Okay, yeah it has been too long. No explanation would really suffice, except to say that I avoided it for a bit for some reason (perhaps like
Miah I didn't want to blog about small stuff when large stuff was left unblogged). But again like him perhaps I can change...eh, we'll see. I make no promises, because nothing has served to keep me on here consistantly. It isn't as though I don't enjoy this--just for some reason I tend to not come back for a bit and that bit stretches into a time period far too long.
Well there is quite a bit of news that I must type about, though invariably I will forget some things I'm sure. I make no promises that the following paragraphs are in any kind of logical or chronological order. :-)
I have been quite busy reading while I've been gone. One series in particular has grabbed much of my attention, Terry Pratchett's Discworld. You can find an excellent article on the series (and links to other articles about its many facets)
here at Wikipedia. A few years ago I borrowed read
Guards! Guards! and I enjoyed it--then I think it was later that I purchased and read
The Colour of Magic the first tale in the series. However, for some very strange and odd reason I've not ready any Pratchett books in the intervening years until a month or two ago. I've purchased a couple (both new and used) and checked out many at the library. If you check out my pages at Amazon you'll find several Pratchett reviews, though I have many more to go.
I currently only have three or four more books to go before I've read all of Pratchett's Discworld novels. They're all really great tales, full of humour, satire, comedy, and really creative writing. After you've read some of his books you'll never look at fantasy the same way again. Venture to Discworld, the world that is literally a massive disc on the back of four elephants that stand on the back of a cosmically large turtle flying through space. Yes the oceans constantly pour over the rim--no we don't know how they're resupplied. :-)
I could say, or rather type, (I could do both, but I can't say here on my blog, only type) much more about Discworld and Pratchett--however if you're really interested you can go to a couple other places: 1) the Wikipedia article linked to above, 2) your local library, or 3) your local bookstore. I would highly recommend number one and then either of the next two options.
Now let me see...oh yes, work. As I'm sure you know I'm employed at the
Cincinnati Museum Center in Cincinnati (right across the river from where I live here in Kentucky). I've worked several special exhibits there: Monkey King, the
Space Exhibit, and
Shocktober. I know I've talked about the first two before, but not at all about the third. Unfortunately Shocktober is now over, but I did mean to blog about it during the run--I just never got around to it. Shocktober was the museum's new try at a Halloween exhibit. I was a supervisor during both morning and evening hours on different days Thursday through Sunday the entire month of October.
The morning hours were known as Friendly Hours and involved kids going throughout the Natural History museum to ten different stations where they would complete activities and/or crafts to learn about different cultures around the world. In a sense they were "culturally trick-or-treating around the world." My duties during the morning consisted of making sure people followed the schedule, resupplying stations, and just generally supervising. I only worked a few mornings, but they were quite busy--and yet I really enjoyed those times.
Frightning Hours were held at night and were intended for people ages nine and up (though we had some people bring through infants and toddlers--some of these left crying). You'll be able to find out a bit more at the site I linked to above, though not too much--you wouldn't want to spoil the surprise would you? ;-) The tour involved going through a darkened Natural History museum. The premise was that Joseph Dorfeuille, the curator of the Western Museum (the ancestor to the current Nat'l History museum, and who employed John James Audobon), had found some ancient giant insect eggs at nearby Big Bone Lick in Kentucky. Unfortunately while trying to ship himself to New York he locked himself in a crate and died when it was forgotten--years later it was rediscovered and put on display at Shocktober. During the course of the exhibit you find out that his ghost has come to live--or is that come back to afterlife?--and has reanimated the insect corpses. So as you proceed through the exhibit you're taunted by the spirit of Dorfeuille and hounded by animatronic insects and actors portraying museum employees. It was fun working this as I was a Front of the House supervisor and I was in charge of the volunteers regulating the lines at the start and the volunteers at the end that let people out of the exhibit.
