Back again

I was feeling really bad for not blogging for a long (long, long) time, but now that I think about it, I'm not doing too bad. For comparison, look at all the creative minds in the entertainment industry. And what have they done lately? Here are the top grossing movies for 2009 (numbers may be slightly out of date*)

1 Transformers 2

2 Half-Blood Prince

3 Up

4 The Hangover

5 Star Trek

6 Monsters vs. Aliens

7 Ice Age 3

8 Wolverine

9 Night at the Museum 2

10 The Proposal

Three direct sequels (one based on an 80s cartoon, one based on a children's book), one continuation of a series based on a book, and two others from well established franchises (Star Trek and X-men).

*Avatar ended up near the top as expected, New Moon slipped in, along with The Blindside knocking the bottom three above a few spots further down the list. New Moon is the only one of those that represents some creative writing -- but not in Hollywood, of course. The Blindside was based on a true story. And Avatar, while it had spectacular effects, seems like a story that has been done before.

Skipping through more of the list, you can see plenty more derivative content in sequels, prequels, adaptations of books (usually ok, but starting with a dozen or so page children's book may not be the best idea -- see Polar Express -- although some are well done), and re-makes of older films/franchises. In the works: Three men and a bride, Roger Rabbit 2, The Jetsons movie, Thor (the comic), Alien prequel, Dune ( a book already made into a movie twice, once for theatrical release, once for TV), Friends, Red Dawn, a sequel to The Wizard of Oz, Interview with a Vampire/The Vampire Lestat, A Nightmare on Elm Street, My Fair Lady, The Crow, The Greatest American Hero, another spider-man, and believe it or not, another Mad Max film. A couple of my favorites, though: I read, from a couple of sources, that there was a bidding war for the rights to the video game Asteroids -- the one where you were a triangle shooting at irregular polygons. Also, apparently, a studio is in talks to acquire the rights to the viewmaster "to do some Transformers-style magic on it." Yeah. Viewmaster, the slide show toy.

TV is not much better. You'd think since shows on TV can just go on and on, you can't really make sequels. But those clever TV execs figured out a way. I think it went something like this:

NBC exec: "Law and Order is doing great in the ratings. I wish I had three of them."

Yes man: "Yes sir. We'll get right on that. What would you like to call them?"

NBC exec: "We can't just make the same show over again!"

Yes man: "Yes. But what if we change something that's not really central to the plot, but will differentiate the new show."

NBC exec: "Like what?"

Yes man: "Maybe some other type of major crime besides homocide?"

And after one show did it, others were sure to follow:

CBS exec: "CSI is doing great. Let's crank out some new versions, Law-and-Order style."

Yes man: "Ok, sir. But they already investigate all kinds of crimes on CSI."

CBS exec: "Right. But every big city has a crime lab. Let's do one in New York. People love New York. Miami, too. That's kind of exotic like Vegas."

NBC exec: "We need to get in on this CSI bandwagon. How can we cash in without directly copying CBS?"

yes man: "Do military police have crime labs?"

Fox exec: "CSI and NCIS are killing us, we need a show like those."

yes man: "What about a CSI cartoon?"

Fox exec: "Sunday night's covered. I'm thinking mid-week."

yes man: "A CSI reality show?"

Fox exec: "We're pretty solid on the music and dance reality shows. Does the FBI use crime labs?"

yes man: "I think I read that they use academics as consultants."

Fox exec: "Yeah, like that lame math show CBS launched earlier this year. Lets go with that."

So now you have 3 CSIs, 2 NCISs, and Bones. And with the success of House and Grey's Anatomy, (and now that ER is finally over -- I think. Seems like I was saying "That show's still on?!" for at least 5 years before they announced the series finale, which must have been at least a year before the finale aired) we're seeing a new spate of medical dramas, too.

Unfortunately, the occasional show that is really original and creative gets killed by networks that want to turn it into a cash cow. Lost is a good example. It started out really interesting, and seemed like there was a larger story arc that we would gradually learn over time. Then it became a big hit and it seemed as though the story went from progressing and moving toward revealing the mysteries to coming up with things to keep the show going -- which likely wrecked the originally planned neat, everything-coming-together-at-the-end (I assume -- maybe that's wishful thinking on my part) story. Oh well, I guess we'll see if they manage to salvage a reasonable ending. I guess I'll write about that when they eventually wrap the series.

Happy Father's Day

Remember those "25 things" lists that were going around Facebook a few months ago? I never did one. Not really because I didn't think it was a good idea or anything like that. Most of the ones I saw were at least mildly fun or interesting to read. No, the reason I didn't make my own list is that I'd start coming up with a list in my head, get a handful of items, then start explaining them... composing text in my head for each of the five or six things that I'd come up with until each was almost enough for its own blog post. Totally inappropriate for a list of 25 things. So I had the notion to save them for actual blog posts. I sort of shelved the idea for a while, and started working on one a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, I didn't get it done before I went on vacation, so I've just wrapped it up. The item/topic: I wish I was more like my father (in many ways). Yeah, it would have been nice to get it posted around Father's day, but that was the second day of an 1170 mile drive that started off our vacation and we actually celebrated today, so I'm giving myself a pass on that.

