They Didn't Ask Me

Cooking For One

... isn't a lot of fun, at least in terms of doing anything elaborate. But I've done okay during the nearly three weeks Mrs. Dr. Phil is in Nicaragua. With one real exception.

Probably ten years ago, when Mrs. Dr. Phil was off conferencing, I decided to try some childhood favorites. One was Spaghetti-Os. Every family has certain common meals and often standard brands of foods and snacks. We did Franco-American canned spaghetti, often with hot dogs, and never Chef Boyardee. As I recall, the Spaghetti-Os were fun.

This year? Not so much. Oh the sauce had the right flavor, as did the flavor and texture of the little round concentric nesting pasta-like substances. And the Beef Ball Park franks were lovely as usual. But my palate must've changed, because in two meals the Os were just blah. Plastic. Ugh.

I'll have my childhood memories. But I shan't be repeating that childhood meal ever again. (grin)

On Being Alone

The six weeks of Clarion in 2004 was tough on everyone. Some quit jobs to attend. One had just gotten married. For us it was the longest scheduled time apart since we got married twenty years earlier.

But I was lucky. Not only had I arranged to not teach during the summer, after a year of full-time teaching, so I had the time and the money. And Clarion was still in East Lansing, which was just a 90 minute drive away. So we weren't really apart for six weeks, as I chose to bop home most weekends to do laundry and Mrs. Dr. Phil drove out for the 4th of July.

This time we only have had a few emails and no phone calls. And I'm the one kicking around the empty house -- not teaching this summer -- and Mrs. Dr. Phil isn't even in the same country.

I'll be very happy to have Mrs. Dr. Phil back in a few days and hear all about her adventures.

May

The weather has been mostly pleasant, yet still odd. Not sure I've been able to go with more than a day or two with the heat completely shut off, with overnights in 30s and 40s. So very nice daytime temps the last two days -- low 70s. But hazy overhead. And two days of humid 80s coming? Why do I feel like we won't be able to see the sunset partial solar eclipse on Sunday?

Ah West Michigan weather versus astronomy... West Michigan wins most of the time. (wry grin)

Dr. Phil

Leaving A Sour Taste In An Otherwise Enjoyable Experience

When we first saw the trailer for The Pirates! Band of Misfits in 3D, I really laughed out loud -- it was the funniest trailer I've seen in years.

Of course when I was setting up for this blog entry, I found out that this movie was released everywhere except North America and Australia as The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists. Great. Can't make it marketable with a nation toying with Science Ignorance by appealing to "an Adventure with Scientists". Grr. Snarl. ANNOYED.

I mean, when the first Harry Potter was retitled for the U.S., it was thought that Americans wouldn't know what a philosophers stone was -- or maybe Philosophy is perceived as a big enough turnoff as Scientists. Sigh.

Am I overreacting? Perhaps. But come on, guys, grow up!

8:45pm, around sunset but it is much brighter to the east, than the west. 9:05pm, dark with a big rippling peal of thunder. Guess that 20% chance is going to be upgraded due to reality. (grin) 9:12pm, power momentarily out. Not long enough for the generator, of course. Heavy rain followed. Quiet now.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits [PG]

Holland 7 Theatre #3, 5:15pm, 1×$6.75

The geniuses at Aardman, makers of those most excellent Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit, have done it again. With poultry, even. Literally, figuratively and with costumes. These films take forever to make, what with their stop motion work. But you really need to see it on the big screen. It's all eye candy.

I had to pick up some stuff at Office Max, so Holland 7 was more convenient. But that meant only 2D, though based on the trailer, the 3D should be spectacular. And enjoy the tons of throwaway side details -- I swear every gag shows up at least twice and figures in the plot -- and the backgrounds to the credits are well done, too. Stay for them.

The plot is, well, it's insane of course. Pirate Captain is trying to win Pirate of the Year. Think Pirates of the Caribbean, but really funny. Oh, and given the long lead time to make this film, I wouldn't think too much of any similarities with the fourth POTC movie. (grin) Speaking of poultry, in all the musical numbers and running jokes, there's one reminiscent of a Robot Chicken routine -- What's Best About Being A Pirate. And it isn't the loot. (big-hammy-grin)

The pirate captain Pirate Captain is voiced by Hugh Grant and the Doctor, er, Charles Darwin, by David Tennant. QV I, whose motto is "I Hate Pirates", is Imelda Stauton, another veteran of Sense & Sensibility with Grant. Ah, nothing like a little class to the operation, though poor Old Vic does not get a fair shake here.

