If Only I Had The Chance....

Here's a question to tax your creative powers...

Pretend in your mind that you opened the front door one day and on the front stoop was a strange, alien-looking device. Attached to the device was a note that said you could use it to create a hole in the space-time continuum and let you slip out of your life for 1 year, do something, and then slip right back at the moment you left without anyone knowing you'd ever been anywhere.

If you suddenly had 1 year free to do anything you like, without regard for current financial, parental, legal, marital or professional obligations, what would you do?

Keep in mind I'm not advocating you do anything that would compromise your personal ethics or morals - for instance, I wouldn't choose something that would make me go off with another woman for that year. I'm still married, and wouldn't break those vows, but pretend you were just on your own for a year with no pre-existing worries or responsibilities. What would you do that maybe you've always wanted to do, but never had the time, money, courage, perseverance, opportunity, etc.?

Here's mine: If I had a year off, I'd go down to St. Thomas or St Maartin in the Caribbean, rent or buy a boat, and live the Jimmy Buffett beach bum life for a year. Relax in the sun, sail the harbors, get to the know the native people of the islands, read, swim, snorkel, explore, take charters out to watch the dolphins...

Now, in reality I'd love my wife to come with me on this adventure, but, hey, sorry dear, get your own dream ;)

I've got Coastal Confessions - How About You?

This Just In...

Vegener Hansen, 59, who has cerebral palsy, is fighting to force the Danish state to subsidise visits to his home by prostitutes in the same way they would pay for a meals-on-wheels service.

Prostitution is legal in Denmark, so Vegener Hansen argues his local authority unfairly made a moral judgment when it rejected his application for financial support to bring prostitutes to his flat. If a social appeal board finds in his favour later this month, all Danish councils will have to obey the ruling.

There is no word yet on the name for this service, although such monikers as "On Call Girls" and "Whoreminos" are being considered.

Goodnight, and have a pleasant tomorrow.


What would you suggest?

Friday's Feast

Feast Seventy-Eight - Friday, January 27, 2006

Appetizer - Choose one: Popcorn, Pizza, Pretzels, Peanuts, or Pasta.

Popcorn. With butter and seasoning salt or white cheddar.


Soup - Describe your personality in terms of a particular vehicle.

Ford Mustang - the newer models, not the classic. I don't know why, I just love that car and I think it would suit me.


Salad - If you won a shopping spree, from which store would you want it to be?

Best Buy, because they seem to have all the electronic equipment I might want under one roof.


Main Course - Which television show re-runs do you enjoy watching?

Some of these meme questions get repetitive. I love watching "M*A*S*H" on the Hallmark Channel at night, right after "Whose Line is it Anyway?" on ABC Family.


Dessert - If you could look into the future, how far down the road would you like to see? 10 years? 100 years? A million

I'd like to see if humanity is able to survive the next 100 years relatively intact, so I'll know to stop worrying about what kind of world I've selfishly brought my kids into... I think if we make it to 2100 (ok, 2106) we'll make it as far as we like.

And I Wonder Sometimes...

...why I don't get more heavily involved in politics (at least in following it more closely).

Because you start associating with folks like this:

"It's when opposing viewpoint crosses the line into disingenuous rhetoric or immature, rude behavior that things deteriorate. When that happens, the best thing to do is to disengage and simply ignore it. Or don't even start with them in the first place if it's clear that you simply disagree and nobody's going to change their mind. Instead, create a blog post with your opposing viewpoint and let the "marketplace of ideas" sort it out, similar to a point-counterpoint op-ed you might see in the newspaper. (Immature, off-topic, inflammatory, nonsensical one-liners that are obviously trolls or flame bait should simply be ignored.)"

The new Knoxviews multi-blogger blog apparently has already attracted the wrong element. By the wrong element I mean those whose sole purpose in participating is to stir up trouble. And you don't typically get that when you're writing about Disney or kids or theatre - you know, interesting stuff.

