What is a Blockburger?

Once again, our readers look to us for insightful answers. Clark has brought to my attention the fact that many persons out on the interweb don't know what a Blockburger is. To wit:

"It's listed as an annual Blockburger favorite. I don't know what Blockburger is, but you could Google it?"

So I'm writing this blog post in hopes that I can help someone who actually does Google it. The answer? I am a Blockburger! So is my brother, and his wife, and their baby. My little sister is a Blockburger, as are my parents. My two older sisters used to be Blockburgers, but they got married and now are other things.

In more esoteric ways, Blockburgers are many things. We are pretty smart (most of the time; sometimes we trip on curbs and break our hands). We are competitive. We tend to have sweaty feet and hands. We're terribly sarcastic.

We're religious. We like to read books and play cards. Many are known to do math for fun. Others like to diagram sentences. We can be pedantic and tend not to recognize rhetorical questions. We're introverted, but talk a lot.

We're really not that athletic.

But we are musical.

Almost every Blockburger I've met has been left-handed, but that ratio is steadily shifting. There may soon be only one left-handed Blockburger.

We enjoy figuring things out before we're told about them. We like to trick people in clever ways. [Ad hoc, ergo propter hoc?] We like puzzles of all kinds.

We sunburn easily.

Have any other suggestions for how to define a Blockburger? If so, please comment below. My sample size, after all, is pretty small.

Delicious Snacks

Recently, someone brought a batch of delicious smores treats to work. They are made out of Golden Grahams, chocolate, and mini marshmallows. Also, crack and a little bit of evil. I have eaten almost the whole tray and will probably go into a diabetic coma soon.

But first I will eat one more.

Eating like a grown-up

So, after reading Shannon's tales of vegetable-eating, I felt that I should be a little more of an adult about food. So recently, I have tried eating more things I would normally not even consider. I ate seafood three nights in a row in September, and then this past weekend I had yams. Twice! Not bad. I won't be seeking them out, but I'll have them on Thanksgiving. Then last night - sushi! I can't afford it, but I'll eat it.

Except for that one that had a whole crab on top. Too lifelike.

Dear Fly:

Dear Fly that is flying around my office:

Thank you for visiting. As you know, I am a big fan of insects in general.

However, I would deeply appreciate it if you would respect my personal space, and moreover, if you would allow me to get some work done. As you see, my office is roughly ten feet by ten feet square, giving us 100 square feet of room to fill up. It's another eight feet tall, giving you 800 cubic feet of flying space. Feel free to explore the area. Points of interest include:

• The fish tank
• The shelf of bug paraphernalia
• Rubbermaid tubs of stuff
• The vase of dried roses
• The candy dish

It is really not necessary for you to be within six inches of me at all times. I am flattered that you like my hair, now get out of it. I neither need nor enjoy your attempts to help me click the mouse buttons. I do not wish to hear secrets whispered in my ear.

Perhaps you would like to become better aquainted with one of my coworkers?

Sincerely,

Suzanne

One Word Answers

I've got to answer all these questions with one word and one word only. Here goes:

1. Where is your cell phone? Pocketed
2. Where is your significant other? Switzerland
3. Your hair color? Brown
4. Your mother? Dead
5. Your father? Engineer
6. Your favorite thing? Snuggling
7. Your dream last night? Peril
8. Your dream/goal? Love
9. The room you're in? Office
10. Your hobby? Origami
11. Your fear? Alone
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Home
13. Where were you last night? Gateway
14. What you're not? Fashionable
15. One of your wish-list items? Europe
16. Where you grew up? Utah
17. The last thing you did? Email
18. What are you wearing? Green
19. Your TV? Flat
20. Your pet? Fishes
21. Your computer? Movies
22. Your mood? Wistful
23. Missing someone? Yes
24. Your car? Johnny5
25. Something you're not wearing? Makeup
26. Favorite store? Barnesandnoble
27. Your summer? Over!
28. Love someone? Elliott
29. Your favorite color? Green
30. When is the last time you laughed? Today
31. Last time you cried? Sunday

NYTimes.com

While we're perusing the New York Times, check this one out: From Mars! Wow!

Math skills

For years, I have maintained that I am not very good at math. I cannot do matrices without specific, detailed instructions for every single problem. I sometimes transpose digits. Geometry and trigonometry I can do. I think because there are pictures.

