Shakespearean Monkey

Back again

2010-03-07T10:52:00.003-05:00

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 Here are the top grossing movies for 2009 (numbers may be slightly out of date*)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

2009-07-12T21:20:00.002-04:00

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

2009-01-08T08:19:00.001-05:00

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

2009-01-06T20:11:00.000-05:00

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

2008-12-13T20:34:00.002-05:00

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

2008-08-17T21:52:00.003-04:00

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

2008-07-24T22:18:00.002-04:00

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.

Gas price

2008-06-21T19:35:00.003-04:00

They say a sure way to start an argument is to bring up politics or religion. Well, while the prices of gasoline and oil have been political hot buttons lately, I'm mostly going to stick to the economic and technological aspects that indicate that the future might not be as bleak as some people are saying. As this article suggests, the capacity to produce more oil is being developed, and even if oil prices drop some there is profit to be made from harder-to-extract sources. And of course, people are trying to conserve, buy more efficient vehicles, etc.... So both supply and demand are at work on the problem. It make take some time to get things back in balance, but that's ok with me. Not that I like paying four bucks for gas. But it gives time for people like this company, and this guy a chance to enter the market. Not to mention alternatives like biodiesel, waste vegetable oil, ethanol. There is also coal to liquid fuel technology (warning, PDF). Personally, I think Congress should have announced a huge investment in something like that, rather than trying to sue OPEC.

Anyway, I think things are going to get better.

Everything a Choice

2008-05-31T20:56:00.002-04:00

For a few years now, I've been reading (or more often listening to) personal
development/self improvement material -- books, books on CD, etc... Something I heard the other day kind of resonated with me. It wasn't something new... almost all of the books, etc... include the concept in one form or another. Basically, it is that we are all responsible for our own lives. That is not just to say that we must take care of ourselves, but also that everything we have, whatever situations we are in, where ever we are in life, is the result of the decisions we've made. Looking at that from the other side, everything we do -- and the consequences that result -- represents some choice that we've made. So (the theory goes) if we want better things in life, we need to make better decisions. In a way, it makes perfect sense. Of course, it is easier said than done. We may not be able to control everything that happens to us (unless you buy into some of the more new age-y stuff), but we can control how we react to it. And to an extent, we can control how we feel. They say (and apparently there is ample research to support this) that if you smile and "act happy", you will begin to feel happier. Of course, it also helps to make choices that will make you happy. And being aware and accepting this idea should help too. On one hand it may be a little scary since most excuses go out the window. On the other hand, that means no one else is in control of your life. Quick example... I haven't been too busy to blog (or otherwise prevented from it). I chose to do other things instead. I didn't choose to make the time earlier. I probably should have... but that doesn't mean I won't do the same thing another time.

Old new discovery

2008-04-20T22:10:00.002-04:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I will try to increase the frequency and regularity of my writing.

The new old thing I've been thinking of and messing around with lately is iTunes. If you have an mp3 player (any kind, not just an ipod), then it is worth checking out. I haven't bought much music lately, but I've been downloading a lot of free stuff. Each week, iTunes offers 2 or 3 free songs you can download, plus some TV episodes and other videos. For instance, I downloaded Bubbly, by Colbie Caillat for free just a couple weeks before it started getting lots of radio play and became so popular.

What I've been digging through lately, though is the podcasts. There is tons of stuff on many, many topics from Comedy, Politics, education (lots of foreign language courses, but I've also seen Psychology, chemistry, grammar, hypnosis, all kinds of things... Photoshop, even), hobbies and games (I saw at least two or three knitting podcasts), and of course, music and technology (as separate categories, but I'm sure there are podcasts that combine them). And it is all free. At least, I haven't come across any there weren't. I know podcasts were the next big thing like two and a half years ago, but if you haven't looked at them in a while, there is more (and probably better) content than ever. Of course, you don't need iTunes to enjoy podcasts, but they do have everything in one convenient place (with a audio and video player included in the application).

And if you're interested in the more academic topics I mentioned, check out iTunes U as well. There is a wide range of content straight from University lectures and seminars from numerous schools (including Duke, MIT, UC Berkley, Yale, Stanford). And again, as far as I can see all this content is free as well.

There is a lot of cool, interesting stuff on iTunes even if you never intend to actually buy anything there. I just wish I had more time to check it all out.

If there's nothing on TV

2008-03-31T21:43:00.002-04:00

I heard about this site a while ago --you may have seen it or heard about it, too -- and I just got around to checking it out. It is hulu.com from NBC and News Corp. When I heard about it, I thought it would be similar the current offerings from ABC and other online network offerings... a selection of episodes from their most popular or newest shows. But this is a little different. They really have a lot of shows... from old stuff (classics?) like Dick Van Dyke, McHale's Navy, and Alfred Hitchcock Hour to current shows like Canterbury's Law, cartoons (Woody Woodpecker, Astro Boy, plus newer ones like Family Guy and King of the Hill), game shows, sports, specials, and some things I haven't heard of. The criticism I have is that most of the catalogs seem to be very limited selections of episodes. Still, it is definitely worth checking out. Here is the list of TV shows. And they have some movies available, too -- full movies, and clips.

