Why I Blog

(Note: I was tagged by Patia).

I blog because writing helps me clarify my mind - about life in Bozeman, books, movies, etc. I find blogging to be much less introspective than keeping a journal - you'll never read any stories of angst or emotional turmoil or romantic tales of bachelorhood on this blog.

I've met some interesting people via blogs, both online and in real-life. That never happens when you just write in a personal (paper) journal.

Most of the photos I post are aggressively non-artistic on purpose (yeah, right - it's all on purpose...)

I don't blog much on politics or current events. It's not that I'm apathetic - I'm just not interested in writing about such topics.

I try to be open-minded when I read other blogs. I think blogging, for many people (especially young people) is another way to "try on" ideas.


(P.S. - I "maintain" four other blogs...)

Review: Soon I Will Be Invincible

Soon I Will Be Invincible is a mainstream novel about super-villains and super-heroes. I thought it was good, if a bit long. If you liked The Incredibles, you might like this story.

I mostly agree with this NY Times review.

I had a pretty good comic book collection as a boy. I "inherited" some comic books from a sister's boyfriend. And, in keeping with the "Comic Book Social Contract", I eventually gave all mine away.

MSU tv ad

(I'm sure there's a UM ad on youtube, if you just look for it ;-)

Double Feature: Boot to the Head

I heard these via Dr. Demento:

1. Ti Kwan Leep

2. Last will and testament

Review: Superbad

Superfunny - a movie about male bravado, humiliation, self-confidence, and separation anxiety. Also: alcohol-fueled parties and anatomical illustrations. The movie is raunchy (mostly verbally), but not in the sniggering, misogynistic, stupid way such movies were back when I was a teenager.

Read a couple of of reviews before you go: Variety, Rolling Stone.

The movie is rated "R", so maybe we'll be spared criticism from prigs who prefer movies that glorify torture and murder.

Friday cat blogging

(Meara eventually caught the mouse later that night)

Elvis - 30 years ago today

I was eating at a Whataburger in Texas when I learned that The King had just died.

Fun with Photoshop

iwanexsudio.com

Select "portfolio", then click on one of the photographs. Mouse over the photo to see before/after.

Review: Water for Elephants

Sara Gruen's novel Water for Elephants is about romance, and the circus, though not necessarily about the romance of the circus. I thought it was a nice, quick Summer read. Fair warning: don't read this book if you dislike happy endings.





Here are some semi-random circus & carnival links:
1. Ringling, Montana (near Bozeman) was named after one of the famous Ringling Brothers.
2. Memoirs of a Sword Swallower is my favorite book about life in a carnival sideshow.
3. The Ringling Museum is worth a visit if you're ever near Sarasota FL. (I visited the museum during Spring Break many years ago.)
4. Circus Peanuts - a classic from The Straight Dope. (Bonus: kraut juice.)
5. The movie Freaks has a pretty scary ending (I have the DVD).

Review: Kim

I recently re-read Kipling's Kim, and I think I've discovered how best to enjoy it. First, recognize that Kipling thought British rule was beneficial, or at least indifferent, compared to rule by other colonizing nations. Second, do not approach the book as "social realism" - that's a fast way to spoil it. Most important, think of the book as a means of getting into Kipling's head - to understand his understanding of British India, and of adventurous boyhood.

In my younger days, I would have said to just consider the story as being set in an alternate universe. Now, I think using that method to suspend disbelief has too many disadvantages.


Note: Besides being a great adventure story, Kim is also considered part of the Western Canon.

Review: Rush Hour 3

One of Jackie Chan's weakest movies (note: I'm a big Chan fan - I have a half dozen of his movies on DVD).

I found Chris Tucker's character to be particularly unsympathetic (is assholish a word?).

On the plus side, the movie did have an attractive bald woman, and an interesting statistic (34%) ;-)

Friday cat blogging: Sleepy Time

Keep honking...

I saw an unlikely pair of stickers on a car in Bozeman today:

1. Keep honking... I'm reloading
2. Christian fish with WWJD (who wants jelly donuts?)

strange voice

The narrator of this video has a very strange voice. Kinda interesting, but I'm sure it would become annoying over a long weekend.

to be or not to be?

Note: the icy-hot Julia Stiles plays Ophelia in Hamlet (2000).

Another Note: You can see a well-acted scene from Hamlet -- just search YouTube for Cat Head Theater.

"On a stick" - 59 ways

Review: Bourne Ultimatum

I really enjoyed the Bourne Ultimatum (I also enjoyed the previous two Bourne movies).

