I hope everyone is making the most of their holiday season. Even though I'm in Chicago this Christmas, courtesy of the internet, much merriment was shared between me and my folks today. We watched each other open presents via video chat and spent much of the afternoon shamelessly launching koopa shells at each other in playing Mario Kart over the Wii network (note to Nintendo: make more games that you can play with your friends online!!). In short, a good time was had by all. While it wasn't quite the same as being at home, it was pretty darn close, and it involved no waiting in line at the airport. Yay!
Now, for a bit of Christmas trivia learned today: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was originally created by Montgomery Ward's department stores to as a promotional gimmick for the holidays. I'd never really given much thought before about the history of Rudolph, and I know that many of our Christmas myths and traditions are largely 20th century inventions. Still, it was the connection to a great department store chain that I found unexpected, even if it's not entirely surprising. Alas, I'm far too tired right not to reflect more upon this Christmas fun fact, but if you want to know more, you can read about it over at snopes.com.
Yes, I’ve been a very bad blogger. You can just add it to the list of things I’m bad about: I’m a bad dissertation writer, a bad housekeeper, a bad remember to go to the grocery store-er, etc.
So, a quick update for those that still check in here on occasion. It’s been a busy quarter despite not teaching or really taking any classes. I went to a couple of conferences and gave a few talks and workshops. One of the major conferences in my field happened to be in Phoenix this year, which gave me a great excuse to actually be home for Thanksgiving. Still, the conference itself took up a large chunk of time, so it didn’t feel like that long of a visit. But, conferences do provide a bit of incentive to get some written work done, and I do occasionally work on the dissertation, although its frustrating and requires more self motivation than I can usually muster on a daily basis.
I went a little crazy this fall with all the great video game deals retailers have been offering to get people to spend money that they don’t have. But I think Demon’s Souls was totally worth it, even if I haven’t been able to play it as much as I would like. I mean, we’re talking about a game that’s so hardcore, it has no pause button. You’ve really got to make sure you have a good couple uninterrupted hours to play this one.
Um, let’s see, what else has been going on? Recent events include a fantastic and gut-busting cookie exchange with some friends (pictures of my slightly sad efforts below).
And I’ve also been on a terrarium-making kick lately. Yeah, I know they’re all the rage on etsy and other DIY blogs, but I really do like the idea of having just the teensiest patch of green in the apartment to get me through the bleak Chicago winter. So far, I seem to be successful in getting the moss to grow, but I still need to add some decorative elements and maybe a few other little plants to make them really snazzy.
So, that rather sadly sums up the past few months. Rest assured, a lot of eating, drinking, and general merrymaking also went on, but none that seems especially blogworthy. Hopefully, the holidays will bring new and noteworthy adventures (and trust me, finishing a dissertation chapter or two would be new and noteworthy). Stay tuned. Same bat-time, same bat-channel.
I can’t believe it’s Monday. Maybe because I don’t usually do much with my weekends, and this was a fun-filled, jam-packed weekend. Or maybe because I’m daily traumatized by how quickly the time is going and how little work I’ve finished. Regardless, it is Monday and before I force myself back on the road to productivity, I want to share a few highlights from the weekend.
The fabulous Dragonslayer & her hubby were back in town this weekend, which meant much eating, much merrymaking, and then some more eating. Saturday we made the pilgrimage to that glorious emporium of delicious encased meats, Hot Doug’s. The wait was of course insanely long, but it was worth it as usual. I brought my camera to document my glorious, cheese smothered dogs, but as soon as my food arrived, I forgot all about trying to take a picture and wolfed them down. I know, I’m an animal. But I think Hot Doug’s brings out the ravenous animal in all of us.
So Saturday was a brilliant day of eating and chatting in the 2 hour line, in which I got sunburned because my skin hates me. Then the merrymaking continued on Sunday when a group of us made a trek out to the ‘burbs for the most amazing Pig Roast/wedding reception ever!
