Another year of school is getting underway here at OU, and I’m beginning my ninth year on campus…I wonder if that is a record or not?
Just like last year I’ll be teaching both on campus and at rural high schools for my fellowship. Tuesdays and Thursdays are my undergrad Thermodynamics class. While I’ve taught this twice already and have a pretty good feel for it at this point, it will be slightly different this year since the class size has been increased from 60 to 85. And I’m in one of the less than stellar classrooms in the engineering quad, so I may be a little limited in what I can do with the class as a whole. Still, I’m excited to begin with a new set of students and to continue to improve my teaching.
I’m also returning to Chickasha to work with the science teachers at the high school there. It will be nice to not have to acclimate to a new school; I can just get right to work without trying to explain why I’m there and what exactly I’m supposed to be doing. One thing I will still have to get reaccustomed to is the early wake-ups required to get out to the high school; while this summer I didn’t usually get up before 8:30 I have to be awake around 6 to make it out to Chickasha on time. It will be nice to get to listen to the morning sports radio during my drives out there; it’s usually pretty entertaining, especially during football season.
Am I the only one that things these food commercials where they fake out people at restaurants with fast food are completely ridiculous? When did trickery become the only way to advertise? If this happened to me, not only would I never eat that chains’ food again, I would throw such a fit they would never air the commercial. Whatever happened to just saying that the food tastes good…
I have a confession to make: I am an Olympics addict. This isn’t a recent occurence; I’ve religiously watched the summer olympics and paid some attention to the much-less-exciting winter olympics for the last several episodes of each, and even though it’s basically the same competitions every four years I still get sucked in every time. My personal favorites have to be the swimming events along with track and field, but I will watch just about anything. I, along with most of America, got caught up with Michael Phelps’ drive for 8 golds and even jumped up and yelled during the 4 by 100 m freestyle relay where the US came from behind. I was amazed with Usain Bolt’s performance in the 100m dash, and think he may have a shot at beating Michael Johnson’s seemingly unbreakable 200m record. I even stayed up late to watch the end of the women’s gymnastics all-around to see Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson win gold and silver. And I of course watched the incredible athleticism (and yes, bikinis) of the women’s beach volleyball.
I will even watch some of the more obscure events, like water polo, handball and fencing. While trying to get to sleep the other night, I even watched a substantial portion of the 20k race-walk, which is one of the more silly events on the olympic calendar. It certainly helps that all of the events are being broadcast in HD, which can make even table tennis watchable. I was also pleased to see that a lot of the events were being shown live, despite the fact that Beijing is 12 hours ahead of us (although I heard there will be less live events the second week, I hope not) so you don’t get spoiled by going online and accidentally seeing a headline. And how could you not get psyched up when you hear the olympic theme?
All in all, it’s very cool to see some sports besides basketball and football getting some attention; they can be just as exciting and entertaining as the big sports, and you have the further excitement of battling other countries for sports supremacy. While our sociopolitical standing in the world may be up for question, there’s no doubt we still totally rule the sporting universe. USA!!!
My last full day in New York was started by heading to the Museum of Natural History. They had a pretty large collection of dinosaur skeletons, which I have mentioned before as one of my favorites:
The museum also had a good collection of animals and cultural exhibits. After the history museum, we headed to Rockefeller Center, which is actually a collection of buildings instead of one. This is the location of the famous Christmas tree and skating rink as well as the Radio City Music Hall and NBC studios. We were unable to get tickets for the NBC studio tour, but we enjoyed walking around the gift shop and seeing the variety of NBC merchandise. I found it particularly amusing that they still have a huge variety of Seinfeld stuff even though that show has been off the air for 10 years now. Also interesting was lunch that day; we had gyros of a cart, and the pigeons in the area were completely unafraid of going between my legs to pick up the pieces of lamb meat I dropped.
