Backpacking

This weekend, I went on a lovely two-night backpacking trip with warmfuzzy, fishfrog, and nell. It was a bit cold, but the trail was a good level of challenging and the company was good.

Backpacking is one of my favorite activities, and one I should make the time to do more often. It's cool to know that you can survive (even in bad weather) with just what's on your back. It's fun to play in streams and identify trees with nature books. Most important, it's great because it's such a complete vacation from my normal life. The normal things I deal with--e-mail, school books, driving, television, phones, clocks--are absent or irrelevant. My only worries are things that I don't usually have to think about too much--whether it's light outside, how close I am to a water source, what the weather is like, how to protect my food from animals. It's such a completely different way of life that I really feel refreshed when I get back.

Listen to this band: The Vacation

I saw a great show last night by a band everyone should listen to: The Vacation. I went to high school with the lead singer and guitarist, twins Ben and Steve Tegel, respectively. (Ben's in the middle in the photo; Steve's on the right.) Even if I hadn't, though, I would be a fan.

Their music is pretty simple, really catchy rock. It's very easy to like. If you're interested in such things, their influences include the Velvet Underground, the Sex Pistols, Guns 'N' Roses, and the Rolling Stones. I recommend "White Noise" as a starting point, but all the songs are good. Their first album is available on Amazon and iTunes, and it's being rereleased by a major label soon.

A review from the BBC is here. An article from Filter magazine is here. Their official website plays music automatically when you go there, so I am not linking to it, but it's http://www.thevacationmusic.com/.

Enjoy!

Adrian Mole and Karl Pilkington

I've been re-reading a very entertaining book over the last couple of days: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4. It's a fictional diary kept by an English teenager, and it's hilarious. If you're in the mood for a quick, light, entertaining read, I highly recommend it and its sequels.

I believe the Adrian Mole books are quite well-known in Britain, though I don't know too many people here who've read them. Fans of the Ricky Gervais podcast may be interested to know that Karl Pilkington thought the diaries of Anne Frank were "an Adrian Mole sort of thing." I've also seen the character of Karl compared to Adrian Mole, though I don't think they're really similar. Adrian is much more of a go-getter than Karl.

Listening to the podcast (which includes Stephen Merchant reading excerpts from the diary of Karl Pilkington) has affected my reading of the book. As I read the Adrian Mole book, I hear all the lines as read by Stephen Merchant, which makes them even funnier.

Out There TV

Thanks to superelectric, I have just discovered an awesome TV show: Out There TV. If you enjoy my posts about reptilian shapeshifters and contrails, this is the show for you. In the first 15 minutes of the show I watched, they mentioned tons of standard conspiracy stuff: aliens at Roswell, Bohemian Grove (a place where world leaders gather for strange rituals and planning the New World Order), the possible fakeness of the moon landing, a recent UFO sighting, David Icke (reptilian shapeshifter theorist), and evidence that the September 11th attacks were orchestrated by the U.S. government. They also had some more timely information, such as a theory that controversy in the Muslim world over the Danish political cartoons was orchestrated by the U.S. to promote the "clash of civilizations" that it needs so the New World Order can take over the world. It's must-see TV.

The show also addresses some pretty mainstream stuff--secret NSA wiretaps, surveillance cameras and facial-recognition software in public places, and the administration's suckering of the American people into an unnecessary war with Iran. One thing I find interesting: conspiracy theory types are generally thought of as extremely right wing, due to their distrust of the federal government (and, sometimes, anti-semitism.) But they have a lot of overlap with today's liberals in their views of war, privacy, and civil liberties. And man, do they hate Bush. The two groups should team up somehow.

You can find out where to watch it here. Most of my readers can see it on channel 51 (not cable). Enjoy!

Switcheroo

You know what's the greatest plot device ever? The body switch. Two characters, typically with very different personalities, switch bodies. Hilarity ensues. I defy you to watch a movie or TV episode involving a body switch and not be mesmerized.

At the moment, I'm watching an old episode of Angel. Angel has, against his will, switched bodies with some old guy who doesn't know Angel is a vampire. It's awesome. The old-guy-as-Angel is having totally inappropriate interactions with Angel's friends and acquaintances--hilarious! And there is drama too--what if the old-guy-as-Angel goes out in the sun, and Angel dies? How will Angel get his body back? I love it.

