I’m not sure how I feel about this: Hanks may lead ‘Da Vinci’ movie.
I just can’t see Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon. I guess it has a lot to do with the fact that Ron Howard is directing. There is a great quote from Howard in the article:
Tom is an exciting actor to watch thinking
Just what we need, a movie that lets us watch someone think.
It’s amazing how much fun you can have as a kid. I remember making up fun things to do when I was young. Even when I was over at someone else’s house and didn’t have my LEGOs, I could always find something to do. I always liked playing games. I would play dominoes or cards with anybody who would sit next to me. I spent years over at the Foster house playing Dungeons & Dragons with Tony, Michael, and Geoff.
Even before we could afford to buy games we entertained ourselves with made up games. I remember playing with little green army men in James’ back yard. At first we would just line them up and say “I shot you!” This was usually followed by “No you didn’t, I dodged!” That got old pretty fast so eventually we starting using dice to see if we hit or missed.
The more we played, the more complex the rules became. The crouching army man was a little harder to hit and the army man laying flat was the hardest to hit. Somewhere there’s a 20-year-old scrap of paper with all of our rules scribbled on it. I’d give just about anything for that piece of paper today.
At one point I even thought about selling my own games as a career. I remember a time when you could buy simple role-playing games for a few dollars. They were printed on plain paper, folded in half, stapled, and stuffed in ziplock bags. Of course the older I got, the less games I played. Our game of army men and dice somehow evolved into army men and fire crackers. This was a lot of fun, but we eventually ran out of army men. Then computers came out and the idea of selling pen and paper games seemed crazy.
Fortunately, there are still people making up their own games and with the internet they can share them with everybody. It was actually one of these games that inspired me to write this post: 1000 Blank White Cards. This is just the kind of thing I would’ve loved as a kid.
The idea is pretty simple. Pass out some blank cards to each player. Everyone makes up their own cards and assigns point values to each one. Then gather up everyone’s cards, shuffle them together, deal, and play. When it’s your turn, take the top card from the deck and then play one of the cards from your hand either on yourself, another player, or on all players.
This sounds like a great way to waste an evening (or two). We’ll have to try this the next time a few people are over. Maybe afterwards I’ll play one more round of army men and fire crackers, for old time’s sake.
It’s been a while since my last post, so I’ve got some catching up to do…
First, the robotics team did better than ever a little over a week ago. We got the 3rd place BEST award. The BEST award is a combination of the team’s notebook, presentation, table display, spirt and sportsmanship, and the robot’s performance on the field. Unfortunately, 3rd place was not enough to go to state. Here we are on the field after we won:
I think I was looking at the wrong camera when they took that picture. There were actually three people taking our picture at the same time. I’m proud of all of those kids. I had my doubts at times, but they pulled it all together in the end and did a great job this year.
In personal news, I’ve gone over 3 weeks now without tea or Dr Pepper and I still feel great. I think I can stick with this for ever. The next thing I’m going to try to cut out is some of the red meat.
And finally, November 2 is election day. Don’t forget to go vote if you haven’t already. It seemed like lots of people voted early around here. I actually had to stand in line at the court house for about 15 minutes.
I’ve always heard if you don’t vote, you can’t complain about who gets elected. I started to ask if I could vote twice this time. I think I’ve done enough complaining for at least two people in the last year alone.
Last week was the PHS Robotics cookout. Overall, I think it was a huge success. We sold almost 100 burgers (the kids ate the rest). You can see my awsome grilling skills below:
It looks like no one is there in that picture, but actually there was quite a crowd behind me:
In other robotics news, last Saturday was “Mall Day”. The team’s performance was pretty weak at the mall, but they’ve redesigned the arm so hopefully we’ll do much better on game day.
My car is out of gas, there’s no money in my wallet, the battery is dead in my laptop, and I haven’t eaten since breakfast. Thank God it’s Friday.
Maybe I should start writing country music…
I’ve survived my first week without tea and Dr Pepper. The first morning without caffeine I actually felt OK, but I did get a little worried when I tried to put my left shoe on my right foot. Thankfully it didn’t fit.
Since I cut out caffeine it’s really easy to get to sleep at night. I used to sometimes stare at the ceiling for hours. Now it seems like as soon as my head hits the pillow I’m asleep. Even better when the alarm goes off I actually wake up. I don’t always get up, but at least I hear it.
Also, now that I’m not drinking so much sugar, lots of things taste different. Before I really didn’t like grapes very much, but now they taste really sweet. I like the taste of apples and bananas a lot more now, too. I had a few cookies at the robotics cook out last night and they tasted so sweet I could barely stand it.
I’m really trying to improve my health these days. I’ve been tired for a long time and I knew I had to do something about it. It seemed like no matter how much sleep I got, it was never enough. The only thing that was keeping me going was caffeine.
Paige and I started working out at Aerofit several months ago. I noticed that the more I exercised, the less tired I was. Before we started working out regularly, I would’ve said that exercise makes me tired. But now after I work out I feel energized. It’s a good feeling.
Also, I’ve completely cut out sweet tea from my diet. This is going to be a shock for some people. No more “Tone Tea”. I quit cold turkey. One day I was watching a show about sugar on the Food Network. They said that the average American used to consume 30 – 40 pounds of sugar per year, but now we’re consuming around 60 pounds a year. I did a little mental math and figured out that I was eating around 100 pounds a year just in sweet tea. That’s about 100 pounds too much.
The next thing to go after sweet tea was Dr. Pepper. Today was my first day to be Dr. Pepper free. I had a bit of a headache this morning, but it wasn’t too bad. I’ve had nothing but water to drink today. I think I can make it. If you own any stock in the Coca-Cola Company, now’s probably a good time to sell. They’re going to see a significant decrease in revenue now that I’ve cut out the Dr. Pepper.
I think the next step for me is going to be more fruits and vegetables in my diet. Nothing crazy at first, but a few more bananas and apples wouldn’t kill me. Maybe even one or two meatless days per week. We already have pasta and sauce for dinner on some nights so it shouldn’t be too hard to add a few vegetarian dishes.
I’ll keep everyone updated on how it goes, and how I feel.
I finally set up a web page for the class I’m teaching. If you’re curious, it’s at http://www.parisisd.net/compsci/.
It’s still kind of a work in progress at this point. Everything will hopefully be uploaded by Friday.
I know some of you will be disappointed, but I bought the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD. I realize that everyone from my generation is suppossed to be furious about the changes Lucas made to the original movies, but I just couldn’t resist. The dark side truly is stronger.
After watching all three movies (Yes I’ve watched three Star Wars movies in the last two days, that’s nothing for a geek like me.) Anyway, after watching all three movies, I have to say that the changes aren’t that bad. Yes, Greedo shoots first, but only by a fraction of a second now. And the hologram of the Emperor’s face was changed in Empire. And the original Anikin spirit from the end of Jedi was replaced with a scraggly looking Hayden Christensen.
But even with all of these changes and more, I still enjoyed the trilogy on DVD. And now, they fit even better with Episodes I – III. I know a few of my friends are crying blasphemy about now, but come over some time and witness the crisp picture and awesome 5.1 sound for yourself. I promise it’ll be enough to make you forget all about those grainy old VHS tapes in the closet…
Today was “Kickoff” for the robotics competition. We made a trip to Howe this morning to check out the field and pick up our parts. Yes, that’s right, Howe High School. The kids thought it was funny, too.
The game is going to be very different this year. In the past, the students have built a robot that drives around the field, but this year the robot is going to be in a fixed position. Basically, it’s in the bottom of a very large bowl, and the task is to pick up plastic balls and set them on shelves on the walls of the bowl. I’ll post some pictures next week that should clear this up.