Chris Barrie

Check out his website:

http://www.chrisbarrie.co.uk/splash.htm

If nothing else, the intro will make you laugh out loud.

BTW, Red Dwarf series V and VI are to be released in the US on Mar. 15.

Ciao, ya smeghead

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh

I love high fantasy Hong-Kong cinema. You know, the movies where the primary rule is: If you are REALLY good at something, or you are a monk, you can fly! They are fun, crazy and filled with wire fu. American audiences have recently been exposed to them in the form of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero and the like. My 3 favorites are:

Greensnake
Fantasy Mission Force (note: despite the DVD cover, not really a Jackie Chan movie)
Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain

The last, which I have inflicted on friends, is my favorite. One of the above named friends (the Poo in the Poo-Bear duo) has just informed me that they made a remake a few years ago:

The Legend of Zu

Now, the thing is, the first one was a milestone for its time in terms of special effects. Some ppl have equated it to Star Wars for its creativity and originality. The new one is supposedly not a sequel, prequel or an exact remake. Should I see it? Hark Tsui directed both, and I really like his work. Oh, the decisions to be made.

Quote of the day

From the Something Positive Archives

"Davan, superwomen have superboobies. Superboobies are a "Get out of fighting for good free" card in the monopoly game that is our lives."

-Aubrey

High school

Remember high school? Remember how you could trace relationships like a connect the dots puzzle? It was like a 6 degrees of separation (or 5, or 4, or 3) game based on dating. Now, I wen to an all-girl high school, so our connections were a little different, as most of us hit the all-boys schools in the area for dating opportunities. Still, its funny when you look at even your closer circle of friends how interrelated everyone is. I remember one guy that dated at least 3 of us girls in a group of 12 (boys and girls).

The American Journal of Sociology has published a paper showing the connections at one school. Its really interesting to look at.

http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/chainspix.htm

There's one prospective little player in the more complex structure. Look for the one blue dot durrounded by a cloud of pink.

Ciao.

When DnD and Monty Python interbreed...

http://archive.gamespy.com/comics/dorktower/archive.asp?nextform=viewcomic&id=984

This puts logging into a whole new perspective.

A note to T-rex

I know you want to get the Black Death/Bubonic Plague someday, but it looks like the medical community is trying to thwart you.....

http://www.aapspharmaceutica.com/News2/dnd.asp?ID=195325

Thinkum

Is this real? No seriously... is it? The first person to convince me this is real gets .. well, nothing, but check the site out anyway:

http://www.thinkum.com/

From the site:
"Flatten Thinkum like a pancake and set vertically on your desk. Now watch it slowly resume a non-threatening form as it telepathically induces your dormant creative genius."

Is it silly putty?
A dead mouse?
Does it keep you from wasting your time by gluing your fingers together so you can't blog?

Movie script

I like scripts. I used to have more of them, back when I havened and used to spam idiots and jerks with them line by line in order to get them to leave me alone, but I still like 'em now.

Speaking of which, there is a fanscript of Pirates of the Carribean out. Normally, I wouldn't pay much attention to this, except for the l33t verion, found here:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/dslartoo/97452.html

Enjoy.

I've been stuck!!

My first blog chain letter... kind of.

Girlzoot passed this on to me, since I haven;t been forthcoming with my music tastes :)

Random 10 (The 10 songs that came up on my Itunes party shuffle)

1. Pressed in a Book – The Shins
   
2. I Wanna be Loved – Elvis Costellol
3. Loser – Beck
   
4. You're Just Too Good to Be True – Lauren Hill
   
5. Sasquatch – Tenacious D
   
6. Livin' on the Edge – Aerosmith
   
7. Misery – Green Day
   
8. Waiting – Cake
   
9. Lets Get Rocked – Def Leppard
   
10. I Touch Myself – The Divinyls
    

What is the total amount of music files on your computer?
*Ok, not counting comedy and audiobooks: about 1200?

The last CD you bought?
*The Garden State Soundtrack

What is the song you last listened to before this message?
*Back into Hell - Meatloaf

Write down five songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you.

There are three albums on this list:

1. In the Waiting Line – Zero 7
   
2. Somebody – Depeche Mode
   
3. Barcelona – Freddy Mercury (album): a rock opera that I find spiritually soothing and unlifting
   
4. Run Lola Run Soundtrack - Great backround music anytime I need to zone, whwther driving or working
   
5. More Than You Think You Are – Matchbox Twenty - Between the lyrics and the voice of Rob Thomas, always a favorite


Who are you gonna pass this stick to (three persons and why)?

1. Tiamat, becuase I know he'll open my eyes to something new.
2. My sister, because I am constantly surprised by her musical taste.
3. Clancy, because she'll have something interesting to say.

Me

Science fundamentals

I admit it, I am a science geek. One of the things that always makes me bow down on awe are those people of the past (and present, although we don't know them yet) who figured out something we now take as a fundamental principle of the universe. So I dedicate this post to Linus Pauling.