Did I laugh out loud like I did with the trailer? Not really, but that has a lot more to do with the fact that I had a private showing. (double-grin) Indeed, I note that The Pirates isn't even on the schedule any more this week. So I guess I did good in not putting off seeing this. And that makes me smile.

Recommended

Trailers: Ooh, Minions! Despicable Me 2 in 2013 -- absolutely no details.

Pre-Show: They're selling toys and costumes for The Avengers. The Hulk. Iron Man. Thor. Captain America. Anyone notice what's missing from that foursome? Guess it's a No Girls Allowed club.

FYI: The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists by Gideon Defoe is a 2004 book, first in a series, which Wikipedia suggests isn't exactly aimed only at children. Haven't read the books, but based on the PG film, there's fun for all ages.

Dr. Phil

Saw Two Movies Last Week

Still have to write up a review on the one. This week I was busy with a variety of things, what with poor weather the beginning of the week and the abortive dinner plans (DW) of midweek, so I didn't get out to the movies until Friday. But it was a really pretty day out, which made a late afternoon drive exceptionally pleasant.

When I came out at 6:30pm, it was still bright blue sky nice. Still over a month to the longest day of the year, but what a difference a couple of months can make. Anyway, there were these two seagulls squawking on top of this light pole in the parking lot. I'd brought a camera, so I changed to a longer lens. By the time I got the shot, they were no longer on the same lamp housing, but they still amused me.


One pair of gulls, bathing in sunlight -- or the emissions from that cellphone tower. (grin) (Click on photo for larger.)

The Avengers 3D [PG-13]

Holland 7 Theatre 5, 4:00pm, 1×$8.25

The start of the summer blockbuster popcorn season came early this year and oh what a biggie. There was no way I wasn't going to get a small popcorn and drink, especially since the Holland 7 has the best popcorn around.

In the week since The Avengers blew up the box office, many people have raved about how good the flick is. Especially given the results of some of the comic book adaptations. I even think the local reviewer at the GRPress gave it four stars. And a lot of that love is justified. But there's also some carping about the lack of diversity -- despite Samuel L., Scarlett and Gwyneth among the major players. And that, too, is justified to some extent.

But, given that Marvel already has in the bag movies with Iron Man, The Hulk and The Mighty Thor, they've been building up to The Avengers for years. And Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. finally gets to come up to bat and bring everyone out to play. Everyone gets to have a lot of fun, sufficiently such that Tony Stark doesn't completely dominate/steal the whole show. And that is what makes this movie incredibly fun. The interactions and banter between all these powerful heroes -- and villains. Even the Big Guy. That big green guy. (grin)

Sure we have the usual Things That Go Wrong and Teams That Won't Team at first, plus the usual setbacks and stuff. I mean, they've got two hours and twenty minutes to fill, so they have to pack a lot of stuff into this movie. But there's actually dialogue and whole scenes of expository development. Really. Hard to believe.

Look, I know we're dealing with willing suspension of disbelief, but I do have a few issues with firepower, numbers of rounds and energy requirements. You've got all these bad guys pouring out of hyperdimensional hole in the sky, like so many anime shows or reminiscent of The Matrix: Revolutions. At least the latter made an attempt, even if poorly executed, of trying to include some semblance of having to actually carry a lot of rounds and reload from time to time. Instead we get one good indication of why having only one shot isn't such a good tactical move and then we have Black Widow blasting away the invaders with pistols. Right.

There were a handful of people at the showing I was at, including a bunch of teens after school. But only one group of adults stayed with me to see the first Dr. Phil Special -- you had to stay all the way to the very end to see the second. (grin)

Good popcorn.

Highly Recommended

Trailers: We're getting longer trailers for some of the movies we've seen previously. Two animated movies. Disney's Brave certainly looks entertaining. I can pass on Frankenweenie, since I have a bad feeling I've just seen all the best lines about a boy trying to resurrect his dog. And heavens to Betsy, they're trying to make me like Battleship.

Dr. Phil

Starting Up

When Sam The Dark Wonder cat was diagnosed with diabetes in October 2009, of course we didn't know how it would go. But someone had brought back a partial unit of insulin syringes -- they come 100 to a package which includes a hazardous sharps disposal container -- and the wonderful folks at Allendale Animal Hospital passed it on to us. At first he got two shots a day, but diabetes in cats isn't the same as diabetes in people, and eventually we got him stabilized on a single small shot in the morning after breakfast. The insulin was like rocket fuel, working wonders on Sammy for 2½ years.

And we must've ended up with 60-80 syringes in that first partial unit.