While TV can do a good body switch story, the best examples are in film. Here are my top five:

1. Freaky Friday (Jodie Foster version)
2. Vice Versa (starring Fred Savage and the brilliant Judge Reinhold)
3. Freaky Friday (Lindsey Lohan version)
4. Big (not quite a "switching" movie, but the same idea)
5. Like Father, Like Son (starting Kirk Cameron)

Other suggestions are welcome.

Wasted effort

I went to my apartment's gym yesterday. I biked for miles but went nowhere. My fellow gym-goer repeatedly picked up heavy objects, only to put them down again. At all hours of the day, all across the country, millions of people are doing this. I got to thinking about what a ridiculous waste this useless expense of energy is. We need to do something about it.

Instead of running on a treadmill for an hour, why not run to work? Or run errands for people who don't have cars? If you want to pick up heavy stuff, why not pick up some boxes or rocks or something that someone needs moved?

Even if this would be too difficult to organize, it seems like we should at least hook up the nation's treadmills and elliptical machines to some sort of generator. Am I wrong?

Happy Birthday, Warm fuzzy!

Immortality for $31, shipping included

Today's topic: Alex Chiu, inventor and general crazy person.

Alex Chiu is most well-known as the inventor of "Eternal Life Rings" ($31), devices which grant the wearer immortality and cure a variety of diseases. The devices work using magnets to alter your circulation somehow. He has gained a great deal of notoriety from these inventions. Interestingly, in addition to selling the rings, he provides instructions on how to make them yourself.

But the immortality rings are not all there is to Alex Chiu. There's really no way to organize a description of this guy, so I merely provide you with a sampling:

On religion: He believes completely in the Jewish religion but is not a Jew. He thinks the Bible was a big astrology chart, and he's a big fan of finding Bible codes. He has proven, using stock charts, that God is a mathematical formula.

On biology: Animals are living magnets. Once you get this, biology and evolution are easy to understand--he explains them through animated GIF's--"A must study for all scientists." Also, if you want to make your own cells, he provides instructions (it involves boiling a few vegetables and leaving them on the stove for three days.)

On the future: In the future, food will be free (like air) because it will be farmed by robots in skyscrapers. We won't have an illegal drug problem because everyone will use debit cards instead of cash and no one will dare buy drugs with a debit card.

Miscellany: He hates Confucius. He loves Alicia Silverstone. He loves his cat and would choose him over Hilary Duff. He thinks anyone from Taiwan who doesn't consider himself Chinese doesn't deserve to be immortal.

I encourage all of you to browse Alex Chiu's extensive website. Also, here's an interview with him from slashdot.

Enjoy!

Hoosiers of the St. Louis sort

To most Americans, the word hoosier means "person from Indiana." Indianans proudly call themselves hoosiers. In my native St. Louis, however, the meaning of the term is rather different: it's a very insulting term meaning, basically, "hick" or "redneck." Oddly, the hoosier-as-hick usage seems to be totally specific to the St. Louis area.

The Wikipedia article on "hoosier" specifically mentions the strange St. Louis usage: "In the St. Louis area of Missouri and Illinois, a hoosier may be someone who is lower-class and white (like white trash and redneck)." The Urban Dictionary lists 20 definitions of hoosier, 10 of which focus on and explicitly mention St. Louis. [One reader gives an example of how to use it: "I got cut off on Highway 40 this morning by some fucking Hoosier driving a Hemi covered in American flags and "W" 2004 stickers."] In a long essay exploring the origins of the term hoosier, Jeffrey Graf of the University of Indiana devotes two paragraphs to the St. Louis usage.

So what is a "hoosier"? And why do St. Louisans use it in a way that no one else does? Well, no one really knows. Some think that it originally meant country bumpkin and that the negative usage faded almost everywhere but St. Louis. Others think it was originally a greeting--"who's there?"--that got slurred over time. The links above list other theories.

Cat challenge

Here's a little challenge of your understanding of the piebald spotting gene, elementary genetics, and (most important) ability to search for cute animal pictures on the internet.

Suppose the two cats below mate. Think about what the resulting kitten would look like. Find the cutest kitten you can that could result from this mating, post it (or a link to it) in the comments section, and explain its genetics. I want to see some cuteness, people.









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Lessons in Cat Genetics, Part II: White paws and bellies

Many cats have color on their backs and heads but have white paws and a white belly. However, you almost never have a cat that is white everywhere but colored in the paws and belly. What's going on?

The answer can be found in the piebald spotting gene, abbreviated "S." During early kitten development, all of the pigment producing cells (melanocytes) are located close to the animal's spine. During development, those cells migrate from the spine area down toward the cat's sides, belly, legs, and paws. That process is controlled by the "S" gene.

