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November 6, 2011

“Khaaaaaaan!”

Kristen came and visited this weekend. Now that we live in St. Louis again, it’s a much more reasonable drive for her to come visit her niece, whom she hadn’t seen since last May. Around the time we figured out that she’d be coming in, I was also made aware of a new Star Trek exhibition being displayed at the St. Louis Science Center. The exhibition will be there until May, so there wasn’t really a huge rush…but, on the first Friday of each month, they run a special deal where they cut the cost of the exhibit in the evening and they show a movie in the Omnimax theater. And the movie this month?

“Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.” Largely considered the best “Star Trek” movie. As Khan said, “In my estimation, you simply have no alternative.”

We went to the exhibition after dinner and after we dropped Brooke and Meg off at home. The exhibit itself was pretty neat, though I would have preferred fewer “replica” props. Sure, they had actual uniforms worn by the various cast members throughout the series. They had uniforms from each of the members of the crew from the newest movie, Spock’s robe from “Star Trek IV,” General Chang’s uniform from “Star Trek VI,” and representative uniforms from all of the captains across all of the series.

There were a few ship models and some of the original props, but there were quite a few of the aforementioned replicas, mostly in the realm of communicators, badges, phasers, etc. They definitely had some real ones and, to be honest, I’m sure the difference between the replicas and the real thing (which were only props, never truly “real”…) is minuscule. Still, seeing more actual props that were used on the various properties would have been nice. They did have scale models of a transporter and the Enterprise-D bridge from “The Next Generation,” mostly so they could take a picture of you and charge a ridiculous amount of money. Still, it was cool to sit on the bridge of the Enterprise.

In the end, however, the real attraction for me was seeing “Star Trek II” in the theater. It came out in 1982, the year I was born, so I’ve never actually seen this movie in a theater setting. To be fair, it wasn’t ideal because they were projecting what looked like the DVD version of the movie up on a screen that is meant to wrap around you. So, the image was kinda “curved,” and projected a bit higher than I would have liked. The contrast was a bit “off,” as well, especially when the crew was shown on the bridge in very dark lighting. But hey, when you’ve seen the movie countless times, you can forgive such things.

What I can’t forgive, however, is the omission of certain, key scenes. Specifically, those regarding Scotty’s nephew. As in, we see the kid, but certain lines of dialog that establish his relation to Scotty (as opposed to him being Random Engineering Cadette #7) are completely missing. It’s just really weird as it’s been in every other version of the movie I’ve seen, so I just wonder where the heck they found this one.

However, seeing the movie with a crowd of people for the first time just brings an extra “magic” to a movie I’ve seen more times than I can count. Once you’ve seen a movie you love enough times, there isn’t much else you can do to bring anything fresh to the viewing experience. However, watching it with 200 other fans, some of which dressed as Starfleet crew or Klingons, is definitely unique. Hearing cheers and jeers throughout was somewhat distracting, but still pretty great.

Overall, I think we had a good time. Glad I got to see some bits of “Star Trek” history, and that I got to share it with my sister. In the end, we came, we saw, we lived long and prospered. It’s all I can ask.

October 24, 2011

A Brand New Day

Needless to say, this past weekend was somewhat hectic. We got the truck loaded on Friday night with the help of relatively few (yet extremely helpful) people, which was shocking in and of itself. At our parent’s suggestion, we ended up switching to a 26′ truck from the 22′ truck we had originally reserved.

Yeah. That wouldn’t have worked. We have far too much stuff.

In any event, we got it loaded and I drove the truck down from Swisher on Saturday morning, with Sam riding shotgun. I pulled up to the new place (pictured above) just after 2:00, so all things considered, I think I made reasonable time.

We got the truck unloaded relatively quickly, this time with a bit more help than we had loading on Friday. Had some problems with getting furniture up our narrow staircase to the upstairs, though. Sadly, my orange swivel rocker won’t fit, and neither will the box spring for our full-size bed. The mattress itself barely made it up there, so that’s something, I guess. Meg’s room is mostly set up and the guest room is pretty much full of boxes, and will surely be the last thing to be completed.

IMAG0393 — The back yard. Nice covered porch and much, much less grass than I had to mow in Iowa.

