Numbers Stations

Two creepy postings in a row, I know, but I thought this was interesting.

I have a shortwave radio but it's not very strong. I listen to it late at night sometimes when I have trouble sleeping. Radio Nederlands comes in pretty clear as does Radio Stockholm. Fortunately the latter has broadcasts in English as well as Swedish. Mostly it's fun just to scan the dial to see what you can find. I find that what I can pick up on my radio varies from night to night. I think the weather can affect which signals come in and which don't.

Apparently there exist such things as Numbers Stations, but I've never been able to find one personally. A Numbers Station is exactly what it sounds like. It's a station signal which consists of nothing more than a voice reading off a series of numbers, sometimes in English, sometimes not. Often there's accompanying music.

What makes Numbers Stations particularly eerie is that there's no official explanation for what they are. The most plausible theory is that they're intelligence communications. The codes could be changed daily and easily accessed by agents via a shortwave receiver. So the whole process is very secure and also fairly practical.

The following is a recording of a Numbers Station taken off shortwave. The voice seems to be that of a little girl and the language is German. The glockenspiel music adds a nice touch of creepiness. I'm not sure what's up with the video component. I think it detracts from the audio, which is creepy enough without the images:

The Max Headroom Incident

Here's the setup: Imagine it's November 22, 1987. It's 11:15 at night and you live in Chicago. You're watching a crappy British sci-fi show on the local PBS affiliate when all of a sudden this comes on your TV screen:



More about this strange incident here


Happy Halloween

My New Favorite TV Show

I've spent 3 of the past four years living without cable. One of those years I spent completely without a TV. As a result, I know nothing about what happened in the world or in popular culture between mid-2004 and mid-2005.

But now I have cable again and I get to watch all sorts of great shows once more. I get to watch "Good Eats" with Alton Brown. Even though the skits are annoying and his dorkiness is often cringe-inducing, each show provides a wealth of knowledge about food science and cooking technique.

I get to watch endless reruns of "Seinfeld", "Friends", and "Law and Order", and it seems like "Globe Trekker" is always on too. The other day the nasally little British guy went to Lappland. How cool is that? I get to watch "No Reservations" with Anthony Bourdain, and I've also gotten into the new show on that channel with the bald guy who scours the globe looking for disgusting things to eat.

The Hallmark Channel shows reruns of "Little House on the Prairie" four times a day, and since we get four PBS stations I can watch Charlie Rose in the afternoon, and all four seasons of "New Scandinavian Cooking" are in heavy rotation. The ones with Tina Nordstrom are my favorite. It's like that Weird Al song about the guy who quits his job so he can stay home and watch TV all the time.

But my favorite of all of these is "The Dog Whisperer" on the National Geographic Channel. I'm totally hooked. I'm sure it's edited to make Cesar look better than he really is, but something about this show I find fascinating. I think because it's essentially about someone who's really good at what he does for a living, and the whole point of the show is for you to just watch him doing it. The show is a great argument for the value of going through training and developing expertise on a subject.

The best career advice I ever received was- go out and become really good at one thing. If you're good enough at it, people will come to you. I would amend that to "become really good at one useful, marketable thing", and Cesar's life is this idea personified.

Another reason why the show works so well is the fact that many people, even dog owners, don't know much about obedience training and animal behavior. Cesar shows up and probably tells a lot of people in one hour, more useful information about dog ownership than they've heard their entire lives.

The show strikes me on a personal level for three reasons: 1) I like dogs and animals in general so I'm naturally drawn to the subject matter. 2) The suburban Southern California setting of the show is very familiar, as is Cesar's Mexican accent. 3) I see parallels between what Ceasar does and what I do. I also go into homes and offer my expertise to people, to help them with a problem that one of their family members is having. A lot of my job is training the parents as well as treating the client. And, just because someone is a parent, that doesn't mean they automatically know a lot about how children develop speech and language. I seem to have a hard time remembering that last point. I'd say the similarities end there though.

I'm not as confident or as effective as Cesar yet, nor do I have a TV crew following me around into people's homes, but in continuing with my time-honored tradition of learning about life through what I see on TV, I now have a new role-model to follow.