When you get talking about politics the trolls come out from under the bridges and decide to start throwing rocks at all the little Billy Goats Gruff trip-trapping over their heads.

It happens in sports commentating as well - certain people can't help themselves but to boost their own egos and agendas at the expense of other people's feelings. Apparently it's a common occurance at another local polichat board, KnoxBlab, and I recall it happening with less frequency at k2k (another local politics/public affairs bulletin board).

Political discussion is a subject that, by definition these days, no longer allows much room for real debate. Those participating typically have too much pride to admit they're wrong, or even willing to seriously consider other viewpoints.

Michael Williams has more on Making Up Your Mind - a discussion on why political partisans should or should not have open minds.

If you don't have an open mind, you can't discuss issues. Discussion requires give and take - otherwise it's just a lecture. And anyone who recalls college understands that nobody wants to be lectured to.

In our world today, politics has morphed into a huge beast that stifles a lot of real progress that could be made. Hopefully someday people will realizes that ideas matter more than partisanship and drop the me/you - us/them - my team/your team competitition that drives what should be cooperation. We'll see, but I'm not holding my breath.

PS - This isn't a dig at R. Neal (aka South Knox Bubba) who runs Knoxviews.com - just the trolls that are trying to ruin what is a nice idea. So far, SKB has kept his nose clean and not made me want to throw a chair at the screen.

So far... ;)

The Toys Are Back In Town

Toy Story III, off the shelf?

"Reports from Burbank are that John Lasseter and Ed Catmull are cleaning house. First order of business, take those old toys off the shelf and put them in a box somewhere. News was spread through Walt Disney Feature Animation and the, once secret, Circle 7 unit that Toy Story III production has been stopped."

Toy Story 3 cancelled?

"At the Animated-News Forum, 'ShyVoilet' points to a new post at Animation Nation, where word comes that John Lasseter and Ed Catmill announced to Walt Disney Feature Animation employees today that production on Toy Story 3 has ended. "They said that sequels should only be made if there is a really great story that demands it, and should be the domain of those who created the original film. In other words, if Pixar wants to make a sequel to its films, it will. If Disney Feature wants to make a sequel to its film, it will. But the two will not cross," writes the post's author, 'Corn Fed'. Fortunately, Lasseter and Catmill are still interested in the artists of Disney's Circle 7 Animation and will try to find ways to use their talents."

Lasseter and Catmill announce "Toy Story 3" will stop





Well, from what I'm able to tell from these stories is that the Disney version of "Toy Story 3" that was in production will stop, and eventually a Pixar version of "Toy Story 3" will gear up. Which is great news. I think.

Pixar's John Lasseter to head Disney Imagineers

From MiceAge:

"Pixar President Ed Catmull will serve as President of the new Pixar and Disney animation studios, reporting to Iger and Dick Cook, Chairman of The Walt Disney Studios. In addition, Pixar Executive Vice President John Lasseter will be Chief Creative Officer of the animation studios, as well as Principal Creative Advisor at Walt Disney Imagineering, where he will provide his expertise in the design of new attractions for Disney theme parks around the world, reporting directly to Iger. Pixar Chairman and CEO Steve Jobs will be appointed to Disney's Board of Directors as a non-independent member. With the addition of Jobs, 11 of Disney's 14 directors will be independent. Both Disney and Pixar animation units will retain their current operations and locations."

John Lassater is the real creative genius behind most of what Pixar has brought to the screen in the last 10 years (having been either a writer, director, executive producer or several combinations thereof for Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and the upcoming Cars).

Installing Lassater as head advisor of the Imagineering department promises great things for Disney Parks in the future. Hopefully this move won't detract from his involvement in the animation department, which is still more important to Disney overall...

Hey, I wonder what this merger now means for the development of Toy Story 3? It was greenlighted (greenlit?) back when Pixar and Disney had split, due to irreconcilable differences between ex-Disney czar Michael Eisner and Pixar prez Steve Jobs. Now that Disney is buying Pixar...hmm. Supposedly the Pixar gang had worked up a great plot for the movie, tying up the storyline - I'm not in love with the Disney version listed on the linked page... I hope they reconsider and make this movie the way it should be made.

