Big Pimpin'

I promised pimping to come and it has arrived. You may notice that I have added a Ticketmaster banner on the right side of the page. I have to confess, I have joined forces with the man and signed up as a TM affiliate. It really doesn't mean much other than if someone buys tix through my link, they kick me back a little cash. As a person who has been known to purchase a ticket or two, I thought it might make sense to do this.

So, if you are buying Ticketmaster tix anyways, I'd be much obliged if you were inclined to use the link.

If you need tickets to a specific event, let me know early and there is a very good chance that I can get tickets for you before they are available to the general public.

/ends pimping

A few quick miscellaneaous notes:

• More pimping will come soon as a new CD is coming that I'm going to be reviewing.
• For someone who claims to be busy, I sure do watch a lot of movies. I'll post about a couple in the next week or two.
• All those people announcing they were pregnant are about to be announced as having babies. Be ready for another round of congrats.
• My first paper of the semester is due tonight. I really need to do better next time, I really pushed it to the last minute on this one.

Until next time.

Ace

Movie Review - U2 3D

Q: How many members of the band U2 does it take to change a light bulb?
A: One, Bono holds the light bulb and the world revolves around him.

I surprised the better half with a trip to the local IMAX theatre for U2 3D, which is basically a concert of the band in Buenos Aires that was recorded in 3D technology during the recent Vertigo tour.

I've seen U2 once live, simply because the better half is such a huge fan of theirs. However, I do believe that the band has authored some of the greatest rock songs in the last 30 years - their status as legends is well deserved in this respect. Despite this, I'm not exactly the biggest fan of the band.



With this set of preconceived notions as a backdrop, I wasn't expecting much from the movie/concert. But I was blown away. Anyone who enjoys rock and roll, the live concert experience or cool movie makin technology really should see this movie. Before I get too fanboy on you though (and isn't that suddenly the most derogatory thing you can say about someone?), let me nitpick a little.



There were a few things I didn't care for in the movie. First, I wish they would have just played the whole show uncut. I realize the band is probably putting on 2 1/2 hour shows but the movie seemed a little off kilter when they were cutting from song to song. Second, there were other songs I sure would have loved to hear, especially Please, which is probably my favorite song from the band and appears on the Pop CD. Finally, I could have done without Bono's attempts at speaking Spanish to the crowd. He sounded like me trying to read the Dora books to the kids at bedtime. Sheesh! EDIT - Big thanks to regular reader Jason for this link to the performance on YouTube.


OK, now it's time to gush. This was really an unbelievable technical experience. Within the first minute, you feel like you are standing right next to Bono on stage. Fantastic! The 90 minutes of technical wizardry make this movie worth the price you pay, which is saying something in the day of $10+ movie tickets. Even the credits and titles of the movie are extremely well done. Great care is taken to fully take advantage of the 3D technology.

Also, the versions of Where the Streets Have No Name and With or Without You are inspired. They are the highlights of the setlist, which is largely a "greatest hits" approach, which is what you would expect in a presentation such as this. Also, during the end credits, the band is playing an acoustic rendition of Yahweh, the final track on How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. This song is unbelievably good and well placed in the final credits.

But the strength of this movie is the ability of the filmmakers to make you feel as if you are standing in the crowd at the concert. Many of the shots position the viewer firmly in the crowd, pushing, shoving, singing along with the anthems for which U2 has become known. The kinetic energy and goose bump producing moments one experiences in a show like this can be felt in the theatre (minus the sweaty dude behind you who spills his beer all over). And that is where this movie makes it magic.

I strongly recommend making the effort to see this movie if it is playing near you. You won't regret it. But get there early, tickets sell pretty quickly. And, as an aside, it appears the Rolling Stones have a similar film coming out soon, which I'm sure will also be good.

Until next time.

Ace

Found A Reason To Be....

a teacher. Cheesy song from Hoobastank, I know. But they actually do have some kick butt music. Don't take my word for it, listen to their song Crawling in the Dark, a total adrenaline rush. Yeah, yeah, a bit off topic, but that's what I do.

Anyhow, one of my classes this semester is about the history of education in the US. For one of our first assignments, we are charged with reading the book Pillars of the Republic. This one I won't be reviewing for the old blog for two reasons: 1. Not exactly pleasure reading (aka, it's kinda boring unless you're into this stuff) and 2. I have to write a paper about it, which is plenty of review for this fella.

But, one thing that I think is interesting and certainly pertains to the existence of this blog is some discussion in the early chapters about the purpose of the existence of schools. In speaking about the founding fathers on pages 5&6, the author Carl Kaestle says:

"Along with anxieties about the future of the republic these men
shared a sense of opportunity, of responsibility to mankind, a sense that a real
revolution had been made, that they could build a new society based on
enlightened ideas about the perfectibility of men and institutions....this was
the ideal of the American revolution, and education had a critical role in
it"

A mouthful I know. But this quote really captures a couple of the primary reasons I want to be a teacher.