Anyway, I just found this interesting article on the New York Times website, about two main different types of math: approximation, and calculation. Approximation is what you use when you glance up and down the check-out lines at the store and decide which one to join. Calculation is how you figure out exact math.

This article reminded me a lot about some of the posts on Clark's blog, approximating how many balloons it will take to fill the room, etc.

Along with the article, they have a test you can try to see how good your approximating skills are. I got 100% on 25 tests, so I am a good guesser! I think a calculation test would yield far different results. (See: academic decathlon math test)

Fish

So, I have been making a tentative foray into the field of fish . . . owning. Fish-tankery. I've got this great bow-fronted glass fish tank in my office, 35 gallons, and it seems a shame to waste it. It's full of water, it's got gravel in the bottom, nice decorative chunk of wood in there. All ready to go. Bunch o' snails keeps the glass clean.

I can't get a fish to live in it.

Well, not exactly. I had a fish in there that I pulled out of a creek in Park City. I think he was a mosquito fish - the kind you put in your backyard pond to eat the mosquito larvae - and he lived in there for nearly a year, all on his own. Just him and the snails. During that time I think I cleaned the tank twice, but he was very happy and swam all over and came up to the top to get fed and everything.

Then I went on vacation to Colorado and he vanished. I think he may have died and been flushed by someone who won't own up to it, but the mystery lingers.

So anyway, after this happened I decided to get serious about this fish business. I cleaned the tank, vacuumed out all of the gunk, gave the filter some serious time and elbow grease, hauled around more 5-gallon buckets of water than I care to think about, and finally had a sparkly clean tank fit for vertebrates to live happy lives.

I went to PetCo, and bought some beautiful fantail goldfish. I like them a lot. So I got three of them and put them all in the tank. They swam around, very happy. All week, happy fish. I go home for the weekend, come back . . . dead fish.

Sigh.

So, cleaned the tank again. Replaced water. Let the water age so there wouldn't be chlorine. Bought a new light bulb for the light that had stopped working. Went to Wal-Mart, bought some wonderful little pearl scale goldfish, nice fat round ones that could barely move and were round like golf balls. Great fish. They swim around, all happy, I go home for the night, come back . . . dead fish.

Sigh.

But one of them lived! So I had one lonesome fish. I also had bought a ghost shrimp that accidentally got scooped up with the goldfish at the store. After he was put in the tank (and named Agadore), he was never seen again. I don't know; maybe he's still in there.

So I have one fat cute fish who seems pretty content with his lot in life. I went home for the weekend, come back . . . dead fish.

COME ON!! This is just crazy. How do fish even live at all? They're like the houseplants of the animal kingdom. (I can't keep houseplants alive either.)

So now I have a very nice empty fish tank. Well, not quite empty. When they scooped up my pearl scale goldfish and accidental shrimp, they also scooped up two tiny baby fish. They're each a little more than a quarter of an inch long. These two little fry are swimming around quite happily in their humongous empty tank, apparently healthy.

So I guess what I've learned from the experience is this: fish that you pay for will die the moment you walk out of the room. But free fish . . . free fish are happy to live for a long time.

High School Tag

Hey looky, it's been two months and no blog post. I'm a bad blogger. To make up for it, I am going to post the high school tag even though no one tagged me.

1. Did you date someone from your school? I dated John Young for a while between sophomore and junior years. Then we broke up for no reason at all, but stayed friends until he moved away after college. It was better that way.

2. What kind of car did you drive? 1987 Chevy Cavalier named "The Skunk."

3. It’s Friday night...where are you? Driving around in Doug Minnick's car (or John's), listening to The Best of Queen.

4. Were you a party animal? Absolutely not.

5. Were you considered a flirt? No, too socially awkward.

6. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? Choir? Never! I was in the jazz band for like a month.

7. Were you a nerd? Have you met me?

8. Were you on any varsity teams? Academic Decathlon team (unofficial) captain. Woo! Only we weren't that smart so our shirts say "Academic Decathalon." No kidding.

9. Did you get suspended/expelled?Nope.

10. Can you still sing the fight song? "Through all the seasons of the year / and all the years to come / we sing our praises loud and clear / to Hillcrest High we love so dear / something something / mumble . . . rolling hills!" In senior year we all made a big show of pulling out our student ID cards every time we had to sing the school song, since the words were all on the back of the card. That's the only reason anyone knew them.