After the gift shop we headed up to the top of the building to the observation deck, and saw some amazing views from the 70th floor:
The view was pretty amazing; you could see the whole of the island of Manhattan as well as the other 4 boroughs and beyond. And, you could really see how big the Empire State Building really is compared to everything around it:
It was truly an amazing view, and probably my favorite part of the whole trip. That evening, after enjoying a fantastic meal of Jennie’s famous enchiladas, we headed to one of the parks downtown to take in an outdoor movie, the Alfred Hitchcock thriller “Life Boat.” The park was full of folks on blankets and lawn chairs, and I thought it was not only cool to have a free outdoor movie, but an older and less known movie as the film of choice. Too bad they don’t do something similar in Norman. After the movie we headed to Grand Central Station to catch a subway back to the apartment, and I had another chance to take a picture of my favorite building, the Chrysler Building:
My final morning in New York was spent in Central Park, getting to see a little more of area, including the turtle pond, the castle, and the Bethesda Fountain, which I recognized from the Central Park course on Tiger Woods Golf:
We also had the opportunity to catch a little music; an orchestral group was playing a saxophone concerto in a nearby bandshell, and on our way back to the apartment, we stopped for lunch at a New York landmark: Papaya King, whose hot dogs are advertised as “tastier than filet mignon.” While the dogs were pretty good, I don’t think I’d go that far. After returning to the apartment, I packed up my things and took the subway and bus back to the airport.
Overall, I really enjoyed visiting the city for the first time; it seems like a very exciting place to live day-to-day. I feel like I saw so much, but there was so much I would like to go back and see another time. I’m not sure I would want to live there for an extended period, but I think I would enjoy living there for a few years. It’s certainly a city that is wholly unlike any other I’ve been to. I was also glad to see that Jennie and Daniel are adjusting so well and are enjoying their new home; I hope I can make another visit sometime in the not-too-distant future.
The second full day I was in New York was spent going to Daniel’s company picnic, which was hosted by the CEO. We all hopped on a bus near his office downtown and made our way north of the city about 40 miles to the CEO’s house, which was pretty big: pool, tennis courts, and several outdoor areas in addition to the fairly large house. The food was pretty fantastic and plentiful, and there were several games and competitions to keep our attention during the day. The weather was also fairly cool, which was good since we were outside the whole time.
The following day we got up early to go eat breakfast at a place in Soho, but unfortunately the place turned out to be closed. We found another place nearby, the spent some time walking around the areas of Soho and Greenwich Village. At this point, Daniel and I caught the Subway to Yankee Stadium to take in the game against the Anaheim Angels.
One of the big reasons I elected to make this trip this summer was the opportunity to see a game in Yankee Stadium before it closes at the end of this season. This stadium has seen a lot of history, from the early years with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig to the years of DiMaggio and Mantle and up to the current teams of A-Rod and Jeter, and while I’m not a Yankees fan, I’m a baseball fan in general and I can appreciate the achievements of the Yankees and the importance of the stadium. But, it is easy to see why the stadium is being replaced; walkways and aisles are pretty cramped, restrooms are few and far between, and there are several locations (including our seats) where some of the field is obscured. That said, it was very cool to experience the stadium before it is destroyed. The game we took in was actually a very entertaining one, with lots of offense and several lead changes. The Yankees prevailed at the end, and the Yankees fans were able to walk away happy. One thing I found amusing about the Yankees fans in general was their attitude towards their own players. In many cases they yelled at their own players more frequently than the other team; Jason Giambi and Alex Rodriguez were their favorite targets, while Derek Jeter seemed pretty untouchable.
After we returned to Manhattan, we went downtown to check out some more famous buildings. The first we saw was the Flatiron building, also known as the world’s first skyscraper:
The Flatiron building was one of the first to incorporate a metal frame throughout the structure that the rest of the building was attached to, and that allowed it to be much taller than most other buildings at the time. But, they were still able to put a lot of detail into the exterior of the building, which I thought was very cool. It’s also interesting to see how narrow the building is; at the far end the building is no more than 100 feet wide, which is interesting considering that it’s about 20 stories tall.
