Colorado Lows and Climate IS changing

Good morning, Don! This is Thanks Giving weekend for me so I'm still trying to catch up with everything! I spent two glorious days with my daughter and her family! The joyous chaos that 5 more people and 4 more dogs bring into our house is energizing! But, we all have to settle down and get back to real life sometime.

So we have officially started the Christmas Season! The intense 4 weeks of shopping before we celebrate Christmas. It is interesting that I don't seem to have any great demanding needs this year which has messed up my husband's "What do you want for Christmas?" list. Of course, his list is already being bought – he buys and I wrap. The news reports that buying locally is down by 10% - more people are shopping online. I have to admit, the sales on online were better announced! The local stores really pulled back on their sales this year... hard to buy locally when you can get it cheaper, including shipping, online.

Have you ever wondered where we get our Colorado Lows from? It's not like we have a secret weather controlling station here – our lows have to come from somewhere! Who can we blame? It would nice to be able to point a finger at some other state and blame them for the 15 degree weather we've had for the last 4 days. We actually saw the sun on Friday and Saturday for a bit ... otherwise it is just 4 inches of snow and lots of cold. This particular system, which I'm sure you'll get part of, slid down the east side of the mountains. The ski areas got snow – but the west side was sunny and bright.

The "slop snow" (as you call it) left us ¼ inch of ice on the cars – we had to chip our way into the car, let it warm up for about 20 minutes to de-ice the windows – good exercise before a big Thanks Giving dinner! But ice? In Colorado? Unheard of in the past.

I've been reading about the new Climate Accords meeting in Paris this coming week – there will be 150 + countries attending and it appears there is no longer debate as to whether or not climate will change like there was in 1978 with the Kyoto Accords. Now there is agree that climate is changing more quickly than anticipated. To put it bluntly, earth has become a dangerous place to live. Technology has helped, but more people are still dying due to weather related disasters.

 Hopefully there will be some sound changes that countries are willing to make – the US as one of them. I figure if China can cut their industrial sector (China right now is the world's leader in carbon emissions) and in the meantime become one of the leading solar power countries in the world, maybe we can too. Sadly, we don't have a government with enough backbone to get it done... Next year is the Presidential Election – and I have to say that things are heating up already. So far, no one looks very responsible. 

 I loved your book report! We don't need roads: the making of Back to the Future Trilogy sounds like a great read! Speilberg has pull! And so does Hanks! My son often reports about product placement in movies and in TV shows. I remember Wilson, and I remember how devastated I was when he floated away.

So while I was perusing the internet for news this morning, I ran across an article on Tom Hanks in the 1980- 82  TV sitcom Bosom Buddies with Peter Scolari. This is where Hanks got his start. It was a takeoff on Some Like It Hot with Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe. Even though it only lasted 2 seasons, that was enough to slingshot Hanks into more dynamic leading man roles.

One of the questions that came up over Thanks Giving was when was I going to retire? I'm seriously thinking about it. I'm getting envious of your trips to Mexico for the winter – and your sense of freedom to go explore when you feel like it. But my husband and my kids have all pointed out that whenever we had a Christmas Break that lasted more than 2 weeks and during the summer, they all decided it was time for me to go back to work after 2 weeks – I drove them crazy! I was free! I had things to do and places to go, adventures to have... they didn't and apparently still don't – see life that way. Ah well. For now, I have reports and a new curriculum to create by January.

Have a great week!

Carolyn

All images downloaded from Google Images

Fig 1 – retrieved from Life Skills | Aspergers : A Mom's Eye Viewasdhelp.wordpress.com

Fig 2 – retrieved from snow/icewww.kevinkarn.com

Fig 3 – retrieved from What is Climate Change? - Middlesbrough Councilm.middlesbrough.gov.uk

Fig 4 – retrieved from Adaptation | 350:Cartoons Against Climate Change350cartoons.wordpress.com

Fig 5 – retrieved from 1980: 'Bosom Buddies' Debuts on ABCwww.tvworthwatching.com

Fig 6 – retrieved from Retirement Gag Gifts [Slideshow]seniors.lovetoknow.com

Trilogy, Tom and the Spielberg clout

Hi Carolyn,

Okay, some "of the moment " stuff to start.


 I  hereby  pledge that I will do my best, in this and the next  entry, not to pull out the old pulpit and whine thereupon about being inundated with crass, commercial Christmas stuff  ( read " crap" )  way back here in Mid to late November. It will be a most vexing thing to do, though, since it is every-freakin'-where.