11. Who were your favorite teachers? The lovely Ms. Victoria Brinton.

12. Where did you sit during lunch? In the hall, just down from the Coke machines and across from the door to the courtyard.

13. What was your school's full name? Hillcrest High School

14. School mascot? Husky. Though the cheerleaders insist that "h-u-s-k-i-e" is how you spell it.

15. Did you go to Homecoming and who with? Yes, in junior year with a kid named Jason.

16. If you could go back and do it again, would you? . . . No. I had no responsibilities, but the drama . . . ugh. Anyway, all the mistakes I made then are what got me where I am today. And I like that place.

17. What do you remember most about graduation? It was during the NBA finals, Bulls v. Jazz, and everyone had a radio plugged into their ear. Including the choir. The speakers would give score updates. Jazz lost. Zak MacKay wore orange and green striped socks and rolled up his pant legs, so when he walked across the stage you could see his socks from the back row.

18. Where did you go senior skip day? We kidnapped Stephen Reynolds and forced him to miss a day of school. We took him to Arby's then returned him to school again. Then we went . . . somewhere else. Though now that I've typed all that, I'm not sure if that was senior year or some other year. Hm.

19. Were you in any clubs? Dead Poets Society.

20. Have you gained some weight since then? Sigh.

21. Who was your prom date? Tim Price.

22. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? Skipped it.

What to do with an aged lemur?

Happy Birthday to ME!

Hey looky, it's been a month and no blog posts. I should do something about that. Soon I will post many interesting things about what went on in my month of May, but in the mean time you will have to make do with a birthday report.

I turned 29 yesterday (for reals, I'm not one of those 29-repeaters) and it was lots of fun. I had been looking forward to this birthday - which is not usual for me - so it was doubly fun, I think. It was the first day of having all the kids back at work, but everything went like clockwork despite my not having received their uniform shirts yet (oops).

My boss Chris brought in wonderful gourmet cupcakes from Minis that were absolutely delicious and beautiful to boot. We all went out for lunch at Rumbi (peanut sauce - yum). And then, at the end of the day, Elliott showed up at the Zoo with a card and some beautiful pink roses!

From there we went and picked up Meme, and then went to dad's for the usual cake and ice cream after dinner. Christy had cooked a mountain of spaghetti for dinner, and Elliott finished off every single noodle of it. I love spaghetti.

After presents and cake (chocolate with banana frosting! Woo!) we got to watch the Celtics DEMOLISH the Lakers. Delicious. Elliott and I took Meme home and then played some PS2 before calling it a night.

I got some fun gift cards, a book, cash, Lego Indiana Jones, and some cute flip-flops and matching bag. Good times. Tonight my friends and I are all going out to dinner at Macaroni Grill.

Hooray for birthdays!

Sad News

http://www.legacy.com/DeseretNews/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=109097570

Thievery

Either someone is stealing letters off our signs, or they have begun to fall off on their own, but this morning as I arrived I noticed that I now work at:

HO LE ZO

TV again

For those of you who watch TV early in the morning, I will be on again tomorrow. (Sorry for the late notice!) Rebekah and I will be on channel 2 between 7 and 8 AM with a couple of animals, to talk about . . . something.

Oof.

Went to the gym last night. Good times - did some cardio, Elliott showed me how to work with some weight machines, then worked on some abs a little.

Then - and I don't remember this happening - apparently some time in the night I was hit by a truck. Tonight I think I will just go home and sleep it off.

Congratulations!

Hooray to Clark and Shannon, but especially to Julia! Welcome to the family.

Elliott Saves the Day

Last night was way exciting. Elliott and I were at the laundromat, finishing up a load of laundry at about 10:00 pm. The place has a lot of traffic in and out of the door, since it's next door to an apartment complex and people don't stay to keep an eye on their clothes, but there were only the two of us and another girl actually hanging out in the laundromat. She and I were both reading while Elliott was folding his clothes. Suddenly the girl shouts "that guy took my purse!" as some kid goes running out the door. Elliott asked which way the guy had went, and took off down the street at a full sprint. Elliott is FAST.

