Does this make sense?

You are going to the grocery store to buy groceries. When you get to the produce department you see the following two signs in the citrus area. Which product do you pick if you must choose?

Large navel oranges, 5 for $2.00

Small navel oranges, 6 for $3.00

For the math challenged I'll provide the easy comparison. For $6.00 you get 15 large navel oranges. For $6.00 you get 12 small navel oranges.

I suppose there could be reasons for this price difference--but since this a store where everything is geared towards making money that doesn't seem to make sense to me. Since navel oranges are the best eating oranges (their peels remove easily) it wouldn't make sense to waste money buying them to juice. Besides, this is Kentucky where all of the oranges are shipped in from far out of state--you'd have to be nuts to buy oranges for juicing purposes anyway. Well more than just one for a recipe here or there that is. As a consumer I couldn't imagine buying the smaller oranges for more money. Why on earth would anyone do it?

~Matt

PS Yes, I saw these signs in the produce department at my bigg's tonight.

I'd better post now

Or I'll never get it in today. I work this afternoon/evening until 23:00. Today I went to first service, not only because I work this afternoon but because everybody else went then and thus I had a free ride. I like not having to pay for gas when I don't have to! :-) We are part-way through a series on heaven. 'Tis good, though I have heard some before. At TMC we didn't just take heaven for granted as some places might.

I need to get some more pictures up. I also made some wooden furniture for the stick fort I mentioned in my last post. I'm having fun with my nephews out there. It is somewhat like being a kid again--but this time I have more experience and some things are much easier for it. I put together a table that the LEGO figures could stand at and I just produced a throne this afternoon.

Last night I watched Wallace and Grommit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit. It was a great flick. I'd had it on hold at the library for quite a while and it finally came in this week. Last night was the first night that I had time to watch it--so I did with two of my nephews.

~Matt

Day of Building

Today was my second day off this week. I slept in a bit, then spent a lazy morning catching up with things on-line and eventually taking my shower. I then sat out back in the sun for a bit working on the map for my fantasy universe. When the little kids when in for lunch I went in as well and fixed myself something. After I went back outside I ran into my nephew Chase and decided that it was time to have fun. So I spent the rest of the afternoon with Chase and one of my other younger nephews (off and on for them) building with twigs and bark. I'd done this before when camping as a kid. It is great fun to build buildings and settings with sticks, twigs, bark, and other natural materials. Today we took it one step further and made them LEGO sized. Here, I'll let the pictures do most of the talking:

Here you can see the entire complex that developed. The main area in the center consists of a corral and stable for the LEGO horses as well as a structure. The structure has the king's bed on the bottom floor and a wooden table on the top where the king can recieve guests and foreign dignitaries! :-) The entrance to this structure connects to the long stockaded pathway extending down to the LEGO tower at the bottom left of the picture. Then you can either head just a bit south to the first bark gate or turn east down another path to the second bark gate. No hinges yet, for now 'tis just bark holding back the hordes from invading. In the upper right of the picture you can see Chase's creation (besides the stable which he started and extensively designed). He has a kitchen with various bowls (acorn tops) of foods (torn remnants of different coloured flowers) and a table or two. As he has left an opening in the stockade we also have the option to extend the complex a bit to the north.

To the right is the other part of the forifications that I devised. Chase came up the idea--I just executed it. I took four Y shaped sticks and planted them in the earth in the midst of the ivy (or whatever those plants are). I should have taken a picture from further back, but I think you can get the idea from this. Using sticks placed in the Y's as a base I constructed a platform of sticks and then covered it with flat pieces of bark. Next I inserted a couple more sticks between the bark and platform sticks so that I could turn the back half of the area into somewhat of a room. The roof consists of sticks covered with thin flat pieces of bark. I think it looks quite impressive, like a tower rising out of the jungle of green. I couldn't resist putting my LEGO forrester characters up in the tower. I don't have an explanation for how they get up and down, yet! I'm working on it. Oh, I also used chunks of bark to make a low wall around the two-thirds of the platform covered by flat bark. The front third just consists of the bare sticks covered by a couple bits of bark--but it isn't useful enough as I can't directly place LEGO figures there--and even if I could I wouldn't because there is no way to fence it off or make it defensible.