My Courageous Immigrant Ancestors

One of the nice things about being on the East Coast now is that I'm closer to some of my relatives who know all sorts of interesting things about our family history.

For example, I recently found out that my first ancestor to come to the U.S. from Ireland was a fellow named Patrick Keegan, who was born around 1775 in the Sligo-Roscommon area. He came to New Jersey around 1800, and the way the story has been handed down, he wasn't here for more than about 5 minutes before he was run over by a team of horses and killed. In all fairness, if you've chosen New Jersey as your destination how much better could you really expect?

I know what you're thinking-- that's sad and you shouldn't make fun of the guy. Well, he was my relative, so that legally means I can make fun of him all I want. You may also be thinking what I was thinking when I heard this story-- If he died as soon as he got here, how did he have time to father children who would in turn father other children that would eventually lead to me?

The answer is simple: When he came to the U.S. he left behind a wife and children. (Since he was from Ireland I'm guessing he left behind A LOT of children). The plan was to make some money here and then either send for them, or for him to return there eventually. His oldest son was named Patrick MacDermot Keegan (because just plain "Patrick Keegan" didn't sound Irish enough) and a few years later he followed in his father's footsteps and came to the Maine coast (a much, much better decision already). Unlike his father he didn't get killed immediately. He got a job doing something and was eventually able to bring the whole family over, just in time for them to enjoy drinking Guinness and attend St. Patrick's Day parades in the U.S.A., while their fellow countrymen back home geared up for another famine and continued oppression from the British.

Patrick (PMK) eventually moved to Boston and raised a family. To give some historical perspective, PMK had several daughters, one of whom was named Sarah. Sarah Keegan was my grandmother's grandmother.

**********

My first ancestor ever to come over here came from England. His name was William Shurtleff and he arrived in Plymouth in 1636. He did well for himself, apparently, and had a big family and lots of heirs, despite the fact that you don't come across the name Shurtleff too often. One day around 1665 William was sitting in his house, in front of his fireplace watching-- the fireplace, I guess-- when a bolt of lightning came down the chimney and killed him.

So there you have it. Quite an impressive pedigree, wouldn't you say?

Weather

While all you Southern Californians are suffering through temps in the high 70s this week, I'll have you know that yesterday's high temperature here was 45 degrees, and it started snowing briefly yesterday afternoon. Jealous?

Snoozefest

The Phillies won the World Series, 4 games to 1. I guess I was wrong by calling it for the Rays. I won't be quitting my day job anytime soon.

Cocaine is Bad For You

If you lived in Southern California in the early '80s and wanted to spend $500 on a VCR the size of a microwave oven, where could you go?

The answer was simple: to The Federated Group.

Federated was an audio/video chain that is only noteworthy for having had frenetic, surreal commercials starring Shadoe Stevens as fictional company spokesperson Fred Rated. I loved these commercials when I was little and I like to think they informed my incredibly sharp and unique sense of humor as I got older.

Interesting Icelandic Accent

This is a clip of Bjork that must be about 15 or 20 years old. This was before she lived in England or the U.S. because her accent is much less pronounced now. (no pun intended).

What really stands out to me:

1) An unusual mouth position- like her voice is coming from a place very far forward in her mouth.
2) The 'r's are rolled. More like a Scottish burr or even a Spanish "rr".
3) Something unusual is going on with her "s"s and "z"s. I'm not sure if it's indicative of Icelandic, or if it's something that's idiosyncratic to her. They seem unusually sibilant, like there's a natural whistle to the sound.

Overall sounds much more similar to Norwegian and Danish than to Swedish.