Yep, there it is. A full roasted pig. Not only was this conceptually amazing–there was this special roaster, with a special pig holding contraption–but the end result was a perfectly tender and juicy roasted pig. Man, it was good stuff!! Not to mention all the other good stuffs that accompanied the pig. There were salads, cheesy potatoes, surprisingly tasty sauerkraut noodles (I’m not a huge sauerkraut fan), corn muffins, fantastic baked beans, and of course desserts! Honestly, just when you had completely stuffed yourself on one course, something else fantastic was unveiled and you had to stuff yourself just a little more.
But the best part, I mean aside from getting to see Dragonslayer and her urban cowboy’s glowing faces, was the bouncy castle! Since this was a big family/neighborhood potluck kind of party, there were a fair number of small kids there, and the hosts wisely decided they would need something to keep the kids occupied. So they rented a bouncy castle. What they may or may not have realized in renting said bouncy castle was that the grown-up kids were eyeing it the whole time, just waiting for the tikes to abandon it, even for an instant, so that we could move in for the bouncy kill! Ah, what fun was had. At least for about a minute and a half before we were all rolling on the ground, huffing and puffing like a bunch of old geezers. But still, it was awesome and ridiculous and topped off what was already a pretty amazing evening.
Today, however, the good times are simply good memories. There’s work to be done, and pig that’s probably still being slowly digested. But it who could ask for anything more than a weekend spent with good food and great friends (and a bouncy castle)?
I've been away for a while, I know. I'm supposed to be working: writing the dissertation, turning old papers into publishable articles, preparing for conferences, maybe even considering applying for jobs. But, as I'm sure just about every other graduate student in the world will tell you, writing is a bitch. But self-motivating is an especially bitchy bitch, and it's stubborn refusal to cooperate thwarts any and all ambitious hopes and dreams of ever graduating.
This, however, is just another excuse. And I'm really tired of making excuses for myself. Truthfully, I have been making a very diligent effort to at least *look* at my work daily. I tweak a few lines here and there, move some paragraphs around, huff, puff, scratch my head in frustration, and then generally go back to checking CNN for the umpteen millionth time for the day. Obviously, it's better than nothing, but not by much. The summer is almost over and I've made considerably less progress than I wanted, and than I needed to make. So, because good intentions are nice, but actually following through on them is better, I'm trying a radical experiment inspired by this recent Lifehacker post (yes, another blog I check about 20x daily).
No, I’m not putting myself on a webcam 24/7. I’m neither insane nor enough of an exhibitionist to do that. But I am repurposing the Rat Blog for daily progress reports on how much work I’ve done. Now, the idea is not for this to some narcissistic, twitter-like, “omg! you guys should totally hear how many times I went to the bathroom today because I’m so special even my poo is worth writing about” kind of public diary. It is, however, supposed to help me keep track of how I waste my time and to subsequently shame myself into being productive. Now, whether it’s possible to do that without there being an element of narcissism and poo stories will only be determined with time. ;-)
The posts on my ratties I will archive somewhere, but for now, going to http://www.cannibalsall.com/rats/ will take you to the new and guaranteed to be humiliating Daily Work Log.
I guess you can't have a good idea and expect that no one else will come up with it sooner or later. It has finally come to pass that someone has made a zombie movie from the perspective of a zombie.
I was dreaming of making just such a film at least 7 years ago, but I guess you can’t copyright dreams. Or short stories that you never finished. Ugh. What further chaps my ass that the fellow who did turn *my* idea into a film managed to do it on no budget (even though the CNN article is a bit misleading since the guy seemed to have some connected friends giving him supplies. And no mention of where he got the camera and other equipment. Not for $70, I assure you) and distributers are chomping at the bit to pick the film up.
I actually came across this guy back in January or February, but I didn't remember that I took the picture until now. Anyway, I was in the car with dragonslayer heading to Chuck’s Southern Comforts Cafe (which was excellent, btw) when we unexpectedly ran across this fellow. I have to say, even after the Great Road Trip across the country, I don’t think anything we saw was quite as amazing as this giant Indian wearing eyeglasses with an “Eye Can See You” sign. Yes, I did photoshop this picture, but only to compensate for the fact that I took the worst picture ever of this amazing sign. What can I say? I was totally unprepared and I’d never used my camera phone before.