The family hung out into Sunday, so we made a good deal of progress toward unpacking, though there’s plenty more to do. We mostly chilled last night and watched the Cardinals game. Brooke went to work today and Meg and I hung out, getting a few things done. I did some work organizing the pantry, our bedroom and other miscellaneous areas of the house. Meg was a bit fussier than usual, though I’m sure this is because a). her Mom had to go to work, and she was awake when Brooke left, and b). she’s finding herself in new surroundings.

So, we went to the park!

IMAG0388 — This park is about 2 blocks from us.

Thankfully, there’s a nice park very close to our house, well within walking distance. There’s a playground, as well as benches, a field, and so on. In general, a nice resource to have nearby, especially as we don’t have a really good place for her red swing. Good thing the park has swings fit for Meg. 🙂

Meg didn’t get to swing much this week, so she was eager to get in. I kept asking if she was “all done,” and all she’d say was “no.” Well, that and “wheeeee.” We stayed at the park for a good 20-30 min, checked out the slides (which were a bit wet for my taste), and then walked back home for lunch.

In all, a pretty good day, despite Meg’s mood. Nice having Brooke back now, too. New “Dinners” posts forthcoming. 🙂

October 18, 2011

Scary Movies 2011

It’s that time of year again. Unfortunately, we’re kind of in the middle of a move, so my typical holiday classics of “Halloween,” “Alien” and “Hocus Pocus” are packed in boxes at the moment. Therefore, I’ve got Netflix to help me out in this time of transition.

I made Brooke watch “Scream” last year, as she’d never seen it before. To be fair, I hadn’t seen it in years either, but watching it for what was probably the fourth time, it still held up and was quite good. I didn’t particularly care for “Scream 2,” and “Scream 3” was overly terrible, but the reviews for their fourth outing earlier this year were surprisingly positive. “Scream 4” came in the mail late last week, but I didn’t get a chance to watch it until Sunday night. I can safely say that “Scream 4” is right up there with the original. The question of “who the killer is” became easy to answer as the series moved forward, but this flick does a good job of drawing that final reveal out further, so while it may be obvious early on, the ending itself isn’t as certain. If you liked the original, I highly recommend this one.

Never seen it and it’s been in my Instant Queue since last year at this time, but still haven’t gotten around to watching it. It’s a remake of the 1973 George A. Romero flick of the same name about the effects of biological weapons testing near a small town in Pennsylvania. The 2010 remake is now set in Iowa and deals with a “mysterious toxin” that infects their water supply, leading to zombie-like behavior. Obviously, we wanted to watch this because it was set in Iowa. Now that we’re moving, it seems like the appropriate time to watch it.

“Red State” is fascinating to me, not because of the subject matter, but the way it even came about. In short, it’s about a group of teens doing what your typical horror movie teens do (drugs, sex and rock & roll), and how they get lured in by fundamentalists looking to make an example of them in a particularly violent and gruesome manner. Kevin Smith (of “Clerks” and “Mallrats” fame) wrote and directed the movie. He even got the movie financed and distributed himself, partially just to prove that it could even be done by a single individual or small company, without the help of a major distributor or movie production company. In many ways, it was a return to his roots in “Clerks,” famously filmed for $27,000. Regardless, I’m fascinating by this movie. It’s very existence is so odd, self-produced/marketed/written/directed by a guy that is famous for making movies about “dick and fart jokes.” Looking forward to it, for sure.

Finally, “The Thing.” I like throwing in some classic scifi/horror movie when possible, especially one I haven’t seen before (gasp!). This one’s also on Netflix Instant Queue, so you can’t argue with convenience. This one is by John Carpenter (who also did the aforementioned “Halloween”) and it’s actually a remake of 1951’s “The Thing From Another World.” Of course, now that it’s 2011, it’s time for another sequel (or prequel…) to come out, though this latest iteration isn’t getting the best reviews. Regardless, I’ve never seen it and it’s sitting in my queue, so I don’t have much of an excuse anymore.

I think that’s a reasonable list. I’m sure others will pop in there, as well. I don’t start the new job until November 1st, so that gives me some free nights to watch some scary movies over the next week.

October 16, 2011

“I love it when a plan comes together.”

Back on June 24th, I was informed that money was getting tight and that I should start looking for other opportunities elsewhere. Obviously, this news wasn’t exactly welcome, as the timing of it effectively prevented me from being able to jump directly into a teaching position somewhere (as those positions are almost all filled by the end of June). As I’ve posted before on the blog, we made the decision that Brooke would go back to work in St. Louis in mid-July to help ensure that we would have health insurance in case I had to leave my position in Iowa before I found something down in St. Louis.

