Category: Misc

GeekDad is reporting that The Hobbit will now be a movie trilogy.

Count me amongst those whom find this a disheartening bit of news. It’s been awhile since I’ve read it, but I can’t imagine there’s enough material to make 3 movies worth. In particular, I’m having a hard time imagining the break points between the movies. While the defeat of Smaug and the War of the 5 Armies seems like a logical point between 2 and three, I can’t think where the first would make for a decent break point. Perhaps the escape from the goblins?

Either way, it seems likely this is a money making move. If 1000 pages of LOTR took 3 movies, I can’t see why 300 pages of The Hobbit couldn’t have been squeezed into 1. Perhaps Peter Jackson has gotten a bit big for his britches.

The kids watched a bit of the Olympic coverage again tonight. At that point, they got to watch a bit of the team platform diving. I’ll leave aside any comments about the merits of team diving.

But the boy asked “Why do they wear those things? The look funny.”

“I don’t know, that’s just what divers wear,” I answered.

“They look like tighty whitey’s,” he continued.

The lass was giggling at this point. Naturally, as soon as the conversation turns to underwear, things get giggly.

Then he said “They shouldn’t be wearing that stuff, girls wear underwear like that.”

The lass then offered her own observation, “Yeah, but then their boobs would be showing.”

More giggling.

An Olympics like no other.

This new paper by Anthony Watts seems like it could be a game changer. The key bit from the press release:

The new analysis demonstrates that reported 1979-2008 U.S. temperature trends are spuriously doubled, with 92% of that over-estimation resulting from erroneous NOAA adjustments of well-sited stations upward.

The paper has not yet been peer reviewed, so it’s possible there are problems. But if the paper holds, then this paper basically says that the data used to calculate global warming sucks so much that we can’t reliably predict “climate change” with it.

It will be interesting to see what kind of press attention this paper receives. Especially from these sorts of folks. Might give us a chance to see just how serious they are about science.

Michael Phelps is a bit of a sore loser, it seems.

I base that on the interview after his race. Normally, I’d give a guy like that some slack since the last thing anyone wants, after a loss, is a microphone stuck in their mug with the “What went wrong?” question. But Phelps has been doing this since he was 15, so the mic isn’t anything new to him.

Watching him stammer, say that they “had the wrong plan” and that he was frustrated was kind of surprising. Interestingly, Bob Costas even mentioned it, but shluffed it off as him “not knowing how to handle it because he’s never been there before.”

I guess now we find out what kind of competitor he really is.

We had BBQ spare ribs tonight and, if I do say so myself, they were pretty darn tasty. The key was soaking them in a brine overnight. Well, that and the 6 hours at low heat.

The brine was just salt and molasses. I used about a cup of pickling salt and about a half-cup of molasses in 5 quarts of water that I put in a roasting pan, since that’s all I had big enough to set the rack of ribs in for soaking purposes. The soak lasted about 12 hours.

We don’t have a dedicated smoker, but we do have a Weber Kettle grill, which has to be the most versatile grill going. I got about a dozen or so charcoal briquettes going and then divide them up on opposite sides of the grill. Finally, I got a tinfoil cooking sheet and set that down on the grill so the dripping from the ribs wouldn’t get all over the place.

The grilling is the hard part, because the idea is to maintain a temp of about 225 for as long as it takes to cook the meat until it’s falling off the bone. In order to do that, I have to keep adding briquettes to the grill, about every hour or so. I use a digital thermometer to keep an eye on the temp, I just dangle the probe down through the exhaust port in the grill top.

One of these days I’ll get a Big Green Egg to make this a lot easier. But in the meantime, no one was complaining about the results. Even the kids had a couple of helpings. Although they felt the need to inform me that they liked baby back ribs better. There’s no pleasing some people.

One of the cooler (I think) Summer features of our yard are the Cicada Killers which appear each year about this time. They are a giant wasp (the one pictured above is about 1 1/4 inches long and perhaps 1/4″ thick) and live for about a month. Yes, really. But in that time, they demonstrate themselves to be extremely effective hunters of cicadas. By the time they are all gone, the lawn will be littered with dead cicadas that were unsuccessfully brought back to their nests.

The CK’s live in underground nests. They capture and paralyze the cicadas and bring them back to their nests, where they lay an egg on them. Their young then have the food to last them through the until next Summer, where the cycle starts over again. They also appear to be solitary insects, rather than a hive sort. While there may be many in the yard, they do not band together in a single nest. They are literally sprinkled around the yard, each with their own place. They engage in some pretty nasty aerial combat sequences with each other, though that’s typically only for the first few days after they first emerge from the nests.

The other interesting thing is when they return from the trees with a cicada, which are several times bigger than the CK, even as big as they are. The cicada is held between the CK’s legs and it’s obviously a struggle to get back to their nest with their payload. In fact, it typically appears that it’s all they can do to maintain any semblance of controlled flight. They try to get as close to their nest as possible. Once they’re on the ground, they can drag their prize for a bit, but don’t seem to be capable finding their nest if they are too far from it. If they don’t make it, they’ll abandon the cicada and get another one and try again. I’ve tried putting cicadas near a nest opening, but the CK’s won’t use them.