Childhood Wasteland

Any problem I have in my adult life now I blame on having spent my entire childhood watching terrible TV shows. Most of these shows were sitcoms. Sitcoms, by nature, have almost no intrinsic value whatsoever. Even though they usually try to stuff an awkward moral in there somewhere they teach the viewer nothing of any weight about life. People in sitcoms almost always enjoy a very high standard of living, disproportionate to the amount of time they spend working, or even to the line of work they’re in. Dialogue in sitcoms generally consists of nothing more than one character setting up a one-liner for another. No one in the real world talks this way, and if they try to, other people find it very annoying, as I’ve learned the hard way, a number of times. The following is a list of the 20 worst sitcoms I watched regularly as a child. In order to prevent this list from becoming too long I’ve only included shows that I used to watch primarily in their first run (as opposed to reruns), so no Kotter, Brady Bunch, or Gilligan’s Island:

1. Alice Bad show. The one with the waitress who’s trying to become a singer in every episode. Vic Tayback played Mel, the namesake of Mel’s Diner, where most of the show took place. Interestingly, it was based on a movie called Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, which was a melodrama. It’s greatest legacy was to introduce the term “Kiss My Grits” into the American vernacular.
2. Charles in Charge Wow. I can’t believe I used to watch this one. There were actually two incarnations of this show, two separate families that Charles worked for. It was never clear what Charles’s job in the house was, exactly, but apparently he was in charge.
3. Diff’rent Strokes I always liked the Drummond’s apartment and I was disappointed when I moved to New York and couldn’t find a place like theirs that was affordable. I stuck with this show for a long time, but I have to admit, my heart wasn’t really in it after Mr. D got remarried and they introduced the Sam character. I feel bad for Gary Coleman. Whenever I see him pop up in cameos in movies and in shows nowadays I get really depressed and usually have to turn off the TV for a while. I’m not sure why. Interestingly, I ended up marrying a woman who seems to remind a lot of people of Dana Plato. (More for her appearance and personality than her criminal record and drug problems)
4. Three’s Company KTTV used to show this on weeknights at 6pm and then again at 7pm, five nights a week, though I remember watching the later episodes on their first run, especially the story arc that involved Jack opening up his Bistro (cleverly named Jack’s Bistro). I remember watching the final episode of this show and feeling genuinely sad. If I ever have access to a time machine in the future, I really should go back to 1984 and knock some sense into the 9 year-old version of myself over this one. My favorite episode was the one where there was this big misunderstanding because only part of a conversation was overheard.
5. Too Close for Comfort I’m surprised at the number of people I’ve met who’ve never heard of this show. Maybe because it was syndicated and wasn’t on a lot of smaller markets. The premise was that Ted Knight was a cartoonist (who always drew his cartoons while holding the pen in the mouth of a puppet he was holding—I never understood how that worked) who lived with his wife in a duplex. Living below them were their two grown daughters. There was a scene in every episode (or so it seemed) where someone would come to visit Mr. Rush (Knight) and make some comment about the hot-looking girls downstairs, which of course would set Mr. Rush off. One of the daughters was a typical ‘80s bleach-bottle blonde, and the other one looked Puerto Rican, and I swear was the girlfriend in The Warriors. I should look it up. Also featured Jm J Bullock as Munro, a character who was supposed to be one of the daughters’ ex-boyfriends (yeah, I’m buying that).
6. Gimme a Break! Nell Carter, three girls, Grandpa, Joey Lawrence, and eventually Rosie O’Donnell. What more could you ask for?
7. Silver Spoons Some obnoxious rich jerk who plays with toys all day has a kid he never gave a damn about until the kid comes knocking on his door one day, and suddenly he turns into the greatest father ever. I remember the big ride-on train. And John Houseman. John Houseman--I guess by the time he reached retirement age he wasn’t happy with the distinguished career he’d spent a lifetime cultivating, and so decided to appear on this awful show. Also, Carlton was on this show too, only back then his name was Alphonso.
8. Mr. Belvedere I find it hard to believe that a suburban, middle class American family in the 1980s would have much call for an English butler. Especially if that butler spent most of his time swapping smart-ass quips with their nine year-old son. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what was all wrong about this show.