Update: More about John Lasseter:

Lasseter's fans say he is Disney's best hope to rekindle an animation group that dominated film animation from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" through "The Lion King." He is exceptionally popular with animators, who see him as one of their own and are drawn to his wide-eyed enthusiasm.

"John is an artist; he understands their passions, their psyches, their insecurities — the whole package," said Chris Buck, the director of "Tarzan," who worked with Lasseter at Disney in the early 1980s.

The 49-year-old executive wears Hawaiian shirts on the job, stuffs his office full of windup toys and shuns limousines for an Oscar Mayer Wienermobile at the Academy Awards. Pixar's Emeryville, Calif., headquarters reflect that carefree management style. Animators and computer geeks tool around on scooters through hallways decorated with discarded Chuck E. Cheese mouse statues.

In graduation ceremonies for the company's Pixar University training program, new hires dress in large hats or as cheerleaders before parading backward as Lasseter delivers the commencement address.

Sounds like my kind of guy. Hey John, need an assistant?

Those Women You See Out Running...

...aren't training for the Marathon, or doing some afternoon jogging.

It's the Lady Vols, taking laps around Knoxville. Expect traffic delays well into the evening.

And if you look carefully you'll probably see Pat Summitt hanging out of a helicopter yelling at them to focus!!!!

Term Limited

'West Wing' ending its term in May

"NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly announced yesterday that "The West Wing" will end its seven-season run in May."

*sniff* I hardly knew ye...

Looks like the presidential election between Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) and Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda) will be the last hurrah, unless something like the current Kazakhstan/Russia/China storyline continues to play out through the end of the season.

Hopefully they won't let Bartlett get out of office without one big final hurrah, especially since the them of his whole last couple of years has been "finding his legacy", or what he will leave behind that will make his presidency meaningful.

*sigh* Now I'm bummed.


UPDATE: Here's some more information about the end of the season, for those of you who actually enjoy quality programming ;)

'The West Wing': Lame Duck

The election will be covered on April 2 and 9 and viewers will know by the end of the latter episode whether the presidential candidate played by Jimmy Smits or Alan Alda won the election -- a decision the producers "have only really in the last couple days made," at the end of "quite a brawl," Wells told critics at the very last session of Winter TV Press Tour 2006.

...

The sudden death of actor John Spencer in December has "changed a lot of the storytelling" for the final episodes, Wells said, sharing the stage with some of the writers and cast members.

The producers had shot five episodes, three of which Spencer was central to, at the time of his death. Wells said they talked about how to handle the situation over the holidays and decided the best homage they could pay Spencer was to change nothing and "let people see the last days of his work." He joked that Spencer would have been angry at him if he had changed the episodes -- "cutting his best scenes . . . so we left it."

Scrambling to deal with the reality of the actor's death, Wells said, the producers discovered there is no real provision for dealing with the death of a vice presidential candidate on the eve of an election.

Sad or not, it should be interesting. They might even be creating some unintentional and unofficial precedent here. If that ever happened in real life and people are wondering what should be done, someone undoubtedly will remember these last few episodes of The West Wing and at least offer them as possibilities.

Sometimes art imitates life, sometimes life imitates art.

Friday's Feast

Feast Seventy-Seven - Friday, January 20, 2006

Appetizer - About how many times per day do you check your email?

I'm checking email constantly throughout the day. Seriously, if you've sent me an email between 8:00 and 5:00, I'll see it within 15 minutes of the time it hits my inbox. Unless I'm at lunch, then a little more. After that, I'm on usually after 10, so it's a good chance I'm checking then, too.


Soup - If you had the money to collect something really valuable, what would it be?

I'd collect animation cels - you know, the original hand-painted individual scenes created for classic animated shorts and features.