Long story short, there weren’t many options. I may write at greater length about this in the future, but basically, most industry positions want people less qualified than I am. As in, folks with bachelor’s degrees. I applied to practically every industrial company in St. Louis that did pharmaceutical work, including some generic chemical companies, but in the majority of cases, I never heard anything back. I did have a strong option with Monsanto (that I will definitely write more about later), but that fell through after the third interview.

Thankfully, I came upon another option at Washington University, so last week, I accepted a position as a postdoc in a lab in their Department of Psychiatry. I’ll be doing work that is radically different from what I’ve done in the past, so there’s going to be a steep learning curve, even moreso than the one I had here at Iowa. Still, I will continue to work with catecholamines, so at least some of the work will be familiar to me. I’ll write more about this once I’m down there.

This post is mostly with regards to the timeline. My position will start November 1, so the current plan is that we’ll be moving down to St. Louis on October 22 to a house off of Kingshighway in south St. Louis City. The house is a shade smaller than we have now, but it has a two-car garage, a fenced in yard for Edie, and has enough bedrooms that we can surely find room for everyone, as well as have guests over from time to time. And the pantry is huge. And it’ll have a dishwasher and a garbage disposal (which we’ve lived without since living in Iowa). Brooke will work that following week while Meg and I get our bearings and take a little time off. Meg will start at her new daycare on October 31.

I guess we’ll have to send her in a costume on her first day?

So the plan is set in motion. We’ve got a few weeks to finalize everything, and my Dad and Brooke’s Mom were very helpful in boxing lots of stuff up this past weekend, so I think we’re on pretty solid footing for jumping state lines again.

Almost 4 months after getting the news, and after 3 months of living most of the week apart, we will be back together in St. Louis again.

As Hannibal Smith is so fond of saying: “I love it when a plan comes together.”

October 5, 2011

10.04.11 Dinner

For your amusement, I decided to take pictures of my attempt at frying some eggs last night. We’ve got something of a surplus from our chicken, so it was time to get rid of some of them. I’ve made scrambled eggs a few times now, and that isn’t a problem. A fried egg, on the other hand, is apparently more difficult.

The picture above is just to show you how nice these eggs look. It’s unfortunate we aren’t going to have a chicken anymore in a few weeks!

While it’s unfortunate we won’t have the chicken, it is fortunate that we’ll have Brooke back, as apparently, I can’t fry an egg to save my life. I probably had the range on too hot or something. This is four eggs. The stuck a bit. Didn’t end up as pretty as the first picture. Meg liked the toast, with butter and grape jelly…though much of it ended up on her shirt.

I think I’ll stick with scrambled eggs from now on. These still tasted good, though!

October 3, 2011

Nostalgia

Ah, it’s like I said: the more things change, the more they stay the same.

— Quark, speaking the final line of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.”

The third Star Trek series, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” is now on Netflix Instant Queue. I don’t want to dwell on the series or the franchise as a whole, but I do want to say that I’m looking forward to re-watching the series. I have seen all of “Next Generation” and all of “Voyager” twice (or more…) when they’ve been in re-runs over the years, but “DS9,” for some reason, hasn’t been re-played as often since it left television 12 years ago. At the time, I didn’t like “DS9” as much because, especially in the latter half of the series, they moved to more of a “serial plotline” structure where each episode tied into subsequent episodes. Back then, I didn’t like it, but now, in the wake of excellent shows like “Lost” and “Battlestar Galactica,” I think I may appreciate “DS9” more than I did. Today, it seems like practically every drama on television is doing it. As my Mom always says, “everything goes back to Star Trek”…

Nay, the real reason this post exists is because we visited St. Louis this past weekend. As has been mentioned before, Brooke has been living down there four days a week while Meg and I have been in Iowa, only seeing each other on weekends. This past Thursday, however, I went down to speak with a potential employer at Washington University. No details to write on that front yet, but hopefully it’ll pan out in the near future.

