed to the back of the restaurant. Which, conveniently, was still within sight - distantly - of the TV and yet much quieter. We read some German stories & looked at a picture book where we practiced on his German vocabulary. He then walked back up to our table and snuggled up with Mr.Gopher & Jr.#1 for the last third of the game. Admittedly, he was totally entertained by a mechanical dancing groundhog. video to come soon, as soon as I replace the batteries in the camera.

Now, how big is soccer in the rest of the world?
The G-20 summit was interrupted by Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister David Cameron taking a breathers to watch the game Sunday. Following the 'we were robbed' event, Chancellor Merkel is quoted:
But a major diplomatic spat appears to have been averted this time round. Merkel apologized for the phantom goal, telling Cameron she was "sorry about that," his aides said.

Reuters-Canada reported:
"There is an idea we might try and watch it together. I will try not to wrestle her to the ground during penalties, but we will have to see," Cameron told reporters.
and
A German flag was pinned to the UK room in the G20 media center. On it was scrawled: "See you on Sunday" alongside a smiley face.

up next: Saturday, at the Glockenspiel in StPl, 9 a.m. Germany - Argentina
Jr.Gopher#1 has started keeping track of the scores from the games.

Mr.Gopher is actually considering going over to see the Netherlands--Brazil game. If so, I'm going with him. It ought to be a good game - finally both of them are up against a rock-solid team.
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What's going on, now that we're out ...?

2010-06-27T17:30:00.001-05:00

Really cute - doesn't explain offsides, though.

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hallucinations? ... no...

2010-06-26T16:35:00.002-05:00

Here it is, what I was previously bitching/whining about:

And, admittedly, once you get to the still shot where it is abundantly clear there was a gross foul ... ummm... the other major holding foul was by uhhh... the US. Still totally horrid referring.

@ Capacity

2010-06-26T16:29:00.003-05:00

Riverview Theater: 700 people

US Men's Soccer Team: 1 goal

Ghana Men's Soccer Team: 2 goals

sigh...

At least I still own a German flag.
Glockenspiel, St. Paul, 9:00 a.m. CDT
Mr.Gopher has the kids today; I promised to watch Jr.Gopher #2 once his attention capacity is reached tomorrow morning.

@ Capacity:
Attention Span of Jr.Gopher #2 ... probably 10 minutes. We'll see...
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Grammar Gopher

2010-06-24T16:48:00.000-05:00

Please guess about whom the word 'its' refers to:

It's more than just a game as Have You Heard from Johannesburg? chronicles the history of the global anti-apartheid movement that took on South Africa's apartheid regime and its international supporters.

does the author mean Apartheid's supporters? or the anti-apartheid movement?
In this particular context, it could really be either one:

the protesters' actions against Apartheid and the international businesses which were supporting it economically
- or -
the actions of the protesters' and their international supporters
?

This is why people need to learn how to write more effectively. Of course, I can't watch it anyway, since I don't have cable TV.

hallucinations?

2010-06-21T12:34:00.006-05:00

Am I imaging it? I was too busy on Friday getting read for a camping trip with the German school to post anything. I went over to the Riverview to see the USA:Slovenia game rather than pack in a more orderly manner (which would likely have involved packing our camera and a couple of books for the boys).

We were totally robbed. The rest of the fans at the Riverview equally seemed to think so. There were two calls:
1st - which made all the papers - was the disqualification of a goal that ought to have been our 3rd.
This is the 'controversy' I can find in the news
2nd - was in the 89th (?) minute, and ought to have been a call. Where's the outrage on this? Hell, where's the video footage of it? Holding another man like that would get them lynched in parts of the Deep South. I can't even find it on youtube (actually there's very little -read nothing- on youtube at all, and I can't even find it on any other sports website). Please let me know where it is, if you can?

As far as I can tell, I'm the only one in the universe who saw it.