The girl and I went outside and I gave her my phone to call the police. Elliott got down the street to the parking lot of the apartment complex where the kid had disappeared, and walked off into the dark lot. A few minutes later, the girl was still on the phone with 911 giving a description of the guy when Elliott comes walking back - with the purse! He had walked around a corner in the parking lot and found the kid crouched on the ground digging through the purse. He yelled "Hey! That's not your purse!" and ran at him, at which point the kid panicked, dumped the it in a trash can and hopped a fence.

The girl went through her stuff and found that she was only missing $10 in cash - her phone, cards, keys, etc were all still there. The police arrived and took our statements, and then Elliott and I stayed a little bit to make sure she'd be okay at the laundromat while she waited for her laundry to finish. She's a really nice girl, and I'm glad everything turned out well. She wanted to thank Elliott in some way, but he refused all compensation. I did give her my business card, so I got a nice email from her this morning that I forwarded on to him.

Do I have a great boyfriend, or what?

I think from now on I will be locking my purse in my trunk while I do laundry at the laundromat. It was all totally crazy, particularly since we really should have left there about ten minutes earlier. We had been playing trivial pursuit while waiting on the laundry, and each only had one pie piece left to end the game, so we had stayed until the game ended before folding the laundry.

Happy Birthday Clint!

Sorry I didn't mail your card on time.

April already?!

Surely this is some perverse sort of April Fool's joke. I wasn't even done with February yet, let alone March. Where is the backspace button on my life? Ctrl+left arrow, maybe? Rewind? Do over?

Anyway, time races on and I only blogged twice in March. Work continues to be crazy busy, and I continue to be crazy. I've had some interesting emails back-and-forth with Clark, which perhaps I'll blog in the next day or two. I suppose that "interesting," in this context, is really a relative term. They're basically trivia and equation questions that we've asked each other.

But I think they sum up how Clark and I operate rather well. To wit, here is our text conversation from yesterday:

Me: Which high school did [Nobel laureate in physics Richard] Feynman go to?
Clark: Far Rockaway.
Me: OK.

No explanation asked for or needed. Just one of those questions. Like this text conversation with Elliott:

Me: Can you moonwalk?
Elliott: Not well, no.
Me: OK.

No one ever really seems to wonder why I ask these things. Just comes with the territory when you hang out around me long enough, I guess.

Regarding the Feyman question, though: I was reading a book I got for Christmas, The Last Shot, about Stephon Marbury and a bunch of Coney Island projects kids who were trying to get into college to play basketball. It mentioned in the book that their high school was way sub-par academically, but in the past two Nobel laureates in physics had graduated from there. Knowing that Coney Island is next to Brooklyn, and that Feynman was from Brooklyn, I was trying to figure out if he was one of them. Guess not. But maybe Clark knows who they are.

What a fun trivia question that would be: NBA player Stephon Marbury and which Nobel laureates all graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School in New York City?

"California! California! California!"

Name that movie! Imagine a kid with a red lunch box in the back seat of a car....

Anyway, I went to California and tried out for the show. It was lots of fun; I really recommend it. I also recommend staying in the Radisson and sleeping on Sleep Number beds. I do not, however, recommend eating breakfast at the hotel. Unless you like paying $11 for yogurt and granola. (I had Mountain Dew from the vending machine. Breakfast of Champions.)

The Sleep Number beds were nice, though. That Lindsay Wagner knows what she's talking about. At first it was fun just to play with the bed, going from firm to soft and back. But then, when I went to bed . . . aaaaahhhhhhh! I had a stiff back when I got to California, but the next morning it was gone. I am very glad I decided to fly down there early rather than the morning of the auditions.

The auditions were in the Radisson, in your standard hotel conference room. There were 20 of us in my batch of applicants - attorneys, college professors, electrical engineers, me . . . They took our pictures (a bit dicey for me, considering the testy relationship between my hair and humidity in general) and had us fill out some pretty standard forms.

Next up came the written test. I'm not really going to discuss that here (since I can't) other than to say that it was much less stressful than the online test. Really, the online test was the most stressful part of the whole process. After the written test we all got a chance to play the game with the real game clicker thingies, and they chit-chatted with us a little. Then it was all done and time to go home!

Unfortunately, my flight wasn't for several more hours and I hadn't packed a book to read by the pool. So, after lunch at the hotel (a little more reasonable than breakfast) I decided to just take the free shuttle back to the airport, where I could buy a cheap paperback and people-watch until it was time to go home. I read a book all about the MIT blackjack team (finishing it just before my flight took off) and here I am home again.

