One Year

I should say something today, even though I'm extra tired and only want to sleep for about a week. As of today, I have been blogging for exactly one year, hooray! Including this one, in one year I have posted to this blog 78 times. I installed Google Analytics to track hits to this blog on June 26, and since then this blog has received 3425 visits from 86 countries, but I think most of those are random hits from search engines and not actual visitors who are interested in this blog. I have had 16 hits from Iceland, though, which is cool. What is interesting is where those hits land. By far the most popular post is Polar Bears: Number One Threat to America! with 1200 hits, followed by Me & Armeni about Emilíana Torrini's most recent album with 850 hits. My main page, surprisingly, comes third with 800 hits! All this means is that most people are finding my blog through Google searches for global warming and polar bears or Emilíana Torrini.

Speaking of Google searches, other than those, guess what the most popular keywords are that lead to my blog? There are many variations, but they all lead to my Eat Your Boogers post. Here are some examples: "effects of eating boogers", "i eat my boogers", "boogers and immunity", "are boogers healthy to eat", "eating your boogers", "does eating your boogers boost your immune system", "the effects of eating boogers", "eating your boogers is good", etc., etc. Oh yeah, someone got to my blog by Googling "rush limbaugh eats boogers". Someone also got here Googling "the lever that ends the universe". Interesting.

Well, that's about all the energy I can muster right now. Also, I have finally finished putting together my new blog playlist, now with 200 songs! These are the songs that best represent my taste in music. There were dozens that I wanted to put in there but there just wasn't room, but here's the list:

Down In A Hole - Alice in Chains
Rooster - Alice in Chains
I Stay Away - Alice in Chains
Rotten Apple - Alice in Chains
Nutshell - Alice in Chains
Into the West - Annie Lennox
Eiri na Gréine / The Rising of the Sun - Anúna
Siúil A Riún - Anúna
Innisfree - Anúna
En Vie - Apocalyptica
Bittersweet (Instrumental Version) - Apocalyptica
Pray! - Apocalyptica
Nothing Else Matters - Apocalyptica
One - Apocalyptica
Seemann (ft. Nina Hagen) - Apocalyptica
Faraway - Apocalyptica
Helden - Apocalyptica
Worlds Collide - Apocalyptica
Peace - Apocalyptica
Play Dead - Björk
It's in Our Hands - Björk
Desired Constellation - Björk
I've Seen It All (ft. Thom Yorke) - Björk
Scatterheart - Björk
New World (ft. Massive Attack) - Björk
All Is Full of Love - Björk
Hyperballad (ft. The Brodsky Quartet) - Björk
It's Not Up to You - Björk
Gloomy Sunday - Björk
Oxygen - Björk
Það Sést Ekki Sætari Mey - Björk Guðmundsdóttir & Tríó Guðmundsdóttir
Wonderful Life - Black Box Recorder
Holyman - Blind Melon
Galaxy - Blind Melon
I Wonder - Blind Melon
I've Seen It All - Bonnie Prince Billy
Short Skirt/Long Jacket - Cake
The Distance - Cake
Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle - Cake
Sheep Go to Heaven - Cake
Cool Blue Reason - Cake
Daffodil Lament - The Cranberries
No Need to Argue - The Cranberries
Dream On - Depeche Mode
Blasphemous Rumours - Depeche Mode
Enjoy the Silence - Depeche Mode
Only When I Lose Myself - Depeche Mode
Lento - Elliot Goldenthal
The Kiss - Elliot Goldenthal
Zeus Cannon - Elliot Goldenthal
Adagio and Transfiguration - Elliot Goldenthal
She Moved through the Fair - Elliot Goldenthal (ft. Sinéad O'Connor)
Crossroads - Elliot Goldenthal
Finale - Elliot Goldenthal
Today Has Been Ok - Emilíana Torrini
Next Time Around - Emilíana Torrini
Ten to Twenty (Sneaker Pimps) - Emilíana Torrini
To Be Free - Emilíana Torrini
Dead Things - Emilíana Torrini
Telepathy - Emilíana Torrini
Brazilian Sky - Emilíana Torrini
Sound of Silence (Simon & Garfunkel) - Emilíana Torrini
If You Go Away - Emilíana Torrini
Lay Down (Candles in the Rain) - Emilíana Torrini
Ruby Tuesday - Emilíana Torrini
Weird Friendless Kid - Emilíana Torrini
Tuna Fish (Acoustic) - Emilíana Torrini
The Sundown (Il Tramonto) - Ennio Morricone
The Ecstasy of Gold (L'Estasi del'Oro) - Ennio Morricone
Solitude (Your Secret Admirer) - Evanescence
Anywhere - Evanescence
Restless (Within Temptation) - Evanescence
The Dark of the Matinee - Franz Ferdinand
Darts of Pleasure - Franz Ferdinand
Is Jesus Your Pal (ft. Emilíana Torrini) - GusGus
Why (ft. Emilíana Torrini) - GusGus
Rome is the Light (ft. Lisa Gerrard) - Hans Zimmer
Gollum's Song (ft. Emilíana Torrini) - Howard Shore
What are You Asking Me? - James Newton Howard
I Cannot See His Color - James Newton Howard
If Six Was Nine - Jimi Hendrix
All Along the Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix
Castles Made of Sand - Jimi Hendrix
Little Wing The - Jimi Hendrix Experience
Hurt - Johnny Cash
Woodstock - Joni Mitchell
Blue - Joni Mitchell
Inkanyezi Nezazi - Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
The Unfolding - Lisa Gerrard
The Man with the Golden Gun - Lulu
Angel - Massive Attack
Teardrop - Massive Attack
Dissolved Girl - Massive Attack
Group Four - Massive Attack
Future Proof - Massive Attack
You Brought Me Up - Méav
The Unforgiven - Metallica
Nothing Else Matters - Metallica
Extreme Ways - Moby
New Dawn Fades - Moby
Never Ending Math Equation - Modest Mouse
Dark Center of the Universe - Modest Mouse
Willful Suspension of Disbelief - Modest Mouse
A Different City - Modest Mouse
Butterflies and Hurricanes - Muse
Endlessly - Muse
Falling Away with You - Muse
Ruled by Secrecy - Muse
Starlight - Muse
Knights of Cydonia - Muse
New Born - Muse
Bliss - Muse
Space Dementia - Muse
Citizen Erased - Muse
Dark Shines - Muse
Sunburn - Muse
Uno - Muse
Dead Star - Muse
Muscle Museum - Muse
You Only Live Twice - Nancy Sinatra
99 Luft Balloons - Nena
Stormy Weather - Nina Nastasia
Something in the Way - Nirvana
Plateau (Unpluged) - Nirvana
Lake of Fire - Nirvana
You Know You're Right - Nirvana
Spirit in the Sky - Norman Greenbaum
Yeroushalayim Shel Zahav נהז לןש םילשורי - Ofra Haza הזח הרפע
Hold Your Hand (ft. Emilíana Torrini) - Paul Oakenfold
Behind Blue Eyes (Acoustic) - Pete Townshend
Too Much of Nothing - Peter, Paul and Mary
Roads - Portishead
Strangers - Portishead
Cowboys - Portishead
Western Eyes - Portishead
All Mine - Portishead
Over - Portishead
Seven Months - Portishead
Elysium - Portishead
Half Day Closing - Portishead
Plastic - Portishead
Threads - Portishead
Hunter - Portishead
Humming - Portishead
Who Wants To Live Forever - Queen
Killer Queen - Queen
Silent Lucidity - Queensrÿche
Nebel - Rammstein
Ohne dich - Rammstein
Halleluja - Rammstein
Benzin - Rammstein
Engel - Rammstein
Mein Herz Brennt - Rammstein
Sonne - Rammstein
Pretty Little Ditty - The Red Hot Chili Peppers
Aeroplane - The Red Hot Chili Peppers
Music Box - Regina Spektor
Fidelity - Regina Spektor
Mo Li Hua (The Jasmine Flower) - RHS Chamber Choir
Paint it Black - The Rolling Stones
Ich hab genauso angst wie du - Rosenstolz
Flugufrelsarinn - Sigur Rós
Hjartad Hamast - Sigur Rós
Ný Batterí - Sigur Rós
Viðrar vel til loftárása - Sigur Rós
Starálfur - Sigur Rós
Dánarfregnir og Jarðarfarir - Sigur Rós
Gong - Sigur Rós
Hún Jörð - Sigur Rós
Ebow - Sigur Ros
I Am a Rock - Simon & Garfunkel
Scarborough Fair/Canticle - Simon & Garfunkel
A Poem on the Underground Wall - Simon & Garfunkel
The End is the Beginning is the End - The Smashing Pumpkins
Tonight, Tonight - The Smashing Pumpkins
Muzzle - The Smashing Pumpkins
Disarm - The Smashing Pumpkins
Eye - The Smashing Pumpkins
Black Sheep - Sneaker Pimps
Grazes - Sneaker Pimps
Half Life - Sneaker Pimps
Lightning Field - Sneaker Pimps
Flowers and Silence - Sneaker Pimps
Splinter - Sneaker Pimps
Farewell Transmission - Songs: Ohia
Kill a Kitten - Stephen Lynch
Magic Carpet Ride - Steppenwolf
Creep - Stone Temple Pilots
Sober (Tool cover) - String Quartet
Highway Song - System of a Down
Spiders - System of a Down
Aerials - System of a Down
Toxicity - System of a Down
Until the Morning (ft. Emilíana Torrini) - Thievery Corporation
Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone - Tom Jones
Enjoy the Silence (Depeche Mode) - Tori Amos
White & Nerdy - "Weird Al" Yankovic
New soul - Yael Naim
No No No - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Indiana Jones: The Animated Adventure