Given our level of play, getting a 3rd goal would not, in fact, have guaranteed a win. Gross, unbelievably excessive interference, however, should have resulted in a red card, and a free shot, which would have likely yielded a valid goal and a win. I would post a link to the video, but apparently it only happened in my imagination.

follow up to last post >>>

2010-06-21T12:18:00.003-05:00

The Girl Who Played With Fire is the novel which follows the same girl with a dragon tattoo. I enjoyed the first book much more. Sweden's film industry is apparently on a roll, since they're releasing the movie version of the 2nd book. With the same two lead actors (good, I thought they were good). I doubt I'll get Mr.Gopher to go, unless his desire to listen to Swedish overcomes his lukewarm response to the first movie.
I guess I'll write a book review after seeing the movie to be able to compare the two.

[review] The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

2010-06-20T11:18:00.001-05:00

This is the film version of Stieg Larsson's book, Män som hatar kvinnor [men who hate women] is less direct, but more appealing is the English title for the movie & book, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Taken in that order:

Movie has a pared-down version of the plot, excellently chosen to maintain a seamless story line without the parallel line. Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist, is convicted of libel and en route to jail for a few months when approached to investigate a 40-year old murder. Eventually persuaded, he heads off to rural Sweden. Concurrently Lisbet Salander, a bizarre younger woman is having horrific issues with a guardian, no explaination is provided as to why she has one. Eventually the two work together on the mystery of a missing young woman who has been murdered. Salander, a computer whiz, and Blomkvist, the star investigator, apply their respective talents. The clan's patriarch just wants to know who killed his beloved niece before he dies, even if no other justice can be served. Eventually we realize that the mystery must be closer to home than anticipated as someone starts trying to run Blomkvist/Salander out of town and off the story.

I've never been to Sweden and don't speak Swedish - this limits my opinion of the set design/location choices/script. If Minnesota was attractive to Swedish immigrants, I can see why. Mr.Gopher is the person to ask about these aspects.

The script - in the sense of the translated language and the given plot - were good, coherent and internally consistent. The character development starts in the middle of a story in several senses: Blomkvist is convicted, but we don't know the actual reason; Salander has a guardian, but we don't know why. We just pick up in the middle of their respective stories before they merge.

I'm surprise this got an R - rather than NC-17 rating - for "disturbing violent content including rape, grisly images, sexual material, nudity and language" - basically sex & violence. Our limits for sexual explicitness are down right Victorian compared to Europe & we're a nation with an appalling appetite for violent movies, but usually not the two together. The sexual violence in one scene actually shocked me; the sex/nudity certainly didn't.

A good movie, and mostly enjoyable. A good story with an ending I didn't expect.

Gopher Rating:
3 - definitely see it on video

The source material book has, in addition to the movie plot, a concurrent, parallel story line. In this, Blomkvist's libel conviction plays a much larger role, as this legal problem haunts him personally and professionally. The man requesting the murder investigation entices him by offering information to disprove the libel claim and thereby restore his journalistic reputation. Salander's strange behavior is presented gradually in historic contexts, making her more sympathetic. The sex and violence make more sense within the deeper story here. Lifting the legal undercurrent wholesale from the story makes the characters thinner than Larsson's depth gives. But in a movie one doesn't expect the same depth.

There are one or two instances of utterly bizarre words where I think the translator picked the wrong word from a dictionary for an 1) old-fashioned term and 2) colloquial English. Larsson's writing style is extremely detailed. Where possible, he fleshes out the physical scenes with specifics. E.g., He doesn't simply mention someone's having breakfast, he provides the list of food. E.g. Not only does someone furnish her flat from IKEA, he specifies which furniture lines. A set designer's work is limited trying to figure out how the author imagined it.

The Author gave this (and 3 other books) as a graduation present. It is often intriguing what people think you'll like. What they think your literary tastes are. In this case, perhaps more so than usual, since a writer is the gift-giver. This falls into the category "I'm glad I got this" type of present.