As part of the visit, I decided to stay down there through Sunday (with Meg, of course), getting a chance to see some people that I haven’t seen in awhile. Meg and I went by SLU on Friday morning, then I went out to lunch with some friends from there. We went apple picking on Friday afternoon (more on that in another post) with other friends, and then had dinner with them Friday night. We checked out a potential place to live (assuming I get this job soon…) on Saturday, then went out to dinner with Brooke’s family on Saturday night. And finally, we went to our old church, Webster Hills, on Sunday morning.

And that brings us to the apropos quote from above: the more things change, the more they stay the same. Things at SLU had definitely changed a bit. Some new construction, some new faces. Dr. Westfall will be retiring sometime late next year, so more changes are definitely in store for my old department. New progress on research that has carried on in my absence, which is the way of things.

Oh, and in news where change isn’t so good, it seems like every light on Kingshighway now has a “Photo Enforced” sign on it. Very bad. I’ll be doing my best to avoid those shenanigans.

At church on Sunday, though, in many ways, it’s like we’d never left. They did an acoustic “service in the round” where all the folks in the congregation were in a circle surrounding the altar area (this was our idea a few years ago, for the record). The music was mostly stuff we knew, but there was a newer one we hadn’t heard before. They also interspersed Bible verse readings between the verses of some of the songs: a nice addition. There weren’t many new faces there, but there were quite a few people there we hadn’t seen in a long time, so that was excellent. Basically, being there felt like “home” again.

I guess this separation of our family is just getting to me. While I don’t mind moving forward with life, getting to do “bigger and better things,” in many ways, I just want to go back to the life we had when we lived in St. Louis: just with a baby along this time. We ate out on the patio in Soulard on Friday for lunch and all I could think of was how I missed living down there. It was a spectacular day, after all, and with the leaves starting to change color, it made me wish I could walk home rather than have to drive 5 hours to get to my real house.

It will be interesting to look back on our time in Iowa in 12 years like I’m looking back on “DS9,” whether I will dislike it because of our most recent experience(s), or whether I will grow to appreciate it more. Right now, though, to continue the analogy, I just want to go back to “The Next Generation:” I was happy with it.

September 20, 2011

Top 5 Google+ Features

I’m not one to do “Top #” lists, but after today’s announcement that Google+ is now available to any and all, I thought it would be useful to recount a few of the features that I’ve been using on a nearly daily basis (well…some things…not everything, of course).

1). House Hunting – When we moved up here, I came up alone and brought along our Flip Video camera so Brooke could get a “feel” for the different options, at least in some virtual sense. This time around, Brooke is taking pictures with her phone, then allowing the Google+ app to automatically upload the pictures to her profile so she can share them with me. Then, I can comment on each picture and she can answer all my questions. This is done without anyone else having to see the conversation(s) or the pictures.

google1 — Here's a picture of a living room for a place we're considering

2). Gaming Communication – In the past, we have used Skype to make VOIP calls between Josh, Ryan and Mike so we can voice chat while playing whatever game we’re on at the time. Skype works well, but one person hosts the call and then has to call each person once they’re ready (much like a telephone). Now, with Google+ Hangouts, you can simply “Open A Hangout,” which is basically an open invitation with whatever group you want that can join in at any time. So, if one of us isn’t ready, they can join in whenever they want. Much more convenient, and the voice quality is nice, too.

3). Selective Sharing – I post a lot of stuff on Facebook. A lot of stuff. Google+ makes it easy with their Circles function, allowing me to share with people from Columbia, or people from Truman, or people from St. Louis, or all of them all at once. This is done really easily, both from the web interface and from within the Google+ Android app. Facebook has started adding in some of this functionality, but it’s nowhere near as helpful. It’s obvious it’s a “stop gap” measure to provide some of the same functionality, but is very much “tacked on” to their existing, convoluted infrastructure. Circles is just easier to use.

google2 — Photos taken with the camera are geo-tagged and dated. Select the ones you want, and then click the green "Share" button!

4). Full Integration with Picasa – I already use Picasa to post pictures online, partially for display on this very website. Because of the integration between Google+ and Picasa, any pictures from my phone are automatically uploaded, and then I can share them on Google+ with whoever I want. But also, they are made available under Picasa, so I can copy them into any albums I want, and either keep them private or share them. In short: it’s free cloud storage and organization for any picture I take with my phone (though, you can still manually upload them from a camera if you want).

google3 — Here's what the main screen looks like.