Time to address this back-log of movies I've seen, since I know if there's one thing everyone asks themselves every day it's "I wonder if Dan has watched any more movies, because I sure am curious to know what he thinks. He's so smart and insightful and awesome!" Don't deny it, you know it's true.

So let's talk Archaeological adventures, shall we? I'll start with the (sort of) good: Indiana Jones.

I'm a big fan of Harrison Ford. He plays down everything without being flat, which just makes everything he does that much cooler. I credit him with 90% of the success of the Star Wars franchise, and likewise Indiana Jones would simply not work if it was anyone else in the role. As far as the original Indiana Jones trilogy goes, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Temple of Doom were fun, but I almost entirely forget about them because The Last Crusade is so good.

What is the key to a good archaeology adventure movie? Is it a cool ancient civilization and an interesting discussion of their history and tour of their ruins? Is it political intrigue, with an almost as ancient organization trying to obtain a cool artifact that will give them nearly unlimited power? Is it the cool booby-traps set up by a lost people to protect this artifact? Without all these elements, you don't have a story, but they are not the key to a great movie. Even with the most amazing background concepts, the story falls flat without likable characters with plausible motivations for their actions; and likable characters require likable actors. A good actor can make up somewhat for a weak script (sometimes by changing the script on the fly, like Ford did in Star Wars), but even a brilliant script can fall on its face with poor acting. The Last Crusade has the best story of the Indiana Jones trilogy, but the story is completely centered around the relationship between the two Joneses, and very few movies have as good character chemistry as is pulled off by Harrison Ford and Sean Connery. The movie is not about the Holy Grail at all, it is about Dr. Henry Jones, Jr. being reunited with his father.

Another thing that can ruin a movie is a director with a heavy hand. Spielberg is a very inconsistent director; some of my favorite films are Spielberg's and some of my least favorite as well. I'm not sure he fully understands what makes his good films good. It seems he knows when a story is strong, and treats it well; but when he feels the script is lacking he tries to make up for it with special effects, as if that might distract the audience.

Basically, I'm taking a long time to get to the point, which is that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the first Indiana Jones cartoon. It's a real credit to Harrison Ford's acting ability that the movie isn't a complete disaster. Most people say it was introducing aliens that ruined it. Other than the aliens looking fairly generic, I didn't see anything wrong with them as a plot premise. My problem with the movie was with the visuals, and the comic relief. The old Indiana Jones and Star Wars movies were hilarious, because the humor arose naturally from the interactions between characters, with memorable lines such as "I don't have time to discuss it with the committee!" Spielberg filled this movie with humorous visuals that strain suspension of disbelief beyond the breaking point. If he had stopped with the animated groundhog in the first seconds of the movie, it would have been fine; if he had just left the movie with its oversaturated color comic book look, I could have lived with it. Fortunately, the worst scene is very near the beginning, at the nukular test site. It's too much, though; even Dr. Henry Jones Jr. isn't so invincible that he can survive a nukular blast.

Overall, though, it was a really fun movie, and it is rescued by Harrison Ford and Shia LeBeouf (another french name that no one pronounces right; it should be "leh-bee-owff"). As a pair, they've got nothing on Ford/Connery, but they do alright. LeBeouf is plausible in his part, and if they hand the series off to him, he's a surprisingly good actor and can handle it. And for all my complaining about the visuals, the climax of the movie was fun to watch, and by then the plot had picked up and left most of the ridiculousness behind, and I was able to somewhat lose myself in the story. The movie still looked like a cartoon way too often, though. I'd give it a good, solid B, and recommend it to any fan of the franchise. If nothing else, the movie hasn't made me lose interest if they make more movies.

On the other hand, Crystal Skull is a bloody masterpiece compared to the new Mummy movie, which was an embarrassing disaster. Brendan Frasier is cool, and he made the other Mummy movies work, but they had good scripts. He did his best here, but either he doesn't quite have what Harrison Ford does (he doesn't but that's nothing to be ashamed of), or the script was just so bad it couldn't be salvaged. I'm leaning toward the latter. It wasn't even because Evy was a different actress, though that didn't help at all. The problem wasn't even with the movie happening in China instead of Egypt, I thought that was actually a good change, and at least the scenery was nice to look at.