New Feature

2008-03-29T15:22:00.002-04:00

As kind of a geek, I love Dilbert. Dilbert and The Far Side are two of the best comic strips ever. Gary Larson is brilliant... day after day cramming that much humor in a single comic panel. And sometimes, I think Scott Adams has spies where I work. Anyway, check out the new widget. Apparently, you can view comics all the way back to 2005. Enjoy!

New Direction

2008-03-27T21:07:00.002-04:00

I have long been interested in health, fitness, weight loss, etc.... And I've had some ideas for posting those kinds of things, but I wasn't really sure I wanted to post it here. I'm sure I'll have a lot to say on the subject(s), and I didn't really want to turn this into just (or even mostly) a health/fitness/diet/weight loss/whatever blog. So I started another blog, just for that kind of thing. The tone will be a little different, but I hope you will find it readable, informative and entertaining. I'll keep posting here as well, and if you feel like I'm slacking off, feel free to let me know that I should post more often.

Now playing....

2008-03-21T20:39:00.002-04:00

I was going to write a little about music that I like... but how to do that without getting boring, or long-winded (a big risk, since I like lots of different stuff)? Hmmm, how about the first 10 songs that come up on my ipod when I put it in shuffle mode? Ok, here goes:

1. Heartspark Dollarsign by Everclear. I bought this CD because I liked the song Santa Monica, and was into several of the songs for a while. Might be a little angst-y for me now.
2. I heard it through the Grapevine by Credence Clearwater Revival. A classic. Lots of what I have is this kind of "classic rock".
3. For the Girl by The Fratellis. This is a fun band. One of my favorites right now. I think this is the only entire album I've bought on iTunes.
4. Walkin' After Midnight by Patsy Cline. A little more classic than most of my classic rock, but a good song.
5. The Rockafeller Skank by Fatboy Slim. If they can make Christopher Walken dance, they must have something good going on.
6. D'yer Mak'er by Led Zepplin. A great rock band. I have at least 6 (maybe 7) of their albums on CD. Lots of great songs.
7. The New Style by The Beastie Boys. I loved this album when it came out. But I didn't really follow the Beastie Boys after Licensed to Ill, but recently I've picked up a song or two from their newer stuff.
8. Serenade No 13 in G, K. Eine kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart. I usually don't listen to this on my ipod -- I typically skip it. Once in a while, I'll put it on when I'm doing something else around the house, or put it on for the kids at night.
9. Join Together by The Who. More classic rock.
10. Outta Love Again by Van Halen. Possibly my all-time favorite band. I have all the older stuff and some the Van-Hagar stuff.

That's a pretty good sampling, but really just scratching the surface. I didn't hit any metal or country or other genres, but maybe next time.

I warned you...

2008-03-11T22:15:00.002-04:00

Apparently, my last post went over like a lead balloon with some of my audience. I did warn you, though, right at the outset, that I'm interested in lots of different things so you'll never know what you're going to get. However, I'm a little confused. You see, I've also heard that some of you out there are interested advanced photo editing and would like to have a moderately to ridiculously expensive program for that (Photoshop Elements ~$80 up to Photoshop CS3 premium ~$1700). And my boring post put you a trivial amount of searching away from many free image editing programs with advanced features (including highly rated ones like GIMP and Photobie).

All right, rant over. Maybe you will get more use out of this. How many of you use del.icio.us? Lots of interesting stuff to be found there, plus a handy way to keep all your bookmarks in one place, no matter what computer you're on. You can check out what's hot from the main page (or popular and recent links in the header), browse through tags you find interesting, or see what your friends are up to. Here's mine. I don't always remember to add things, so my list isn't very long but I'm sure it will grow over time.

Fun with Free stuff

2008-03-09T17:14:00.002-04:00

I'm kind of a computer geek. Not in a big way, but enough to make a living at it. And I like playing around with stuff and finding new things... new web sites, content, software tools, etc.... And contrary to what some software vendors might like you to think, there is a ton of quality software available for free. So I thought I'd share a few of my favorites. A good place to start might be Google Pack. It includes some programs you might already know, like Google Earth, Adobe Reader, and Picasa, some anti-virus and anti-spyware tools (Norton and Spyware Doctor), IM and voice chat tools (Google talk and Skype), plus a complete office suite (StarOffice). Another source is File Hippo which has a variety of programs in 20 or so categories. Download.com and tucows.com have a wider variety which seems to include more demos, free trials of commercial software, and shareware. Snapfiles.com has separate areas for freeware and shareware. Most of the sites have some kind of rating system as well, so you don't have to waste time sifting through poor quality junk to find the good stuff.

Those, and many other sites, are nice but have a major bias towards the Windows operating systems. If you really want to get geeky-- or have just had enough BSODs (blue screen of death) -- there is a whole range of options, the most popular of which are varieties of Linux. As I said, you can go really geeky -- to the point of compiling the operating system programs yourself -- or you can keep it very simple with a polished, easy to use version. The leader in this category is Ubuntu Linux (http://www.ubuntu.com/). You can download a CD image, or even request to have a CD mailed to you (at no charge). Better still, it is a live (bootable) CD, so you don't have to install the operating system to try it out. Once you get into it, you'll find that there are programs to do virtually everything you can do in Windows.

