"Puppet wrangler? There weren't any puppets in this movie!" – Crow T. Robot
A quiet, cold, and rainy Saturday here, spent not doing much of anything.
This evening, I watched Clash of the Titans, which, had it not been with friends over Twitter, would have been a huge mistake. It’s not the worst movie I’ve ever seen, but when they’re this bad, they usually come with jokes by Joel or Mike and the bots. In fact, I notice that it’s available on Rifftrax, and I’m sorely tempted. (I just don’t want to watch it again, you know?)
At the same time, spelling is important. An over-reliance on spell-check can lead to laziness, and not knowing how to spell can impede communication. Spell-check is far from perfect — their, there, or they’re, anyone? — and a poor substitute for really understanding why words are spelled a certain way. Further, many of the standardized tests these students will later encounter — like, for instance, the SAT — will not allow them use of a spell-check.
I think, if the Oregon Department of Education really wants to help its students, it won’t just allow them to ignore spelling altogether. It will allow its teachers to grade spelling more effectively, more fairly; it will design standardized tests that weigh other, perhaps more important, factors, and look at spelling in a broader context. [via]
Yeah, the movie where Robert Redford turned Woody Harrelson into a pimp and Demi Moore into a, ahem, lady of the evening. It was a ridiculous movie, all slick visuals with no real soul or character, but the concept was so intriguing that it didn’t need to be good to be successful. Everyone was just so fascinated by the moral question at the heart of the story that everything else was just gravy. Stupid, stupid gravy.
It’s all in the context of a Star Trek: The Next Generation review, naturally.
I woke up at six this morning, only to learn that, yes indeed, we’d had a freezing rain overnight, and it had played havoc with the morning commute. The Long Island Railroad was running weekend hours all morning — albeit at the regular, weekday morning peak fares — and at my station, weekend hours means no more than one train every hour. They were also predicting ten to fifteen-minute delays, which itself usually means twenty to thirty-minute delays. So, after much deliberating, I decided to send an e-mail around to my group at work and take a vacation day.
After that, the day was actually fine, especially after I discovered that Groundhog Day was available for streaming over Netflix. It just seemed like the right choice for today. I spent the rest of the day mostly reading, finishing a couple of graphic novels (The Alcoholic by Jonathan Ames and Dean Haspiel, and A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge by Josh Neufeld, both quite good). I also watched last week’s episode of Community, which I hadn’t seen yet, and the first episode of Quantum Leap, which I haven’t seen in years. It was really just a random, lay-about-the-house kind of day.
That said, I’m really kind of sick of snow at this point, particularly snow that ruins my morning commute. (Enough snow to close my office and keep me home without taking vacation? Well, we can talk.) I’m actually kind of looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. Taking off on Wednesday is just weird.
I spent the weekend in Maryland, celebrating my sister’s 30th birthday, which is later this week. We basically repeated our plans from last year, albeit with a little more success, thanks to somewhat more cooperative weather. My parents and I drove there, then met my sister and her husband for brunch, and then we split up, with my sister and my mother going clothes shopping — my sister’s choice, which would not have been mine — and we three men visiting the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum.
I took some photos there, if you’re interested. It was actually really interesting, although if you visit, I can’t recommend the actual train rides, at least not the version we experienced. It was basically just a slow twenty minute trip out, then back, with not a whole lot to see and just a little old-timey music and narration about the railway to keep you amused. (Then again, we were on the same car as a seven-year-old boy celebrating his birthday, and he seemed to be enjoying it.)
Afterward, we had enough time for the three of us to see The Fighter, in the theater adjoining the restaurant where we had dinner. It’s really quite good, and I think Christian Bale may now be my favorite for this year’s Oscar.
Today, we met for breakfast, then went back to my sister’s house to give her presents. Then we drove home. It was a good weekend, but I’m pretty astounded that it’s over already.
I tend to look for a name, particularly with protagonists, that somehow strikes sparks off elements of the character….Or not. You can easily reverse that out.