But, not 5 blocks away was a much more famous skyscraper, the Empire State Building:
Just as big as it looks, this building towers above everything around it. In fact, standing at the bottom you cannot see all the way to the top. The inside of the building is very cool as well, but they are busy with a series of renovations so there was a lot of scaffolding inside. Dinner that evening was at a restaurant near Daniel and Jennie’s apartment, and the good food was made even better by the 25 dollar coupon they had!
Last week and the beginning of this week I went to New York to visit Daniel and Jennie and take in the sights. I flew up on Thursday evening and they met me at the airport. We dropped off my things at their apartment, then went to dinner and to Times Square. It looks pretty much like it does on TV; billboards and lights everywhere:
The billboards scaled the buildings several stories high, and it was basically as light as daytime when we were out there. Another thing I noticed was the noise: the taxis and other cars were honking at each other fairly frequently and the tour busses made a fair amount of noise as well. After walking around a while we headed back to their apartment using the subway. Of all the things I experienced during the trip, the subway might have been one of my favorites. I’m not sure what I was expecting it to be, but I found it amazing that this whole maze of trains moved around under the city, and made the city seem a lot smaller than it was. Level upon level of tracks and stations, and everyone knowing exactly where they were going.
The following day was a very busy day sightseeing. We started out at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, better known as the Met. The building itself is huge and had a variety of works of art. My favorite was this statue:
There was also an interesting exhibit about superheroes that included both the newest batsuits and the Iron Man suit, but the jerk security guards wouldn’t let me take pictures of them. Oh well…
After the Met we walked around a little bit in Central Park and saw my first group of performers, this group being a group of breakdancers, one of which did a fairly mediocre Michael Jackson impersonation. We also went into FAO Schwarz, the famous toy store featured in the movie “Big” and saw lots of expensive toys (some stuffed dinosaurs for several hundred dollars) as well as the famous big piano. We went through Grand Central station, which is the main hub for trains throughout New England and walked by the Chrysler Building, which was probably my favorite building:
Also on tap for the first whole day was a visit to the United Nations building as well a trip on the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty:
Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t walk around like in Ghostbusters. After returning to Manhattan via the ferry, we went into Brooklyn to a well-known pizzeria called Grimaldi’s. The pizza was a little different than what most people in this part of the country are used to, where it is a thin crust pizza with ricotta cheese on first, covered by sauce and toppings. It was very good though, and a good cap to a long day. We rode the subway back to their apartment, and again I noticed a difference between New York and Oklahoma. On the subway, most people were pretty quiet and absorbed in thought; I’d like to think that if it was a subway in Oklahoma people would be more talkative. This was also a little different than what I had expected. I had always heard that New Yorkers were a little intolerant of tourists, but I never really noticed this; for the most part they just ignored me, going about their business. And there were a lot of them. It didn’t seem like there was ever a time when the streets weren’t fairly crowded with people.
That’s it for the first part of the trip. I have posted all of my pictures on Flickr, which you can access by clicking on the “My Pictures” tab at the top of the page and clicking on one of the pictures.
Words cannot describe how much I hate that word. Someone thought they were clever, and then, the word was on every single local news broadcast. Yes, people are having trouble affording a vacation due to the high gas prices. Yes, it forces many people to stay home. But isn’t it still a vacation? My definition of vacation is any extended time away from work/school. Relaxation and/or Enjoyment are really the only requirements of a vacation in my opinion, and those things are pretty readily accessible at home. So staying at home for vacation is not that big of a deal.
How am I fighting the spread of staycation? By going on a “away-cation.” Yes, take that clever news people! Tomorrow morning, I will be heading to the Big Apple, New York City, to visit Daniel and Jennie and take in the sights of the “Greatest City in the World” (we’ll see about that). Currently on the itinerary are visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Empire State Building, Times Square, Rockafeller Center, the Statue of Liberty, the United Nations, the Brooklyn Bridge, and a New York Yankees game among others. I’ve never been to New York let alone the Northeast U.S., so it should be very exciting. I bought a new camera for the occasion, so I should be able to show off lots of pictures in the near future.