Well one last picture. Last night I had to drop by Wal-Mart to pick up a few supplies. Going by the shoe section on my way to the food area I happened upon a sandal display. I've been looking for some new sandals ever since spring/summer weather arrived. I enjoy sandals but my old pair are at least as old as high school. Not only are they somewhat worse for the wear as far as creases and rips go, but the Velcro doesn't want to stick anymore and always slips at the worst moments. The new ones look quite similar, but they're new and highly functional.

I might post some pictures later. Right now I'm just quite tired and wanting to post this before midnight. I hear some wonderful thunder outside but I'm too tired to enjoy it, :(. At least I think it is thunder, it could be something dragging against the road--I really don't care enough to investigate.

~Matt

PhotoBucket

I'm not sure how many of you use PhotoBucket, but unless I directly upload pictures to Blogger I always host my image files in my PhotoBucket account. I noticed that one site was having problems with their link so I logged into my account to see if mine had any problems. I was quite surprised to see the new layout.

I remember back when PhotoBucket was quite new. I didn't get in at the very start, but close to it. I've seen album sizes increase several times, the first time just as I was getting close to 100%. I've never even come close to using 100% of my bandwitdh however. It is a great service. You don't want to link to others photos directly as that steals bandwidth, and so does uploading things directly to your own website. That is where PhotoBuket is great because for free (unless you want an ad-free larger account) you get to host pictures and directly link to them (which many free webservices such as Angelfire will not allow).

Well it is almost as good as Gmail now, ;-). PhotoBucket now lets you upload video as well as images. Each free account gets one gig of storage and 10 gigs of monthly bandwidth! 'Tis great. Just as I don't worry about deleting e-mails (save spam) with Gmail, I no longer have to worry about too many pictures on-line! :-)

~Matt

The Village

I just finished watching The Village. I saw it some months ago, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I am definately a fan of M. Night Shyamalan. I can't wait for his next film to come out this summer! But, back to the past.

Intellectually some of the suspense was gone because I knew what was coming--I knew the several twists, turns, and surprises of the plot. However, the movie was still suspensful. The style of filming, the often haunting music, and the acting all combined to set me slightly on edge even as I knew something was coming.

As a kid I was scared of the dark--well not the dark exactly, but what could be in it. I didn't mind so much laying in my bed in a dark room--but going down a dark hallway to the bathroom wasn't too feasable of an option. Again, intellectually I knew that there was nothing lurking to snatch or startle me in the dark doorways I passed. This meant nothing though, fear doesn't have an exclusive attachment to the intellect, it is also very much tied to emotions. Besides the emotional commitment to suspense though I enjoyed this film because of the hope involved.

I've watched a couple horror films (in this category I'm not including The Birds or Psycho, both of which I've watched and which didn't scare me)--I might even have blogged about them, and I'm certain I have another Villiage blog back in my archives. These movies I didn't like. My imagination is quite overactive. As a kid it was quite busy dreaming up what could be lurking in the shadows. Now I enjoy developing fantasy and science-fiction worlds, but my mind also works overtime with plots. If I watch a horror movie I know that it isn't real, but my mind ignores this fact, runs with the plot, and personalizes it.

M. Night's movies are different though. A horror movie, from what I can understand, has at its core the premise of Murphy's Law, written in blood. What can go wrong, will go wrong with drastic consequences, and there is no chance of anything good happening. In short there is no hope in a horror movie. You know going in that the movie will end badly for the characters. In a Shyamalan movie though there is a sense of hope. Things may be bad, they may get worse, but somewhere there is light at the end of a tunnel, and somebody will see it.

~Matt

PS I found my old post. It isn't much, but you can see it here. I thought it was longer, but I must be remembering my later posts about Signs and The Sixth Sense.