9. That’s Incredible Not technically a sitcom, but it was pretty funny if you think about it. What I remember most from this show were all the video game tournaments (5 year olds who could defeat all twelve levels of Donkey King in five minutes—that kind of thing) and the fetish the show had for Rubik’s cubes. I remember an entire episode that was devoted to a Rubik’s cube tournament, and there was one about a blind guy who could solve it. It turned out the blind guy had a cube with Braille on it, but I guess that’s still kind of admirable, if not exactly incredible. They even had a guy on once who swallowed and regurgitated things (it was absolutely disgusting) and one of things he swallowed was a miniature Rubik’s cube.
10. Family Ties It’s obvious now that the original premise for the show was to have it focus on the parents, but at some early point Michael J. Fox became the breakout star of the millennium. I never understood why, if Alex was so smart, he ended up going to the local college down the street, instead of Princeton or Harvard.
11. Webster I can’t explain this one. Couple adopts a little black kid who looks like he’s five but is really 17, but is actually supposed to be about ten on the show. Exceptionally horrible theme song.
12. Happy Days Kids today have no appreciation for how huge a cultural force “The Fonz” was, back around ’81 or ’82. As far as sitcoms go this one wasn’t too bad, really, it just went on for too long. The most disquieting aspect of the show’s run was how blatantly it abandoned its ‘50s theme and setting during the last few seasons (which are the ones I most remember). In the early episodes the dad is building a bomb shelter in the backyard and Richie’s dating a girl who’s working on the Adlai Stevenson campaign. By the end of the show Joanie’s wearing Jordache Jeans and has a jheri curl.
13. Punky Brewster Not good. Not good for anyone. The premise was odd, to say the least. A little girl gets abandoned by her parents and ends up befriending and living with a crotchety old photographer. Yeah, that’s right he was a photographer-- remember the episode where his studio burned down? I always felt they could have given him a more appropriate job, like undertaker or taxidermist. It also bothered me that Punky’s dog went with her everywhere, even to school. My favorite episode was the one where Cherry got locked in the refrigerator.
14. Laverne and Shirley Looking back, I don’t think I ever understood a word Laverne said. Is it just me? What was the deal with Lenny and Squiggy? I was watching Entertainment Tonight about five years ago and they had on the actor who played Squiggy. Apparently he’s developed multiple sclerosis, and his hope was that if there was ever a Laverne and Shirley reunion show, Squiggy would be shown as suffering from MS. Ever since that interview I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out how that would work. Also, I remember at some point the show moved to Hollywood for absolutely no reason.
15. Mama’s Family There was something surreal about the setup. A woman in her 30s playing a woman in her 60s (I’m presuming), and this is the main character, who also happens to be completely unlikable. Ahead of its time and somehow also very much of its time. Unusual too in that the setting was clearly supposed to be somewhere in the South or the southern Midwest
16. Facts of Life Kill me now. This show was on forever and I watched every single episode. The show fell to pieces at the end. They were making it up as they were filming it—“let’s open up a candy shop, let’s bring in an Australian girl, let’s bring in George Clooney”. Everything I knew about adolescent girls growing up I learned from watching this show, and I suffered deeply as a result.
17. Small Wonder The worst television show of all time. Hands down. The theme song is not only the worst theme song I’ve ever heard, but it’s probably also the worst song I’ve ever heard. Makes no sense on so many levels. The dad invents a robot. OK. But it has to be a secret. Why? They send her out into the real world. Why? She sleeps standing up in a closet in her brother’s room. What the… ? She only has one dress. She is indistinguishable from a real human child in every regard except for her voice?
18. Mork and Mindy Robin Williams running around acting like a jackass for 30 minutes, every Friday night at 8:30. What was it with aliens in the ‘80s? I was excited as a small child to ponder the thought that there could actually be aliens out there, but disheartened by the prospect that they could all be assholes like this guy.
19. Night Court I was inclined to think that this wasn’t a bad show at all, but then I caught a few reruns not too long ago. Wow, this has not aged well. Even Cheers hasn’t aged well, and this show was no Cheers. Again, another annoying show that portrays a vision of adult life that in no way resembles reality. I did once see the actor that played Bull at the Arboretum in Arcadia. I was tempted to go up to him and say something but then I suddenly realized I didn’t care.
20. One Day at a Time What was going on with Schneider and all those keys? I could never make heads or tails of this show. The common thread seemed to be the mom. The daughters didn’t look at all like each other and one of them split pretty early on (the one that was in American Graffiti). The other one stuck around and got married and the husband became a central character. Then they also introduced a dorky neighbor, and then a gay neighbor. Again, all over the place.