For several years I've struggled with my own "responsibility to mankind". Sure, the work I do has some tangential benefit to people but it is so many steps away from anything I see or do every day that I really only feel like I'm feeding the machine. And any impact I might make is likely very small. The opportunity to touch lives more directly and in a more impactful manner are really what this is all about for me. I am realizing that the moments where this occur in the school are not going to take place every day but I am eager for the opportunity to make a positive impact.

And I've long been a believer to some extent in "the perfectibility of men". Perhaps perfectibility is too strong of a word, I think I prefer the concept of self-improvement. And I've always felt that America in many ways works as a meritocracy, where you are able to improve your lot in life by using your natural abilities and a strong work ethic. I've certainly seen it with many people in my life. And I think that in most situations, education is a big driver of that opportunity. Doors and minds are opened by knowledge, which is often gained through education.

I've always felt myself to be an optimist, with a constant belief that things are getting better for me personally and for society in general over time. I feel like this outlook is very compatible with the description of the ideals of the fathers of the American Revolution in this book. And that is comforting and inspiring to me.

It had been a while since I've done a post of this nature, so I thought it was a good time to get one in. I'll be back to my more inane and meaningless posts next time, when I plan to start doing some pimping

Until next time.

Ace

I'm a sissy / Eat til you hurl!

How's that for a title, eh? This should be fun!

This weekend I hooked up with several of the fellas for a fun-filled evening of various boring stuff that guys tend to do.

It started with an innocent trip to the local cineplex to check out Cloverfield. If you haven't heard of this movie, it's one that has a Blair Witch sort of angle, where it purports to be someone using a camcorder and we are watching the tape afterwards. So, it's basically filmed using a handheld camera. Beyond that, it follows this group of 20 somethings who are having a going away party in Manhattan for one of their friends. In the middle of the party, some gigantic monster attacks NYC. Anyhow, during the first couple minutes of the movie, the guy running the camcorder is handing it over to his friend to video the going away party for this guy. While he hands over the camera and the other dude takes it, the picture is extremely shaky and flying all over the place.

Now, I normally don't have a weak stomach but all the motion makes me nauseous (it also didn't help that we were sitting fairly close to the screen). I look away for a few minutes while I hope the camera steadies but I swear I just couldn't pull it together. I spend the next 90 minutes listening to the movie, sneaking occasional peeks at the screen when something important is going to happen. It was pretty unpleasant. Luckily, it was a short movie and I actually don't know that I missed much. The movie itself was kinda fun despite some significant plot gaps.

Afterwards, the group of 6 hungry males went for an all you can eat crab leg fest at a local establishment. I will say this - crab legs are perhaps my favorite dish on the planet. I will also say that I take an unhealthy (figuratively and literally) amount of joy from hording and eating insane quantities of grub. A favorite quote of mine from days gone by is "I would rather puke than let you eat my mashed potatoes" (author unknown, ok, actually I'm the one who said it). Anyhow, I believe the group of us were responsible for the filming of an additional season of Deadliest Catch. I would say that I'm not proud but I would be lying to you, faithful reader. I enjoyed every last shell that was cracked. But many of the members had some stomach churning after the gluttony that took place.

There was other boring stuff that took place but all in all, it was a fun but frigid time. Is it spring yet? Only 28 days until pitchers and catchers report to spring training!

Meanwhile, all is back on track after my early semester debacle from last week. I haven't met the firebreathing dragon teacher yet and won't for another week. But my second class looks like it will be kind of fun, although pretty large, something like 30 students in the class, which is a history of education in the US. The teacher actually lets each student choose which assignments they complete, which is a good precursor of things to come. I have to start by reading a book and writing a paper on it in the next two weeks. I better get started!

Until next time.

Ace

Wastin' time

I forgot that I wanted to post about a bunch of movie watching and book reading I did during my holiday break:

Books:

Fantasyland by Sam Walker - I know I mentioned this briefly but it's basically a non-fiction book about a guy who is a baseball writer (for the New York Times, I think) who decides to finally join a fantasy baseball league. He thinks his inside connections in baseball will help him get an edge over the other experts in the league he joins. It's an interesting look at someone who is just getting started in fantasy baseball. I think Walker does a good job of capturing why we fantasy players love the game although some of his ideas just seem a bit silly. The crazy thing is, he hires two guys and a psychic to help him build his team. Pretty bizarre but it adds to the fun.