Gopher Rating
2.5 - somewhere between 'definitely read this' and 'you'll probably read it more than once'.
This rating is more on the fence than usual. I know I'll read it again; if you like mystery stories you probably will as well.

p.s.
I just requested the 3r novel from Larsson; within 1 hour I became #1449 of 1451 with 153 books available. 29 weeks before I would get it, assuming everyone keeps it for the full 3 weeks.
By the time I get the copy, it will probably be out in paperback.
Oh, my ... I can request the large print version and be #264 of 264 with 25 copies available and ... and.. 32 weeks before I could get it.

[review] Atlas Shrugged

2010-06-19T12:54:00.000-05:00

The older a woman gets, the more likely she is to be set in her feminist philosophy. What is a woman's relationship with the world or herself as a woman? Does she care? The older she gets, the more settled she is in her own self-conception. Therefore she has more time to opine on Woman's Condition, since she isn't spending any time worrying about her own. The older I get, the more surprised I am at women's relationship to the world. In many ways, I don't think it's changed in the past 50 years.

Dagny Taggart, the central character with the moral [in Rand's point of view] force and business skill, is a woman yet she is also painted as not-feminine. That's fine and probably even panders to 1950s perceptions of women in executive positions. A real woman, after all, would be feminine and at home with her husband. But Taggart's ultimate choice of a relationship partner is [in my point of view] stupid and panders to the 1950s view of women being dependent upon a man's opinions. She only becomes truly fulfilled when she sees the light of economic reality given to her by a man.

Why choose fellow railroad magnate Hank Rearden, who obviously loves her, when she can choose some mythical, iconic man who doesn't love her?

Dagny Taggart & John Galt are no different than Cinderella and Prince Charming. Prince Charming saw Cinderella's physical beauty & didn't particularly care about anything other than her shoe size. Galt sees Dagny's economic power and doesn't particularly care about anything else. In fact, I don't recall if there's any mention of their relationship beyond Messiah & Apostle. I don't see why it makes any difference to the story that Dagny is a woman. This ought to be idealistic for rabid feminists - the central character is a woman who isn't a woman.

I am a rabid opponent of the idea of love at first sight. I like romance. Romance isn't love. Love can only be based upon knowledge. My cousin told his college drinking buddies at a bar one night, "see that beautiful woman over there? I'm going to marry her." That would be my divorced-dad cousin. The men crossing Dagny's life path are interesting, and at least one becomes her lover; but she breaks off the relationship when she realizes he loves her. How familiar does this sound? Then she meets some man spouting lovely things (okay, so they're lovely socioeconomic things, but still ...) and what does she do? Falls for an icon rather than a man who loves her. I think I roomed with this one in college.

Atlas Shrugged yields the quintessential self-perception of American Capitalism. This is, of course, not how we practice that economic theory, as AIG can vouch. But it is how Americans idealize it. The Marlboro Man of Business - this is why Republicans idealize capitalism with utterly no governmental regulation. They likely think they're Hank Rearden, while in reality they actually are Jimmy Taggart.

I read this while in high school & enjoyed it without realizing it was an economic philosophy treatise. Even at 15 I realized the personal relationship choices of the heroine really left something to be desired. At 44, I have lived long enough to have seen the myriad ways that people myopically view Love. And their equally unhealthy relationships with It. I'm also old enough to have seen the myriad ways that people myopically view Economic Reality; and their extremely unhealthy relationship with that, too.

Love of money and power are the central points, not love of a person. You can just skip the chapter entitled John Galt Speaks. The rest of the book is a pleasant story. The chapter entitled John Galt Speaks is the economic meat of the treatise, putting the whole story into the perspective of Objectivism. (... the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness or rational self-interest, that the only social system consistent with this morality is full respect for individual rights, embodied in pure laissez faire capitalism, ...)

Gohper rating:
I still think it's a nice novel, and can be read to partially understand the American
Conservative party conception of reality. The economic depression behind the story should be familiar; as should the deterioration of American industry into pathetic impotence.
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Pirates don't change diapers

2010-06-18T20:47:00.000-05:00

Pirates don't change diapers: found on a child's daily vocabulary workbook. On a page with no other word or writing.

JrGopher#1: (summarized for clarity) I want to be in the high school upstairs because they have chocolate milk for lunch & we only have 2% and skim.