Also, I hate to say it but the name of your home state is being taken in vain by the weather prognosticators hereabouts. We're getting our first sizable  slop of snow and it's being blamed on that nefarious " Colorado Low " . Curses, curses !

I mentioned a wee bit back, that I was making my way through a nice little volume that my  daughter Amazoned to me ( cool, a new verb ! ) in time for my b-day.  Time and events conspired, as they invariably do, to make it a longer period before I finished. But I am now " finito " .




 So,  good morning Mrs. Varvel, and class, here is my book report!

I found this a most enjoyable read. The whole feel is that here's an account that comes from someone who looks at the movie-making business from the inside out. Thankfully there's little of the hyperbole and hackneyed phraseology of a thinly-disguised press release item. It was also cool to learn that Caseen Gaines is a high school English teacher, to boot.

• A few points and impressions to pass along.

I was surprised to learn that the  first movie was more than a few weeks into shooting when it was decided to change the lead. Michael J. Fox had been among the top prospects but couldn't be freed up  from his immensely popular Family Ties TV series .  A major source of leverage in the whole casting for the eventual lead process was the gentleman you referred to last time around and whom I'll get to in a bit as well. It made me realize just how much would be involved in stopping a major movie-making process once it was in motion when I read about how involved it was to start again once the original lead had been let go because the whole thing " just wasn't working " 


 Fox had been secured for the title role, after some months shooting with another actor.  That unnamed actor did receive his whole agreed upon fee for the movie even though he was only shot in scenes that took place in the first few minutes.

That major source of leverage I was referring to is, of course, Mr. Spielberg. Wow, I sure get the feeling that if you are part of the current movie-making culture and you have Steven S. on speed dial or your first tier text list you have arrived.  Spielberg supported this venture from the first moment and was to play a pivotal role more than once in the production of the complete trilogy.



Another aspect of the movie making process that this account made me think more about was product placement. When I was doing my grade 12 media studies course we got to mention this phenomenon but mostly in passing. None of my students chose to do an extended look at it so we never got further than that.


I looked further into it recently and was quite fascinated by just how long it had been around and how ubiquitous it is. I get the feeling that it works fundamentally because of the " human see, human do " aspect of our behaviour as mammals. From a strictly advertising standpoint it's a win-win thing, as well. This " branded entertainment " eliminates the need for commercials, since the product is out there front and centre during the program itself. Brilliant, and diabolical, all at once.

Actually, one of the smoothest and most diabolical product placement items, to my mind at least, leads me to the third thing I wanted to touch upon and which you had mentioned last time around. We all remember Wilson, Tom Hanks best ( and only ) buddy while he was the " Castaway "   BTW, I'm betting Tom has got Steve S on his speed dial, and vice-versa.  

I agree with you that Mr. Hanks can be counted among the most memorable actors in our lifetimes. He's always been  a definite screen presence. Our video cupboard, ( now rendered obsolete by online storage ) includes some of his biggies including  " Big " and " A League of Their Own" and one that really tugs at the strings of my LSBH's heart, as a big dog person, " Turner and Hooch " In fact, if you check his movie list there are so many.


If I had to do the castaway thing with just one Hanks flick, it would be a tough choice. Although I'd probably pick " Castaway " just so I'd be confident about getting off that same island too.




Mark Twain's observation for tonight sorta fits in.




Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.








See ya later.




Don






All images sourced from Google images.


Fig 1 - www.amazon.ca


Fig. 2 - dreamworksstudios.com


Fig. 3 - indigop0427.wordpress.com














 

Bright Shiny Art work of Science fiction and Tom Hanks

Don, so sorry to hear about your afflictions with shiny objects that whiz, burr and beep!
Reading you, you sound about as bad as most of my students! I think that at one time I might have had a tendency toward bright shining gadgets - but I lost it along with an assignment and my calendar. I decided not to ever chance it again.

Living in the mountains as a child, we didn't have satellites  that enabled us to communicate with the rest of the world. Telephone service was often regulated to the town, with long distance available at the hotel. My dad had a slightly newer version of your grandfather's shortwave AM /  FM radio which we listened to. We finally got a black and white TV in 1960 which didn't work if there was a storm. I learned how to hike, fish, what to do if lost in the mountains (which I seems bound to do on a regular basis). I also learned how to pack mule, pan for gold, dig for gold, and sell crystals and rocks to the tourists that came in on the train.  We didn't have central heat - we stayed warm on winter nights with our feet close to the chimney for warmth.  I wonder if these are the "good old days" so many people refer to.