I'm cautiously optimistic, so look for me on TV in the next year or two.

great big movie list meme

Or in other words, Elliott's to-do list of movies to have me watch.


The list looks like it’s IMDB’s Top 250.

The rules are simple:
Bold movies you have watched and liked.
Turn red movies you have watched and loved.
Italicize movies you saw and didn’t like.
Leave as is movies you haven’t seen.

• The Godfather (1972)


• The Shawshank Redemption (1994)


• The Godfather: Part II (1974)


• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)


• Pulp Fiction (1994)


• Schindler’s List (1993)


• Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)


• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
• Casablanca (1942)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
• Star Wars (1977)
• 12 Angry Men (1957)
• Rear Window (1954)
• No Country for Old Men (2007)
• Goodfellas (1990)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
• City of God (2002)
• Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
• The Usual Suspects (1995)
• Psycho (1960)
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
• Citizen Kane (1941)
• The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
• North by Northwest (1959)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
• Fight Club (1999)
• Memento (2000)
• Sunset Blvd. (1950)
• Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
• It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
• The Matrix (1999)
• Taxi Driver (1976)
• Se7en (1995)
• Apocalypse Now (1979)
• American Beauty (1999)
• Vertigo (1958)
• Amélie (2001)
• The Departed (2006)
• Paths of Glory (1957)
• American History X (1998)
• To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
• Chinatown (1974)
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
• The Third Man (1949)
• A Clockwork Orange (1971)
• Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
• The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
• Alien (1979)
• The Pianist (2002)
• The Shining (1980)
• Double Indemnity (1944)
• L.A. Confidential (1997)
• Leben der Anderen, Das [The Lives of Others] (2006)
• The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
• Boot, Das (1981)
• The Maltese Falcon (1941)
• Saving Private Ryan (1998)
• Reservoir Dogs (1992)
• Forrest Gump (1994)
• Metropolis (1927)
• Aliens (1986)
• Raging Bull (1980)
• Rashômon (1950)
• Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
• Rebecca (1940)
• Hotel Rwanda (2004)
• Sin City (2005)
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
• All About Eve (1950)
• Modern Times (1936)
• Some Like It Hot (1959)
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
• The Seventh Seal (1957)
• The Great Escape (1963)
• Amadeus (1984)
• On the Waterfront (1954)
• Touch of Evil (1958)
• The Elephant Man (1980)
• The Prestige (2006)
• Vita è bella, La [Life Is Beautiful] (1997)
• Jaws (1975)
• The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
• The Sting (1973)
• Strangers on a Train (1951)
• Full Metal Jacket (1987)
• The Apartment (1960)
• City Lights (1931)
• Braveheart (1995)
• Cinema Paradiso (1988)
• Batman Begins (2005)
• The Big Sleep (1946)
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
• Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
• Blade Runner (1982)
• The Great Dictator (1940)
• The Wizard of Oz (1939)
• Notorious (1946)
• Salaire de la peur, Le [The Wages of Fear](1953)
• High Noon (1952)
• Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
• Fargo (1996)
• The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
• Unforgiven (1992)
• Back to the Future (1985)
• Ran (1985)
• Oldboy (2003)
• Million Dollar Baby (2004)
• Cool Hand Luke (1967)
• Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
• Donnie Darko (2001)
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
• The Green Mile (1999)
• Annie Hall (1977)
• Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
• Gladiator (2000)
• The Sixth Sense (1999)
• Diaboliques, Les [The Devils] (1955)
• Ben-Hur (1959)
• It Happened One Night (1934)
• The Deer Hunter (1978)
• Life of Brian (1979)
• Die Hard (1988)
• The General (1927)
• American Gangster (2007)
• Platoon (1986)
• V for Vendetta (2005)
• Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
• The Graduate (1967)
• The Princess Bride (1987)
• Crash (2004/I)
• The Wild Bunch (1969)
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
• Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
• Heat (1995)
• Gandhi (1982)
• Harvey (1950)
• The Night of the Hunter (1955)
• The African Queen (1951)
• Stand by Me (1986)
• Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
• Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
• The Big Lebowski (1998)
• The Conversation (1974)
• Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
• Wo hu cang long [Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ] (2000)
• The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
• Gone with the Wind (1939)
• 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
• Cabinet des Dr. Caligari., Das [The Cabinet of Dr Caligari] (1920)
• The Thing (1982)
• Groundhog Day (1993)
• The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
• Sleuth (1972)
• Patton (1970)
• Toy Story (1995)
• Glory (1989)
• Out of the Past (1947)
• Twelve Monkeys (1995)
• Ed Wood (1994)
• Spartacus (1960)
• The Terminator (1984)
• In the Heat of the Night (1967)
• The Philadelphia Story (1940)
• The Exorcist (1973)
• Frankenstein (1931)
• Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
• The Hustler (1961)
• Toy Story 2 (1999)
• The Lion King (1994)
• Big Fish (2003)
• Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
• Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
• Young Frankenstein (1974)
• Magnolia (1999)
• A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
• In Cold Blood (1967)
• Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
• Dial M for Murder (1954)
• All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
• Roman Holiday (1953)
• A Christmas Story (1983)
• Casino (1995)
• Manhattan (1979)
• Ying xiong [Hero] (2002)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
• Rope (1948)
• Cinderella Man (2005)
• The Searchers (1956)
• Finding Neverland (2004)
• Inherit the Wind (1960)
• His Girl Friday (1940)
• A Man for All Seasons (1966)
• Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
• The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

