Hiding Stuff...

Just in case you needed to know how.

The Great Loss...

Reading through the BBC News website this morning, I came across a sobering article:

WWI survivor makes a poignant return to site of devastating battle

They fought for over three months to advance merely five miles.  A third of a million Allied forces killed over five miles of mud.  The population of a large city, composed mostly of British soldiers, died.  Let's not forget the quarter of a million German soldiers killed on the other side.

A small note of perspective for those who have not crossed the pond or find numbers difficult to grasp:  the combined losses of that Battle of Passchendaele are roughly the same as the total combined number of losses in our Civil War.

Mr Patch, a moving 109 years old, probably has one of the most important voices in the world right now.  He was a 19 year old boy when he fought that battle in 1917.  He and millions of other young men were lost to the world for naught.

There is a reason that so many war monuments I came across in England were surprisingly (at the time) devoted to World War I, the Great War.  When first glancing, I would often wrongly assume they were a tribute to the fallen of World War II.  But it then hit me: the Second World War was a fight for their survival, their entire existence depended on them fighting back against a rapidly conquering evil.  Before the Americans entered Europe, Great Britain was the only remaining democracy on the continent.  Bless the English Channel, no?

World War I, however, was the greatest of tragedies.  An entire generation was lost for absolutely nothing.  All the memorials devoted to those soldiers lost at the opening of the 20th Century are not to idolize champions of a great victory.  They are to mourn and remember the pointlessness of that war.  I do not even think they are really a gesture of gratitude toward these lost men.  Those statues and long lists of names engraved in stones everywhere in the country are part of what ultimately is an apology.

"War isn't worth one life," said Mr Patch.

This is a man who, above all others, knows.

I Knew It...

It finally all makes sense!

Random Deliciousness...

I know my blogging has been infrequent, and I hope to cure it soon.  Hopefully, this little ditty on utter  nonsense can grease the wheels again...

Toaster ovens are superior to standard slot toasters.

This thesis popped into my head this afternoon while making lunch.  Some time ago, when my wife wasn't feeling well, I did my best to make something that would sit okay in her stomach.  Looking around at the meager items that occupy my kitchen, I did a little experimenting.  I sliced a slightly stale croissant in half and proceeded to fill it with deli meat and sliced cheddar cheese.  It wasn't anything profound or special (although the croissants from Costco are by far the best I've had on this side of the Atlantic), merely a croissant sandwich.

But then the great moment came.  I have long been a fan of hot sandwiches.  Hot food is more filling, melted cheese is a beautiful thing, and frankly I just don't care for the cold condiments when actual meat and cheese juices can be had.  So I left the croissant sandwich open, cheese on one half, meat on the other half, and broiled the sucker for a bit in my toaster oven.  Lo and behold, the croissant became its natural, flavorful, flaky pastry self to be the bread component of a warm, tummy-filling sandwich.  My ill wife devoured it quickly, and I went ahead and believed my small experiment was a success (as I usually do for myself.)

This great achievement was only through the fact we own a toaster oven rather than a regular pop-up toaster.  I recreated my delectable delight today to the point of recalling its origins.  I can heat sandwiches, cook up fish sticks, and bake personal pizzas without using the big oven or the microwave.  It is a grand life that I lead, all thanks to my toaster oven.

However, I think that this trumps it.

The Wee Ones...

Little People - A tiny street art project

Quite a cool project and often funny project.  This would be something grand to do with the photography students and even animation students at my school.  I love photography that plays with perspectives.

Also for students, I should pick up this woman's book on grammar.  I think kids would give a much greater hoot about the language they supposedly speak if it was actually about what they really spoke.

Up and Atom!

Here's just one little tidbit to add to the odd science of the day.

Very little.

Puts the whole darn world into perspective, huh?  Actually, I think it throws a wrench into the whole thing.

One More...

Just one more thought for today (then my quota of three has been filled).

I have always seen studies in the sciences as divine pursuits.  It's a logical concept, I think.  After all, is God not the creator of the universe, if not the universe itself?  I tend to think any attempts to understand or explain the universe brings us closer to understanding God.  And the more we are able to mimic those workings and use the same tools, then the closer we get to becoming like God, as we were created to be.

So why the seeming battle between the pursuit of science and the study of God?

In my classes, I use a great deal of exaggeration, sarcasm, and complete nonsense to get ideas across.  But every so often, one will chime in to refute what I say.  "Mr Fryer, penguins can't fly, and they certainly can't write html code."  There really is only one response, and it gets repeated over the term enough to where the kids answer it themselves: "Hey kids, who's the funniest person in the world?  A literalist."

The Future...

I have often asked myself the question, what is the end goal of a free person's life?  To get high and watch television.  Thankfully we have nothing more to strive for.  After all, ignorance is... something.  I forget.  Eh, it doesn't matter.  (Article found at Edge.)

As I've been telling my mom lately, we're overdue for a trip to the Exploratorium.

Fascinating...

Marrying the sciences, letters, and the arts into a new humanism.  (Found via 3quarksdaily).  A really fascinating train of thought, that wonderfully is not too far off from what I think about the world and humanity.  I guess I'm one step of the way there with my Bachelor of Arts in Political Science degree.  As always, a little research leads to more and more ideas filling my mind.  Once again, the world and its history appears cyclical while at the same time, progressing in whatever direction it goes in.  A return to the renaissance may be due, of course following a great dark period of our development in the Western world.  I think I'll just go stoic and bide my time.  Either way, I am sure I will read more of Señor Pániker when I can.

A Regular Question...

This morning, I was pouring over the local listings on Craigslist and found myself about an hour later at a lady's house the next town over.  While making our transaction, the question arose as to why I was free in the late morning on a Tuesday.  The woman guessed correctly that I'm in education, and she brought up a common question asked in the area: what do you think of year-round schedules?

First I usually explain that I grew up with year-round schooling in my elementary years, and I recall I and my family enjoying how it worked.  By staggering quarters of the student population into different three months on, one month off, the entire mass of students is never one the grounds, nor on vacation (except for 2 weeks at Christmas, and 2 weeks around Independence Day).  We liked being able to vacation at odd times, at least while my sister and I were in elementary together.

I also stipulate once kids are at the middle and high school levels, year-round schooling does not quite work.  Seasonal sports and performing arts programs would not quite work.  One cannot operate a musical ensemble when one fourth of the group is gone at all times.  The same goes for seasonal sports, perhaps even more so, particularly in limiting some students from participating at all.  So I do say, while it works well at the younger grades, the older students need the access to a full school of their peers.

Perhaps what could be done is not to stagger the schedules within a school, but to stagger all the schools.  If there are four high schools in a district, each one could take a different seasonal vacation.  This may aid in the issue this woman brought up in our conversation: juvenile misbehavior.  She had worked in law enforcement, and by far during the summers when kids are not occupied by something legitimate to do wind up becoming more bored and therefore destructive.

I would agree, and completely see that happening.  Of course idle kids are destructive.  Mine sure as heck is.  If he's cooped up for too long, the whining and experimenting with stress tests on both toys and parents increases drastically.  She said that school should just be in session for eleven months as an aside, and I don't think that's too far off from how it ought to be anyway.  I'd sure like to work more months out of the year, and perhaps having only six to eight weeks of vacation would work well for most kids, especially when we cannot leave a single one behind...

English can be fun...

Thank Grammar Girl once again, for now my only quest in life (since my boy minds his Ps and Qs now) is to use the term 'mondegreen' in a sentence.  Well, other than that one.  While I think it happens quite often, I suppose mishearing my wife doesn't quite count.

Although, as much as I enjoy Grammar Girl, she did point out one thing that seems to be happening to me: I am regionalizing.  You know, I spent over six months in southeastern Great Britain, and did not pick up an accent.  When I tried, I was called a posh git and told to stop.  I did pick up many of their terms, most of which I still use.

Now... now though, I'm slipping.  I've called soda by the term 'pop'.  And now... now... oy.  Even my 'out' has changed a touch, and don't even get me started on pronouncing the name of my fair state.  My identity is in a state of utter disarray.

Oh well.

Oh yeah, and...

This one's for me:

We miss you, Jim Henson...

Here you go, Mom:

Ratatouille...

Last evening, the family and I partook of the latest Pixar film, Ratatouille. I will admit I was a tad skeptical on how good it would be before going to the theater. After all, this film had some tough acts to follow (I still think Finding Nemo is one of the best movies ever made, animated or otherwise.) So I walked in with my expectations a little low.

We entered the theater a few minutes after the show started, and the room was quite dark for being a part of an animated movie. The three of us managed to find our seats and took in what we could of the opening plot. Immediately I was taken aback at how realistic the scenery was, and it continued to develop in its quality as the movie progressed. The elements, especially water, were particularly well done. And the camera angles! Oh my, they were quick and fluid and fun, especially when taken through the perspective of a rodent's location and how quickly everything swaps around when trying to evade a waiting cart. Oh, and I think the animators captured the look of a soaking wet rat perfectly.

But the movie was far more than simple eye candy. Here is where Pixar excels over all: they make good movies. The medium is what is it, but the quality of the plot and characters are grand. While others may not care for the pretense of a rat wanting to be a cook, I liked it. Plus it lends to a greater point, and surely the driving home of a principle of doing what you have a passion for, even when it's not what is customary or common, is a good thing. The theme was tied in at multiple places, and I liked the reinforcement at different while not beating it over the head.

I walked away happy, having both enjoyed the movie personally, and knowing my son had just seen something of high quality.  It struck such a chord personally that I was thinking of it the next morning while taking a shower.  My only beef is, while the movies Pixar makes are wonderfully mature (not necessarily adult or for a specific age group), they have let a few instances of curse words slip.  Now, I'm not one to usually care for censorship, and even was one who came of age during television's destruction of decency (6th graders watch Family Guy for goodness' sake!)  But when everything else is so good, the world 'hell' sticks out in my ears.  But, c'est la vie.

The Pixar studios must be an amazing place.  I can only imagine that the thought and work created there must mimic the movie studios of Disney nearly half a century ago.  I extremely highly recommend going to the theater to see Ratatouille.  Not that I am against waiting for DVDs and making personal copies; rather, I simply think it is a movie of such high visual and content quality to be worth paying the God-awful prices at the theaters to see it on a big screen with great sound.  And who knows, maybe, like myself, you'll walk away feeling a little bit inspired.