Some lucky cats have two "good" copies of the S gene--SS. In those lucky cats, the pigment cell migration process works perfectly. The cells get all the way to the cat's feet. Lucy is an example:









Other cats have two "bad" copies of the S gene--ss. These cats still have pigment cells, but those cells don't migrate very far. So you get a cat that is more than 50% white, like this one:










Other cats have one "good" copy and one "bad" copy--Ss. In these cats, the pigment cells can get pretty far, but not all the way. That's how you end up with the very cute tuxedo cat:








The piebald gene illustrates something interesting about genetics: the phenomenon of incomplete dominance. Usually, if you have two alleles, one of them will be dominant. Suppose we're talking about human eye color. "B" is associated with brown eyes, and "b" is associated with blue eyes. Since B is dominant to b, an individual with one copy of each (Bb) will have brown eyes.

In piebald, however, there is really no dominant allele: SS, Ss, and ss all look totally different. We call that "incomplete dominance."

Read this book: Life of Pi

I finally read Life of Pi by Yann Martel, thanks to SquishyBurrito's recommendation and kind book lending. It is excellent. If at first glance you don't think you would enjoy a book about a teenager and a tiger stuck in a lifeboat, think again. It works as an adventure story, but it's also a much more complex look at faith and humanity. It's the kind of book that makes you want to belong to a book club because there's so much in it to think about and talk about. Read it. Thanks, squishy!

Next up on my catch-up-with-reading-over-vacation-plan: Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides. Other recommendations are welcome.

5 TV shows to watch marathon-style on DVD

I love TV shows on DVD. The world's few great TV shows are best appreciated in 12-hour marathons. Also, watching TV shows on DVD provides maximum flexibility--even if you're not sure you have the time or attention span for a 2-hour movie, you can probably manage a 22- or 44-minute tv show. If you find that you're in the mood for more, you can watch another. Before you know it, you've wasted your entire weekend. Awesome.

So, when you're ready to put on some lounging clothes, order a pizza, and settle in for a few dozen hours of lazy happiness, here are my suggestions for what to watch:

1. Sports Night. This 2-season comedy/drama about the staff of a Sportscenter-style show was great. It's an Aaron Sorkin show, and it has the same complex and witty dialogue and the same earnestness as the West Wing. Somehow, I like it even more than the West Wing, despite my love of politics and hatred of sports. Everyone involved in it still talks about it as one of their greatest experiences. Watch it.



2. Profit. This show aired for 6 episodes or so in 1996, but people have been talking about it ever since. It's about a deeply disturbed and evil guy who screws people over as he takes control of a huge corporation. He's a terrible person, but he's so charming and smart that you root for him anyway. It's very dark, and it probably would have been more successful had it aired on HBO or Showtime. It was ahead of its time.


3. Newsradio. Probably the best sitcom ever, certainly the most underrated. Great ensemble cast, especially Phil Hartman and Dave Foley. The first set (seasons 1 & 2) has commentary on almost every episode.





4. Kids in the Hall. The greatest sketch comedy show ever (or at least since Monty Python.) I watched it with my friends in college, and half of our conversation was conducted in Kids in the Hall quotes.





5. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This was the first show I ever watched for the first time on DVD. I'm not much of a sci-fi/horror/fantasy/vampire lover, but the supernatural backdrop increases the intensity of the soap opera elements, which I do love. Also, Joss Whedon has a flair for entertaining dialogue. Seasons 1, 2, and 3 are nearly perfect. Seasons 4 and 5 are good. Seasons 6 and 7...well, once you've watched that far, you're going to watch them. And season 6 has the brilliant musical episode.

Honorable mentions: Corner Gas, Freaks and Geeks, The West Wing, Queer as Folk (U.S.), Soap.

Happy watching!

Happy Boxing Day!

It's December 26th, and it's Boxing Day in the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. My U.S. readers may not know that Boxing Day exists. Even some Canadians may be vague on the details--when I was in Vancouver near Christmas a few years ago and asked a Canadian about it, he said he didn't know much about it except that department stores had Boxing Day sales. So I did a little research.

Basically, Boxing Day originated as a day on which to give money or stuff to the less fortunate. According to one theory, it began as a tradition of giving boxes of food to servants as a sort of early Christmas tip. According to another, it comes from the tradition of opening the locked box of church donations for the needy on Christmas, then distributing them the following day.

Today, Boxing Day is celebrated with after-Christmas sales, sporting events (particularly in England), acts of charity, and gatherings with friends and family.