Julia Stiles and Joan Allen both have larger parts in this installment. This is nice because, besides being good actors, they are hot-hot-hot. (Yes that's a technical term ;-)

All three movies used versions of Moby's "Extreme Ways" for the end credits.

Friday cat blogging

Ousel Falls

A nice day hike in Big Sky, Montana. Here's a video I shot:

My photos and videos

My photos @ Flickr.

My videos @ Youtube.

Spider-pig, spider-pig

I pulled a Homer at the Simpsons movie - I ate a whole bag of popcorn and a bag of Reese's Miniatures. Doh!

(If you like the TV show, you'll like the movie.)

Fair observations

I went to the Gallatin County Fair on Saturday. Some observations:

1. the cow barn smells pretty good compared to the hog barn

2. I cannot eat an entire funnel cake

3. snapping turtles are cool

4. sugar gliders are cool

5. sheep are noisy

6. young kids like merry-go-rounds and small roller coasters

Skipping to the end

I admit it: I skipped to the end of the last Harry Potter book. In fact, the only HP I've read was the last few chapters of the last book. Based on that small sample, it seems like an interesting series.

(I have seen all the movies ;-)

Gain weight now! Ask me how!

1. Invite Mother to visit for a week.

2. Ask her to bake a cake and six (6) loaves of banana nut bread.

3. Chow down.

Friday cat blogging

Meara watches the washing machine:

Kabbalah event - Aug. 27

Rabbi Chaim of Chabad Lubavitch of Montana informed of an upcoming kabbalah event in Bozeman: Men, Women, & Kabbalah. According to the flyer, the cost is $10, and the event is open to folks of all spiritual backgrounds.

A+

I fed a hungry vampire, er - donated blood - today. I've been doing it off and on for the past 25 years.

Review: Sense and Sensibility

Another excellent novel by Jane Austen.

The Modern Library edition displayed above has an interesting introduction by David Gates. He makes the novel seem almost hard-boiled. Is there any wonder that I, who read all the Richard Stark and Dashiell Hammett I can get my hands on, liked this novel?

Maps

It's always fun to "mess about in" maps:
Historical Atlas of the 20th Century

Another dream sense

I recently experienced a definite sense of proprioreception while dreaming.

So far, I've also definitely experienced seeing and hearing in dreams. I guess falling & flying relate to sense of balance, so I've experienced that sense as well. I'm not sure about touch; I'm pretty sure against smelling and tasting.

Friday Cat blogging

Review: Ratatouille

I enjoyed Ratatouille, even though my palate is unsophisticated.

Review: Transformers movie

Surprisingly entertaining. A good date movie - if your date is an engineer.

Pyrophilia (July 4)

Bozeman, Montana is the most fireworks-crazy place I've ever lived in. From my back deck, I watched a 180 degree panorama of color and fire.

Old CDs

I happen to have both these CDs (;-) (I also have plenty of macho CDs - really!)

1. Big Time Sensuality - Bjork
(I think she is pleasantly chunky in this video.)

2. Orinoco Flow - Enya

50 ways to ...

1. Leave a Lover

2. Learn to Hover (xkcd webcomic)

De-clutter

Hair is clutter ? ;-)

The Incredible Shrinking Man

I'm down to 230 +/- pounds - presumably from eliminating soda from my diet. Actually a bit under 230. Still healthy, I think, but something I'll mention to the doc next time I see him.

Coke-free

I haven't had a Coke or Pepsi (or most any soda) for the past couple of months. It was a hard "3 times a day" habit to break, but I'm glad I did it.

Review: Panda Buffet

I recently had dinner ($10.25) at the Panda Buffet, which is located northwest of the 7th - I-90 intersection.

Of the the five Chinese restaurants in Bozeman, Panda is one them. Seriously, my meal was about on par with meals from the Bamboo Garden and the Chinese joint in the mall food court. The Panda does serve some non-Chinese food, such as roast beef and crab legs.

ex Pussy Willow

I chopped down my pussy willow a few weeks ago - all the big branches (> 1 inch) suffered from some sort of rot ;-(.

Word of the day: coppice.

Video compilation site

Another video timewaster: http://funhouse.bubble.ro/

Potentilla

Grass

My homage to the grass master.

All ages admitted

Double feature: whenever, wherever, forever

1. whenever, wherever

2. forever

Your yearly ABBA needs fulfilled

Sure, most politicians deserve to be mocked, but this is Cruel & Unusual...