Spring is coming

It might even be already here, ;-). I think we've seen the last of snow and freezing temperatures for a while. However, I won't complain if temperatures stay in the fifties and sixties for quite a while instead of venturing further up the mercury. Today it was overcast all day with a few sprinkles in the morning and a bit of actual rain in the late afternoon. With the rain everything looks so fresh and clean, especially the new decidious leaves.

I just took the picture at the right while standing on the back porch. Unfortunately pictures taken with my digital camera require a bit of tweaking to get the colours just right--it is slightly out of whack in the green part of the spectrum if I recall correctly. The scene actually looks much more vibrantly green and beautiful.

~Matt

What can I say?

Well work is going along. Today was a much better day than I've had recently. I was the only housekeeping/carts employe in today from 09:00 until 14:00. However, we weren't very busy so I was able to split my time effectively betwen inside and out. Even with my breaks things never got bad at all out in the lot. I wasn't tired or worn out at all when I went home at five. I was ready to go home, but just because it was the end of the work day, not because I was eager to leave work completely behind.

As the title suggests there really isn't too much else to say. I don't feel like finding pictures to upload tonight, so I'll just leave it as this. Oh, and I'm not planning to institute a regular update in the AM and PM--it just so happened that way today. I count posts based on calendar days, not my sleep cycle. Therefore the last post, though during my last awake period was technically made today since it was after midnight and for purposes of posting every day counts for Wednesday. I simply post tonight because I'm pathetic and must post now! ;-)

Oh, oh, I have more! I know everybody must be so eager. Either that or they're thinking that I should shut up already, boring everybody with so much text to either digest or ignore! :-) Well I was disappointed with television tonight. Lost was not on, so I was forced to substitutes. I joined Bones about four minutes after the hour, so I got the gist of the episode but completely missed what happened before the first commercial. It was an interesting episode, set in post-Katrina New Orleans, but it had quite a bit of vodoo in it. Temperance, the main character, is a scientist who rejects the "magic" of vodoo, but of course she believes she is truly objective instead of worshipping science instead of a "traditional religion." *sigh* I can live with that, what more do you expect from humanistic culture?

Criminal Minds was fascinating. The BAU team followed a serial killer who was expert at changing his appearance across the South. It actually seemed as though they tried to compress too much into the forty minutes of the show. The plot would have been interesting, with tweaking of course, as a movie methinks. *shrugs*

~Matt

PS I was wrong earlier about Lincoln currently being the only one on the front and back of a coin. Washington has already made an appearance on the reverse of a state quarter. The back of the New Jersey quarter shows the painting of Washington crossing the Delaware--so with the South Dakota there will be three coins to fit the criteria.

World Empire...V

I just found an old friend on-line. Many years ago I borrowed a CD from my sister, it was a share-ware CD that had come with her new computer. One of the games I found on it was called World Empire (I think either the original or II). It was somewhat of a Risk type game, except that the map had every country of the world on it. As in Risk there are connections between every continent--e.g. Brazil to Liberia--even when there is no actual connection in nature. Also there is only one connection between each set of continents. Europe and Asia only connect between the Ukraine and Russia.

Each turn you get a certain number of armies based both on the number of territories that you control and how many continents you have completely dominated. There is one catch though, you have an ideology, as does every country on the map. Countries are initiall independent and occupied by a certain number of armies (between one and four I believe). If you conquer a country with the same ideology as you there will be no need to leave anything but the one army required by the game (just as in Risk you have to have a minimum of one army on each territory). If, however, you conquer a territory with an opposing ideology you must leave a certain number of armies (the computer will tell you 2 or 3) to prevent a revolt. If you do not leave enough armies and the territory revolts control will be granted to the enemy (the other player with the same ideology as the country) as well as five armies on that territory.

I enjoy the game because you get to see every country in the world. V, the newest version, does an excellent job of showing nearly every nation. I was slightly disappointed that they didn't include East Timor, but I did see Monaco and San Marino! I downloaded the 30 day trial of V, so I probably won't be buying it. 'Tis a fun game, but not forever. Plus I found a few things in my storage unit this evening!