Settling Up

So the other day we got the last statement from the vet's office for last month. (DW) And today I swung by and settled up.

On the way, I bagged up some of our remaining supplies. The last vial of insulin can't be reused, so it'll get tossed. But I had a full container of spent sharps for recycling and most of a new container of syringes. Plus most of a case of cans of Science Diet w/d diabetic cat food.

So I dropped that off, too, for the next cat who suddenly turns diabetic and its owners who have to take care of them. I took a picture of Sam's gift, along with Eileen who runs the vet's office. Actually, Eileen was also the practice cat in October 2009 -- I gave her a shot of saline to learn how to give Sam his shot. (grin) I did it very well. (double-grin) And Sam almost never objected during all those hundreds of shots I gave him. (extra-special-grin)


Some number of insulin syringes and 17 cans of feline Science Diet w/d -- while Eileen glares slightly on the third picture. (Click on photo for larger.)

And paying it forward.

Dr. Phil

We Love Food

And one of our favorite restaurants is Butch's Drydock in Holland MI. Especially as they do special wine pairings dinners from time to time. Tonight was the latest. 7pm.

Now, several years ago they did a special dinner during Tulip Time, and realizing that streets would be barricaded and parking lost due to one of the Tulip Time parades going on at the same time, they arranged to have valet parking and put the cars in the neighboring closed lot. It was brilliant and such a pleasant evening. The servers who did the valet work had a ball, too.

Since this week is (a) Tulip Time and (b) Mrs. Dr. Phil is in Nicaragua, I thought it'd be nice to have a special dinner at one of my favorite restaurants. But given my leg, I knew I couldn't hike far -- especially after dinner (grin) -- and did my research. No parade was listed for tonight. I figured it'd be crowded, though, and arrived "early".

Instead I drove straight into...

The Hell Hole That Is Holland At Tulip Time

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. When I emailed my reservation to Butch, I raised the issue of parking and he made a passing reference to klompen dancers and I didn't bite, thinking generically and not A Bloody Big Event With Thousands of Tourons Clogging Every Pore in the Concrete.

8th Street barricaded two blocks from Butch's, which also means all that street parking is lost. Now I know a few tricks around Holland, so I dove down to 10th and cut up through a bank drive-thru to 9th -- the lot behind Butch's is full. I looped around several times, missed a couple of spaces because others were hunting, too.

Eventually, well after the 7pm start time and forty-five minutes of hunting, I gave up. Headed to a drive-thru away from the madness -- McDonalds on 8th was jammed so I hit B.K. on 16th -- in anticipation of maybe catching a movie, but I was in between start times for anything I wanted to see.

So while Butch's Special Dinner guests were dining on...

Appetizer:
citrus mango scallop ceviche
LangeTwins Generations Viognier 2010

Soup:
duck with wild mushrooms and parisian vegetables
LangeTwins Generations Pinot Noir 2010

Salad:
pancetta, fried haricot verts, sweet peppers, pecorino cheese and honey balsamic dressing
LangeTwins Reserve Chardonnay 2010

Entrée:
sautéed twin tournedos of beef with crimini mushroom demi-glace accompanied with gorgonzola rosemary au gratin potatoes and grilled aparagus
LangeTwins Midnight Reserve 2008

Dessert:
chocolate lava cake with raspberry sauce
LangeTwins Estate Zinfandel 2009

... after two hours of driving and fifty-five miles of gasoline, I got a cheeseburger.

Yeah, it's a first world non-problem, but I'm still pretty pissed about it. Two dinners, same problems -- you already know how to solve the problem and you don't do it the second time? Yeah, I got within fifty feet or so of a table, but I couldn't exactly leave a Bravada smack in the middle of a parking lot blocking the turnaround. Or at least I'm not the asshole who would. So after looking forward to a really fine meal and learning some more things about wine -- I don't even drink, just taste or cook with alcohol -- yeah, it's a huge letdown.

Sorry, Butch: Total institutional memory failure.

Dr. Phil

Voted

Around 5pm. Voter number 54 in my precinct, ballot number 145 and count number 130 on the machine I cast my vote in. Renewal of the school millage in place since Prop A changed the way schools were financed years ago.

Solving Problems That Don't Exist

The procedure for voting always starts with filling in a little paper form. New this time since the Primary? Q: Are you a citizen of the USA? Woman next to me. "Can non-citizens vote?" Poll worker. "Well this is the sort of thing we're trying to prevent."

Snort.

This same poll worker asked if I had my photo ID. I said yes. She told me I needed to have it out for the workers at the Precinct table. I said I'd get it out. She wanted me to get it out. Really? Do you need to see it? No. Well I have a reason not to get it out yet -- if I drop it while crossing this large empty room in the church used for polling, I'd have trouble picking it up.