Last night I took in the sequel to Batman Begins: The Dark Knight. I’ve mentioned numerous times how much I’ve looked forward to this one, so I went out and caught it opening night. I had heard like everyone else had about Heath Ledger’s performance, and how this set a new bar for superhero movies. Both of these things are completely true…
The story picks up pretty much where Batman Begins leaves off: Batman is battling the entrenched organized crime syndicate in addition to the escaped asylum residents. While the criminal element is concerned about Batman, they really haven’t altered much of their plans. The town is so dirty that even Bruce Wayne can’t make much of a dent. That is, until he joins with the new District Attourney Harvey Dent. Wayne and Dent combine to arrest the majority of the organized crime family in Gotham, and the criminals, in their depseration, turn to a new ally, the Joker.
The majority of the talk about this movie has been about Heath Ledger’s performance, and most of the positive comments are completely warranted. He plays the Joker as a completely sadistic devil, with a morbid wit and acid tongue. He makes Jack Nicholson’s Joker look like Bozo the Clown, and the previous movie’s villains (Ras Al Ghul and the Scarecrow) as mere punks. Not only is he Batman’s match in terms of planning and ingenuity, he is as dedicated to chaos and destruction as Bruce Wayne is to order and justice. This is one point where the movie is a major departure from the previous installment: while in the Batman Begins the villains were easily handled by Batman, in this film Bruce Wayne is constantly outwitted by the Joker. It makes for a much more tense film.
In addition to being quite tense, the film is also incredibly dense, with numerous plots going at the same time. You have the battle between Batman and the Joker, the battle between Harvey Dent and the mob, the love triangle between Bruce Wayne, Rachel Dawes and Harvey Dent, commissioner Gordon’s battle over Batman’s role, the threat of Batman being outed as Bruce Wayne, and several other small threads. It’s almost too overwhelming to keep track of, but one by one the threads get neutralized leaving the main battle between the Joker and Batman. And boy is it a battle.
The tone of the film is pretty similar to the first, in that it is very dark and tense, and the action scenes are quite spectacular, especially the opening scenes in a bank robbery and a spectacular car chase in the middle of the film. The cast is just as impressive as it was the first time around, I’m still amazed they were able to acquire so much talent in all the supporting roles as well as the main ones (Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman in fairly small roles). There are several surprises in store for the viewer including a couple deaths, and for those of you familiar with the Batman story, you know what happens to Harvey Dent. One disappointment for me was the use of Two Face as a villain; he didn’t get nearly enough screen time in my opinion, and while his arc is well thought out, I wish there had been more.
My overall thoughts? At this point, even after some thought, its difficult to give my overall opinion on this movie. Batman Begins is one of my favorite films, and the sequel delves even deeper into the world of Gotham. It dives into very deep and dark territory and for the unprepared it may overwhelm; for a film featuring a superhero, it is very much unlike most superhero movies. In addition, in the tradition of 2nd films, they leave some plot threads unfinished in preparation for a third film. This means that the story as a whole will not end until the next film (if then) and it’s hard to grade based on that as well. I will say that the film is very impressive as a sequel and I think with additional viewings it will improve for me. Right now I would give it a 7.5 out of 10, with the potential for an increase.
Another advantage of living by myself? When you enter your apartment, you can take your pants off immediately, like I did today after walking home and getting a little sweaty.
This week was the culminating activity of my 1st year in my teaching fellowship: the Summer Engineering Academy. We have spent the last few months preparing lessons for it, and this week we invited in 30 students to participate in the various lessons. The lesson I helped create and teach was a lesson involving animal behavior; we had experiments involving hydra (a small aquatic animal) and hamsters in the morning, followed by a trip to the Oklahoma City Zoo in the afternoon for some animal observation and a presentation by one of the zookeepers.