So what to do now? Realizing that I can’t get all those hours, weekend afternoons, and Saturday nights back? What’s the solution? I’ll tell you the solution: Be bitter, be very bitter, and then try to channel that bitterness into something positive, like sarcasm. And as soon as I’m able to do that I’ll write another post about it.

Really?

I don't how it is that I just realized this, but "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "The Alphabet Song" are, in fact, the same song. Is this news to anyone else, or am I just very, very stupid?

World Series

The Rays have the momentum right now, but are they spent after such a draining series against Boston? The Phillies are well rested, but at this point are they too well rested? The American League team is almost always stronger than the comparable National League team it gets matched up with. This has been true since about 1990. But the Phillies have been the most solid team this entire post season. So where do you go on this one?

I guess the thing to do is a point-by-point analysis. See how the two teams compare in terms of pitching and hitting, even see how position players match up against one another. Since I have a day job and it isn't with ESPN or Yahoo Sports I'm not going to bother with any of that and just go ahead and say Rays in six. But I'm just not sure on this one.

Presidential Election

How it's looking now:

Nevada, Colorado, Missouri, Ohio, and Florida are still up for grabs. If Obama wins any one of these states he will win the election, with the exception of Nevada. If he only wins Nevada and no others there could be an electoral tie (269 apiece). This could potentially happen.

McCain needs to win all of these states in order to win the election. This could happen but it's not likely. If the early results show Obama having won Florida or Ohio, barring some other big upset (like McCain winning Pennsylvania) Obama will have it wrapped up at that point.

Living Through History

Very close to us is a town called Sleepy Hollow. It’s an old town, even for around here. Washington Irving, of course, set his Headless Horseman story there. The Old Dutch Church and burial ground is still there. Even though I think it was mostly filmed on a soundstage in England, the way the town is depicted in the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp movie isn’t too far off from what the place really looks like. Except, of course, with gas stations, paved roads, traffic lights, convenience stores, etc. For anyone who wants to see the real Sleepy Hollow, and is hoping to find something similar to what’s in the movie, I’d suggest not going to Sleepy Hollow at all, but driving three hours north to a town in Massachusetts called Montague. Montague really does look like the town shown in the movie.

One thing that doesn’t exist on the West Coast but is thriving on the East is the living history museum. These are historic places reconstructed to look the way they did in an earlier era, where actors dress up in old-timey costumes and get into character, pretending to be everyday people from that time. Some of the more notable examples are Old Richmondtown (in Staten Island), Colonial Williamsburg, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, Sturbridge Village, and Plimoth (not Plymouth) Plantation.

When I was eight years old my family and I went to Plimoth Plantation. In the harbor nearby there’s a reconstruction of the Mayflower, cleverly called the Mayflower II. I made the mistake of asking one of the actors (I think he was supposed to be Miles Standish) what happened to the real Mayflower. His response was something like, “What sayeth you child? ’Tis the only Mayflower I know, what resteth within the confines of our fine harbour here.” I never did find out the answer.

Anyway, there’s a museum like this in Sleepy Hollow called Philipsburg Manor. Philipsburg Manor is an old farm, or it was the estate of a wealthy man named Philips. Or it was a place where no one actually lived but where slaves worked and imported goods were stored. Or it was a mill. I’m not really sure. All I know is that it cost me $12 to get in.

When these kinds of places are done right you leave having learned something. Philipsburg Manor wasn’t exactly done wrong, but let’s just say it could be improved. They had animals there, which was cool. There was a cow milking demonstration that was neat to see, and they had a cat on the premises who was very friendly. They had a ton of sheep for some reason. Maybe to give wool demonstrations. There was an old house, built in 1690-something. The one thing I could be certain about was that Adolph Philips died in 1750. He was the richest man in New York at the time (he also had a house on Canal Street) but no one has ever heard of him because he was a Loyalist during the revolution (even though the Revolution started 26 years after he died) and all his land was seized (and henceforth turned into a living history museum, I presume).