I found three items of especial note: two DVD sets and a game. I found both my complete set of the series Firefly, but also my Band of Brothers DVD set. Now I can watch either whenver I want--and I could even go from Firefly to Serenity! Though I would read the three comics in between--which I of course bought back before the movie was released. Additionally I found my Diablo set, so I can reinstall Diablo II, restore my saved game from well over a year ago, and go back to playing whenever I have enough time. :-)

Okay, I didn't realize that I'd stayed up so late--but I just had to finish my first game on World Empire V! :-) I work the next three days 9-5 so I need to be getting to bed earlier.

~Matt

Sleep

Well I definately intended to post this last night so that I would keep up my rhythm of posting every day, but alas I fell asleep before I could type and post this entry. Sleep has been interesting lately. My schedule fluctuates so much that my sleeping schedule is somewhat crazy. I might work 14:00-22:00 a couple days then 09:00-17:00 for a couple more with a day off in between.

I'm glad to have this job as it is bringing in money--but it isn't enough. I'd rather work with people a bit more, even if I'm in a cubicle next door to co-workers. On this job too often I'm just on my own wandering through the store or the lot as I work. It does provide some good time to think up ideas for my stories, but really too much time. I don't think that I'll be able to get the part-time position I applied for at the museum--I haven't heard anything back yet and the position is no longer listed. Therefore I need to edit my resume and get serious about finding other work. The problem is I barely make enough money at bigg's for my current situation, and it isn't at all enough to let me live on my own, :(.

~Matt

The Grand Crusade

Wow...To some extent I am speechless, but I won't let that prevent me from typing this entry! :-) I just completed The Grand Crusade, the final book in the DragonCrown War Cycle. It was well, nay very well, worth the read and the time spent on it. My earlier fears related to the evil overlord list were assuaged. Timing is everything.

The volumes to contain many descrptions of battles, and here they often were not glamorized as much as they could be.

The scattered Aurolani infantry fell swiftly. It occured to her that bards might suggest they were ripe wheat before scythes, but that analogy was simply too pristine. Wheat stalks did not scream when an arm hung by a ligament. They did not bleed or whimper and they certainly couldn't leap at a warrior, drag him down, and bite his throat out. That would ever be the way of it, though--that bards would sanely describe the utter insantiy of war.

There were many battle scenes, but also intersperced were comments such as I reproduced above. It was a grand quest at times, but not without trial and heartache. This was no mere painless campaign against evil, it was more human than that and showed a truer understanding of suffering and sacrifice. However, I would offer one caution besides the violence. There were a few PG-13 scenes that could definately have been left out--but regretably they were not.

Ah, I cannot rave enough about these books. I have enjoyed other fantasies before, but so rarely have I enjoyed a series so much. I think the last such might be Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince and Dragon Star trilogies. It is rare to find authors that so truly understand politics and human nature that they can craft a truly believable story. Leaders do not merely band their armies together because they are "good" and they're fighting the forces of evil. In truth they may have to be bribed, "guilt-tripped," or forced to do what is right. Stackpole definately recognizes this and creates real characters that live, breath, fight, and die on the page but live on in fond memories.

Now I no longer have to look at my time at work as so interminable, keeping me from these books. However, I am taking Talion: Revenant to work with me today--it was Stackpole's first novel, though not published until after some of his first works were out. I'm looking forward to seeing how he handles a single volume work.

~Matt

PS Reading the reviews at Amazon is very interesting. I happen to believe that most of the top reviews under the book are dead wrong. They consistantly assign one, two, or perhaps three stars to the book. However, many of the things they complain about are what I love. Beware there are significant spoilers therein that I've avoided here in case any reading this want to read the books. But part of the reason I enjoyed these books so much was not only that Stackpole is a great writer but because he defies so many conventions. Because his books are different I think that many were disappointed and couldn't see the books for the excellence that they are. Well, at least that is my two cents, and I'm not changing 'em. :-)

Heat

It was almost eighty today (at the least, it might have been higher), though with the humidity and coming after winter it felt much hotter. The last three days I've worked 09:00-17:00, outside working with carts the whole time (except for breaks and visiting the drinking fountain frequently). I just noticed after Thursday that my arms were slightly sunburned! I could finally see a watch mark on my arm again, as well as one on my right wrist where I wear the Livestrong bracelet my dad gave me. I hadn't had such marks all winter since I'd been inside much of the time and we didn't have many bright hot days.