We had 10 different students each day, and repeated the lesson for each group. All 3 days went very well, and we continued to make minor adjustments until the final day, when we felt that the lesson was pretty solid. Overall I think the kids really enjoyed our lesson, perhaps more than the other two (remote sensing and renewable energy were the other topics)and I think they may have even learned a little, which is of course our primary goal. They especially enjoyed training the hamsters since they are very tame and of course cute and cuddly. And they even seemed to get more out of the zoo trip than you might expect, where they actually paid attention to the animals they were monitoring instead of just wandering around.
While the Oklahoma City Zoo is pretty nice, I don’t have any plans to return there anytime soon, since I had to make 6 trips there over the course of the last month or so. I’ve probably covered the entirety of the park twice over and seen some exhibits 4 or 5 times. It also didn’t help that we were constrained by time so that we had to be there in the heat of the afternoon for all the trips, when most of the animals are asleep. If I do return I hope it’s a little cooler and maybe in the morning so the animals are a little more active.
Also joining us for the academy were some of the Thai teachers we plan to work with when we make our trip there next spring. It was nice to meet them before we make our trip and get to know each other a little. Meeting people from other countries is always pretty interesting, not only to see the differences in culture, but to see how much we have in common. One of the Thai teachers I talked with was a big fan of American football as well as American movies, and we had a good conversation about both of them. It will be nice to already have a contact there since there will be little else I’m familiar with when we journey there in March.
The Dark Knight opens tomorrow! I hope to see it over the weekend, and I’ll be sure to share my thoughts on here when I do.
10. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World - Chris Rock said it best: “If the movie’s in the past, get Russell’s ass!” Russell Crowe delivers another fantastic performance, this one as the Captain of a British ship in the early 1800’s. A cat and mouse game with a French privateer keeps the movie suspenseful the entire time.
9. Batman Begins - The best superhero movie bar none, featuring the best superhero. The whole cast is perfectly cast, Christian Bale is a fantastic Batman, and the overall dark tone of the film is intense. Words cannot describe how excited I am to see the sequel coming out next week.
8. The Hudsucker Proxy - Another Coen Brothers movie, this is their tribute to the screwball comedies of the 30’s and 40’s. Tim Robbins plays a wet-behind-the-ears hick that becomes the President of a huge company overnight, and Jennifer Jason Leigh plays the fast talking newspaper woman out to get him. Lots of clever dialogue, great music, entertaining scenes about the silliness of a big corporation, and beautiful cinematography. I challenge you to watch this set of scenes and not laugh at least once:
7. Spaceballs - Mel Brooks lampoons the Sci-Fi genre, particularly Star Wars. My favorite character is Rick Moranis as Dark Helmet, a smaller and funnier version of Darth Vader. And here’s my 2nd favorite scene (my favorite is a little too spicy to post):
6. O Brother Where Art Thou - The Coens strike again, this time with a riff on Homer’s Odyssey set in Depression-era Mississippi. George Clooney, John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson make a great team, the cinematography is again superb (the legendary Roger Deakins) and the music is great also (I still listen to the soundtrack every so often). Here’s one of my favorite scenes:
5. His Girl Friday - The screwball comedy to end all screwball comedies. Cary Grant plays a newspaper editor trying to keep his best writer (and ex-wife) from leaving and marrying another man. The dialogue is incredibly fast and funny, and Cary Grant is as funny as ever. But Rosalind Russell steals the show as the leading lady.
4. The Blues Brothers - Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi play the titular brothers. There’s not too many action/comedy/musicals around, and this is certainly the one to watch. Great cameos, awesome car chases and of course, the music:
3. It’s a Wonderful Life - Everybody knows this one. Jimmy Stewart is one of the best actors ever, and he shows it in this one. And it has one of the best movie endings ever. “Remember, no man is a failure who has friends.”