Somewhat unbrilliantly I didn't apply for either of the next two exhibits at the museum (Threads of Faith opens tomorrow and Holliday Junction the 26th) thinking that by that time I would need a full-time position. But I am pursuing this--I've applied for a position within the Natural History Museum (I interviewed yesterday and I think it went well) and I've also applied for my supervisor's position--today is her last day. Now I am still and employee since I'm the scheduling supervisor for evening events. I staff and supervise events when the museums are rented out to groups at night. And also I might have another temporary opportunity lined up for December. This will all be nice as I'm waiting to hear how my applications are going. I've also applied to UPS to work as a driver helper as I did last December in Tennessee. Even if I end up working the other temporary job at the museum while I'm waiting it is only a weekend position so if I can get on at UPS also I should be good while I'm waiting. If I have to for a while I don't mind working quite a bit.
Let me see...that should cover working, eh? Please ask any questions if you have them. Oh, I lost my cell phone during one morning at Shocktober and I assumed that someone had walked off with it when a week or so later a couple volunteers found it in one of the bins used to store supplies for Friendly Hours. Of course in the meantime I had had my brother-in-law deactivate the phone so that nobody could steal minutes and had bought another phone (the same model) on eBay. *sigh* The one good thing is that I now have a belt holder/case that I'm using on my recovered phone. I'm now going to try to resell my phone on eBay and hope that I didn't pay so much that I can't get much of my money back. Oh and while I had my phone back but it hadn't been reactivated yet I was locked out (well I couldn't get my key to work in the front door). I tried to wake
Chris up (his bed is right near a window) but he just rolled over and pulled the blankets over his head. I kept shining my flashlight in the window and finally he woke up and asked if I wanted to come in.
Oh, before I forget, thanks to
Kate,
Aunt Bee,
Julie, and
Mark for bugging me (the first two the most recently). By the way Aunt Bee--I really enjoyed your recent blog post (was it 22?) that was a continuation of your earlier post that came from comments on Mark's blog. :-) I don't remember if I commented at your blog, but if I didn't I should have.
Well I know there were other things I wanted to mention, but I can't remember them right now so I'll go to something else (no wait I did remember, TV--so I'll get back to that in a bit). I have seen
Pirates of the Caribbean several times and have each time enjoyed Johnny Depp's performance--however that was the first time that I'd seen him on-screen. Then a few nights ago Chris rented
Finding Neverland and I watched it with him. I realize (after some research) that parts of FN were fictionalized--but I really enjoyed the movie. And having only seen PotC it was amazing to see Depp in such a different role. This really further fueled my desire to go see
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I'd read several Roald Dahl books as a kid, and of course Charlie was a favourite. However, the old movie had never set well with me.
Here you can find a table of the differences between the book and the two adaptations (though be warned it may very well spoil the new movie if you've not seen it yet). Yes it does have differences from the book, but except for the couple additions I think it is much truer to the book than the old movie--which additionally was a musical. And of course while as one of my nephews put it Depp was creepy, I enjoyed this performance of his as well. So I'm definately looking forward to the next PotC movie and perhaps going back for a look at other Depp flicks that I've missed over the years.
Let me briefly mention that I had the opportunity to watch
Serenity and rewatch the
Firefly series. And I must mention that Serenity was awesome!! It was brilliant sci-fi.
Here is Orson Scott Card's review of the movie.
Now on to television. Regretably during my lapse in blogging the new fall season started. Now there are many shows that I casually watch (I have the time right now), but many of these I will drop if I don't have time--like the
CSIs,
Without a Trace,
Cold Case, or
NCIS. On the other hand several new shows have really grabbed my attention. I'm definately enjoying the new season of
Lost (more later) but also some other sci-fi-ish shows.