A few parts of my head are a bit red, but not too much. I wear a cap, have Transitions lense glasses, and my hair is long. I've been telling my mom for a while that my hair is longer than it has ever been before and how much I enjoy it. But she keeps reminding me that I haven't shown her a picture so she can't really picture it or know exactly what I'm talking about. I am planning to get a haircut, I've just not gotten around to it for quite a while...;-) As I mentioned above I wore my cap all day so this picture which Chris took after dinner this evening, evidences "hat hair" to an extreme. I'm quite certain that Mark would never go for a hair style like mine, in fact he might even be shuddering now as I know how much he likes baldness.

I finished When Dragons Rage yesterday right after work and started The Grand Crusade. I kept going for a few hours and did my best to finish, but alas sleep finally took me. I'm going through it now and since there is nothing new on TV to distract me I'm really hoping that I can finish it tonight. In one way I definately do not want to be done as I will really miss these books, but on the other hand I want to see what is going to happen even more! :-)

~Matt

Thunder

About four this morning I woke to the sound of rolling thunder. As it was warm last night I'd left the windows to my room open, though the blinds closed. When I woke though lightning filled the sky several times along with the sound of thunder and I could hear rain pouring down. Therefore I decided that I had to close the windows. While I do really enjoy a good thunderstorm in the middle of the night I enjoy sleep even more. Thankfully I was able to go back to sleep fairly soon.

Unfortunately I only get to work inside for the first two hours today--after that, for the remaining six hours of my shift, I'm on carts. *sigh* Hopefully the rain won't come back and I'll just have to deal with puddles on the ground and such, but I'm not really too hopeful. The forecast tied into my Google toolbar says "Light Thunderstorm Rain." But at least it has 63 as the temperature, that won't be too bad!

~Matt

State Quarters

Okay, we'll start off with some trivia--then move on to the real meat of this topic. Who is the only person featured on both sides of a coin? Give up? Well I didn't intend for this to be a serious quiz--not with the pictures to the right. Obviously any American readers will know that President Abraham Lincoln is on the front of the current penny (and if you don't know something so basic as that you should be shot, or at least have something really bad happen to you...:-P) You can see it easily on this picture, perhaps a bit easier than on an actual coin (especially if you don't have great eyesight) but Lincoln is also featured on the back. The Lincoln memorial in D.C. is on the back of the penny and the memorial includes a large statue of Lincoln in the center--you can just see this statue on the penny design.

Thus Lincoln is the only person on both sides of a coin--to this point. Later this year it will all change with the South Dakota quarter. And I have a preview of the design right here for your viewing pleasure. Of course George Washington is on the front of the quarter (again if you don't know that and you're American submit yourself for punishment somewhere suitable) and as his visage is featured in Mount Rushmore, South Dakota's most famous landmark--you'll see him on both sides of the quarter later this year.

I rather like this design. I'm always in favour of landmarks on the quarters--hence my like of New York, and Mount Rushmore is no exception. If nothing else Lincoln, Washington, and Jefferson were three of our greatest presidents--and Teddy wasn't that bad...much better than his cousin!! *shudder*

This is a nice transition into my main topic, as of course I intended that it should be. :-) As I mentioned above I like the New York design which features both the state outline (a plus when you have an interesting shape--unlike Colorado--look, I love Colorado, but the outline is boring) and the Statue of Liberty. Texas is also quite interesting with the outline of the state and a single star--harkening to its former status as the Lone Star Republic. Massachusetts, Vermont, and Maryland are also great designs. Kentucky doesn't feature my favourite design--but it isn't half bad--horses are a major part of Kentucky's image. It is California's design that I truly despise.