5). Separated Streams – Right now, I have 287 people in my various circles on Google+. A lot of those folks are Gamers With Jobs people. There are times, however, I really just want to see the news updates from my Friends, rather than the GWJ crew. Thus, Google+ makes it easy to choose which Circle (or “news feed”) you want to view. Moreover, the Android App lets you set feeds so you just have to swipe from side to side on the screen to switch between feeds, making it much easier to follow the people you want without seeing updates from everyone else. Again, Facebook implemented something similar in recent weeks, and while their web interface works alright for this, the Android app just doesn’t have the same functionality. Believe you me, when you have over 500 people on your Facebook friends list, it’s a daunting task to scroll through everyone’s stuff every morning…

So now that Google+ is open to everyone, I hope more people check it out. Really, anyone that has a Google account for e-mail already has a Google+ account ready and waiting. It’ll get more integrated over the coming year, anyway, especially with Picasa (being renamed to “Google Photos”) and Reader. You may as well get used to it now!

Plus, you may find that you like it. 🙂

September 16, 2011

Any Given Friday

The crisp, cool air of September typically brings up some of these memories. Fourteen years ago now, a Friday night in September meant that I was walking out onto a football field in mid-Missouri to play a marching show. To this day, the fondest memories of high school involve that uniform and that snare drum, the same one I had all three years at Hickman High School. I’m sad I’ve lost track of a lot of the people I marched with, but I do think of them from time to time and wish I could get that kind of experience back again.

More than likely, I’ll have to wait until Meg’s in a similar uniform someday.

But until then, I can relive the memories, thanks to transfer technology from VHS to DVD, and from DVD to YouTube. Thus, on this Friday in September, I present to you my marching shows from high school for your viewing enjoyment.

“Western Perceptions” – 1997

“The Music of Shakespeare” – 1998

“Homage: Three Tapestries” – 1999

And for those that want Kristen’s shows, I’ve got those up on YouTube also. “The Music of Stravinsky,” “The Wind and The Lion,” and “Journey Through A Dream.”

September 14, 2011

One Man and a Baby

I remember watching “Three Men and a Baby” more than a few times growing up. Pretty sure we had it taped on VHS. I didn’t watch it as much as “Ghostbusters” or anything, but definitely more than a few times. For those that don’t remember, “Three Men” involved a set of bachelors living in a New York high rise when a baby is left on their doorstep. Not knowing what to do, they try their hand at taking care of it, learning more about child care than they ever thought they would.

Granted, I have a bit more experience than Tom Selleck (and no mustache), but there are times I can relate.

When we first started this little adventure of ours, we didn’t know quite how long we’d be doing it. As of next week, it will have been two months of Brooke being here for the weekend, and Meg and I alone four nights a week. Brooke typically gets here mid-evening on Thursdays, though a few weeks there, it’s been closer to 10:00. She will then be here through the weekend, keeping busy making sure the produce from the garden is processed and that Meg and I have something to eat during the following week, and then she leaves after putting Meg down for a nap on Sunday afternoon.

For the most part, it’s gone shockingly well. Certainly, it isn’t an ideal situation, but all things considered, I haven’t damaged Meg in any permanent way. 🙂

We generally stick to a routine, which thankfully works well for Meg and for me. I get up at 6:00 am, then I wake her up at 6:30. I give her some milk and we hop in the car, so she’s at daycare by 6:50, putting me to work only about 15 min later than I normally would get there. I pick her up anywhere from 4:30 to 5:15 pm, then we come home and eat. She likes hot dogs and bananas, but I’ve had some luck giving her bits of whatever I’m eating. Her new love is cottage cheese (blech…). Then, we go outside or watch some TV, or just play with toys for awhile until she goes to bed at 7:30. After which, I finish cleaning up, do some laundry, and either watch TV or play video games. Rinse and repeat.

Regardless, it’s been an interesting experience, one that, in some ways, I’m glad I’ve gone through. It’s good to know that I can take care of a small human without hurting it and that she’ll still prosper and thrive under my guidance. If anything, I think we’ve “bonded” a bit more than we would have, otherwise. Obviously, these aren’t the circumstances I would have chosen for such things…

Meg still misses her “Mama,” though. They talked on the phone a bit tonight. 🙂

Fun Fact: “Three Men and a Baby” was directed by a young up-and-comer named Leonard Nimoy. I learned something new!