Threshold,
Surface, and
Invasion are all very interesting to watch. Threshold is about an alien invasion utilzing a signal that has the power to rewrite DNA and "bioform" the population of Earth (though they appear to be concentrating on the US where the Threshold team is based). Surface is about the rise of a new vertebrate species in the world's oceans. Invasion is set in the aftermath of a Florida hurricane and reads somewhat like an invasion of the body snatchers. Like I said they're all good and I'm enjoying each one--but what I'm really enjoying is Lost.
This second season has definately had many surprises, for example this week's episode
The Other 48 Days was quite illuminating... I know I've said this several times to myself, but I really can't wait for the next episode. I suppose it is a sign of how good the filmmakers are that I keep saying that, thinking that the next show will be "the pivotal one" of the season that will answer so many questions. :-) But of course each episode may answer some questions though never without raising more.
Let me see, can I come up with another random change? Hmm...yep, I can! :-)
Shattered Sword!
If you know me then you know that I'm fascinated by history--and World War II is one of the most interesting times for me to study. I've long been a fan of a website conerning the Imperial Japanese Navy,
Nihon Kaigun, and so I was thrilled when I found out that two of the authors/contributors were publishing a book on the battle of Midway. Shattered Sword isn't just another book about the battle, it is supposed to be one that presents a radically different viewpoint than what is traditionally told. The authors explain that they have acces to previously untranslated Japanese sources and have examined what really happened. I really want to get my hands on this book, but I have to put it off for a while. *sigh* It really looks like it will be good. I recently started to read a book about Lincoln and was disgusted when the footnotes weren't numbered for easy reference (instead the list at the back merely marked what pages they came from in the main text). I'm ready to read a good nonfiction book and I want SS to be it! :-) And while I'd love to buy it (and if it is good I definately will) I just found out that the library has a copy on order! I've put a hold on the book and I'm the second in line. :-)
Okay, well I know that this isn't my longest post yet--and really this, the first after such a long and inexcusable break, should have been--but I've really run out of news and I just have stuff that I would ramble on about. Plus I think I'm going to go watch a movie in a half hour or so.
Well until next time then (and hopefully it won't be so long, ;-)).
~Matt
, means Go Forward. The main description on this page is based on information from Jona Baily; Kenneth Lu has contributed a slightly different version. Probably as a result of the Vietnam war, Tien Len has spread to some parts of the USA, where it is sometimes called Viet Cong or just VC; Kelly Aman has contributed one version of this. Chris Hovanic learned another version from Chris Molinaro (also in the USA) and they call it Thirteen. 
No don't refresh--that is the right image, :-). I'd like to welcome you to view the new and improved website of your favourite blogger--no wait, stop!! Don't go to another site, I mean this one, me! :( Okay, a small jest about favouritism, but hey, what are a few jests among friends? Um, anyway, you may now go to 
War of the Worlds
Batman Begins
. Incidentally the Batmobile was completely real and performed all of its own stunts without CGI or trick photography (except that I'm sure they didn't actually drive on the roofs of Chicago where they did extensive filming). 
See I've long been a fan of Roald Dahl's books (beyond just Charlie and 
Now I don't know how many of you know, but my general on-line persona is Black Wolff (or some variation of that when it is already taken--note the two "f"s, that is normal). In my founding story for my sci-fi universe I created the character of Josif Wolff, and eventually the Wolff clan. They've somewhat become surrogate identities for me and I've often used differnt Wolff names in games or where a pseudonym is needed: d'Lexus Wolff is an intelligence operative, Josif Wolff is in special forces, Lakota Wolff is a fleet admiral, etc... Well all of this is to say that I'm going to have a website up soon. Now rest assured, this blog won't be going anywhere. I may not always update on a set schedule (but this update and the last have been abnormally large, so I hope that counts for something, :-), but I'll be here. Now a few years back I gave website design a try with a free site, and remarkably that site is still around (but please don't laugh!) 
I tell you watching this and a Russian rocket launch on an Omnimax screen (i.e. IMAX dome--still five stories tall, but it curves, that is what the Museum Center has) is breathtaking an awesome.