Sacred Hoops by Phil Jackson - As a die hard Bulls fan, particularly during the Jordan era, this was a fun read just to get an inside look at what was happening with the team during the first part of their heyday. I would have loved to read a sequel after the Bulls won their second trio of championships. Jackson is an interesting blend of Christian and Eastern religion. It's also strange to hear his mindset after so many things have changed. For example, at the time of the book, he was married to June Jackson, who he divorced after the book. Additionally, he talks about Dennis Rodman, who would later become a key component to the Bulls squad. A fun and easy read. (PS Please don't ask me about this season's Bulls team, I might jump out the window).

Growing a Girl by some author I don't remember - the better half wanted me to read this book, which deals with "the glass mezzanine", which the author defines as the time where young girls go from spirited and fun loving to reserved and self-conscious, primarily due to gender typecasting by everyone she encounters. While I wanted to dismiss the book as feminist non-sense, the truth of the matter is that much of the content was very thought provoking. I'm glad I read it and my awareness has definitely been raised.

Low Limit No Limit Hold 'Em by Angel Largay - you didn't think I could read four books in a row without one of them being poker did you? An excellent read, too bad classes are starting up again and I won't have a chance to practice many of the strategies discussed for a while. I'll need to re-read this before my trip to Vegas in March.

Movies:

Talladega Nights - The Will Ferrell Nascar movie. I wanted to see this for a long time but had gotten a lot of mixed feedback from friends. I have to say that I loved this movie. This might even rival Old School as Ferrell's best in my eyes. The scene where the family is praying before eating is hilarious. And we particularly loved the Crystal Gayle tshirt and encounter with the puma or whatever it was. "I'm all jacked up on Mountain Dew" Classic!

V for Vendetta - Another movie I've been meaning to watch for a long time. Natalie Portman stars in this symbolic revolutionary tale of a fascist Britain government. While there were some cheesy moments, I really enjoyed this movie. I think I read somewhere this movie was meant as an anti-Bush film and I could see some of that as I watched but the plot was excellent. Ultimately, this was a revenge movie and I was rooting for V the whole way.

3:10 to Yuma - I was very interested in the original after having seen the remake starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. The original was excellent. In fact, I liked the original quite a bit more and thought it was a brilliant piece of film-making. The remake did a pretty good job of staying true to the story with a couple of pretty important exceptions. The theme song in the original really stuck in my head as well, I'll have to see if I can find it online somewhere.

Devil Bat - This was an old Bela Lugosi horror movie I recorded around Halloween. BTW, I love most of the Lugosi films, they are a lot of fun and extremely influential. This one was a lot of fun, I could totally see the SciFi channel doing a remake of this one. Bela is very believable in his role and the storyline was quite good. And the effects are always fun to laugh at.

That's most of what I remember watching, I also caught up on TV show Prison Break, which is pretty fun as well, although not one of the best ever. I'm also greatly looking forward to the return of Lost, which I think happens in a week or two. And 24, if the writer strike ever ends.

Wow, this turned into kind of a long post. Gotta run!

Until next time.

Ace

I think I'm dumb

Last night was the first day of the new semester. Notice I did not say it was my first night of class. Boy am I dumb.

I didn't really make much of a concerted effort to prepare for the semester starting. Sometime yesterday late afternoon, I logged onto my school's website to get the location of my class. I simply wrote down the classroom and building I was to attend. Assuming I could just show up and figure out the actual class name, instructor, etc., I wasn't too worried about the details. Oops.

Seems boy wonder here actually mixed up the Monday class with the Wednesday class and showed up in the wrong room. I figured out I was in the wrong room in the first 10 minutes of the class. The problem is, I didn't know where in the hell I was supposed to be. Nor did I know even the class name, the instructor's name or the course number. Last semester, there was a problem where the campus online system actually provided the wrong classroom #. I figured the same thing happened this time. So, without knowing what other classroom I was supposed to attend, I sat through the entire session, thinking that if the class I was in was part of my program, I'd just drop the class I was actually enrolled in and enroll in the class I sat through last night. 2 1/2 hours I'll never get back (although I must say the discussion about Socrates' Parable of the Cave was pretty interesting).

So, I get home and fire off a couple e-mails to figure out what was wrong. Discovered this am my moronic mistake. Fan-freaking-tastic. The class I missed last night was one I couldn't initially enroll in because it was full. I very courteously e-mailed the professor to see if there was a waiting list process or she would allow me to enroll in the course above the class limit. Here is the word for word exchange:

"Professor X,

My name is Y and I'm a graduate student in the English department working on my teaching certificate. I was attempting to register for Class Z in spring semester on Monday nights and found the class to be full. Is there a waiting list or any way to get permission to register my way into the class? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Y"

The response:

"Y, I am the instructor on record for the course, but I cannot arbitrarily give permission to overload my class. Please e-mail Z (graduate advisor) with your request. Thanks, X"

Sheesh, overreact much? How about a just "contact the grad advisor"? Freaking fire-breathing dragon.