I had an interesting discussion this week with a younger instructor at school. She was complaining about her students not knowing how to do an internet research. She said that at their age, she was doing card catalog searches.  At their age I was learning how to use a slide rule so I could do fractions. Now I feel really really old.

Recently I had the opportunity to go to an art exhibit showcasing the work of Kristi Backman. I've been following Kristi and her work for the last couple of years but I have to admit that this recent show was, for me, phenomenal! Using the science fiction phrase xenoarcheologist - an archaeologist of current culture, (a contradiction) Kristi put together a showing of strange face masks, light weight standards and garish shields of a culture from the future; a made up culture. Using a new fiberglass technique she has developed, Kristi is able to create large and medium sized sculptures that hang comfortably on the wall.

The fiberglass technique enables her to maintain a light weight structure that is surprisingly strong and durable. It also takes paint well and allows her to use a combination of different materials ranging from metal, to fabric, to wood, fiberglass... Check it out! Her pieces are for sale if you're interested.

We saw the movie Bridge of Spies last week with Tom Hanks. The movie was about the events leading up to the exchange of a Soviet spy for U2 spy plane pilot, Gary Powers.  As that was one of the things that we listened to the radio, it was interesting to get more back story. Several of the instructors I work with felt the movie was slow and cumbersome. Both my significant other and I felt it had the same intriguing story-building that Hitchcock was well known for. Bridge was not as masterful in the story department as a Hitchcock movie, but the intrigue was there and definitely the building of the tension to the climax. If nothing else, it proved to both of us that Tom Hanks is still watchable - even at his age.

Recent events have led me to "seek relief  furnished by profanity" as prayer wasn't fast enough. Twain got that one right! And recent conversations with our children have led me to believe that they were living a totally different life than the one they experienced with us at the same time as they grew up. I'm not sure where they got their stories from or if the stories were even theirs!

Hope you had a nice Thanks Giving, Don. Ours is in a couple of weeks. We finally have measurable snow - slush actually. I have what is left of my garden covered - not sure how much will survive the cold. I'm hoping the onions will be okay - we'll have them at Thanks Giving. I'll dig the potatoes up this weekend before the dirt in the containers freezes.

Actually it looks like you're getting better at adding pictures, Don! Yes, the formatting is a bit off, but the pictures are were they are suppose to be. New gadgets provide new learning which keeps the "little grays cells" busy growing new connections. I think you're putting off dementia until you're at least 90. Sad to say, for younger generations, new gadgets often keep the little gray cells from growing new connections. I wonder why.

I had an interesting conversation about Wikipedia - think I'll investigate it.

Time to get back to the grading and report writing.

Carolyn

All images downloaded from Google Images:

Fig 1 -- Smashed iPhone screen - Radiotonic - ABC Radio National ... retrieved from www.abc.net.au

Fig 2 – Short wave radio retrieved from  Readers Digest Portable Shortwave AM FM CB AIR PB WX TV 10 Band Radio www.ebay.com

Fig 3 -- Old Prospector Panning For Gold In A Western Sunset Stock Photo ... retrieved from www.gettyimages.com

Fig 4 -- The University of Bristol Library - Card Catalogue Online retrieved from bristol.dilib.info

Fig 5 -- What a slide rule was for — Joanne Jacobs retrieved from www.joannejacobs.com

Fig 6 -- Bridge Of Spies Review retrieved from wegotthiscovered.com

Fig 7 -- Poirot: Gifts & Merchandise | Redbubble retrieved from www.redbubble.com

You can have my Gadgets .... when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.

Hi Carolyn,










Thanks for getting me up to speed, a couple of blogs back, on the the perils of being Matt Damon.  Actually, it sounds like Mr. Damon is a genuine trouble magnet. If I saw him coming I'd be going the other way. Heck, he even gets into trouble off planet! 


 He does  have  that " Aw shucks.." disarming innocence about him, though.


 I  admit that I can’t think of a movie I’ve seen with Matt Damon that has left a mark on my cinematic consciousness. The closest I’ve come is the one  with Robin Williams where he was a janitor or something like that. In fact, I’m going to go check IMDB right now, to see which movie it is.


Be back in a flash…..







Okay … it was “ Good Will Hunting”. I guess the fact that I had to go back and look it up pretty well says everything about how it affected me, eh? I keep getting him mixed up with Ben Stiller or Ben Affleck. This is not to say that they are cookie cutter actors - it’s more indicative of my not being in tune with the current A-list big screen young bucks.

　Your minimalist take on cell phones got me to thinking, though.

I am anything but a minimalist when it comes to gadgets. If it’s small, shiny and has blinking lights, I’m on board. Oddly enough, that iphone I have is seldom used as a bona fide phone - unless you include texting with friends and family as phonecalls. In fact, I couldn't even tell you my cellphone number, offhand. Yet,  anytime I'm about to go out the door  into the big, crazy world I instinctively slap my pockets checking  for three things - my wallet, my keys, and my iphone.

 What I really use it for more than anything else ( and I didn’t  realize this, until your noting how you are happy as a clam with your clamshell model, made me look at my usage habits ) is as a radio. Three of my most frequented places on a regular basis are the SiriusXM, Stingray Music and CBC Radio apps - even in Mexico.  Sure, it gets used as a camera,  a photo album, an organizer, a shopping list maker and such - but I spend a lot of time on my newest of mass media devices accessing stuff on the first and oldest mass medium.

 

My gadgetlove is no surprise, though since I was in a gadget friendly environment from the start. We grew up in a three generation house which had been my paternal grandfather's home initially. He had always been a radio nut and had a big old Heathkit shortwave and AM radio that he had built from a kit and used constantly long before his grandkids came along. For him it truly was magical to hear voices coming out of a box and ultimately out of the air. 




 By the time my older  brother and I encountered it it was relegated to the attic. It still worked, though, and when we attached a wire to the aerial and then stretched it across the roof we were able to enter a wondrous land, especially after the sun went down and reception dramatically improved.

At night, it could pick up AM station WLS in Chicago and disc jockey Dick Biondi. It was my first door into Beatlemania. Even before the Fab Four appeared everywhere over here they were being played by WLS. The first airing of a Beatles record in the U.S. ( and by association, Canada ) was in February of 1963 when Biondi played Love Me Do. Alas, I wasn't there that night, but the rest, as they say,  is history.

　

While we're on the topic of radio history - as in the history of the very first mass medium - there's a documentary by Ken Burns that covers part of it in his unique style. It's titled " Empire of the Air " and it's quite interesting for any of us who did/do struggle to educate the minds of tomorrow whilst they endure a constant and highly sophisticated multi-media barrage on a daily basis. I believe it's now part of a PBS series of Burns docs known as " American Stories "

　

Sometimes, I think that one could get a pretty thorough, multi-faceted and rich introduction to American culture, and it's seminal influences, just by watching the collected video works of Mr. Ken Burns.

　

　

Anyhow, lets's  get to the two  Twains I want  to include here, since I missed one last time around.


 The first one came ( and is still coming ) from my fun dealing with the new Windows whilst attempting to move pics about. I'm still finding that there is a bit of the " it ain't broke so why fix it " about this method of importing pics ( and the final result may have some clumsy spacing and formatting because of that )

In certain trying circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity furnishes a relief denied even to prayer.

　

The second one fits this entry better since a fair bit of time and space was spent in the past, therein.

　

　

When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it happened or not.

Okay, that's my two cents worth.....


(although, at the current Canadian/American exchange rate that would be about 1.45 cents )

Don. 

All images sourced from Google Images.

Fig. 1 - cinemablend.com

Fig.  2 - cultofmac.com

Fig. 3 - siriusXM.com

Fig. 4 - music.stingray.com

Fig. 5 -  CBCRadio.com

Fig. 6 - Wikipedia.org

Fig. 7 - pbs.org

New Transport! Heart Stopper!

Just a quick note! Tammy has a new Transport out with a new story, Heartstopper, and two other great short tales - Monitor and Detour. 

Tammy specializes in taking the every day a little further into the Twilight Zone of living. Be prepared to cringe, yell, pump your fist as you read these electrifying stories! 

Enjoy! 

Carolyn 

Image by: 

 Zylenia retrieved from

https://www.flickr.com/photos/zylenia/5139080848/in/photolist-8Q88Gd-7bMNMh-78ZsPy-7cNUz5-rhdm6-3SpEVo-9Bqc3D-8RjBwU-7eiTTo-9Bq9DR-kGp26o-oYfa5h-kGptcw-pCEwvk-kGnF2g-pSURqG-kGn3M2-pCGtFS-pSQTu9-pCFvBs-kGnksM-pCEyXV-kGngAD-kGpBR5-j8GiP5-pCvASg-pV5uT3-pV2zrv-pVaX99-kGnZmn-pCFqYQ-oY9XGh-kGmNdp-kGnaDD-kGoECj-pCCzko-pSS8XA-kGp71o-kGnLZD-kGpauN-pCzBCA-oYj6JR-kGnd2K-kGnfUv-kGnxwP-gzsdh9-gzsycR-gzt55C-gzsAXu-gzsoM7