So, back on topic. My dad was a great reader. To an extent, I inherited that from him but he had a much greater appetite for books of all kinds. Histories, mysteries, biographies, you name it he read it. I have to make an effort to get outside my comfort zone of favorite authors, and also remind myself that-- as good as the History Channel is-- it isn't quite the same as reading a book by an actual historian.

I also inherited and/or learned some mechanical skill and general handiness from him. I'm fairly handy around the house and usually handle small projects pretty well. But I'm pretty sure he was a better auto mechanic, electrician and plumber than me. And he was a much better carpenter.

Now, I mentioned that he read a lot, but I don't recall ever seeing books about selling around the house, so I assume he was a natural salesman. There is no question that he was a salesman, so it is probably good that it was his profession for most of his career. He was friendly, outgoing, gregarious, and was comfortable talking to anyone. This is one of the areas I'm more different from my dad.

There are plenty of other differences, including some that I'm glad of, but that's enough for now.

I told you so

Back when gas prices were around $4 a gallon, and a lot of people were predicting $5 or more , I said prices would go down soon. And of course, they did. Last week, I think I paid $1.55. Unfortunately, they're going up again. Monday it was $1.59 at the station where I usually fill up. Tuesday it was $1.69 and yesterday $1.79. This is probably due to the production cuts OPEC agreed to a couple weeks ago being implemented. But as I said before, high(-ish) gas prices are not that bad a thing, since it give incentive for us to improve efficiency and expand the use of renewable alternatives. This time around, though, I don't think prices are going as high as they were this summer. After all, OPEC wants to keep selling oil, so they don't want to see super-efficient and alternative fuel vehicles gaining market share.

Resolution

Well, I'm usually not much for New Year's resolutions, but I've been thinking about this one for a while. Most nights after we get the kids off to bed, I just veg out and watch TV. I'm not going to do that anymore. At least, not most nights (specifically, no more than three nights a week of TV). It shouldn't be hard to find things to do. Usually, it seems like I don't have enough time to get things done. I have literally dozens of books that I've picked up here or there and haven't read. I also have tons of reading and studying I could do for work. We got new board games for Christmas which reminded us that we rarely play the many we already have, so maybe we should do game night more often. With this extra time, maybe I can work on some projects, or even do some more writing.

Reflections on fatherhood

I have a couple of friends who are new fathers. One of those is a guy I work with who just had a daughter a couple weeks ago. A while back, just before the due date, a couple of other guys and I were teasing him a little about getting all the sleep he can ahead of time and some of the other challenges that come with having kids. Afterward, it occurred to me that I sort of missed out on that with my first daughter. Most people reading this know that she was born very (four months) premature. As a result, she was in the hospital the first 100 days after she was born.

So my experience as a first time dad was quite a bit different than most. For the first week and a half or so I was pretty wound-up and afraid my child might die at any minute (this may not be that different from a lot of new fathers, except that I had a good bit more reason for it). At first, I spent a lot of time in the hospital between my wife (who was recovering from the emergency c-section) and the baby. But then within a few days, Holly came home and we started getting into a routine. We spent a lot of time at the hospital, but there was very little we could do with or for our daughter. And any time she needed anything, there were skilled, highly trained nurses there to take care of her.

In a way, it feels a little like I cheated, not having to do much the first couple of months. For the most part, if my sleep was interrupted or curtailed, it was my choice. By the time she came home she was on a very regular feeding schedule. On the other hand, when she came home she was a lot closer to a newborn than a three+ month old. At that point, that almost-comfortable routine was yanked out from under us and suddenly we were completely responsible for an infant requiring a bit more care than most. I guess that my experience, although it was pretty different than most in some respects, it was a lot alike as well.

Olympic coverage

I like the Olympics... the spirit of the games, all the different sports, pulling for Team USA... But I've been a little disappointed with the coverage. In prime time, it has mainly been Swimming/Diving, running, and Gymnastics with some occasional beach volleyball thrown in (which they will preempt for a swimming event). All of those are great sports, but NBC has four channels available, and they've only had programming on one (NBC itself, of course) in prime time. Is the stuff on MSNBC, CNBC, and USA Network so important that it can't be preempted by events that only come around every four years? Ok, so no one wants to watch trampoline or badminton, but there are lots of events that I'd like to see more of... wrestling, Tae Kwon Do, water polo, some of the rowing events, etc.... Fortunately, I was able to see some interesting stuff when I had some time during the day... some of the fencing and cycling... not much, though, because they're not airing any of that during prime time.

I haven't been too impressed with the online coverage either. I've mostly been checking Yahoo sports and NBC's official site. Both have some good information, but you can't really drill down into the bigger sports to the various events unless you go through the schedule... not very intuitive or user friendly. nbcolympics.com is better, but there is a lot more they could do with it.

Ok, enough complaining. I have enjoyed watching what has been available, including the incredible finishes in Phelps' races en route to 8 (EIGHT!) gold medals in one Olympics.

From the Unneeded Advice department

This just made me laugh. While on vacation, we went to a small water park. It had a play area for smaller kids... with basically a big playground structure with slides and whatnot, but in about 10 inches or so of water, and with fountains, etc.... It gradually deepens on one side to a pool deep enough to swim in. The other sides very gradually slope into the water. As you can see, it starts at zero feet, zero inches. Apparently, even when there is no water at all, it is necessary to tell people how deep it is, or isn't. Worse still, it seems there is some concern that someone might try to dive into this lack of water if they are not explicitly told not to.