The jokes were stupid, like the writers weren't even trying. The animation looked cartoony, but not even quality cartoony like in Crystal Skull; it was just cheap. The emperor villain was dumb, and no reason is given as to why he changes form, he just does. The family conflict that they try to put at the center of the film (at least they tried) was stupid. To quote Orson Scott Card on this, "This is one of the odd contradictions of storytelling. It feels like the family stuff goes on and on -- you wish it had been shorter. But if it had been well done, it would have taken twice as long -- but would have felt like it zipped right by." The passing of the torch to O'Connell's son is handled much more poorly here than in Crystal Skull. The Chinese chick that helps them out couldn't even hold my attention.

The absolute worst moment (spoiler alert): when the abominable snowmen show up, and the Chinese chick can speak Yeti. This marks the exact moment that this series has officially "jumped the shark", or yeti in this case. Lame. Even worse than when Jonathan accidentally sets his behind on fire and yells "My ass is on fire, my ass is on fire!" This is supposed to be funny? I know I enjoy some rude humor, but in this context it was just plain stupid. Plus, there are numerous plot holes, a major anticlimax, and entire subplots that are introduced then abandoned; such as Evy's bookwriting, which seems to serve only to help get them to China.

There was one really good moment, a particular line delivered by Brendan Frasier, where he says "I've put down more mummies in my time" and his son says "One mummy!" to which he replies, "Same mummy, twice!" By far the best moment of the film, but not enough to make it watchable. Everything about this movie is dumb, except for Brendan Frasier. Watch Crystal Skull instead, it won't kill near so many brain cells and was at least very good fun.

Yesterday was Friday the 13th

So today is Valentine's Day. The origin of the lamest holiday ever isn't entirely certain, but it is basically as commercialized as Christmas, and fewer people (as in no one I know, including me) knows what the true meaning of Valentine's Day is, unless it is to further empty men's wallets, as if an excuse was needed. Unless, of course, you happen to marry someone super cool, like I did, who likes to boycott the holiday. When we told our friends we were thinking of getting married sometime in March or April, a lot of them said, "Oh, pick Valentine's Day!" to which we replied with fake vomiting. After another friend suggested April Fools' Day, we split the difference and got married an an extra cool day of heavy drinking: St. Patrick's Day.

This year marks the first year that I have gotten my wife a gift for Valentine's Day, and that is only because it is a super appropriate gift for those who boycott stupid holidays: I got her a tin of Bittersweets from www.despair.com:

Right-click the photo for a bigger version where you can read a few of the candy hearts, and the list of flavors at the bottom. There's a minimum order limit at despair.com, so I had to order something else, too; so I got the Pessimist's Mug:

How cool is that?

If you've never been to despair.com, go! Their main product, and their funniest, is a big series of "demotivational" posters, or Demotivators, parodies of those stupid motivational posters you see in offices that have an eye-catching photo and an insipid quote about leadership or teamwork that is supposed to make everyone in the office automatically like their job. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Okay, so that was more than just a few....

There's one more to share that's particularly relevant here despite my vast audience of dedicated readers:

Good stuff. They also have a few shirts, including this one that unfortunately is a promotional item no longer available as of tomorrow:

This is of course a response to the facebook plague of the "25 Random Things" list. On the other hand, I've been tagged by an actual friend on that one, and so might actually respond at some point.... maybe. We'll see. I do have lots of bored time now....

The other option for celebrating Valentine's Day is by sending people pictures of Dwight Shrute, like Jim sends Pam in The Office. That's frightening enough to make everyone want to boycott Valentine's Day.

Spaghetti Soup

Here it is, just like I promised, the recipe for Spaghetti Soup:

Spaghetti Soup

1 lb. hamburger
1 small onion
1 green pepper
1 stalk celery
1 carrot
2 cloves garlic, minced

Chop vegetables and saute them with hamburger and a little olive oil. Drain the grease, place them in a pot and add:
2 1/2 cups water
2 15oz cans diced tomatoes
1 15oz jar spaghetti sauce
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning (or oregano)
dash salt
1/4 teas. pepper
dash crushed red pepper

Let it simmer for about 30 minutes. Add about 2oz spaghetti noodles and simmer until pasta is tender. Serve with parmesan cheese.

Kate and I always always use Prego Ricotta Parmesan spaghetti sauce, because it's the best there is. We typically double (or triple!) the recipe, which is convenient since the spaghetti sauce comes in 32oz jars, and it is very convenient to reheat at school or work. I typically add more crushed red peppers because I like the heat, and we both smother it in parmesan cheese.