The advantage of being in a history and philosophy of science program is that you are almost guaranteed to have a bunch of sci-fi loving nerds for friends who will be excited about things like new Star Trek movies.
So the gang and I headed out to the theater today to check it out. Now, I should say upfront that I was never much of a fan of the original series. I was of the TNG generation, but I know Kirk, Spock, Uhura, McCoy, tribbles, etc., and I thought it could be interesting to make a film looking at the original crew’s early days in the academy. Still, I had no expectations of this being a great film, or even a good one. I expected a rather trite action film with some Star Trek fanservice slapped on top of it, and that’s essentially what I got.
That being said, I thought the film was fairly well done for what it was. The plot made absolutely no sense, but the action moved so quickly that you didn’t really have time to stop and think about how nonsensical it was. The effects and visual design of the film were tight and consistent, I didn’t find any moments were I was completely jarred out of the film by blatant visual inconsistencies (like when films run amok with the cgi).
I know this sounds almost like an endorsement, which I’m sure shocks many of you who think my complete and total disdain for many popular movies (Star Wars prequels, LOTR, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2–I’m looking at you!) is somehow unjustified, and you expected me to be unjustifiably critical of this film as well. But I think I’m neither unjustified in hating movies that are blatantly bad movies. Nor would I say I was endorsing the Star Trek film. Rather, what I’m saying is that I can see that it fits in a particular genre of film (action), and for that genre it is well done. But is it a Star Trek movie? Is it a good movie? No. It is clearly neither.
Why isn’t it a Star Trek movie?
Because one of the things at the heart of all the Star Trek series was a willingness to contemplate and engage with difficult ethical dilemmas. Sure, some of those dilemmas were deeper than others. And yes, in a feel-good family friendly series, the solution to those dilemmas was almost always a cop-out in which miraculously all parties could be happily appeased. But that too was part of the mythos of Star Trek, that belief in a future in which sagacity and technology could actually solve problems instead of just create them.
Is there any hint of genuine ethical dilemma, or the slightest hint of philosophical contemplation in this film? Not really. There is the scene when Kirk is being asked to defend his cheating on the Kobayashi Maru test, but both the situation and the characters’ responses to it are pulled almost entirely from Star Trek II. So not only is the one interesting ethical dilemma in the film entirely recycled from films past, but the tension of the moment is instantaneously diffused and forgotten when the entire academy gets called up for an emergency mission to Vulcan. Suddenly, the incommensurable Kirk “I don’t believe in a no win situation”/Spock “you must learn to face fate and face fear” divide becomes nothing more than a cute plot device. Oh no! Kirk is on probation. How is McCoy going to smuggle him on board the Enterprise?
After that moment, it’s all pretty clear cut good guys versus bad guys film. The villain in the film probably has the most nonsensical motive of all movie villains ever, and the fact that his crew just follows him on his planet destroying rampage tests the limits of one’s belief in the absolute loyalty of a crew to their commander. Spoiler explaining why the villain’s motivation makes no sense: Nero, like the rest of his Romulan people, is counting on Spock to save their planet from imminent destruction. Spock fails. Planet is destroyed. Temporal anomaly is created that sucks both Nero and Spock’s ship backward in time. Instead of saying, “hey, now that we’ve gone back in time, we can warn the Romulan people and they can save themselves from destruction,” Nero decides to torture Spock, destroy Vulcan, and destroy the Federation for the destruction of Romulus which never happens. Can we say, wtf?