Okay, first of all I don't hate people--just sometimes I really dislike some of the things they stand for. I'm all for being good stewards of the Earth, as God calls us to be in the Bible, but the current environmental movement is far, far beyond the pale. I honestly think that many believe animals should have more rights than humans. It isn't even just the ecoterrorists (yes many are real terroists just as much as Jihadists) or envrionuts--even the mainstream movement is far out of line in my mind. Eh, I'd better not go off into that tangent too much more or I'll become even more vitriolic.

Well John Muir was an early enviornmentalist. I simply think that California's history has much, much more to offer to a quarter design than John Muir and Yosemite. Many other things would be more appropriate to California history than this one man.

Elements from the state seal relating to the Gold Rush, or the Grizzley (as on the state flag--the Bear Flag Republic), agriculture, or any number of other things. Heck, every fourth grader in California learns about the California missions set up by Father Junipero Serra--what about putting San Juan Capistrano and its swallows on the coin? I'd go for that--if I couldn't have some sort of design similar to the flag. ;-) Nearly any of the items above would be preferable to the current design--which unfortunately cannot be changed. :(

I guess I'm just bitter since I don't especially love either the design from my home state of California or my current adopted state of Kentucky. *sigh* But I guess you can't win them all...

~Matt

Reading, what else?

I'm continuing to read through Michael Stackpole's DragonCrown War Cycle and still very much enjoying it. I just finished the second book--the first of the trilogy, but second since it comes after the prelude novel. I continually enjoy the way the author twists and even discards many fantasy cliches. Anyone who has read much fantasy is familiar with the typical quest motif. A young hero (or more infrequently heroine) is taken away from their normal life and they venture forth in a quest for some great and noble purpose--often to retrieve (or destroy) some magical object. Often the story is additionally a coming of age tale. DragonCrown does have a quest--the destruction of the evil tyrant from the north--but nothing is ever easy or simple. The heroes take a bit to come together, and they do not just charge after their goal. Instead the plot weaves around quite a bit.

The changes don't seem to be driven completely by the plot however--they seem more natural. A battle doesn't simply end the war, rather it serves several purposes. Yes the heroes may win for a time, and will probably eventually win--but so far this hasn't made the villian seem cartoonish or pathetic, rather contstrained by what is available to her. I think another great thing about the trilogy is the first novel, The Dark Glory War. I've already talked about it here--but it is taking on new meaning as I continue deeper into the series. DGW is narrated in first person while the other books are in third person. As I saw in I, Jedi Stackpole does a great job with first person--and this is no exception. The tale is set a generation (about 25 years) before the trilogy and serves to set up much of what happens later. I think that the trilogy could definately stand alone without DGW, but it is much richer for the addition. Furthermore reading DGW can only whet your appetite for the other novels as it ends, but obviously the story is ready to continue.

There is one cliche that I'm afraid the books will fall headlong into. It is a variation upon Rule 19 from the Evil Overlord List:

I will not have a daughter. She would be as beautiful as she was evil, but one look at the hero's rugged countenance and she'd betray her own father.

I guess I'll have to see where the plot goes. At this point I'm hoping that Stackpole will throw in some twists to surprise me--or that what I can see coming will happen early and not be at the climax of the series.

*shrugs* I'm just enjoying these books so much. I only started typing this so that I would keep up with blogging. I'm right now very eager to get back to my book! :-)

~Matt

PS Here is a perfect example how Stackpole tears into cliches. The first speaker is a princess begging the help of Will Norrington, a character believed to be the focus of a prophecy, but for various reasons he is doubting this concept.

"You must be, though. Don't you know?"

"It's magick! How am I supposed to know?" Will swept a thick hank of hair back. "It's not like I have a scar on my forehead or some weird birthmark or anything. Just because my father is a henchman for an evil empress doesn't mean I'm a hero. I mean, I know the songs. I know the legends. It's just easier in the legends."

It is great how he pokes fun at both Harry Potter and Star Wars (especially as he has written Star Wars novels).