I’ve had too many hours of BBC America viewing punctuated with commercials from the Tax Lady, AKA Roni Deutsch. She is perfect to be spoofed by Tracy Ullman. I could see her creating a character based on this informercial attorney.
June, 2008
28
Jun 08
Definitely Made For Tracy Ullman
28
Jun 08
What The Buck: Are You Addicted To the Internet?
Internet addiction? What’s that? Hear Buck explain.
Ironically, a lot of recovery support is online.
26
Jun 08
Free Tuesdays
Ever since I’ve bitched and moaned about having to pay admission to a museum, I now feel obligated to bring up something that San Diegans in the know do from time to time. To have that Smithsonian, museum-hopping kind of experience, hit Balboa Park for Free Tuesdays. Be mindful of the schedule as only certain museums and galleries are open on any given Tuesday, Also, this may not include special exhibits.
There are also 24 other affordable things to do in Balboa Park this summer. Have fun!
26
Jun 08
Where No Man Has Gone Before
Every once in a while, there’s a reminder here and there that geekiness is expensive. Yesterday, I went to the Star Trek Exhibit at the San Diego Air and Space Museum. In San Diego, one can expect to pay $10-$15 bucks for a museum visit, even for those affiliated. with the Smithsonian. One must be truly dedicated to see exhibits here, especially special ones. That requires even a higher financial commitment. To look at various Star Trek props, models, set replicas, and costumes, I paid $27.
I probably shouldn’t complain. I barely remember how much I paid to enter the Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas, but I believe that was $37-$40. For at least $10 more, I got to look at cosumes, props, a chronology of the future, and see a replica of Quark’s Bar, which doubled as a theme restaurant. I also got to go on a few rides, where I got treated to some convincing set replicas.
At this exhbit, there was plenty to learn and enjoy about Star Trek. Like many Star Trek oriented events, opportunities to fleece the fans abound.
In an amusement park kind of tactic, a volunteer can take your picture in Captain Kirk’s Chair or on the transporter pad. Price of these photos if you claim them: $2 each.
Outside of the exhibit, closer to the gift shop, you can pay $8 to ride a simulated shuttlecraft ride. Before leaving to the main gift shop, there are t-shirts, action figures/dolls, posters and DVD’s of the various shows’ seasons. If a Trekkie (excuse me, Trekker) can be parted with their money, it will happen.* I’m sure the Ferengi are jealous that they haven’t thought of this.
It would be fun to see again, but the price is little over half a tank of gas.
*on a personal note, I have other priorities. In plainer terms, I’m broke and it ain’t in my budget to buy merchandise.
25
Jun 08
The Machine Stops
Tonight, I’m going to subject my students to “The Machine Stops” by E.M. Forster, which is a horror of the future tale written back in 1909, predicting online communities among many things. We don’t have time to go through the novella itself, so I’m going to play them an audio dramatization. Here is a video presentation done for the British TV series Out of the Unknown in 1966.
Here’s Alphaville, another classic odd science fiction video:
25
Jun 08
Membership Has Its Privileges
Well, I’m not so sure about that. Saving a few cents on what’s already a ridiculous price doesn’t seem like quite a bargain.
These were taken at the local Costco in Mission Valley:
$4.48 per gallon for 87 octane, $4.68 for 91 octane (figures rounded to the nearest cent).
This gives me Nissan flashbacks from last year. At one point, it nearly cost me $60 to fill that car up, and the gas prices weren’t even that high. So far, with the Ford Focus, I was getting away with under $40 until the prices started their ridiculous hike.
19
Jun 08
Big Time Textuality: As Lonely As A Cloud
This one I’ll blame on Brian (because it’s fun), but I saw also saw it Chris playing around with it, so now it’s like some weird meme. I went on Wordle, which provides a way to jumble all this lovely text in random patterns, or “word clouds.” I used tags from my blog, but I think I’ll try a prose passage or a poem next time.
It is too easy to get sucked into. Even more so than the bees.
19
Jun 08
Better Than Ice Cream
The monsters people create sometimes. In this case, I got a little bee happy from a blog entry from Brian. He posted something about Haagen Dazc‘s* campaign to save the honey bee, complete with its own website, which creates awareness of the bee population problem. There, you can experience a Second Life of sorts for bees in which you fly your bee avatar around and get some educational tidbits about how some things really depend on these tiny creatures. There’s also a fun application where you can create your own bee image. I got a little too carried away.
Beeork
Perezz
I created a couple more of them and put them up on Flickr. I then had to slap myself to stop creating more, especially when it came to creating a bee that could either look like Michael Jackson or Victoria Beckham. Somehow, I think the bee gods would see to it that I get stung.
*Practically unspellable ice cream.
17
Jun 08
This Summer
What am I going to do this summer?
Well, I’ve already done one thing I’ve wanted to do, which was to visit Washington DC. I will definitely come back; I just don’t know when. Perhaps, some time in the near future, I’ll go to some overrated travel destination. No specific cities metioned, but I’ll be sure to look up people I know there or there and say hello.
As for what I will do, I’m teaching an eight week English Skills course at the urban college. I don’t mind dealing with grammar, sentence skills, paragraphs, and perhaps working towards essay skills in a class specifically designed to address those issue. I have the most experience with this course, and I often like my students. The big challenge is having to dole out the basic writing medicine in a compressed pill form. Not literally, of course.
Regarding my spare time, I want to get a lot of reading done. I just want to read fiction, especially that of William Faulkner. I’m not out to Southern-fry my writing. To me, Faulkner has a lot in common with science fiction or fantasy writers who have concentrated their works in specific worlds (i.e. J.R.R. Tolkien, Ursula K. Le Guin). Yoknapatawpha County, as a made-up place, is definitely a character in his works, complete with a history (and people who shape it). On that level, it’s not much different from Middle Earth or the Ekumen.
I also plan to take some time to write, especially some fiction. I’m not going to discuss my projects, but I may put stuff up from time to time. No promises or threats here, but doing the writing is more important than making it available for consumption.
As for some noteworthy things this summer, Pride has yet to happen in San Diego and I’m going to attend Comic-Con. I’ll take lots of pictures and you’ll be able to view them through Flickr. If I attend some panel or screening, then watch out for spoilers.