Another reason why it’s not really a Star Trek film: because Star Trek was about the characters. It took show after show to craft personalities that, love them or hate them, were an important part of why you kept watching every week. This film basically stands on the shoulders of giants and creates silly caricatures of their work. Sure, it’s nice to see an Uhura with a mind of her own, even though that glimmer of personality, intelligence, and strength leads nowhere in the end. Kirk, however, is as bratty and inscrutable as ever (sure, there’s a scene where we’re told he’s a genius, but his actions never betray a motive beyond that of making trouble and purposefully getting under everyone’s skin). McCoy’s crustiness only serves to make him a vehicle for one-liners and comic relief. Scotty, too, is only about the brogue and the comedic quips. The only character who is interestingly developed is Spock, but his development is undermined by the fact that the whole premise of the movie is to get Kirk into the captain’s chair.
This is amazingly unfortunate, given that the movie throws all canon out the window by telling the story in which an alternate timeline becomes reality. This could have been done to some real purpose, to show us a world in which Spock takes command of the Enterprise and Kirk learns to be the first mate. Spoiler: But for some reason, despite the fact that Spock Prime (that is, the Spock from the future who has lived out the Star Trek universe as it has been told in the tv series and movies) knows the timeline of his universe has been catastrophically altered, his only concern is to make sure the Enterprise is manned by the crew we know and love. Yep, even though creating temporal anomalies and traveling back in time is as simple as making a black hole with a little Red Matter (ie, unexplained black hole making goo) and flying into it, no one suggests for one second going back in time to stop the destruction of Vulcan and saving it’s 6 billion some inhabitants from instantaneous death. Nope. All anyone cares about is making Kirk captain of the Enterprise so he can stop the bad guy.
But now I’m starting to digress into the problems with the plot of the movie, which are so extensive they require a separate list to recount. Suffice it to say, that even though Star Trek has often had weakly written episodes and, in its later years became far too reliant on resorting to time travel when they were out of good plot ideas, this movie’s plot puts all others to shame in terms of it’s sheer stupidity and sloppiness. But again, I feel like the filmmakers were counting on the rapid pace and breathtaking visual thrills to distract from the fact that it was utterly void of genuine content. And it does largely work for this reason. You come out of the theater thinking, “wow. What just happened?” And presumably, most theater goers won’t bother to actually try and answer that question. It’s only if you do that you realize what a dissatisfying mess the whole thing really is.
And that’s why I consider it not just a bad Star Trek movie, but a bad movie in general. The movie is essentially a night on the town with a cheap paid escort: you pay your money for 2 hours of eye-candy, but the conversation is vapid and disappointing. Now, some theatergoers, will be perfectly content investing in nothing more than the mile a minute thrill ride of a film. But if you like a little substance to go with your pretty moving pictures, you’re going to have to look elsewhere.
Everyone knows that when cows eat locoweed, then they done stampede.* But apparently, it was once believed that locoweed would drive humans permanently insane as well.
Am J Psychiatry, Oct 1898; 55: 275 - 281.
The article goes on to cite various medical sources refuting the popular belief that locoweed could cause insanity in humans. Doctors are such killjoys.
*This knowledge was popularized by the semi-famous “Pome” written in the 1990s by an obscure poet going only by the name of Sam: “The cows done et the locoweed and then they done stampeded. Ah hollered, ‘Git the shotgun, Pa!’ but they’d already trampled Ma.”
Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to one of the newest members of humankind, Liam Thomas.
“Thank you, thank you. No applause necessary, folks.”
Don’t forget to give Kim over at francophoney a big congrats for successfully pushing that bad boy out. And now I guess I better get working on that baby present that I started months ago and never finished. Go me :-P
I appreciate a good ghost story every now and then. I enjoy freaking myself out watching those stupid tv shows about haunted places and listening to people tell stories about "unexplainable" things that have happened to them. But this is just weak.
This is not a ghost. I know people think google is going to unlock all the mysteries of the universe from the lost city of Atlantis to Area 51. And maybe someday, they will produced some genuinely unexplainable images. But is it really possible that no one can tell the woman in this picture is clearly Mary Poppins? No, seriously.
CLEARLY.
MARY.
POPPINS.
Fictional characters cannot be ghosts. Q.E.D.
Lord, people are dense. :-P