But rationality appears to have fled someone enthusiastically worried about non-citizens voting, so I got out my damn ID.

At the Precinct table the next surprise -- the books are gone. Used to have to talk to the person who had my section of the alphabet. But now they have a laptop with a mag stripe reader, to read my MI driver's license. On the second try. After swiping it first in one direction and the the other. Hmmm... used to was that you could prove identity with a US Passport. Is the card reader mag stripe or optical character reader or both?

You know that little application form I mentioned earlier? The one with the YES/NO question about whether you're a citizen of the USA? (Who says that? Everyone says US citizen, not citizen of the USA.) You have to print your name, then sign it. I couldn't see the computer screen, so I don't know if the signature is on the computer as it was printed in the old book -- or whether they trust the photo ID car YOU brought into the place. But you filled out that little form in pencil on a table with a rough nubbly surface which pretty much makes all signatures illegible.

Yeah, this is serious first-class security procedures to prevent the thousands of foreigners trying to skew a small town local school millage election.

Wonder what all this security theatre is costing us.

Really.

Dr. Phil

Holmes At Large

Ah, Sherlock Holmes. While in grad school, I had a one-volume complete set of all of the real Sherlock Holmes stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and read them all during lunch one summer. Basil Rathbone. Jeremy Brett. Robert Downey, Jr. (DW)

I love them all.

Sherlock 2.2

It's the first Sunday in May 2012 and that means that PBS' Masterpiece Mystery starts showing the second season of the marvelous Sherlock with "A Scandal in Belgravia". One of the things I love about the BBC 21st century reboot of Holmes is how they don't feel obligated to do exactly the same thing, but to re-imagine it as needed. Watson blogs. Cars and planes figure in prominently. Holmes is glued to his cellphone.

But of course some things stay the same. If you have Holmes and Watson and the older smarter brother Mycroft, why then you have to have Irene Adler. The Woman. Is this the love of his life? Or just his favorite challenge? Who knows?

This Irene Adler is, presumably among other talents, a dominatrix. Knowing that Holmes is coming to see her, she takes care to prepare herself -- and shows up naked. We can see that Holmes is stumped -- the hypertext clue system turns up just "????". He can immediately get a number of clues off of Watson, but nothing from Adler.

Watching Irene and Sherlock sparring is totally brilliant.

This may be my favorite episode to date. There are so many mysteries, large and small, which at first blush have no connection to each other, but are so expertly woven together that it almost hurts. And the very last bit in Pakistan... ah-hhh.

My mother commented that this Holmes is gorgeous, whereas Holmes is usually not. Perhaps, but it is of no interest to Holmes and he wears it to no advantage.

Mrs. Dr. Phil was annoyed to find that she would be in Nicaragua when Sherlock restarted. I did tape it. You're welcome.

They cannot do enough episodes of this show. But we'll take what few they offer. And Benedict Cumberbatch? He's Smaug in The Hobbit and Khan in the next Star Trek reboot movie, just to mention two upcoming roles. And on NPR, he revealed nothing about the latter.

Elementarially brilliant. (grin)

Dr. Phil

Hard To Believe

I am a huge fan of Titanic. The movie, the RMS Titanic herself, the arrogance and elegance of the Edwardians. So given all that and the one hundredth anniversary of the sinking, I guess you really have to imagine that I've been swamped with things to do such that I did not have a chance to see the re-release of Titanic in any format in April.

So now it's summer, I've no classes and Mrs. Dr. Phil is in Esteli, Nicaragua. So I'm going to catch up on some movies. When I started to check on times, I found out that Wednesday and Thursday were the last days to see Titanic and The Hunger Games in IMAX.

Titanic 3D in IMAX [PG-13]

Celebration North IMAX Theatre, Seat A14(13), 3:00pm, 1×$15.00

Huh. They've just started doing assigned seating in our IMAX theatre. I wanted first row center -- the ticket seller had a seating chart, but pointed at the wrong row. Okay, the seating chart doesn't actually have labels for FRONT or REAR, but I'm pretty sure in any theatre I've ever been in, ROW L is not the first row. And then the screen could only slowly scroll up. This is going to get old when people are stacked up in line, as opposed to a Wednesday afternoon in May while school is still in session.

I picked A14, but A13 is "better". Why first row? So I can stretch my leg out at will.

But what about the movie! I hear you shout.