I’d like to think there’s still time for me to do something great in my lifetime. I’m not really working on anything at the moment. It most likely will happen by chance, possibly completely by accident. Like maybe I’ll drop the microwave in the bathtub one day and inadvertently discover the key to cold fusion. Either way, if that proves to be my fate, I’d love to have my childhood home turned into a living history museum.

I can imagine my parents’ house decorated to look exactly the way it did in 1987. Fortunately this would require no work at this point in time. There might be an actor playing my mom, reading the LA Times on the couch, while watching the Channel 4 news, drinking coffee, and talking to the cat. There might be an actor playing the gardener, talking about the way lawns were mowed back then, and how people in those days had things called “sprinkler systems” to keep lawns green in the summer.

At the very least I’d want continuity in my living history museum. No switching eras. Keep the focus clear. That’d be the only way to go.

Nevermind

VH1 has this new show called “Classic Albums” or something along those lines. The Wifey and I were flipping through channels the other day and the episode on Nirvana’s “Nevermind” came on. Of course I watched the whole thing and picked up my acoustic guitar during the commercials, trying to see if I could still remember how to play any of the songs. Most of them did come back, but some more readily than others. Halfway through the show the Wifey said, “So, what was the big deal with Nirvana anyway?”

To be fair she didn’t say it in a dismissive tone. I think she was genuinely curious. When my friends and I were listening to Nirvana in Southern California in the early 90s, she and her high school friends in Western Massachusetts were listening to John Cougar Mellencamp and Led Zeppelin. (I don’t actually know this for a fact, it’s just a guess, considering that’s what people in Western Massachusetts are still listening to).

Anyway, her question got me thinking, and I think it all boils down to the following:

1) The music was genuinely good. “Nevermind” had a lot of great songs on it and it was a well-produced album.

2) Cobain had credibility. We all believed he was a miserable guy and he eventually proved us right. Teenagers pick up on this sort of thing, and respect people who really are what they claim to be.

3) There was so much anger and desperation in their music that lots of young people were naturally drawn in.

4) They came along at the right time. They provided a welcome relief (and shot of welcome authenticity) from the cartoonish big-hair metal bands of the 80s. Rap was gaining a foothold but hadn’t completely taken over pop music yet. I’ve always felt that someone who isn’t exposed to rap before the age of 13 is never really going to like it. In 1991 there were still a lot of music fans like that, a lot of them still young, who were never going to take to rap. Ergo, there was still an audience for guitar-based popular music.

I’m sure there are other reasons but I think that basically covers it. I know I’m not the only person to say this about a band they loved when they were young, but I can honestly say I don’t think there’s any band around right now that’s anything like them. And I find that sort of amazing, considering it wasn’t really that long ago when I was driving around the San Gabriel Valley in my 1989 Honda Civic, listening to “All Apologies” on the radio for the first time, thinking it was the greatest song in the history of mankind.

Top Ten Career Paths I Never Pursued

The career I'm in right now (Pediatric Speech Pathologist) has a lot of good things about it. I can't really complain. I think it's in my nature though, to wonder if I'll want to do what I'm doing now up until I retire. Not because I'm unhappy with it, but because I know there are so many other things to do and other things that I'd like to do.

Here is a list of ten other careers that I at one time considered but never pursued. Some of them I may still pursue someday. For others, I think, the window of opportunity has passed. In no particular order:

1) Accent Reduction Specialist/Dialect Coach
I technically have all the qualifications for this one. Unlike what I do now, where the agencies I'm employed by find clients for me, this line of work would require me to go out and find my own clients. Probably my overall weakest job skill is networking, promoting, and selling myself. I don't naturally walk up to people I don't know with confidence, business card in hand, ready to tell them how awesome I am and why they should give me lots of their money to perform a service for them. Some people have that natural enterprising spirit but I sure don't.

Also, with a lot of this sort of stuff, I tend to like the theory more than the practice. I like learning about what different accents sound like and studying their individual phonologies, but that's a very different thing from sitting down and working with people one-on-one to make sure they're aspirating their initial /v/s the way a native Hindi speaker would. I've done a limited amount of this sort of work with people, and while it's been fun, I wouldn't want to have to rely on it as my sole means of income.