Salad - Write a sentence using the letters of your favorite beverage. (Example: The egret admires.)

See! What exacting elegance the tiny egg acquires...


Main Course - If you could be on a game show, which one would you want it to be?

I'd love to be on Jeopardy. I'd wipe up the floor with Ken Jennings...


Dessert - Name 3 computer programs or web sites you would hate to be without.

I'd hate to be without Homesite for my web designing, Paint Shop Pro for my graphics editing and Firefox for my browsing pleasure...

The Rule of Four

I got tagged by Logtar...

Four Jobs You’ve Had

1. Bookstore Clerk
2. Movie Theatre Assistant Manager
3. Help Desk Grunt
4. Program Director for UT Wesley Foundation

Four Movies You Could Watch Over and Over

1. Star Wars
2. Back to the Future
3. Jurassic Park
4. Superman

Four Places You’ve Lived

1. Knoxville, TN
2. Daytona Beach, FL
3. that's
4. it

Four TV Shows You Love to Watch

1. Star Trek (any)
2. 24
3. The West Wing
4. M*A*S*H

Four Favorite Books

1. Tunnel in the Sky, Robert Heinlein
2. Insomnia, Stephen King
3. The Firm, John Grisham
4. Warning Signs, Stephen White

Four Places You Have Been on Vacation

1. Caribbean Islands (St. Thomas, St. John, St. Lucia, St. Maartin, Barbados, Dominica)
2. Orlando, FL
3. Williamsburg, VA
4. Long Island, NY/Bensalam, PA/Lincoln, NE/Blythesville, AK (one two-week trip)

Four Websites You Visit Daily

1. Big Orange Michael
2. Lileks
3. Michael Silence (No Silence Here)
4. Television Without Pity Forums

Four Favorite Foods

1. Popcorn
2. Pizza
3. Ruffles "The Works" Chips
4. Fettucine Alfredo

Four Places You’d Rather Be Right Now

1. Snorkeling off St. John's
2. Ireland/Scotland
3. Walt Disney World
4. Watching the Vols play for a National Championship/Titans play in the Super Bowl

Four Bloggers You’re Tagging

1. I think
2. this one's
3. been around
4. enough ;)

MENSA Intelligence Test - Well, Sort Of

This is a fun little test of your logic and pattern recognition abilities, not to mention a little knowledge of popular culture.

MENSA Intelligence Test

The text might have you believing it's an actual MENSA test, or at least an intelligence test - I have my doubts, but it's fun nevertheless.

As of this writing, I've found 30 out of the 33. There's no time limit - off you go!

(Hat tip: Doug at Reality Me)


UPDATE (01/23): Thanks, Doug - here are the answers. Of the three I never got, one (#19) I worked out with Laura when she took the challenge, although I question its validity as a common phrase or truism. The other two (#30 and #31) I don't think anyone could have gotten unless they lived abroad. Did anyone get those three?

Also, I think the word "in" in #14 and #17 should have been "on" - that's the more common phrasing that I'm familiar with....

The Tooth, The Whole Tooth and Nothing but the Tooth

Life is a series of events. Thank goodness they're not all Unfortunate. Actually, very few of them are. But they're all events, and they all connect - in ways that seem to repeat, and repeat, and repeat.

We're slowly outgrowing the "mythical beings" phases of childhood. Brainyboy v9.9 has at least privately abandoned all pretense of belief in the QuasiHoly Triumverite: The Tooth Fairy, The Easter Bunny and Santa Claus (when I say privately, I mean he hasn't outright said to me, "I know they don't really exist" but he's mentioned a lot in passing to Laura so I know he knows). Tink, being 6, is still fully immersed in the lore.

And I, being the good and youthful dad, continue to play along.

But it's just so hard, sometimes...consider:

Here.

And Here.

And here, and oh my, here.

It's tough to be sneaky.