[review] The Secrets In Their Eyes

2010-06-17T10:37:00.001-05:00

El Secreto De Sus Ojos, The Secrets In Their Eyes, Argentina, 2009 Best Foreign Film Oscar

A murder mystery that isn't all a mystery.
Starts with an horrific murder/rape in the 1970s being recalled by a retired detective with a judge whom we suspect is more than just a colleague in his eyes. He reveals his intention of writing a book about this infamous case. We expect the murder to be a mystery with the culprit revealed in the last minutes. Nope. We find him about 2/3 through the movie. After this, I was left wondering where the plot was going; the murderer is let out of prison by corrupt government officials, and then disappears.

The story flips back and forth between the never-clearly-defined Today and the 1970s (Isabel Peron's appearance & vague comments indicate the 1976 military coup's immediacy). Yet unlike other movies' attempts at concurrent then/now plots, this succeeds in keeping the whole story flowing. The 1970 elements aren't undermined by information from the 2000 elements, leaving us anticipating each new scene. The relationships between the detective/judge, detective/widower, widower/murderer all have roles in the story, although it isn't always immediately clear how/if they all fit together.

The make-up crew did an excellent job making the central pair perfectly believable in both younger & older incarnations of their characters. I checked how old the actors are, out of curiosity. Darin was 51 & Villamil 39 for filming. Somewhere in the script the detective (Darin) mentions how old he is, making him much older than the 1976 story, while Villamil is much younger than her character for the 2000-ish part.

The story revolves around the detectives' efforts to find the murderer, the widower's efforts to reconcile himself with the loss of his wife and the inability of Argentine justice to offer the death penalty. He discards this notion of retribution, suggesting that if he were locked up and raped in prison for the rest of his life, that would be a greater retribution, making the murderer experience what he did to the wife.

Argentinian criminal justice not being organized as it is here, the judges and detectives work more closely than we as Americans expect. There is a chronic struggle for the detective with his feelings for the judge.

I had never seen either actor before. Ricardo Darin was in an American film, The Stranger; Soledad Villamil was no English-language credits. Juan Jose Campanella has directed quite a few American TV shows, but only two English-language movies, incl. Love Walked In.

All in all, each of the elements of movie making were extremely well done. I can very much see how it would win an Oscar. I will likely see it again.

Gopher Rating:
2 - Go see it on the big screen, at matinee prices.
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Congressional Intrigue, 19th Cent. Style

2010-06-16T20:46:00.000-05:00

Have we sent persons here to intrigue with members ...?

No, sir, we have had no one here.

Have we stirred up the people into town meetings to aid us by memorials?

No such thing, sir.

Have we called meetings and induced honest mechanics to come here to influence Congress by idle fears, impressed upon them by those who are interested, to tell a tale that shall answer our purposes?

No, sir, we have pursued no such course.

Respectable merchants, I observe, form a part of the bank deputies--for what?

To represent the late fall of the price of flour as a consequence of the danger of the bank charter not being renewed, and thereby to alarm the minds of members.

I am sorry that men of such respectable character did permit themselves to come here on such an errand.

February 11, 1811
Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856
Benton, Thomas Hart
arguing about eliminating the U.S. Bank

Of course, the next week's letter from Pres. Monroe explaining why the United States was justified in the use of military force to occupy the territory of a foreign power in order to protect our "interests" provoked a sense of de ja vu. The land in question is currently the State of Florida.
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The Stupidest Thing I've Heard This Year - really

2010-06-15T22:53:00.006-05:00

In the U.S. today, more kids under 12 play soccer than baseball, basketball, and football combined.

What happens when your team totally sucks in the European leagues?
You get relegated until you get your shit together & can compete with the Big Dogs again.

What happens when your team totally sucks in the U.S. leagues?
The rich successful teams have their profits taken and given to the poor teams.

Apparently wealth re-distribution is okay in their sports, just not in their national tax structure.