2. The Return of the King - Most of the time when movies are adapted from books, the results are less than great. However, Peter Jackson succeeded with all of the Lord of the Rings films in creating a vision that was definitely on par with the books. The battle scenes in this one are incredibly epic, the acting is all top notch.
1. The Shawshank Redemption - Words cannot describe how much I love this movie. It has some dark moments, but ultimately the story is about how hope can conquer all, and how friendship is the one thing that always lasts:
And there it is! I hope you enjoyed the list, it was something I’ve wanted to do for a while, and finally had some time over the last couple months to put it together. I’d love to hear what your top movies are in the comments below, or if you think I’ve committed a travesty and left one off.
Finally, here’s a compilation put together by TCM featuring 100 years of movies, including many of the ones on my list. If you’re a movie fan, you’ll definitely get a kick out of this tribute:
Here we go with the second to last installment of the movie list…
20. To Catch a Thief - My favorite Hitchcock movie, although it’s definitely not the most suspenseful. Cary Grant plays a former jewel thief, and Grace Kelly plays the young socialite with some of the targeted jewels. The movie takes place on the French Riviera, which is a pretty gorgeous corner of the world. And Grace Kelly is one of my favorite actresses around; her voice and her beauty always entrance me.
19. The Departed - I’ve seen a fair amount of Scorsese’s movies, but this is the only one I really enjoy. The whole cast is pretty impressive, but I appreciate Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg most of all. DiCaprio because he finally convinced me he can do tough guy roles, and Wahlberg because he was incredibly filthy but still hilarious.
18. The Empire Strikes Back - It’s the best Star Wars movie because it has the beginning of the Han/Leia love story, the introduction of the best character in the series with Yoda, and the best ending of any of the movies.
17. City Lights - My favorite Charlie Chaplin movie; the Tramp takes care of a blind girl doing random jobs. The ending of the film is one of the best happy endings you’ll ever see. Here is my favorite part, where the Tramp gets into a boxing match:
16. Apollo 13 - I get ribbed a lot for watching this numerous times, but there aren’t many movies that are as suspenseful as this one, even with multiple viewings. I’m a big space nut anyway, and to see the Apollo program at one of its lowest and highest moments is pretty cool.
15. Man on Fire - Denzel Washington plays a retired assassin that becomes the bodyguard of Dakota Fanning in Mexico City. He is haunted by his past, and begins to heal, when his ward is kidnapped. This sets off one of the most vicious revenge/redemption trips on film. The cinematography in this one is very different, but overall makes the movie very unique.
14. Anchorman - Will Ferrell has been a little off lately, but it wasn’t long ago that he was the funniest guy around. His character in this one is hysterical, and the rest of the newsteam is equally entertaining. I still use quotes from this one on a semi-regular basis.
13. Sin City - I never read the comic book this one was based on, but the movie was pretty amazing. The unique “splash of color” cinematography with the old fashioned pulp crime stories made for a very cool film to watch.
12. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - An atypical romantic comedy. Also the only time Jim Carrey was any good without being funny. Jim Carrey is a man so distraught by his breakup with Kate Winslet he goes to get the memories of his relationship with her erased from his mind. The bulk of the movie takes place in his mind while the memories are erased, and he realizes he would rather keep the memories and be somewhat sad instead of not remembering them at all. A very cool way of telling the story.
11. Tombstone - To me, a western isn’t good unless it’s got some good gunplay and some good wordplay, and Tombstone has both in spades. And big stars in almost all the roles. Kurt Russell is pretty good as Wyatt Earp, Sam Elliott is his regular awesome self as Virgil Earp, and Val Kilmer steals the show as Doc Holliday. I couldn’t find any good videos that have the best quotes, so here’s the awesome closing credits:
That’s it for this portion, coming in the next couple days, the top ten! It includes some Coen Brothers, an old police car, and a Rita Hayworth poster…