I think Boxing Day sounds just swell, and we in the U.S. should start observing it. I particularly like the idea that, after you get a bunch of stuff for Christmas, you turn around and give a bunch of stuff to people who need it more than you do.

This site gives you five steps to celebrating boxing day. The Wikipedia article about Boxing Day is here. This site explores some myths about Boxing Day and some different theories of its origins.

Adoptee rights revisited

A woman who gave up her child for adoption 18 years ago recently commented on my Adoptee Rights post. Her perspective is interesting, and not one I see brought up often; I encourage everyone who was interested in the issue to check it out. Also, she addresses adoption and birth parent issues on her own blog, Musings of the Lame. Thanks to her for her personal perspective.

Am I getting too close to the truth about chemtrails?

I just noticed that someone from the United States Government (domain "senate.gov") came to my blog using the search terms "chemtrails & first" and stayed on my blog for 2 minutes and 54 seconds. What's going on here? Am I under surveillance?

If you're from the government and you're watching me, please read this: I don't really think you're spraying us with mind-control chemicals. I posted that because I thought it was ludicrous. And if you are, more power to you. I'm sure you know what's best for us. Also, I don't really think George Bush is a reptilian shapeshifter. But if he is, that's just great too. Whatever.

Next Blogs of the Week: TV blogs

In a recent trip around the NextBlogosphere, I came across two notable television-related blogs.

The first is Give Me My Remote. The author watches TV and blogs about it. I was drawn to the site because she, like me, has a bit of an obsession with The Office (US) and, in particular, John Krasinski (Jim). She also seems to be more in the know than your average blogspotter, because she has scored an interview with one of the show's stars and is asking readers to submit questions. She also likes Lost, Prison Break, and Veronica Mars.

The second is TV Oracle. The author blogs about TV but is planning to expand to other forms of pop culture as well. TV Oracle has daily TV highlights right on the front page, so you'll never miss important events like the premiere of "Superstar Weddings Gone Bad." They also have some TV show reviews--and they do not like The Colbert Report.

Enjoy.

Worst Christmas Song Ever

I have recently heard the worst holiday song in the history of holiday songs. It may be the worst song in the history of songs, period. It's called "The Christmas Shoes." Here's the chorus.

Sir, I want to buy these shoes for my Mama, please
It's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size
Could you hurry, sir, Daddy says there's not much time
You see she's been sick for quite a while
And I know these shoes would make her smile
And I want her to look beautiful if Mama meets Jesus tonight

That is just so wrong. Wrong. Ick. Why would you want to hear that, ever? Yet I have heard it twice in the last two days on the Christmas station. Horrible, horrible, horrible. Want to hear the whole, horrifically depressing story of this kid and his dying mom? The full lyrics are here.

Pen testimonial

I have found the greatest pen ever, and I want to share my joy with you.

I have trouble with pens. Ball-point pens are nice because they don't have wet, smeary ink, but you have to press down hard for them to work. On the other hand, gel pens are very easy to write with, but they are very smeary and messy. I realize that more expensive pens might solve this problem, but I have a tendency to lose them, so I'm sticking with the disposable ones.

This week, I found the answer to my pen problems: The Uni-ball Jetstream. It claims to have a "new hybrid ink" and to be "smooth like a gel" but "quick drying like a ball point." And those claims are 100% true! I will never use anything else.

Unfortunately, I've already lost the pen. If you find it in the law school, let me know.

The War on Christmas hits home

Fishfrog has recently posted about the supposed "War on Christmas" here and here, so it' s been on my mind. I used to think that the idea of a War on Christmas was stupid. If your religion's big problem is that Target clerks don't mention your holiday as explicitly as you'd like when you buy toilet paper, you don't have much to complain about.

But now I realize that the War on Christmas crowd has a point.

As I said in my last post, I'm a big fan of Christmas songs. Specifically, I'm a fan of traditional Christmas carols, because they are awesome; I generally find modern pop-holiday songs annoying, because they are. While listening to the all-holiday music station for three hours yesterday, I heard only ONE traditional song, Hark the Herald Angels Sing. However, I heard each of the following songs at least twice: Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, Sleigh Ride, Winter Wonderland, and Jingle Bell Rock.

What is going on here? I thought I lived in a Christian country! What good is electing the religious right if I have to listen to ACLU-sanctioned, secular crap like Hilary Duff singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" on the public airwaves? I'm being oppressed, and I'm not going to stand for it.