Well, Tink lost a tooth yesterday evening at church. It was quite the most stubborn of teeth, one that seemed to have decided to take permanant residence at the front of her mouth. It would twist this way and that, wobble in the breeze, do the Hokey Pokey and turns itself around (after all, that's what it's all about) but it refused to come out. So it was a Special Tooth (tm).

And now that it was finally out, it deserved a special sendoff - so bouyed by her success at writing Santa a letter (and getting a reply), she sealed the tooth up in an envelope and wrote the Tooth Fairy a message: "Here's my tooth - please leave me money."

An American girl, natch.

So she put it under her pillow and went to sleep. About 10:30, I'm watching TV downstairs and she putters out to the top of the landing.

Tink: (sleepy) Daddy?

Me: What's wrong?

Tink: I looked under the pillow, and the Tooth Fairy didn't come...

Me: Sweetie, it's just 10:30 - I haven't even gone to bed yet. Don't worry, she'll be here when it's really late and all the lights are out, and everyone's gone to sleep...

Tink: (considering) Ok....

And she scampered off.

Later...

Tink: (coming back onto landing) Daddy?

Me: What's wrong now?

Tink: I think the reason I can't get to sleep is because the TV's too loud...

(yeah, right)

So I turn down the TV, go upstairs and re-tuck her into the bed.

Later still...

It's approaching midnight and daddy's getting sleepy. Time for bed. This time I do remember to do the deed, so I creep into her roo--

*CREAK*

(damn creaky board...)

I continue... I sneak over to her pillow, reach under and carefully remove the envelope. Not wanting to be caught fumbling with the envelope in her room, I retreat back the way I came out the door. As I exit, I catch a glimpse of her stirring..

(O Crap.)

I peek back in. She's sitting up in bed, with the pillow thrown to the side, staring at the empty spot underneath.

I retreat back into the hallway, extricate the tooth, insert the coin (a Sacajewea Gold Dollar, by the way) and return. I still hear stirring. I stoop down and prop the envelope with the coin against the doorway into her room and scat back down the hall.

I hear the bed creak as she's getting up.

Down the hall to my room, duck inside---

(Crap! The light)

In a move that would have made Indiana Jones proud, I snap my hand back around the doorframe and cut off the light to the living room. The house is in darkness.

I peek outside my door down the hall and see Tink shuffling toward our room.

In a move that would have made Laurence Olivier proud, I shuffle myself out the bedroom door toward her down the hall - blinking, yawning, scratch---, er, well, blinking and yawning. We meet halfway.

She's quietly sobbing..."Daddy, The Tooth Fairy didn't come...."

(*BEEP BEEP DAMAGE CONTROL ERROR ERROR REBOOT ERROR ERROR STERILIZE STERILIZE*)

I smile through my sleep-dazed face, leading her back to her room... I point out the envelope leaning in the doorway. She glances at it, puzzled, and picks it up. She opens it and finds the coin. Smiling wanly, if puzzled, I get her back in bed - congratulating her and expressing my confusion as to why the Tooth Fairy would've left it in the doorway...

Tink: Daddy, why are you awake"?

Me: "Why, my sweet little tot," the fake Santy Claus lied, "There's a light on this tree that won't light on one side. So I'm taking it home to my workshop, my dear. I'll fix it up there. Then I'll bring it back ---"

Oh wait, wrong story.

Me: "Well, I heard you walking around, so I woke up and came to see what was the matter. I've been in bed asleep..."

I think I would've made Bill Clinton proud of that one.

And my fib fooled the child. Then I patted her head, And I got her a drink and I sent her to bed.

Or something like that.


And that's the story of how I fooled my daughter. And things are back to normal - at least until next time. I'm just not sure how much more of this I can take...


And that's the tooth. *PTTTTHHHH*

Topical

It's interesting how some days I can have a ton of stuff to talk about, and other days I have nothing.

Or rather maybe it's that I have so much on my mind none of it has coalesced into a coherant form.