And now this same sunny day professor is busting my (ahem) chops about missing the class, you should have just come in late, you missed very important blah blah blah. I CANNOT WAIT to meet this bastion of brotherly love and compassion. What a great start!!!

Until next time.

Ace

Just like starting over

Weren't those the lyrics in an Elvis song? I think so, thanks mom for putting freaking Elvis lyrics in my head. It's amazing how quickly the time has gone, it seems like last week I was working on finishing up my semester-end projects. And here I am 5 days away from starting a new semester.

It looks like this semester will be a little different, I'm just taking 2 classes at the moment. I might add one more class but I've been lazy during break and haven't tried to test into the Calc class I need. So, I may still try to do that in the next few days but that seems unlikely. I had a lot of grand plans of things to do during break but I only got to few of them. But, one thing I've been able to do is hang out quite a lot with the family, so that is a good thing. I'm sure it will be an adjustment being away a couple nights a week again.

Other good news is that I got all A's last semester. I'm not shocked, I felt like I was going to but it's always nice to knock it down.

We're gearing up for a trip to Florida in the next month or so. Taking the fam to Disney and also attending a record release party for Seven Mary Three's new album Day & Night Driving. That is going to be a great time. Shortly thereafter venturing out to Vegas as well.

OK, just wanted to pop in a quick post. I'll leave with a joke....


A man was riding in the back of his limousine when he saw a man eating grass by the roadside. He ordered his driver to stop and he got out to investigate.
"Why are you eating grass?" he asked the man.
"I don't have any money for food," the poor man replied.
"Oh, please come to my house!"
"But sir, I have a wife and four children..."
"Bring them along!" the rich man said.
They all climbed into the limo. Once underway, the poor fellow said, "Sir, you are too kind. Thank you for taking all of us in."
The rich man replied, "No, you don't understand. The grass at my house is over three feet tall!"

Until next time.

Ace

Crazy poker hand

I have put in some serious hours at the poker table while on my holiday break from school. I wanted to post the results of the craziest poker hand in which I've ever been involved. The game is $1/2 No Limit Texas Hold 'Em, the game I am currently trying to figure out. I am sitting in middle position. 2 or 3 people limp in for $2 ahead of me and I look down and see 7 diamonds, 9 diamonds. Decent enough, I limp in as well. A player to my left raises it up to $12. By the time it gets back around to me, there are 4 or 5 people in the hand so I call. For the purposes of this post, let's say the pot is $60.

The flop comes down with 6, 7, 8 including one diamond. The guy first to act goes all in for about $110. The next guy to act calls and has several hundred dollars left behind him. It folds around to me. I have an open ended straight draw and a backdoor flush draw, plus I have a pair so it's not inconceivable I could make a big hand. I have about $140 in chips (a point that becomes quite important in a moment). The first guy in has been playing wild cards all day so I put him on two pair, a low straight or perhaps the highest possible straight. The guy who called next I put on a set (3 of a kind). At this point the pot is $280 so I'm getting about 2 to 5 or 40% on my money. With my eight outs to the straight, I have approximately 32% chance of hitting the straight and a couple points more for either the flush draw or any other craziness. I go in the tank.

While I'm thinking about it, I count out my chips to see exactly how much I have. I stack the chips in front of my cards, which I didn't realize counts as having made the call. I was leaning towards calling, or more likely going all in for my last 35 to 40 chips, so I wasn't too upset at the ruling. Then, all hell breaks loose.

The dealer immediately peels off the turn and the river. The turn is the 5 of diamonds, giving me the straight and a flush draw (as well as a gutshot straight flush draw). The river is the Q of spades so I miss the flush but make the low straight. BUT, the dealer messed up. Since the second guy in the hand and I both have chips still, the dealer should have dealt only the turn but not the river yet. So, the floor gets called over and they take the Q of spades, put her back in the deck, shuffle up and let us act after the turn. Of course, I put the rest of my chip s in and the other guy calls. The river is dealt - cue up the hallelujah music as the Q of diamonds peels off.

Guy #1 turns over his 9-T for the nut straight. Guy 2 turns over his pocket 6s for a set and I flip over my re-rivered flush to take down the pot. Pot was somewhere in the neighborhood of $650 or so, my biggest score ever. And I completed the craziest hand of poker I have ever played.

PS Looking back over this post, the action doesn't match up to the final pot size. Not sure exactly where I messed up the action but I'm sure the final pot was in the neighborhood of $650. Wow!

Until next time.

Ace