2) Travel Writer
Possibly my dream job. I'd love to go to different places and write about my experiences there, and combine it with talking about the history, geography, or culture of the place. Seems like a hard one to break into. I applied for an internship with Lonely Planet back around 1999 but obviously didn't get it. Though I do like to travel I don't know if I'd want to do it all the time. Like maybe two or three big trips a year would be my limit.

3) Meteorologist
I'm not even sure what a day in the life of a meteorologist is, but I imagine it involves reading charts and recording information. I like weather, but maybe my interest in experiencing different kinds would be better satisfied by #2.

4) Librarian
I've always been drawn to quiet, calming places, and so long as I wouldn't have had to work directly with the public, I think this could have been a pretty good gig. The downside- high potential for it being completely boring.

5) Museum Curator
My undergrad in anthropology prepared me either for doing this or for going on to teach anthropology, although both require advanced degrees to even get an entry-level position. Again, like libraries, I was always drawn to the quiet, calming quality of these places. I took a great museum class at CSUF my penultimate semester there but didn't want to pursue a Master's in Anthro, when it came right down to it. Also, my understanding is that there is a very small supply of these jobs relative to the number of people who want them.

6) Veterinary Technician
A lot less schooling than a DVM, but you still have a marketable skill, and who wouldn't love working with animals? My own time spent working in a vet clinic consisted of waking up very early to clean cages while being paid a low hourly wage. If I had stuck with it and moved up I would have gotten the AA required to be a VT, but at the time I already had a BA and I thought such a move would have been counter-productive.

7) Academic
At this point I think I'm done with being a student, and with school in general. Sometimes I think I wouldn't mind being a lecturer. But then I think, just because I'm enthusiastic about a subject, does that mean I can get a room full of sixty 18 to 22 year olds to share my enthusiasm as well? Probably not. I wouldn't mind writing articles or even text-books in my area of interest. Doing scholarly research would be fine, but I have no interest in doing lab-based experiments.

8) Musician
A career in music always sounded fun to me, but ultimately grew to look like a better avocation than anything. The problem I always had was that I couldn't figure out in what capacity I wanted to work with music. I was too shy to be a performer, not schooled enough or interested in theory to be a teacher. Maybe the best option for me would have been:

9) Instrument Repairman/Piano Tuner/Restorer
I don't know why, but for some reason this always seemed like a great job. Straightforward work, quiet environment, low stress. I don't know why I think I'd want to be a piano tuner because I don't even know how to play one. I guess it always just seemed like a really easy, no hassle kind of a job.

10) Professional Baseball Player
This was the plan when I was about seven, but don't laugh, it's not too late. Judging by their performance in the ALDS against the Red Sox, it looks like the Angels could use some help off the bench. Unfortunately a complete and utter lack of ability to play the game at a competitive level (even against other seven year-olds) prevented this dream from ever coming true.

Hello.... McFly...!

The guy who played Biff in the Back To The Future movies sings a song about questions people ask him about the experience:

Playoffs Update

ALCS- Even though the Rays had a better record and won the division, I think head-to-head the Red Sox will prevail. Also, it will be cathartic to see the Dodgers beat the Sox in the World Series. Boston in 6.

Technical Difficulties

This blog was blocked for a while (is that one word or two?) because, apparently, it came up as being a potential "spam blog" whatever the hell that means. Perhaps this was due in part to all the posts I made about how beautiful women in your area want to talk to you right now and how I have plenty of V!@gra for sale.

Playoffs Update

The National League Championship is going to be very good and very close. Both the Phillies and the Dodgers dispatched their competitors in the first round without much of a struggle. It could go either way but I'm going to have to go with the Dodgers in 7. Manny Ramirez has proven to be a huge addition for them. I think this might be 1988 all over again. Maybe Gibson will come out of retirement for another limp-off game winner.

Reading

I started reading Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. A couple of years ago I read Little House in the Big Woods which I liked a lot, and Little House on the Prairie which I thought was just OK. This is the third book in the series (or second, depending on the source) and tells the story of her husband Almanzo's childhood on a farm in New York State circa 1867. The town where he grew up is called Malone and it's way up by the Quebec border. There's a small museum there. If I like the book I'll probably want to check it out.