However,
"My suspicion is that the so-called 'beautiful game' is not so beautiful to American sensibilities...in sports, that means excellence should prevail. Of course, the fact that is often not the case when it comes to soccer may be precisely the reason the sport is so popular in the countries of Latin America and Europe."
Ummm, Mr. Schmitt...? That would be" Latin America, Europe, and South America, and Africa, and Asia, and Oceana, and probably Antarctica when the temperature is above -20F.

Ignorance is clearly demonstrated by "... the U.S. was hammered by Italy and Brazil (in the '09 Confed Cup) and only got into the semifinal match by beating Egypt and the fluke of a very arcane scoring system that soccer uses to break ties among teams." Arcane?
I suppose the rule is strange to Americans - unless someone looks at how baseball is played. How can you be behind by a half game? Arcane means 'requiring secret knowledge or impossible to understand'. Look at the rules for playing baseball & compare the volume to that of soccer. I suppose conservative conspiracy theorists are so obsessed with the arcane that they don't believe transparency when they see it. These disappointed nationalists can't accept that America can lose to some 3rd World marginal economic sink hole like Brazil.

In the end, these rabid nativists would be perfectly happy to claim soccer is Our Sport if we were consistently winning the World Cup, rather than never having won since 1930, and only once making it as far as the semifinals (in 1930). That, of course, is the men's team. After all, the women have only had their own World Cup since 1999. Though, our women have won (twice) or placed 3rd in all 5 of the Cups.
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What I want to review

2010-06-15T21:51:00.003-05:00

John Carter of Mars
Yeah, sure ... so I'm a woman? I'm almost automatically a minority with respect to old-fashioned SciFi. Dig the cover of the first volume of the Mars stories, Princess of Mars. The cast for the movie is pretty impressive, too. You are surprised that I like this? I'm not.

Try those power-pusher women who guiltily read bodice rippers with throbbing members seeking her moist femininity with ... but I digress. Those are truly misogynistic, in a way that old male-driven SciFi can never hope to achieve. ... ... Old white guys in the '30s writing about women being subservient to men? So what's news? Middle-aged white women in the 21st Century demanding million dollar contracts for stories about young white women being frustrated in their social inequalities while putting out for some hunk they don't really want to like? Who's undermining socio-eco-political equality more? Some dead dude or a NY Times best seller author? (e.g. #4,8,9,16 on the mass market paperback list, 2/25/10.)

Hypocracy? No. Sure, I read them once in a while. But I don't read anything with guilt.

SciFi, possibly even more so in its own golden age in the 1930s, provides more fodder for the imagination. Those 'bodice rippers' truly pale in comparison to Pulp Science Fiction as a genre.

Quite often you at least need to use your imagination to see the world in a way beyond 'ordinary' fiction. Well, afterall, there was no Wikipedia in 1930 (unless it was the one entitled "Encyclopedia Britannica") ... yet there are plenty of photographs of just about anywhere in the UK or the Wild West the most popular locations for bodice rippers recently. John Carter of Mars starts off in the American Civil War. We even have photographs of that. But Mars? You need imagination, even with the author's words, to really enter into the story. Ray guns, interstellar travel, green skinned aliens ... Star Trek was not, by 80 years, unique.

I suppose Boris Valejo might be an okay artist, but boy, does he paint to his audience, which would be any white Euro-American male who discovered SciFi around the age of 12 and who likes big tits. I can only hope that - unlike Lord of the Rings - the director doesn't use the most popular art style of the source material as the basis for the art direction of the film.

What do I want to see on the big screen? John Carter of Mars? Or The Elusive Bride (#8, above)? Mars, hands-down. If there's a great-looking leading man in the "romance" story, his primary function is still going to be "good looking man"; at least in John Carter of Mars he gets to be "good looking man who can kick ass" and will still likely have sex in the movie, with fewer violins & no soft-focus.