That tickles

I have a 35-gallon fish tank in my office, left over from our wetlands exhibit from last summer. It currently contains one mosquito fish (about 1.5 inches), a crapload of snails, and three water skaters. I don't know how long water skaters usually live, but these have been living in the fish tank since the end of July, when I caught them in Emigration creek. I think we may be going for a record here.

Anyway, last week I was cleaning out the tank and changing out 15 gallons of water. I had thrown some ants on the water for the water skaters to eat, and they had been fighting really hard over them. They're good fighters. They're also very good jumpers. As I was vacuuming out the bottom of the tank, two of them got tired and decided to crawl out of the water for a rest. I took this picture right after one of them got back in the water.

Lego Night photo

My elephant, and my prize.

News

Got this in an email on Friday:

Congratulations! You have been selected for a follow-up appointment at an upcoming Jeopardy! contestant search for the Los Angeles area, exclusively for those who successfully passed the online test. This is the next step in becoming a Jeopardy! contestant.

!!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day

Lego Night

The other night for our FHE activity, we had Lego night. Everyone brought all of their Legos from home and just played for two hours. It was awesome. I was way excited. I rounded up all of the Legos from Dad's house, and even took apart Clark's Lego man because he used up most of the bricks.

I built a wind-up car an an elephant, Missy built a house, and Wes built a pirate ship. The pirate ship won the big prize (a Pixar shorts DVD) and I got the small prize, a copy of Pres. Hinckley's book, which title escapes me for the moment.

Pictures to follow when I get them off my camera.

There Will Be Blood

Last night I went to see "There Will Be Blood," the new Daniel Day-Lewis movie based on the book "Oil!" by Upton Sinclair. If you're planning on watching this later, be warned that there may be spoilers ahead.

Let me start off by saying that Daniel Day-Lewis is amazing. Just amazing. I don't know how better to articulate that. All through the movie I had this haunted feeling that he reminded me of someone, but I couldn't ever quite put a finger on who. Whoever it was, it definitely wasn't Daniel Day-Lewis. This movie is worth seeing just for him.

This movie is the story of a man who starts out as a gold miner, or possibly someone with the geological survey (I am not sure, though I know they say it), who ends up as an oil magnate in California. He goes into towns that have oil in the ground, sweet-talks everyone into selling or leasing their land to him, and makes boatloads of money. The conflict in the movie comes in when a teenage boy, Eli Sunday, demands money to start up his own "Church of the Third Revelation" from selling his land to the oilman. The oilman promises $5000, which he does not intend to pay. The boy and the man become enemies.

That's pretty much the story. It unfolds over 30 years, as you watch Daniel Plainview start out mining by himself underground, expanding to oil, adopting the baby of a miner killed at an oil well, becoming successful, and then having his life start to unravel when he moves to drill in the town where Eli Sunday lives.