Pauling won the Nobel in 1954 for his work on chemical structure. He was one of the people who first figured out the nature of the chemical bond in the 20's and 30's. Later he turned his attention to proteins, and theorized the basic elements of protein structure. He continued to work through the 90's turning his attention to a variety of subjects, even including AIDS pathology and treatment.

I am in awe of this man's intellect.

For the tiniest glimpse inside the brain of Linus Pauling, please visit the online collection of his research notebooks. There are both scientific and personal notes within.

http://osulibrary.orst.edu/specialcollections/rnb/

Geeking out

Big thank you

Just so everyone knows, a lot of my links origintae from another blog. I'm just not that original. So, check out overcaffeinated.net. They rock.

Oooohhh.. I'm scared

So, has everyone seen the newest anti-gay propaganda? Now they're going after Spongebob!!! Well, there isa long history of cartoon charcters in alternate sexual preferences... here's an article to check out, that makes the point loud and clear:

http://www.robotjohnny.com/archives/2005/01/what_a_drag.php

I think if I was going to give a response to these people, I would send them a clip from the birdcage. After Albert (Nathan Lane) is revealed to right-win Senator Keeley (Gene Hackman) as not a conservative housewife but ratehr a drag queen, he says: "Kevin, I just want you to know that I meante everything I said about wanting a return to family values." (paraphrasing here)

I guess what I want to know if why, when considering family values, some people appear to ignore wife beating, homelessness, starvation, poor education, gangs, drugs, teen preganancy and whatnot, and instead focus on the way other people, who have no contact with them or their families, live their lives?

Confused without enough caffeine in my system.

Me

Catless Sleep

So, happy Monday.

I slept really well last night, primarily becasue my cat was not in the bedroom. She decided that "attack mommy's hand" was the game to play as I went to bed last night, and so I slept in a cat free environment, and feel much more refreshed for my 6.5 hours sleep than normal. I think that little Sophie has just lost her bedroom privileges. Of course, that doesn't mean I'm not in my usual I hate mornings mood. I just am a little healthier than I would have been otherwise.

On a side note, here's a funny bit.

http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/20843/

Sent to me by a friend of mine, its about global warming, Santa Claus and W. Now, how can that combination not tickle your funnybone?

Peace out

King Kong

So, for any of you who don't know, Peter Jackson, of Lord of the Rings fame, although some of you have been following him since his first movie, Bad Taste (a classic, I love it), is making King Kong. He's doing a video diary of production, and there is an exceptionally funny bit found here:

http://img-nex.kongisking.net/kong/movies/day36-480x270-mpeg4.mov

I highly recommend checking it out.

Grading papers

So, as I begin my career as a professor (although I haven't gotten an actual position yet), I am confronted with the task of giving and grading exams. At a graduate level, this is somewhat difficult. In undergraduate classes, we are often, sometimes due to the size of the classes, limited to giving multiple choice exams, that often result in a simple regurgitation of the facts given in class or the text book. The challenge there is to write questions that make the students think about the material, other than just remembering. At the graduate level, classes are smaller, and examination may be given in the form of a paper, in class exams and take home exams. My current project, just finished, is grading a take home exam. Of course, I can't give any details about the exam itself, but I wanted to share some of the dilemmas I faced:

What happens when you write a poor question? A poor question is usually evident: most of the class gets it wrong. In a take home exam, since they are free to search the mounds of literature available, the students can come up with widely varying answers. So, what do you do? Do you give partial credit? Do you throw out the question? My current solution to this is to change the answer to the question,and give credit more for the soundness off the arguements used. But that brings up another question:

How do you give out partial credit? This is hard, because its diffcult to balance the subjective nature of the task and at the same time be fair to all students involved. My advice: read all the answers once through before grading, then go back and grade. That way you have a better picture in your mind, based on the direction the students have taken the questuion, what points you want to see in the answer.

My final dilemma is a personal problem: I want them to like me as a teacher. Over the past year I have realized that that just isn't going to be the case. If students do poorly, then they have to recieve a poor grade. It more important to be fair, than to be liked.

In retrospect, I think next time I'll give an in class exam.

Rambling ends.

Me

And this is ...

Not safe for work.

My brain is twitching. I think this is popular in Germany.

http://www.post-literate.com/gerpunx/archives/2005/01/prepare_to_lose_your_mind.php

Links Galore

Some more fun sites. All are SFW (safe for work) unless otherwise stated.

Cat antics video : http://www.energyradio.fm/content/sillycats.asx

Very cool fiction about an AI: http://overcaffeinated.net/comments/1788

Nerd quiz: I am a high level nerd: http://www.wxplotter.com/ft_nq.php

The Crack

Oh my gosh.

It's been over a month since my last post. I would love to say that it is just the holidays that has kept me away, but no....

I must make a confession: I am addicted to crack.

Now, before you go and call the cops or, if this is a family member reading this, my mother, let me explain. I am talking about an online roleplaying game called EverQuest a.k.a. Evercrack. It is sucking me in night after night... my cat has even taken up to inhabiting my desk because I am on the computer so much. Oh well. I just want to apologize for my lack of posts. I will try and be a better blogger from now on.

Cheers