I’ve found that they are very passive where people are concerned. I’ve walked through a swarm of them in the yard (mowing the lawn) and they are content to let me pass. The one in the picture allowed me to get the camera within several inches of it without getting upset. I’m glad of that, as I wouldn’t want to be stung by one based on their size.

Saturday was a miserable weather day, what with “climate change” working its magic and all. We initially wanted to head out to the local beach, but it was more overcast than not so it wasn’t really good beach weather. Additionally, Sunday was supposed to be a good beach day, so we changed course Saturday and opted for an afternoon run to the movies.

Thus, we came to see Brave.

While it was an entertaining movie, I don’t think it quite lives up to some of the other Pixar efforts like The Incredibles or Up. To me, I think it had a lot to do with the title itself. A title like “Brave” conveys the notion that the story is striving for something more than just telling the story of Merida. Whereas, with Up and The Incredibles, it sounds like you’re going to see stories and end up getting much more. I suppose it’s a matter of expectation, in one case they’re at a lower level of entertainment, for the other I’m expecting more.

While Brave is a lot of fun to watch and the story is certainly well told, it’s the “more” where it falls short. The idea is that someone doesn’t need to accept the fate they’ve been given, and they can change it if they are brave enough. As I said, in as far as this telling is done, they certainly hit the necessary plot points.

But a fairy tale is marked by it’s happy ending and most of the enduring fairy tales leverage the good versus bad tactic towards this end. Think of most any of the other Disney fairy tales: Snow White and the evil Queen, Sleeping Beauty and the evil fairy, Cinderella and her evil Stepmother and Step sisters. The happiness arises as a result of good ultimately triumphing over evil. Sometimes, it’s even the result of someone being brave enough to not except the fate that their evil antagonist has selected for them.

In Brave, the conflict arises because of differences between Merida and her Queen mother, whom is most definitely not evil. She is simply a strong willed woman who doesn’t see why the life she has been given isn’t good enough for her daughter. My guess is that story plays out all the time in real life.

And perhaps that’s where Brave loses me a bit. The story is driven by the conflict between Merida and her Mother. Without giving any details away, it boils down to Merida owning up to her mistakes and trying to undo the acts she undertook to free herself from the path her Mother has set for her. It is a fundamentally different type of fairy tale, perhaps one that is too mature for the target audience. Merida’s actions really should have had more dire consequences, a la Katniss in The Hunger Games trilogy, in order to push it into a class of it’s own.

The bottom line is that, it’s an entertaining and worthwhile story to experience with the kids but I don’t think it will measure up as a true classic.

Hilarious.

One thing everyone in our group Greece noted early and often was how good the vegetables were. In particular, the tomatoes were awesome. Every one we had tasted like they were home grown, which is surprising considering we didn’t have a single home cooked meal. I think we had Greek salad at every meal. The brother went so far as to say he won’t eat tomatoes outside of Greece, something I find hard to believe yet surprisingly plausible.

My own theory revolved around the influences of and trade-offs due to mass production and the hydroponically grown tomatoes we have in the States. The other theories were differences in the soil, particularly all the volcanic influence in the soil over here yield tomatoey goodness.

Well, via Instapundit, here’s a possible explanation. The nickel version is we like our tomatoes pretty and that costs in the taste department. Of course, the tomatoes in Greece weren’t visually objectionable so we should be able to fix this problem post haste.

More on the rocks in a minute.

So our visit through Greece has drawn to a close. We started in Athens, flew to Mykonos and ended in Santorini. Along the way, we visited the Parthanon and the Temple of Zeus, went to a wedding, visited the beaches of Mykonos as well as Mykonos town, saw a sunset from a boat in Santorini and from a rooftop in Firostefani.

The food over here is amazing. I don’t know if it’s all locally grown or what, but my suspicion is it has much to to with no preservatives or other alterations. I’m now a huge fan of feta cheese, olive oil and Greek yogurt. The tomatoes alone were almost enough to make the trip worth it.

The weather here is, well, not to my liking. But I can tolerate it. I could count on 1 hand the number of clouds we’ve seen since we arrived in Athens. I’m told it will get hotter before the Summer ends here. But there is plenty of crystal clear water to cool me down. The morning swims are nice as well.

But what helped make the trip memorable were the family and friends we shared the trip with. As enjoyable as the sights were, the moments of gathering together were even more enjoyable and probably the best time we spent here. While I don’t consider myself a traveler, traveling for this was well worth the effort.

If you happen to find yourself in Greece, specifically Mykonos, there is a lighthouse at the Northwest side of the island. It is a lonely place where the wind blows strong enough to knock you over. The lighthouse looks out over the port in Mykonos Town and across to the island of Telos. Beyond the lighthouse is a path that leads down to the cliffs which lead to the sea. Along that path is a stack of rocks that we found.

I don’t know how long that stack had been there, but I added our own rock to it. I don’t know how long it will stay there. It could have been knocked down already. But I like to think it lasted that first day. And if it lasted that day, then it can probably last many more. A marker for some future traveller that someone else had passed that way.