Look, James Cameron's three hour and seventeen minute Titanic is an epic. It begs to be seen projected on a big screen. It's been fourteen years since it's been first run in theatres, and while movies have changed a lot in fourteen years, Titanic holds up exceedingly well. Oh sure, the bad dialogue and bad characters are still front and center, but all the impressive parts of the film are still there. And we didn't have an IMAX in Grand Rapids yet fourteen years ago.

After Avatar, one is sure that Cameron wouldn't let the 3D conversion look bad. Fact is, if I didn't know better, I would have sworn Titanic was filmed in IMAX 3D -- it's that good. (1) There's a quiet scene when Rose's Monets are getting drowned and the surface of the water is a rippling shimmer. In 3D it's full of depth, even in the far lower left corner, 'cause I checked. (2) They actually converted too far. TV screens should not be in 3D, though I'll concede that in "Snoop Vision" from the ROV robots in the wreck, that the video feed might be in 3D for the pilot's binocular vision. (3) Some of the full screen full on faces seem a bit flattened, but I think that's just the much larger than life effect. (4) The 3D depth created by bubbles and floating bits of debris in submerged shots in every bit as astounding as some of the floaters in Avatar.

Cameron's nearly full-size sets have bulk and solidness. Indeed, it's only when you get that first exterior shot of the bow almost to the water that you finally believe that such a solid ship is really going to sink -- the same emotional feeling I had back in December 1997.

During the 100th anniversary specials, Cameron reexamined the evidence and changed his mind about that 90° pitch angle of the stern as it went down, but said he wasn't changing the film. However... I did spot one update to the film, and I'll have to do some checking with my astronomy software. But there was one howler in the original with a circular constellation in the night sky -- and plenty of people, myself included, wondered why the hell Cameron didn't have the correct night sky. Well, as Rose is looking up floating on that chunk of wood, the howler is gone and replaced with the Milky Way. Now I have to check to see if that's right. (grin)

I'm glad I finally got a chance to see it this way.

Highest Recommendation

Dr. Phil

Hi, Y'All

Yesterday was busy, up til about noon. And then I did nothing.

This is typical after Grade-a-Thon, especially when I have a big class. Of course I do it to myself. I require this Science Literacy book report of all my classes, but wading through over 200 four to five page papers, plus all the other grading, turns me into a machine. A machine that needs a serious recharge afterwards.

Not doing a lot of reading for a day. Tired eyes. Did not have any alarms set for today, so I got many, many hours of lovely sleep.

Worst part of Tuesday was that my usual mindless TV watching zombie decompression routine was stunted by real suck ass daytime offerings. (grin)

Now... time to get some things done.

Dr. Phil

May The First

It's Grading Day -- I had to get my grades in by noon. Actually I got them in by 11:20am, hardly even close. (grin)

But first I had to get up early and drive Mrs. Dr. Phil to the GVSU Holland center to meet up with five other people, part of an annual expedition to Nicaragua as a part of GVSU's Applied Global Innovation Initiative. She'll be serving as a volunteer, along with her stepmother Pat, in a program led by two faculty (Engineering, Business-Marketing) and GVSU students for UNAN students and faculty in Esteli.

This group will travel together out of Chicago's O'Hare -- where they'll meet up with Pat -- and as I write this I know they got as far as their layover in Atlanta. (grin)


8:30 in the morning, Mrs. Dr. Phil in her great new hat at the left.
Six people, five seats, rented minivan, and gear for the program and nearly three weeks. (Click on photo for larger.)


This goes here and this goes here -- and this one from the project will count as this person's second checked bag... (Click on photo for larger.)


And it all fits! (Click on photo for larger.)


The adventure begins here. I'll get Mrs. Dr. Phil to provide captions for everyone later. (Click on photo for larger.)


All loaded... (Click on photo for larger.)


...and the doors are closing... (Click on photo for larger.)


...the trip to Nicaragua departs the GVSU Holland campus. (Click on photo for larger.)

I'm not going to Nicaragua -- darn it, Mrs. Dr. Phil gets to add one more country to her passport that I don't have. Partly it's that there's no way I could have handled Finals and Grading Weeks with packing for heading south to 12° N latitude. And I haven't flown anywhere since I hurt my leg nerve which is slowly regrowing. And I'm not really built for the weather at 12° N latitude -- it's going to be humid and in the 80s here in West Michigan for a couple of days this week and that will be brutal enough. The weather down there was raining and 95°F.

After grades were sent in, I kept it pretty light for the rest of the day. It's been a LOT of reading the last week and my little eyes are tired. Tomorrow? Time to start working on the summer writing projects!

Dr. Phil