The soundtrack was very interesting. Ominous notes - often just single, discordant notes - hover and buzz as characters go about their business. I don't know that I've ever seen a movie which uses a musical score to convey a sense of doom so effectively. Maybe not of doom, but foreboding. The people in the movie make big, dark decisions and those decisions are underscored perfectly by the score.

For the first several minutes of the movie, there is no dialogue. None. If I go see this again, I'd like to time how long it is before we hear anyone say a word, but it's got to be about 10 minutes. Which brings me to another point: this movie is long. It's long. Nothing is rushed. Conversations take their time. Character development takes it time. This is a long movie which seems even longer than it really is. But you're not sitting there bored, wishing it would end. That's just the pace of the story - the events in the movie set things in motion that take several years to develop, and the movie spools it out at a pace that conveys the scope of the story.

The overriding theme of the movie, to me, was this: Blood is thicker than water, but oil is thicker than blood. Daniel adopts the son of one of his dead workers to portray himself as a family man. However, when the boy is injured on an oil derrick and becomes deaf, Daniel rejects him and sends him away. Then, when he needs the boy in order to make a key business deal, he takes him in again.

The relationship between Daniel and the boy, H.W., is really quite complex. For much of the movie Daniel shows a lot of affection for the boy, but is then able to cast him away. One of the times in the movie when Daniel becomes the most angry and unhinged is when he perceives that someone else is trying to tell him how to raise H.W. As a boy, H.W. follows Daniel around everywhere, and Daniel actively teaches him all about the oil business and how to succeed - but only as a partner. Start your own business, and you become a competitor. Daniel can not abide competitors.

Midway through the movie, Daniel is surprised by the appearance of his half-brother. Previously unaware of his existence, Daniel accepts this man into his family, and he acts as a surrogate, usurping the place originally held by H.W. As with H.W., however, the half-brother soon finds out where Daniel stands when it comes to family vs. business.

One of the most striking parts of this movie, overall, is that there is no clear "good guy." Daniel is clearly the main character, but I stop short of calling him a protagonist because I'm not sure we are supposed to really like him in any way. His rival, Eli Sunday, is ruthless in his own way. Both characters display a shocking preponderance toward spite and revenge.

There is no heartwarming ending.

I know all of this is probably not adding up to a ringing endorsement for all of you, but I did like the movie. It makes you think. I don't know that it's very rewatchable - it makes you too uncomfortable for that - but I would like to see it again. All aspects of the movie are very well done.

Meat

Last night a bunch of us went out to dinner at Rodizio Grill. It was good. I've been to Brazilian steakhouses before, and to nyama choma places in Kenya, and they all have the same basic plan - some side dishes, and the never-ending stream of guys bringing you meat on huge skewers. You like lamb? We have lamb. You want beef? We have beef. Three kinds. You want chicken? No problem. Chicken hearts? Have three. (No thanks.) Sausage, spicy chicken, mahi mahi . . .

All until you beg them to stop. Flip your little table indicator to red and gasp for breath. And then eat one more fried banana for dessert before you die.

I love Rodizio Grill.

Weekend fun

This past weekend a bunch of us went bowling. It was a ridiculously long wait for a lane, but that made it so our last 1.5 games were cosmic bowling, so that wasn't so bad.

For the first game, Elliott and Austin both bowled left-handed (Austin actually alternated frames left and right, since he's ambidextrous) and they almost beat me. I'm so bad at bowling! I did break 100 in the second game, coming in last because everyone had switched back to right-handed, but in the third game . . . I won! I bowled a 136 and even got a spare and a strike on the 10th frame. Yay for me!

Saturday night was good times. Very good times.

Channel 5

This morning, eagle-eyed blog poster Sabrina spotted me on Studio 5 on KSL. Yay! Sometimes I wonder if anyone actually sees me on TV, since no one says anything. Do I only go on shows with no viewers?

Anyway, we didn't think we were going to make it on the air today because of all the President Hinckley coverage, but they ended up doing our spot anyway. I was there to talk about our Mating Dances class for Valentine's Day, which was an awkward topic transition, but I think we did all right. It was the TV debut for our new opossum, Vera, and she did very very well. The only problem was that I wore scented lotion so she was more interested in me than in looking at the camera.

Holly, our PR person was on the air with me. She used to work at KSL, so it's fun to go with her because she knows everyone. Radio and TV people are more gossipy than zoo people! You may know Holly from The Nightside Project on KSL radio, or from the morning show on KZHT. She worked for Simmons media for a while too, but I'm not sure what she did or with which station.