Something to remember us by.

My head is still bobbing from the boat ride last night. Santorini is a crescent shape that is oriented North-South. The cruise was a 5-hour affair that started on the Southeastern side of Santorini, went around the Southern tip of the crescent and sailed into the caldera. The caldera itself is underwater. We didn’t make it very far North into the caldera, probably only a quarter to a third of the way up. A shame in some ways because the view of the island from the caldera itself must be spectacular. Being an evening cruise, we started losing the wind and there is a schedule to keep so alas, it was not meant to be.

We arrived in Santorini early yesterday afternoon, Greece time. We took a ferry from Mykonos to get here. The ferry was a hydrofoil so there wasn’t much to see since we were inside a cabin. Aside from the infant that screamed for the entire 3 hour ride and the fact that we were on water, it wasn’t all that different from an airplane ride.

This is the view from our hotel, which is built onto the side of the island. Literally. We have to descend a set of stairs (there is no elevator) down the hillside (cliff isn’t far off) to get first, to the hotel, and then to our room. In fact, this particular spot is a series of hotels along the side of the island. Our hotel used to be a winery. But apparently, it couldn’t cut it.

We went on a sunset cruise around the island last night. I’ll post some pictures from that later.

We’ve been in Mykonos since yesterday. It’s, essentially, the first island of the coast of Greece and a rather popular vacation spot for both Greeks and non-Greeks alike. If the reason isn’t abundantly clear after looking at the picture above, get your eyes checked. Now.

So prior to my brother losing his bachelorhood tonight, I agreed to go for a swim with him. We started on the beach from which the above picture was taken, swam to the far beach (the one behind the boat) and swam back. Our best guess is it’s a half-mile to the far beach, so that was easily the longest swim I’ve ever taken. The brother-in-law and sister swam out to the rocky area to the left of the beach.

Aside from the exercise, it also helped settle a quibble between my Father and I. He felt the water here was saltier than normal sea water. I scoffed at the notion and said it’s just different mineral content or something. But after the swim, and several large mouthfuls of sea water as I gasped my way across, I decided he was right. It’s not an unimportant observation because without the extra buoyancy afforded, I probably wouldn’t have been able to make it across.

Lastly, because the picture can’t do it justice, swimming in the water is like swimming in a pristine aquarium. It’s cool, but absolutely clear. When under the water, it’s possible to see at least 50 feet in any direction. While swimming across, the deepest spot was, minimally, 40 feet down and except for the naturally diminished light at that depth, perfectly clear.

We spent yesterday touring the city of Athens. Mainly, that meant visiting the Acropolis but we also visited the Olympic stadium and several other more modern landmarks like Parliament and the President’s house. The tour itself consisted of a lot of Greek history and mythology (our guide was excellent and very passionate about the subject matter) which I won’t rehash here since it’s available out on the intertubes.

After the jump are a few highlight pictures of what we saw.

So, for a few days anyway, I’m not an SAHD. Obviously, the ‘Dad’ part hasn’t changed, but I’m doing it from… GREECE! The kids have sitters for duration.

Here’s the view from our hotel window:

That’s the Acropolis, which I’ve been reliably informed is just the wall portion, not the top. On the top is the Parthenon. We’ll be visiting there today.

The food here is good, so that’s been a non-issue. They love their cheese here, that’s for sure. Souvlakas are basically shish-kabobs and something else that started with an ‘m’, that was good as well. One thing of note about out hotel room is that our room-key also serves as the master light switch. We couldn’t get any of the lights to work until we noticed a little card-reader looking thing attached to the wall near our door and gave it a try.

Time to go see some sights.

This news has been all over, he was found guilty on 45 of 48 charges. Not much I can add. I don’t know if this really helps the victims in any way, but it gets a very sick man out of the public and will prevent him from victimizing anyone else.

The Wife knits. My Mother knits. So I was well aware of the brouhaha involving the USOC and the knitting site Ravelry yesterday. For those unaware, Ravelry is a site for knitters and other textile crafts. Members login to the community and discuss and share aspects of their craft.

Apparently, in support of the Olympics ironically, Ravelry holds a contest called the Ravelympics. Well, when the USOC caught wind of it, they sent a cease and desist letter as part of an automatic reaction to uses or variations on the word “Olympics.” Legally speaking, their actions were legit.

Common sense wise, it was the equivalent of stepping on a hornets nest. The Ravelry community is over 2 million strong and composed of not just a few people whom likely would have been watching the Olympics while exercising their craft. (I am deliberately avoiding knitting puns because all the articles Ive read so far are chock full of them.) After word of the legal notice made the rounds, as well as the tone therein, the USOC now has about 2 million pissed off knitters on their hands.

Demonstrating backbones limper than a skein of yarn, the USOC has backed off and it looks like there will be no legal action taken on their part. Though it seems to be too little, too late as far as the Ravelry community is concerned, as evidenced by a comment highlighted at the end of the linked article.

Hell hath no fury like a knitter scorned.