I think that way sometimes. Random ideas and thoughts will flit through my mind during the day, exciting me, angering me, frustrating me, making me think. But they don't stay, or at least not for long. They often come back to wreak havoc on me again and again but in no discernable order or pattern. They do seem to have effects on my mood, and yesterday's unrelenting all-day rain didn't help.

Here's a question. What's a fitting punishment for parents who medicate their kids when they can't seem to find the intestinal fortitude to control them? Slow injection with lighter fluid, or maybe spend an day in a room with the ghost of Eric Harris. Or maybe the parents of Cassie Rene Bernall.

Here's another question. How many times does one have to repeat a request before your coworkers remember it? Should it take 8 years? If a tree falls in the woods near a Marketing Department, does anyone hear it?

Rocky Top Brigade Yahoo! Group

Cathy of Domestic Psychology (or as I refer to it in my head, "DomPsych") has kindly created a new Yahoo! Group for Rocky Top Brigadiers.

Click to join rockytopbrigade

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

To Big Orange Michael!!!!

Who needs all the good wishes he can get, after his beloved Redskins lost this weekend.

Memo to the Powers the Be

Causing the Colts to lose, that was bad enough...

But killing off David Palmer? That's going too far!

Friday's Feast

Feast Seventy-Six - Friday, January 13, 2006

Appetizer - Name one chore you don't really mind doing.

I really don't mind loading and unloading the washer and dryer. It's folding the clothes and more specifically putting them away that drives me crazy...


Soup - How many times have you moved homes in your life?

Interestingly, I've never lived away from Knoxville in my life. The longest time I've been out of town was a summer in Daytona Beach working for the Seaside Music Theatre as a Stage Manager. I lived in my parents' house through my first two years of college (I commuted), lived one year in a Ft Sanders apartment near campus, and two years in a dorm (with my roommate, Gary). After I graduated college my brother and I shared an apartment for a year or so, then I got married and moved into my wife's apartment. We stayed there about a year, then moved into our first house the following summer. We lived there for about 6 years, then moved to our present house just before Tink was born. And we've been here about 6 years.


Salad - How old were you when you had your very first kiss?

Next question.


Main Course - What time of day do you usually feel your best?

I never really have a down period. The closest thing is I sometimes feel lethargic after a big lunch in my 80-degree office, but that's about it. I rarely have mood cycles during the day.


Dessert - Using three words or less, describe your current local weather.

God, what next?

False Updates

Does anyone else have this problem?

I use Blogrolling for my blogroll, and it includes the feature to put a "*" by the links of folks who have updated their site in the last 2 hours - this is the best way I have of knowing who's updated during the day, so I can see what's up.

(aside - I know a lot of people use RSS, but it's been mostly a big waste of time for me. Maybe someone can actually show me a sample of how it can be used effectively to notify me at a glance who's made a new post)

But one thing I've noticed lately is a lot of "false updates" - where an "*" appears beside their link, I check it out, and see there's no new post.

I think the reason is with Blogger's new imbedded comment feature. Whenever someone comments on a post the site itself "updates", causing a Ping to be generated. This filters through to Blogrolling and it thinks there's been a new post. When there actually hasn't been.

Now this is not that big a deal, but it is a bit annoying to think your favorite bloggers have new stuff and there's nothing new there.

(I don't use the embedded comments, although they do show up when you click on a post's permalink (like here). I use Haloscan and have been very, very pleased thus far. I would recommend it highly.)

So, has anyone else noticed this problem with false updates?

And in the "Not Quite Grasping the Concept" Department...

Nudity during sex annuls marriage, says cleric

"An Egyptian cleric’s controversial fatwa claiming that nudity during sexual intercourse invalidates a marriage has uncovered a rift among Islamic scholars. According to the religious edict issued by Rashad Hassan Khalil, a former dean of Al Azhar University’s faculty of Sharia, “being completely naked during the act of coitus annuls the marriage”."

I'm reminded of the old programmer's adage: "It's not a bug, it's a feature!"

(Hat tip: Appalachia Alumni Association)

The Latest Hybrid

I suppose it was inevitable....