Yet another nerdy thing to do online

Test your geography IQ by playing the Traveler IQ Challenge on TravelPod. It rewards you for accuracy and speed, so click quick! I can get to level 10.

Jeopardy!

It's time once again to take the Jeopardy test online. I was not successful the last time I took it, but refuse to give up, particularly since my friend David is now able to introduce himself as "Two-Time Jeopardy! Champion."

The Central and Mountain time zones take the test the evening of January 30. You should try out, too!

Update

I said I was going to blog more this year, so I guess I'm due for another post here. If you're feeling that I'm not doing enough, you can always go to Clark's blog and read the comments. I'm pretty regular in there.

Anyway, January is our department's "off" season. Yes, one month is now a season. We define it that way because it's the only month in which we don't have a class offered to the public and are not training groups of new employees or volunteers.

BUT . . . January is volunteer recognition and our general meeting, which so far has eaten up all my time this month. And we added a Project Wild class next week. And our February classes start on the 9th, so we have to prepare for that. And we have to get our end-of-the-year reports done. And I'm behind on the podcasting project.

Welcome to our off-season.

Making Dad Proud

Jessica gave me the George Harrison double album "All Things Must Pass" for Christmas. I could tell, without even reading the liner notes, that it was produced by Phil Spector.

Pistol

I'd like to take a few moments to address a topic which, I am sure, was on all of your minds this past Saturday. The genius who was Pete Maravich.

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Pistol Pete died 20 years ago, and retired at some point before that (I'm no expert here), but all of you should go to YouTube right now and pull up some Maravich clips. That guy was amazing. He did things with a basketball which seem to be contrary to the laws of physics.

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Last night Elliott talked me into watching a movie about Pete Maravich - specifically, about his 8th grade year in high school. A lot of the movie was fictionalized, but they kid they got to star as Pete had really great ball-handling skills (and Confidence! A lot of the movie is about having Confidence!). In 8th grade, Pete Maravich was a 5 foot 2 kid starting on the varsity team. His dad, a former professional player, coached at Clemson so Pete would practice with the college team. Unbelievable. He'd play 10 hours a day. He dribbled while riding his bike, or out the door of the car while his dad drove. He spun the ball on his fingertip for an hour. Elliott, correct me on any of this if I'm wrong.

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He averaged 44 points a game in college! And this was before the 3-point line was created .

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And he had so much Confidence! ;)

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So anyway, RIP Pistol Pete. For what it's worth, I liked your movie more than Rocky IV and its inexplicable robot.

Socially responsible time-waster

If you have some time to kill, want to improve your vocabulary and feed the poor at the same time, check out http://www.freerice.com/. For every vocabulary word you get right, they donate 20 grains of rice.

I plateau at vocabulary level 47.

Happy New Year!

My resolution this year is to post more often. We shall see how that goes.

This year for New Year's Eve, I didn't have any plans until the last minute. Whew! Thanks to Elliott for having a birthday on the last day of the year, so I didn't have to sit home lonely. A bunch of us went to dinner at Tucci's for Elliott's birthday, and I had the pasta pomodoro. You have never seen such a large group of adults (or, "adults") coloring so industriously on the table covers with crayons. We made very pretty pictures, and at Elliott's request I kept tradition alive and did some Punnet squares. (Elliott x Elliott - he should not breed with himself because his children would be skinny string bean people who would blow over in the breeze. Or so finds my squares.)

After dinner I was invited along to Dan's house for some Rock Band goodness. Rock Band, for those of you who are unacquainted with the concept, is like Guitar Hero plus Sing Star plus Donkey Conga, only with a drum kit instead of bongos. You can also add a second guitar controller so someone can play bass. This kept all of us occupied until 2 in the morning when the PS3 pled for mercy and we turned it off.

I got home way late (I won't say when) to discover that my loving neighbor had decided to park sideways in the alley behind the house, so I had to go out the other end of the alley and parallel park on 8Th South. That's hard for me on a good day, but I think I did very well on my second try, particularly if you take the late hour and snowdrifts into consideration.

New Year's Day was fully devoted to napping, with a brief break to check out the winter sale at IKEA. I got a teapot. Woo!

So, what did you do for New Year's? Discuss.