I don’t know what this recipe was originally called, but my mom got it out of a magazine forever ago, and we just call it spaghetti soup. The nice thing about soups, and this one in particular, is that they’re inexpensive, easy to make, and easy to store and reheat. This is probably Kate’s and my favorite meal to make, and even a triple recipe doesn’t last us long. I even made this last week in the trailer I’m working in on site where they’re drilling the oil well.

If you make it, be sure to leave feedback!

Happy Birthday Abraham Lincoln!

So a friend of mine just pointed out to me that today is Honest Abe's birthday, too, his 200th, in fact! So two of my heroes turn 200 today, and I forgot one of them. How rude of me! Happy Birthday, Mr. Lincoln! Man, what a shame it is what's happened to Illinois politics since you've been gone....

Happy Birthday Charles Darwin!

Charles Darwin, the father of modern evolutionary theory, would be 200 years old today, if natural selection hadn't had its way with him 126 years ago. Happy birthday, man!

Internship Update

So, I had no idea that having so much free time would make it so hard to blog! Part of the problem is working 24 hour shifts with 24 hours off in between is pretty exhausting; it also doesn't help to have such inconsistent internet access here. I'm still in McAlester, Oklahoma, still training, but in about a week or so I should be "breaking out" as they say, done with training. I was getting really worried that the guys training me were lazy and had really no idea what they were doing despite being hyped as awesome well loggers by the guys in the office, and I've recently found out that I'm exactly right.

One of the guys I was working with left for a vacation, after arranging for me to cover his shifts for the rest of this well. The first day I was supposed to work on my own, another guy, Pat, shows up unannounced saying that the office had sent him to finish training me and help cover the shifts. I was kind of annoyed at first, since I hadn't been kept informed, and since I was looking forward to just working on my own, but it's basically the best thing that's happened so far. I'd had a lot of questions about things I didn't understand regarding well logging, and no helpful answers. Also, the other guy I was training under expected me to know things about logging I that seemed way over my head, until I started suspecting he didn't know what he was talking about.

As it turns out, he and I were making a fairly useless well log, and within one day working with Pat all my confusion has been straightened out, the log finally makes sense, and I finally feel like I've learned something and can handle this job. Even better, at the next well they're sending me to (for British Petroleum), I'll be working opposite shifts with Pat, which makes me feel much less nervous about being solely responsible for the data I collect knowing I've got a good senior logger to set me straight.

There's still a lot of downtime, though, and now that I've gotten into the routine I can get to some non-leisure reading I'm supposed to do for one of my geology professors, which requires more concentration than the light reading I've been doing (I've gone through books seven and eight of the Wheel of Time series since coming out here). Also, I've been rewatching The Office from the beginning, and also watched several new movies. If I feel like it I'll post my thoughts on them (in detail for some) in future posts. For now, super brief reviews:

Iron Man: Awesome! I didn't expect to like it as much as I did, and it is a must-see.

Evan Almighty: Didn't want to watch it until Orson Scott Card said it was worth seeing despite Bruce Almighty. It was surprisingly good, and thought-provoking.

The Pursuit of Happyness: Another must-see. Will Smith is amazing, and so is Jaden.

City of Ember: Very good family movie. Not perfect, but highly recommendable.

The Mummy - Tomb of the Dragon Emperor: Don't waste your time. To sum it up: Yetis. And the Chinese chick can talk to them.

I've also been getting sick of fast food, so I bought a burner and a pot and some utensils, and I made soup. It's one of Kate's and my favorite recipes, called Spaghetti Soup, and it's fairly inexpensive and extremely easy to make and makes awesome leftovers, which is why I made it. You may have noticed I put a little spot with links to posts where I include recipes, and there's only my salsa recipe there so far. I mean to expand that section to include many different good recipes that Kate and I like, and I'll post Spaghetti Soup there soon.

I've also been looking for more photo opportunities. There are apparently some good scenic drives within an hour of here, and if I can manage it I might take my camera to some new places, especially since my photos have been getting positive responses on this blog. We had a big thunder storm here tonight (the first I've seen in forever!), so I tried to get a good lightning shot, but no luck. I guess I need to practice and experiment, but a good lightning photo is one of my big goals. I also might try to take some photos on the drilling rig itself, since this one is particularly dirty and has to be seen to be believed if you've never worked oil before. A drilling rig like the one I work at was featured once on Dirty Jobs on the Discovery channel. I did get a cool shot of the rig the other day as the sun poked through the clouds, and I'll use it to close this incoherent post: