Lynn,
these are your people:
Improve Everywhere mission: no pants
These folks are doing some neat stunts. Food court musical was cute, but I like the subtlety of Frozen Grand Central Station.
I have some pictures from Paley fest (I don't think they are very good), but that will have to wait a few days...but I will say that Capt. Awesome is awesome and Jon Hamm from Mad Men is dreamy in person while Vincent Kartheiser is pretty funny...
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Scouting
The funny thing about living in the greater LA metropolitan area is that production-related stuff happens all around you & when you least expect it. For instance, when I lived in the apartment, I woke up one fine morning & headed out to walk Lola by Caltech & came upon cast trailers & the crew setting up to film some Numb3rs exteriors. [They loved Lola, of course.] Most recently, I was sitting in my office (helping some of my students) when a young man popped his head in and asked my officemate Dave very politely if he could take a couple of pictures of our office because he was scouting locations. [Don't even ask about the pile of papers on my desk that I've been meaning to organize.] My other officemate, Denise, has a pirate flag flying proudly over her corner & I'm sure that will cause giggles in the production office. [It still makes me giggle & I see it everyday.]
I don't get all fan-girly when this happens...at least, not anymore because all the filming near CalTech de-sensitized me to it. That's not to say that "movie magic" doesn't thrill me any more (it does), but I'm just not surprised by it.
Just another day in LA-LA land, I guess.
Later this week: Paley Fest: An Evening with Chuck
I don't get all fan-girly when this happens...at least, not anymore because all the filming near CalTech de-sensitized me to it. That's not to say that "movie magic" doesn't thrill me any more (it does), but I'm just not surprised by it.
Just another day in LA-LA land, I guess.
Later this week: Paley Fest: An Evening with Chuck
Saturday, March 15, 2008
In the Queue: Sanjuro
I've had the movie Sanjuro on my shelf to be watched for many months and finally got around to it today. (Don't ask why it took me so long.) This Kurasawa film is a sequel to Yojimbo (which I have not seen but is in my Netflix queue somewhere) starring the fabulous Toshiro Mifune in the title role of this dark comedy. Sanjuro is a sarcastic, surly yet wise ronin who leads a small gang of young samurai rebels in their quest to rescue the uncle of one the rebels.
I enjoyed this very much, and it made it me laugh out loud quite a bit. (Also: this Criterion Collection release that I saw looks & sounds great.) While I love Mifune as Sanjuro (and, I must confess, I think I have a little crush on Mifune), I think my favorite character is the prisoner who's kept in the closet and pops out every once in a while to give his opinion to the young samurai. Hee! The best line for me, though, might be Sanjuro's: after the young rebels have made several foolish mistakes and now plan to attack the bad guys in what is undoubtedly a trap, Sanjuro asks, "Aren't you tired of being stupid yet?" HeeHee! I will be using that line often in my life from now on.
I enjoyed this very much, and it made it me laugh out loud quite a bit. (Also: this Criterion Collection release that I saw looks & sounds great.) While I love Mifune as Sanjuro (and, I must confess, I think I have a little crush on Mifune), I think my favorite character is the prisoner who's kept in the closet and pops out every once in a while to give his opinion to the young samurai. Hee! The best line for me, though, might be Sanjuro's: after the young rebels have made several foolish mistakes and now plan to attack the bad guys in what is undoubtedly a trap, Sanjuro asks, "Aren't you tired of being stupid yet?" HeeHee! I will be using that line often in my life from now on.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Miscellany
in no particular order...
(1)Lost Episode: "The Constant"
If I had known that there was the possibility of a hottie Scottish dude randomly showing up in my physics lab, I would have stayed in research. :)
A general Lost comment: so far, we've had a Sayid episode & a Desmond episode where we have seen them not "island-disheveled" (i.e., nice clothes, nice hair, & in Des' case, no wildman beard) and all I can say is purrrrr.... me=happy.
(2) Tenure update
The board of trustees has granted me tenure. Yay!
(3) Kaylee has a beau (J, that's the other Kaylee)
Kaylee(left) with her new boyfriend, Levi. How cute are they? I haven't met Levi, but I can tell from this picture that he is a total goofball.
(4) Stolen Wallet
My wallet was stolen out of my briefcase in my office today while I was in class. They left my cell phone & laptop so I'm not complaining. They tried to use my credit cards at Wal-mart - my credit card companies suspected fraud right away. I guess they know I'm a Target girl. The DMV was a surprisingly pain-free experience (I think it helped that I had my passport; even though it was expired, the DMV woman was thrilled that I had the foresight to bring it. I'm pretty sure I saved her from doing paperwork.) No new picture or anything; it will come in the mail - yay, technology! I will miss my DKNY wallet which I'd had forever - it was of the softest black leather & it was best crafted wallet I've ever owned. [Sidenote ~ Dear Chase Bank: your automated phone system sucks; how about adding an option for reporting lost or stolen cards at the TOP menu?]
(5) Homelife & Daemons
Lola & I were thrilled to have Jessica come for a visit. We had a great time. Thanks again for coming out. We did many things (which J has mentioned on her blog), including going to Wicked. It was fabulous!
J also left me her copy of The Golden Compass (thanks, again, J!). I really liked the combination of elementary particle physics, religion & fantasy. I have to love a book that uses the collapse of a wave function as a metaphor for when things fall apart. [I suppose I should have included a "warning: geek alert" warning before that.] I enjoyed the idea of every person having their own daemon & it made me wonder: what do you think your daemon would be? [That's not rhetorical - I want to know what you think yours would be.] And if you were a daemon, what shape animal do you think you would be? [Also not rhetorical.] For me, I'm not sure...the animals I've had the most affinity for are dogs (I was even born in the year of the Dog), wolves, dolphins, hawks/eagles & geckos so maybe my daemon be one of those. If I were a daemon, I'd probably end up being some type of bird - I'd love to be able to fly like that.
(6)Movie News
Indy's Back! I don't know if it will suffer from the "Even-number" curse, but it's Indy so I'll be there.
I recently saw the tv ad for Iron Man & while I would not have pictured Robert Downey, Jr as Tony Stark, I'm willing to give it a shot because I have a bit of nostalgia for Iron Man. When I was kid, my brother Dave read Iron Man comics so I got to read them, too - now that I think about it, they may have been the first comic book I ever read. At the time, Tony Stark was fighting his alcoholism and I was fascinated by this idea of a "hero" having such personal demons. I was still pretty young, so the idea of the hero not being "perfect" was fairly novel to me. (I wonder how much that influenced the fact that I like 'em tall, dark & handsome?) Hey, Susan, your boy Favreau directed it, so you have to go with me. ;)
That's my life, in a nutshell.
(1)Lost Episode: "The Constant"
If I had known that there was the possibility of a hottie Scottish dude randomly showing up in my physics lab, I would have stayed in research. :)
A general Lost comment: so far, we've had a Sayid episode & a Desmond episode where we have seen them not "island-disheveled" (i.e., nice clothes, nice hair, & in Des' case, no wildman beard) and all I can say is purrrrr.... me=happy.
(2) Tenure update
The board of trustees has granted me tenure. Yay!
(3) Kaylee has a beau (J, that's the other Kaylee)
Kaylee(left) with her new boyfriend, Levi. How cute are they? I haven't met Levi, but I can tell from this picture that he is a total goofball.
(4) Stolen Wallet
My wallet was stolen out of my briefcase in my office today while I was in class. They left my cell phone & laptop so I'm not complaining. They tried to use my credit cards at Wal-mart - my credit card companies suspected fraud right away. I guess they know I'm a Target girl. The DMV was a surprisingly pain-free experience (I think it helped that I had my passport; even though it was expired, the DMV woman was thrilled that I had the foresight to bring it. I'm pretty sure I saved her from doing paperwork.) No new picture or anything; it will come in the mail - yay, technology! I will miss my DKNY wallet which I'd had forever - it was of the softest black leather & it was best crafted wallet I've ever owned. [Sidenote ~ Dear Chase Bank: your automated phone system sucks; how about adding an option for reporting lost or stolen cards at the TOP menu?]
(5) Homelife & Daemons
Lola & I were thrilled to have Jessica come for a visit. We had a great time. Thanks again for coming out. We did many things (which J has mentioned on her blog), including going to Wicked. It was fabulous!
J also left me her copy of The Golden Compass (thanks, again, J!). I really liked the combination of elementary particle physics, religion & fantasy. I have to love a book that uses the collapse of a wave function as a metaphor for when things fall apart. [I suppose I should have included a "warning: geek alert" warning before that.] I enjoyed the idea of every person having their own daemon & it made me wonder: what do you think your daemon would be? [That's not rhetorical - I want to know what you think yours would be.] And if you were a daemon, what shape animal do you think you would be? [Also not rhetorical.] For me, I'm not sure...the animals I've had the most affinity for are dogs (I was even born in the year of the Dog), wolves, dolphins, hawks/eagles & geckos so maybe my daemon be one of those. If I were a daemon, I'd probably end up being some type of bird - I'd love to be able to fly like that.
(6)Movie News
Indy's Back! I don't know if it will suffer from the "Even-number" curse, but it's Indy so I'll be there.
I recently saw the tv ad for Iron Man & while I would not have pictured Robert Downey, Jr as Tony Stark, I'm willing to give it a shot because I have a bit of nostalgia for Iron Man. When I was kid, my brother Dave read Iron Man comics so I got to read them, too - now that I think about it, they may have been the first comic book I ever read. At the time, Tony Stark was fighting his alcoholism and I was fascinated by this idea of a "hero" having such personal demons. I was still pretty young, so the idea of the hero not being "perfect" was fairly novel to me. (I wonder how much that influenced the fact that I like 'em tall, dark & handsome?) Hey, Susan, your boy Favreau directed it, so you have to go with me. ;)
That's my life, in a nutshell.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
The "Old Mo"
A response to DKM's invitation to follow the book meme with the following rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
If you had posted this yesterday, I'd be posting something out of The Golden Compass. (Thanks, J!) Today, however, the nearest book at the moment happens to be the text used in one of the courses I teach, The Physics of Everyday Phenomena, 5ed by W. Thomas Griffith. Therefore, you all get some physics today (w00t!):
"If the defensive back is moving before the collision, his velocity changes abruptly. There must be strong forces at work to produce these accelerations, but these forces act for only an instant. How do we use Newton's laws to analyze this event?"
Page 123 of this book is the first page of a chapter on momentum and impulse. On this page, I learned that the "old mo" refers to momentum, as used by sports announcers when describing the momentum of a game (i.e., to the flow of a game)...although I have never in my life heard of it referred to that way. I'm thinking of renaming our Conservation of Momentum lab to something that cleverly uses the phrase "old mo"...something like, "Every old mo is new again," but, you know, more clever than that.
1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
If you had posted this yesterday, I'd be posting something out of The Golden Compass. (Thanks, J!) Today, however, the nearest book at the moment happens to be the text used in one of the courses I teach, The Physics of Everyday Phenomena, 5ed by W. Thomas Griffith. Therefore, you all get some physics today (w00t!):
"If the defensive back is moving before the collision, his velocity changes abruptly. There must be strong forces at work to produce these accelerations, but these forces act for only an instant. How do we use Newton's laws to analyze this event?"
Page 123 of this book is the first page of a chapter on momentum and impulse. On this page, I learned that the "old mo" refers to momentum, as used by sports announcers when describing the momentum of a game (i.e., to the flow of a game)...although I have never in my life heard of it referred to that way. I'm thinking of renaming our Conservation of Momentum lab to something that cleverly uses the phrase "old mo"...something like, "Every old mo is new again," but, you know, more clever than that.
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