Dang ;-(

They overlooked me again this year ;-)

Double feature: Irregular time

1. Mission Impossible theme (TV)
2. Take Five (Dave Brubeck)

Wildlife sitings - 2 new species

This past week I spotted two species I had never seen before in Bozeman:

1. Raven
2. Vole

Another movie review: F4-2

Fantastic Four 2 was better than the first movie (which is saying a whole lot, I know), and thankfully brief (less than 100 minutes). I read plenty of Fantastic Four comics when I was a boy, but somehow skipped reading about the Silver Surfer.

For some reason, I found Invisible Woman's lips to be .... disturbing. I would never tell it to her in person, of course ;-)

Movie reviews

Some movies I've seen recently:

Hot Fuzz - if you liked Shaun of the Dead (as I did), you'll like this over-the-top British cop flick. Sample dialogue: "What's the situation? - Two blokes with a fuckload of cutlery."

Pirates 3 - over-long and over-stuffed. I must say that Keira Knightley looks very fetching in Chinese pirate garb, though. Note: there's a credit cookie.

Spiderman 3 - at least one subplot too many.

Here kitty, kitty

I saw lots of pretty cats at the Heart of the Valley animal shelter today.

I wonder what makes someone a cat-person or a dog-person? My oldest sister and I prefer cats, while my other two sisters & my mother prefer dogs.

Golden Compass movie trailer

As I've noted before, His Dark Materials is my favorite "fantasy" trilogy (moreso than LOTR, I think):



A few things seem a bit "off", but one must always remember that a film is not a book.

Amazing color-changing card trick

Silas Marner

George Eliot's short novel Silas Marner is a simple story well-told.

2007 will be another Summer of Classics. I am "building up" my novel-reading muscles to read Eliot's long masterpiece Middlemarch. In the meantime, I'm in the middle of Homer's Iliad.

Another one rides the bus

I took the Red Line bus to work this morning, and walked back this afternoon. Walking back took 50 minutes - I took a "longcut" that totaled 3 miles.

Double feature: 90s tunes

Here are a couple of tunes I remember well from the 1990s:

1. Linger (Cranberries)
2. Two Princes (Spin Doctors)

Alarm (downtown Bozeman)

Odometer

18,761

Car usage

I average about 6,000 miles per year, or 500 miles per month, in my car. I hope to get the monthly average down to 200 miles this Summer, by means of walking, riding my bicycle or motorcycle, and riding the bus to work.

Each time I don't ride my car to work will save 6+ miles.

Brevity

How to transform a trilogy into a novella:

And the crowd goes wild

I won a game of nine-ball on the break last Friday. It's not unheard of to win that way, but I've only done it once in 41 years.

Hail the size of a cat's eye

View of the front yard.

Hail the size of marbles

A view of the back deck.

Lose weight with Photoshop

The following video is NSFW, but it's an interesting exploration of Photoshop and body image.

No signs

"By order of the Bozeman city police"

Design in "blogger"

Most blogspot blogs (such as mine) are pretty bland. However, if you are willing to expend the effort and smarts, you can create a nice design using blogspot's "blogger" software. Here are a couple of nicely designed Bozeman blogs:

* A thought over coffee
* www.powderfin.com blog

Centipede (?)

I refrained from picking up this creepy-crawly.

Update: It appears to have been a common garden centipede

Electro-surgery

I underwent a gingivoplasty this morning. For my case it was a purely cosmetic procedure - a "gum lift" as it were, to make my teeth seem longer.

Instead of a scalpel, the dentist used a Sensimatic Electrosurge 600.

Double feature: guess the theme

1, 2

George Eliot on blogging

I've recently looked at some right-wing blogs (and some left-wing blogs)...


With apologies to George Eliot:

To judge from their writings, there are certain bloggers who think that an amazing ignorance, both of science and of life, is the best possible qualification for forming an opinion on the knottiest moral and speculative questions. Apparently, their recipe for solving all such difficulties is something like this: -Take a blogger's head, stuff it with a smattering of philosophy and literature chopped small, and with false notions of society baked hard, let it hang over a desk a few hours every day, and serve up hot in feeble English, when not required.

Gift idea

Do you have a friend who swings both ways, or who is simply bi-curious? If so, here is a gift recommendation.

Thirsty?

ein Hund

Dang

Time to rethink my self image ;-)


How evil are you?

The truth will out

Actually, I've been cutting back.

Hello - technical support?

Two splints

1. Tendonitis in my left wrist.
2. Bleach tray (aka splint) for lower jaw.

I'd rather have two sheds.

As is, no exceptions

Un cheval

When's supper?

A historical view

Say what?

(found on the internets)

Bozeman Clean-Up Day - 4/21

Bozeman Clean-Up day is Saturday 4/21, 8:30 - 12. The main staging point is Bogert Park. However, if you want to walk thru ditches with Big Mike, meet at the eastern terminus of Cascade Street.