Movie Update

Leatherheads: 1/4 stars

Not a good movie. Not funny. Not interesting on any level. Weak plot. Bland love story. Awful dialogue.

The film takes place in 1925. You know this because every single shot of the film features either a Model T or someone wearing outlandish period dress. Plus, although it's in color, the film is bathed in sepia undertones. The result is a very Hollywoody, inauthentic period look. The costumes looked like they were heavily researched and expensive to make, but everyone in the film is wearing brand new clothes throughout the entire movie. Nothing looks worn-in. It's like watching a Civil War movie where all the soldiers are 30 pounds heavier and ten years older than the real ones would have been (read: Gods and Generals). It just doesn't look right.

There are several attempts to add 'snappy' exchanges between the two leads. The result is almost embarrassing. I know this is mean to say, but Renee Zellweger looks awful in this one and a lot older than the 31 her character is supposed to be. Attempts to Hepburn-ize her character make her come off shrill, not like a strong, sassy woman as intended.

New Job

Not everyone may know this, but I decided not to return to the school I was working at for the past two years and am now doing Early Intervention, which consists of making home visits and working with children between the ages of 0-3 who have speech, language, and/or feeding problems.

A good deal of the work is educating the parents. I like the age group because they're always happy to see you. They haven't had time yet to develop any guile, unlike jr. high and high school-aged kids.

The work is per-diem too, which is nice, because I get paid per session rather than a flat salary. The more I work, the more I get paid. What a great system. I also like all the autonomy.

There's an awful lot to learn, and I'm still trying to get a handle on many aspects of it. So far it's been the most enjoyable job I've ever had but it's also taken the most amount of work.

Playoffs

So, the baseball post-season is here again. My hope this year is for a Dodgers-Angels World Series but that seems unlikely to happen. Here are my predictions for the first round:

Phillies-Brewers: *snore* Wow, who cares? Are there any two more boring teams in the league than these? Oh that's right I forgot about the Royals. Anyway, Philadelphia won Game 1 at home tonight so I'm going to go with Philadelphia in 5.

Cubs-Dodgers: Dodgers took Game 1 at Wrigley. Not a good sign. I think Cubs fans may have to wait until 2108 for another shot at the Series. L.A. in 4

Angels-Red Sox: Playing Game 1 as I write this. Sox are up 2-1 in the 7th at Anaheim. I still have to go with the Angels, simply because they're the best team in baseball right now. Angels in 5.

Devil Rays-White Sox: I can't take the Devil Rays seriously for some reason. They seem like the Mighty Ducks of baseball. But you have to give them credit for winning the most competitive division this year. Tampa Bay in 5.

Movie Update

In Bruges: 2/4 stars

I had mixed feelings about this one. I wanted to like it, I wanted to forgive it for its shortcomings, but I just couldn't. Colin Farrell is either a tosser or a wanker, I forget which one is which. Perhaps he's both. Brendan Gleason is likable and watchable as always, but I just wasn't buying the hitman with a heart of gold thing. I could have sworn that the dwarf actor in this one was Peter Dinklage, the same one who was in Elf and The Station Agent (they both have the same exact personality) but upon closer reflection this guy had a much more unusually shaped head.

Bruges looks like a beautiful place. I guess you can say that much.

Despite what I've written above, I was actually liking this movie quite a bit up until the last half hour or so. I didn't like the ending at all. It was unnecessarily bloody and I didn't buy for a second that it would ever actually happen. Before the climax one character makes a big sacrifice for the sake of another. Talk about a waste.

Most, if not all gangster movies and T.V. shows rely on the premise that even though their protagonists are criminals and murders, they all abide by this strict code of honor and conduct that somehow elevates their status above that of the low-lives they really are, and tries to therefore convince us that these are actually noble individuals. I don't buy it. I don't think most career criminals live by any such code.

I can forgive a movie for covering material that's already out there, as long as it uses that old material in new and creative ways. In Bruges falls short of the mark. Not terribly far, but far enough to create a diversion.