My next geek project is probably going to be building a linux based media center PC from one of the older computers I have lying around, most likely with MythTV or Freevo . I will have to get a decent TV tuner card for the PC (preferrably with remote), but that should be the only expense... unless and until I decide to upgrade the harddrive. But that should not be necessary unless it works well enough that I decide to use it to replace my cable box DVR. We will see.

What's on?

2008-03-02T17:19:00.003-05:00

As a sort of follow on to my last post, I thought I'd write a little about one of the things I do instead of reading (although I did finish a book since then -- and got four more from Friends of the Library). I'm pretty sure I watch more TV than I used to, but thanks to the commercial skipping power of DVR, I don't think I spend a whole lot more time watching TV. And it may be a bit contrary to conventional wisdom -- or at least what it is popular to say -- but I think there is a lot more good stuff on television these days. So much that I can't really try to keep up with everything I'd probably be interested in. For instance, I missed it when the new Battlestar Galactica started. It has won a lot of critical and popular acclaim, so one of these days, I may rent the first season or two on DVD and try to catch up. I started doing that with 24, but I lost steam after 3 seasons and haven't gone back to it. Bones is another one I think I'd enjoy, but haven't really watched. The other side of that coin is that I keep inventing time in shows that end up getting cancelled, such as The Bionic Woman, The Class, and Day Break. But that could be a topic on its own, even a mini-series documentary.

So, what's good? Or at least, what do I like to watch? Lost and Heroes are at the top of the list. I also enjoy Numbers, Desperate Housewives, Medium, Stargate Atlantis (on sci-fi) and Reaper. I will also admit to watching some reality TV. Survivor is consistently pretty good. So is The Amazing Race. There were a few others that I watched pretty regularly for a while, and I am half-heartedly trying to keep up with American Idol this time around, but nothing else has lasted. I also like the History Channel, Science Channel, Discovery and the five or six others like them, plus the Food Network. From the basic science and history documentaries, to more fun stuff like Mythbusters, Junkyard Wars and Iron Chef, I can usually find something interesting, even educational, to watch.

But the best thing to happen to TV in the last few years is the DVR, digital video recorder. Although more or less the same functionality has been available with VCRs for decades, it seems more useful now. Maybe it is the convenience of having it built right into the TV (well, cable box or Tivo), or that it works automatically on live TV. Or maybe it is the skip-ahead 30 seconds feature that lets you zip through 3-5 minutes worth of commercials in a few taps of the button, so you can watch an hour show in about 40 minutes. Yeah, that's probably it.

Reading list

2008-02-23T19:55:00.002-05:00

I've found lately that I don't read as much as I'd like to. I used to read all the time, mostly fiction with a bit of the newspaper or a magazine thrown in here or there. I always had a book that I was actively reading, sometimes two or three. When I'd finish one, while placing it back on the bookshelf I would pick out the next one. Somehow, I got out of that habit.

I am probably busier than I used to be. And I find that my reading habits have changed over the years. I was reading mostly magazines for a while, and I've had periods where I read a fair amount online. I still do both, to an extent. But when I have a book that really draws me in (the Harry Potters and some recent Stephen King, for instance), I find myself reading all the time. So I probably just need to make more time for reading.

I've also been trying to broaden the scope of material that I read compared to when I used to mostly stick with a somewhat narrow field of authors and genres. Several months ago, I read a collection of stories by Richard Matheson which included I Am Legend (now a major motion picture starring Will Smith). Some time before that, I found a collection of stories by Philip K. Dick--whose story ideas are the foundation of many sci-fi movies-- in the Friends of the Library bookstore. I just finished All Quiet On the Western Front. And at the moment, I'm reading The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell.

I've been aware for some time that I still accumulate plenty of books. I'm just not reading them as fast as I once did, so I'm developing more of a backlog than usual. It has been a while since I stopped in at Barnes & Noble or a used bookstore, I have probably at least two dozen books that I "inherited" when my mom moved a couple of years ago and I raided her bookshelves for anything that looked interesting. I've probably only read three or four of those. My new favorite, aside from getting books as gifts, is the Friends of the Library. Fortunately -- or unfortunately -- most of the time when I go to the library it is just in-and-out quickly to drop something off or pick something up, so if I even stop in to the FotL room, I only browse for a minute or two.

Well, I guess I have some reading to do.

Here we go

2008-02-18T11:38:00.000-05:00

The title of this blog comes from the notion that "if you put a million monkeys on a million typewriters they will eventually reproduce the complete works of Shakespeare". The idea has been stated many ways-- the preceding being the way I first recall hearing it -- to the point that it is fairly well known in popular culture.

I'm interested in lots of widely varied, seemingly unrelated things. I don't know yet how much of it I'll write about, but at times you may wonder if it is all coming from the same person. Hopefully, though, you will at least enjoy it and not wonder how many (or few) monkeys it would take to come up a given post.