Update: A big success - over 20 folks showed up from my neighborhood. They picked up lots of trash. And one volunteer found a dollar bill in the ditch east of Ferguson.

F.O.E.

F.O.E.

Springtime in Bozeman

There were a couple of ring neck pheasants sheltering under the pussy willow this morning.

Pics bloggered

Well, my recent photos have been bloggered - they look fine in "preview" but are chopped of when published. It's frustrating - I'd like to be able to recommend Blogger to newbies, but things like this don't help ;-(

You can (almost) always click on the photo & see the original in Flickr.

F.O.E.

The alley-side view of the Fraternal Order of Eagles building, in downtown Bozeman. I've never had occasion to go inside this building.

Review: The Lighthouse restaurant

The Lighthouse restaurant, located on Tai Lane near MSU, serves a $10 lunch buffet. Today, I had chicken tikka masala, rice, and kheer. Pretty good - I'll dine there again.

Awards: "Hottest Hostess"

Review: Cateye Cafe

The Cateye Cafe is an "all-meals diner" in downtown Bozeman. I had pancakes there this morning - pretty good, but they were the first pancakes I'd had in many months, so who knows. The restaurant is bit more upscale/bohemian (????) than Mainstreet Overeasy or the Western Cafe.

The Cateye Cafe has a weird schedule, so be sure to check their website before visiting.

Horrific events at Virginia Tech

When I was an undergrad at Texas A&M, it was not uncommon for jerks to call in bomb threats to get out of an exam. When I was a grad student at Georgia Tech, we received a memo on how to avoid being a victim of the Unabomber. When I taught at the University of Arkansas, a fellow professor (in a different department) was killed by a former graduate student. I know a couple of engineering faculty at Virginia Tech - no word yet on whether they are among the dead.

I had a "business breakfast" this morning with a visitor from Virginia Tech. What a horrific day VT had.

Do you ever get the feeling that no place is safe?

Review: The Garage restaurant

The Garage is located on the corner of Church and Main in downtown Bozeman. The restaurant is located in a former automobile service facility, hence the name.

I had an excellent hamburger (with swiss cheese and a kaiser roll bun) on Saturday. In fact, I hereby award the Best Buns in Bozeman award to The Garage.

(As a bachelor, I eat out a lot, and like to think I know about great buns.)

Happy Sunday

Review: Western Cafe

I had breakfast here last Friday - eggs, sausage, hashbrowns, and toast. The sausage patty was ginormous - the size of a small steak. I was so full I had to skip getting a sweetroll for dessert.

I liked the Western Cafe a bit better than Mainstreet Overeasy. I won't be eating at either one very frequently, though - I want to avoid a heart attack ;-)

Got Broccoli?

Awwwww.

Review: Mainstreet Overeasy restaurant

Main Street Overeasy is a popular breakfast eatery in downtown Bozeman (on the north side of Main St.). The restaurant gets very busy after 7:45am, so your best bet is to get there when it opens at 7 am. Don't be surprised to see movers & shakers -- I saw MSU president Geoff Gamble there this morning.

I had eggs & sausage -- good, but not great. I want to go back and try the pancakes, though.

--
In coming days, I hope to review breakfast at the Western Cafe and at the Stockyard Cafe (is it still in operation?).

Bozeman tourist guide

Frommer's online guide to Bozeman

Review: Boodles restaurant

Boodles is a fine dining establishment located in downtown Bozeman. I recommend their New York strip steak (~ $30). Next time I visit, I'll skip the apple dessert, though. Overall, I think it would be a good place to entertain a business client or a date (as long as your guest has good table manners ;-)

Review: Best-Remembered Poems

Best-remembered Poems (edited by Martin Gardner) presents well-known 19th and 20th century British and American poems. The poems range from classics to nonsense to doggerel. I enjoyed Gardner's introduction to each poem.

The book is published by Dover, which produces inexpensive high-quality paperbacks. In Bozeman, Hastings has a small selection of Dover books.

Beer Fest report

My favorite was a wheat beer, of all things: Mandarin Orange Hefeweizen (Lang Creek Brewery). The brewery is located in Marion, Montana. (Any bloggers from Marion?)

I went alone, but recognized several folks. I would swear I saw Patia Stephens, except I was trying on some beer googles at the time. She had a posse, so I was unable to verify. A former student gave me a token for a free beer - can't complain about that! And, I recognized a fellow ski volunteer (which is actually an accomplishment because I had never see her except bundled up in ski gear).

There was a good honky tonk band: TenFoot Tall and 50 Proof. Made me feel like I was back in Texas.