Within recent literary consumption here in GopherLand was
David Weber, Shadow of Saganami (modern techno-heroine sci-fi)
Robert E. Howard, Solomon Kane (gothic/demon fantasy & yes, the author of Conan the Barbarian)
Cormac McCarthy, The Road (I can go finish the book now, film review coming eventually) &
Henning Mankell, Die Hunde von Riga got set aside when Mr.Gopher practically ripped it out of my hands and sucked it down whole ... I think instead of buying him books in English, I might want to switch languages - doubly so since we own a copy in German, but the original is Swedish which he no doubt would also enjoy)
Stieg Larsson, another Swedish offering, The Girl Who Kicked a Hornet's Nest, a follow-up story to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire. The latter of which is a cliff-hanger & I'm going to have to wait in line at the library for a copy.

Robert Howard's Solomon Kane is also on the slate for release as a movie ~~soon~~ eventually. With James Purfoy as Kane (a.k.a. Marc Antony in Rome, and some Martian in John Carter, too). I've never read Conan the Barbarian, or the Conan books; I have, however, read Howard's Bran Mak Morn, something I found while perusing old Irish sagas. 'Solomon Kane' was written in the grand style of the heroic-fantasy. My Irish forefathers 300 years ago would have recognized the general heroic epic aspect of it; my dad/mom might recognize the dime store pulp fiction magazine serialization of the epic style; me? I just enjoyed it.

Had I been a 10 year old boy when I read either Solomon Kane or John Carter of Mars, I would likely have been found the next morning playing sword & pistol kill-the-demons in the back yard. I am a 44 year old woman, and I would still rather read them than the mysogenistic lame-o excuses for un-erotic literature currently marketed as "romance". (a completely different rant)

Who would I rather close my eyes and imagine being? A beautiful never-over-25 woman who is oppressed and dismissed by society but can't manage to either keep her legs together or pull her head out of her ass and become her own woman .... ... or the sword-wielding powerful hero(ine) destroying evil and receiving adulation from all?

Seriously ... Cerebus the Aardvark: yes; Arwen the Elf, no.

So, it is with no guilty pleasure that I look forward to both Solomon Kane and John Carter of Mars on the silver screen. Or if someone manages to make anything from E. E. Smith (e.g., Galactic Patrol), or (almost) anything else from Boroughs. but lord, lord, lord, not another dorky Tarzan!. Afterall, I really liked The Mummy, too.

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Dancing

2010-06-14T11:49:00.002-05:00

JrGopher#2 loves to dance. The other night both of the boys were shakin' their booties. We were looking at clips of Fantasia 2000 on YouTube.

We ran across a rendition of The Lion Sleeps Tonight: I started my hand moving in rhythm to the music - as one of the animated characters was. Jr.#2 promptly started doing the same thing. Not just mindlessly copying, like babys, but an enthusiastic joy. Jr.Gopher#1 was having much more fun mimicking the dog at about 0:24 min. Both boys were singing along as well.

Alas, our camera is broken.

Next Year

2010-06-11T14:00:00.004-05:00

Tune in next year for the Women's World Cup.

does it matter?

2010-06-11T13:14:00.006-05:00

On a radio discussion, someone mentioned that the World Cup in South Africa was really not that important compared to the end of Apartheid. Absolutely.

They then argued that not much really has changed, or perhaps that the racial discrimination wasn't going away fast enough. Based upon our experiences here, it won't go away any time soon. Of course, we don't have a truth and reconciliation commission and are generally trying to pretend that everything is all better. If you doubt that anything has changed enough, look at the photo of the South African national team this year. Compare to 1962, when they were banned from playing. A greater indicator is to look at the stadium seating this morning for the South Africa fans. A veritable sea of yellow shirts. Is there a separate section for whites? No. Do you seriously think it even vaguely feasible to have seen this in 1960? 1980? 1990?

It's not as though racism disappears with the election of a black president - no more than it has here. I'm not delusional about the misery of poverty and racial discrimination (in which ever direction you want). Poverty is drawn on highly racial lines - as it is here. But it is unjust to say nothing much has changed.

Although, you can also find whites complaining about the loss of power & getting the dirty end of the stick themselves.

Does it matter who's in charge? No. Because you'll never make everyone happy. This is why we have an oligarchical political system here. No one wants to lose the power and money that they have - one of those facts which transcends race or nationality.