Writer, Professor, and Everything Else
Detroit People Mover Remix via Google Video (which means you have to click the link to see it).
I have never ridden the Detroit People Mover, which, as I understand it, is basically a monorail to nowhere. Kind of like on The Simpsons. For some reason, I think my parents actually went on this thing once… Anyway, a cool video.
This is actually kinda cool: How to make a folded paper CD case. For Christmas, we gave the parents a DVD that had a little movie and some pictures of our trip to Europe last August, and I can tell you that one of the things that was an ENORMOUS pain in the ass was figuring out how to package it nicely. Besides being quite a bit cheaper than a plastic case, this seems to have a bit more of a personal touch. Anyway, a good tip.
Four or five nights ago, we came across Revenge of the Sith (Episode 3– or is that 6?– of the Star Wars saga) on HBO. We all watched it and a good time was had by one and all. Then, Will decided that we need to watch the next three (or is that the first three?), which we have (all three, that is) on video. As I type this, the Ewoks are doing their stupid little song and dance routine at the end of Return of the Jedi. It’s been an interesting viewing experience since it’s been a while since I’ve seen all of these films. A few thoughts:
So, may the force be with you. Or whatever.
Two things I forgot to mention before that I’ll mention now:
First, Annette (who, truth be told, is almost as geeky as me and Will about these things) pointed out that the newer prequel movies come after the successes of movies full of really REALLY elaborate martial arts scenes like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. So they couldn’t very well just hand two actors sticks and say go at it.
Second, Will and I spend a fair amount of time correcting the inconsistencies between the original three and the new three prequels. For example, “Obi Wan wasn’t trained by Yoda! He was trained by Qui-Gon Jinn. Duh!” Annette loved this.
Yes, but the thing is this: you didn’t think of this, so it’s art, right?
To close up our Florida Christmas, we spent some time the last two out of three days at the beach. (And, besides that, events included a trip for Will to a wolf sanctuary and a children’s dinner theater, a shopping/lunch trip for Annette and Steve to a nice Italian place, and nice dinner for one and all at a place called the Waterside Cafe). When in Florida, one should go to the beach, right?
A couple days ago, we went to the Vanderbilt beach in the afternoon and I was actually quite surprised by the crowds. Some of it might be the result that this area of Southwest Florida is just getting more and more crowded, but a lot of it was we were there in the afternoon, which is not a usual Wannamaker time for beach-going.
This morning, we went back to a different beach (this one closer to the Naples Pier), and Will and I worked for quite a while on an grand sand castle. Now, when it came time for Annette to take pictures, she had a slight, um, malfunction. Basically, the camera was set to capture video and not still images, but Annette didn’t realize that.
So, the bad news was we didn’t get any good still pictures of the castle and the construction process. The good news was we got this sort of odd movie out of the whole thing, accidentally made by Annette and narrated by Will and myself (about 8 MB). (BTW, I tried to upload this to YouTube, but it was taking too long. Maybe later; when it shows up, it show up right here:).
Anyway, here’s the even more cool part:
We got home about noonish or so, and then hung around the house, packed for the trip home tomorrow, etc. Annette’s parents went out to a previously planned event, so Will and Annette and I went to a Naples Art Fair (kinda lame), out to dinner, and then back to the beach. Will and I wanted to see if our castle was still standing. And you know what? As the picture at the top of this page suggests, our castle survived all day! Makes me want to go back tomorrow and see if it’s still there. But alas, we’re back to Michigan then….
Be sure to check out the other pictures at my Flickr set for Christmas 2006 pictures.
Oh, one last thing:
Just to let you know about the latest trends, it seems like the most popular accessory down here in southern Florida is a little dog. Seriously. We saw this phenomenon a handful of times in both South Beach and here in Naples. I can only assume this is the evil influence of Paris.
To be honest, I have nothing really to share here that’s too interesting. Since my last Florida Christmas post (which included details on our trip into the the Everglades), I’ve left Annette’s parents house/neighborhood compound only a handful of times. Annette and I went out to dinner at a very nice place one night (on a gift certificate from her parents– thanks again!), and then we wondered around the fancy-pants area of third street. We all went out to a fine restaurant that was an Italian place and sushi bar (a better Italian restaurant than it was a sushi bar, but still…), followed by a night of looking at “tacky” Christmas lights in a neighborhood known for them.
Christmas eve is the traditional family night with the Wannamakers, and we did the usual things followed by watching commie propaganda filmIt’s a Wonderful Life. Tonight, we had a lovely dinner and were joined by a local friend of the in-laws in good and festive fun.
To be honest, most of my time (other than what was mentioned above) has been spent working on things for school– progress has been made, but much more has to be done.
Oh, and I am no officially sick of Christmas music. The station we’ve been listening to here for our Christmas music needs seems to have a tape loop and/or iPod-type shuffle set-up with a fairly limited selection. I think I’ve heard the Bruce Springsteen version of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” about 15 times.
Anyway, as the season comes to a close, feel free to visit these fine list of links at boing-boing, here and here. Annette and I are going for an overnight get-away to South Beach, so I’m sure I’ll have pictures and stories to report in a couple of days.
Apparently, as I learned when I went to the “Will it Blend?” web site, this actually a promotional gimmick for a series of real blenders made by a company called Blendtec. Go figure.
I’m not sure what this says about me or the people I know, but someone I work with suggested I take a look at Weird Al’s song/video “White and Nerdy” and after I did, I realized he was singing about me, more or less.
Annette said I should post this here (and not just on my official blog), and since I do everything my wife asks me to do, here it is:
