I bought an iMac in the spring of 2005 when Apple's stock was about $24 a share and have been loving it every since (minus the lack of RAM). But, if you're anything like me you are suspicious of all these software updates alerts you're hounded with every few weeks. Me being the stubborn technology user I am, refused to update iTunes for about 3 years. Recently, I discovered that every time I tried to burn a cd, iTunes would just conk-out on me as soon as I would hit the burn button. After iTunes quit on me unexpectedly about 5 times in a row, I figured out this must be a part of the scam to get me to update to iTunes 8.1 (this is a feeble recreation of the mental muttering I was doing at the time).
So being the Encino man that I can be sometimes, I decided to just leave iTunes alone for about a month and see if that would solve the problem. Nope no luck tonight I tried to burn the The Game's newish album LAX for mom dukes (don't ask or laugh it ain't funny) and the same thing happened again. Finally, out smarted by Steve Job's hoard silicon mongers I was compelled to download 8.1, wack!!! Now the first thing I see is some side bar about Genius or something using pretty pictures trying to coax me to load it so it can start communicating with iTunes store and DJ for me. If this Genius is anything like the dweebs at the Mac store I definitely will leave that feature disabled permanently. Is it just me or is the elementary appeal of Mac getting annoying?
Another change I was pissed about is seeing my beloved radioactive burn button missing from the top right hand corner of the iTunes window. Why!!!! So anyway I got over that pretty quickly and tried burning a cd... put cd-r in and wait... no cd icon below the library icon... WTF... So I go to Google and ask it how to burn a cd on iTunes 8.1, and I get these bootleg tech web page discussions about uninstalling iTunes then reinstalling it, so much for collective-everyone-contributes-wisdom (more on that soon). I decide to consult iTunes help and it tells me to look for a burn disc button at the bottom right, huh? Nothing is there buddy...err, Genius. Finally, I figure out this techno Rubic's Cube. If you want to burn a cd you can not take songs directly from the library, you have to drag the songs into a new play list and then once inside that play list the burn disc button appears at the bottom right. Its a lazy looking rectangle button, damn programmers need to spend 15 minutes off of World of Warcraft and at least try to make the burn button look cool... GOD!
Monday, March 23, 2009
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Rockabilly Chili Contest Run-Down
The verdict on the chili contest sponsored by WMSE is 3 thumbs up. There was plenty of room in the venue and lots of cool signs too, and of course, great variety in restaurants and chili styles. As one put it, "It's like meatloaf, same dish but everyone has a different take on it." How true, the simmering stews had everything from brats to green beans to seafood.
My favorites were:
1. Fuel Cafe's Vegan Chili. It was very flavorful and topped with a guacamole sour cream and a few sprigs of cilantro.
2. Riverwest Co-Op's Vegetarian Chili. This cauldron's spices were savory and just a hint of sweetness. The added bonus: tofu meat!
3. Old German Beer Hall's Bratwurst Chili. I made an exception to try this one... it was worth it.
Slightly disappointing were:
87. The Hi - Hat's Meat Chili. This is a great place to hang, but sadly the chili looked like Public School lunch, manager's choice, and tasted worse... oops.
86. Milwaukee Ale House's Vegetarian Chili. They offered a Tex-Mex style Chili. The chef worked really hard on it, and the pico de gallo was a nice touch but over all not enough flavor for a spice hound like me. Besides they are known for meat dishes, and from what I heard the meaty version was notable.
My favorites were:
1. Fuel Cafe's Vegan Chili. It was very flavorful and topped with a guacamole sour cream and a few sprigs of cilantro.
2. Riverwest Co-Op's Vegetarian Chili. This cauldron's spices were savory and just a hint of sweetness. The added bonus: tofu meat!
3. Old German Beer Hall's Bratwurst Chili. I made an exception to try this one... it was worth it.
Slightly disappointing were:
87. The Hi - Hat's Meat Chili. This is a great place to hang, but sadly the chili looked like Public School lunch, manager's choice, and tasted worse... oops.
86. Milwaukee Ale House's Vegetarian Chili. They offered a Tex-Mex style Chili. The chef worked really hard on it, and the pico de gallo was a nice touch but over all not enough flavor for a spice hound like me. Besides they are known for meat dishes, and from what I heard the meaty version was notable.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
French film smacks with truth
Experiencing the ultimate training on how-things-work in public education at the lowest level of stature, as a substitute, I'm gaining more valuable insight into the issue of public education then I ever imagined. Much of what I attained so far has to do with expectations. Any attempt to capture and do justice to the subject of teaching through cinema is tried and too often failed. This past year a foreign film Entre les murs (The English title is The Class) took a swipe at wiping that stubborn chalk off of the facade that teachers always win in the end. I havn't seen the movie yet but judging from the reviews this film might provide a perspective of classroom dynamics today's future educators can use to heighten their understanding.
You enter the classroom and you know anything can happen, but you expect that the kids will have a some sort of basic desire to gather some new tidbits of knowledge. Then the CD-ROMs start flying and desks are toppled. Pencils become flesh scrapping devices and bathrooms UFC octagons. When the storm calms, similar to a hurricane, if you are lucky you have a small window to transmit some academic or life lesson, before some minute incident reminds you that the rest of the hurricane is on its way. I often laugh to myself and wonder if I'm crazy to think that this what you must realistically plan for everyday as a teacher and if I'm crazier to completely embrace this reality. In my view its not a battle that eventually the teacher wins, as is often portrayed on film, but rather it's an never-ending adventure story, a process, a lifestyle.
Testing the Water
I have a friend who works for City Year, the name-brand non-profit that does cool stuff in deprived neighborhoods while rocking Tim-bones on their toes. Even though it makes sense why, I was a little disappointed when I heard the cut-off age was 24 years old. I caught myself being overly cynical about the whole AmeriCorp cultural phenomenon and urged myself to think of it another way. Working in impoverished urban areas is very Romanticized in the US. In some way, I perceive AmeriCorp to be the organizational embodiment of this Romanticism and at my most cynical view I view it as a zombie army feeding off of the antiquated paternalistic "white man's burden" ideal and body of knowledge. You have Hollywood especially feeding this train of thought. Dangerous Minds maybe the best example of this category of movie. Equally idealist but obviously not motivated by cultural hegemony, Lean on Me, probably represents the best in the category of inspirational education movies. Both feed the "save the world" mentality that will drive those with limited first-hand experience in how poverty destroys the social fabric of communities, to pursue careers in social services or education in order to "make a difference". Some succeed but just as many are left jaded by their experiences when the "difference made" is contrary to what they expected (i.e. no difference).
My change of heart on AmeriCorp occurred when I convinced myself that Americorp-esque programs at least give young professionals needed exposure to unfamiliar communities, so that valuable lessons are learned during that first go-around in the system. The stakes are very high, adolescents and young adults can be unforgiving. Young education professionals do deserve a space to err, temper their expectations, fears, and misconceptions. Deprived communities do need saving, but young education professionals also need room to confirm or deny they're biases and decide if they can challenge themselves to withhold sympathy and/or judgment, and instead offer empathy and stern compassion. Developing realistic expectations and the appropriate attitudes don't hurt either. Becoming an effective educator, is truly a trial by fire process that takes more than "structured activities", "engagement", and do-good intentions to achieve.
This is where movies like Entre les murs (The Class) can serve a very important function simply by entertaining the possibility of failure to "reach" the students and irresolvable conflicts as classroom outcomes. As a side bar it is also very intriguing to me that Entre les murs proposes that the challenge of educating youth is shared internationally with respect to the factors that seem purely American, i.e. urban poverty, general social depravity, despair and legacies of oppression. I can't wait to check this one out, it might be the best since 187, and an avenue to compel the discussion concerning education to heed the contextual realities, and broaden the discourse to capture it's global aspects.
Entre les murs won the Cannes Film Festival honor Palme d'Or and was nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Foreign Language Film. It also helped me find this site rottentomatoes.com I can wait to explore (I'll probably like the name better than the site |:{ ...)
You enter the classroom and you know anything can happen, but you expect that the kids will have a some sort of basic desire to gather some new tidbits of knowledge. Then the CD-ROMs start flying and desks are toppled. Pencils become flesh scrapping devices and bathrooms UFC octagons. When the storm calms, similar to a hurricane, if you are lucky you have a small window to transmit some academic or life lesson, before some minute incident reminds you that the rest of the hurricane is on its way. I often laugh to myself and wonder if I'm crazy to think that this what you must realistically plan for everyday as a teacher and if I'm crazier to completely embrace this reality. In my view its not a battle that eventually the teacher wins, as is often portrayed on film, but rather it's an never-ending adventure story, a process, a lifestyle.
Testing the Water
I have a friend who works for City Year, the name-brand non-profit that does cool stuff in deprived neighborhoods while rocking Tim-bones on their toes. Even though it makes sense why, I was a little disappointed when I heard the cut-off age was 24 years old. I caught myself being overly cynical about the whole AmeriCorp cultural phenomenon and urged myself to think of it another way. Working in impoverished urban areas is very Romanticized in the US. In some way, I perceive AmeriCorp to be the organizational embodiment of this Romanticism and at my most cynical view I view it as a zombie army feeding off of the antiquated paternalistic "white man's burden" ideal and body of knowledge. You have Hollywood especially feeding this train of thought. Dangerous Minds maybe the best example of this category of movie. Equally idealist but obviously not motivated by cultural hegemony, Lean on Me, probably represents the best in the category of inspirational education movies. Both feed the "save the world" mentality that will drive those with limited first-hand experience in how poverty destroys the social fabric of communities, to pursue careers in social services or education in order to "make a difference". Some succeed but just as many are left jaded by their experiences when the "difference made" is contrary to what they expected (i.e. no difference).
My change of heart on AmeriCorp occurred when I convinced myself that Americorp-esque programs at least give young professionals needed exposure to unfamiliar communities, so that valuable lessons are learned during that first go-around in the system. The stakes are very high, adolescents and young adults can be unforgiving. Young education professionals do deserve a space to err, temper their expectations, fears, and misconceptions. Deprived communities do need saving, but young education professionals also need room to confirm or deny they're biases and decide if they can challenge themselves to withhold sympathy and/or judgment, and instead offer empathy and stern compassion. Developing realistic expectations and the appropriate attitudes don't hurt either. Becoming an effective educator, is truly a trial by fire process that takes more than "structured activities", "engagement", and do-good intentions to achieve.
This is where movies like Entre les murs (The Class) can serve a very important function simply by entertaining the possibility of failure to "reach" the students and irresolvable conflicts as classroom outcomes. As a side bar it is also very intriguing to me that Entre les murs proposes that the challenge of educating youth is shared internationally with respect to the factors that seem purely American, i.e. urban poverty, general social depravity, despair and legacies of oppression. I can't wait to check this one out, it might be the best since 187, and an avenue to compel the discussion concerning education to heed the contextual realities, and broaden the discourse to capture it's global aspects.
Entre les murs won the Cannes Film Festival honor Palme d'Or and was nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Foreign Language Film. It also helped me find this site rottentomatoes.com I can wait to explore (I'll probably like the name better than the site |:{ ...)
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Red Bull paper airplane contest searches for Maverick
If the freaks come out on Friday night, the geeks and would-be Breakfast Club-ers definitely come out on Saturday afternoon, especially for a paper airplane flying contest. Red Bull is known for sponsoring bar drink-offs and real full-action stunt air-shows, but at this event having the skills to propel an aeronautically sound 80 gram paper flyer the farthest, will book you a trip to the world Paper Wings championship to be held in Hangar 7, Salzburg Airport, in Melbourne, Australia. At the Milwaukee qualifying site, I bore witness that many come, but only one makes it off of the top flight proving grounds.
Hypnotized by all the commotion, I walked carelessly onto the indoor launching field and immediately caught a gliding airplane in the leg. I scanned the area in front of me to find the owner of the stray plane. In the bottom of my periphery I see a whipper-snapper, at best 7 years old, barreling towards me. I congratulated the young engineer with a thumbs up for "good one!" which he eagerly flashed back. Young Izak would later go on to win second place, at 5.8 seconds, for the airplane with the longest hang time. I'm not surprised judging by how far he ran from across the room to collect his paper machine.
Deja Boom Box
Milwaukee is now in its fourth year as a stop on the national tour. A Red Bull hostess, dressed appropriately in a navy hued flight attendant-esque shirt-dress and white pro-ked-like sneakers, filled me in on the fact that the event started in a high school gym, but now has grown to reside in the Eagle's Ballroom.
Milwaukee locals know Eagle's for its mid-sized concerts. It was eerie being there in the middle of the day. Blinded by sun rays beaming through the south windows that I never knew the Eagle's had, my memory projected back to the shows I spectated there in 1998-99. I saw the Roots perform one of the most dynamic sets I've ever witnessed, lip-induced sound effects and live instruments abound. I'm pretty sure the uncanny Rahzel even attended this one. Can't forget to mention Common made an unexpected cameo. He spontaneously b-boyed a helicopter increasing his legendary 20-fold in my pages. The Run D.M.C. show irrevocably comes to mind also. I feel fortunate to have waved my right Adidas shoe here in the presence of Jam Master Jay before his day ended. Need I say more. The house DJ aided my flashback pumping some unidentified Pharcyde track to encourage the participants to prolong their flights as long as possible, and that they did on and off the runway.
At a gaudy inflatable Red Bull arch, the competition tarmac began, lined on both sides with white Christmas lights. Most of the entertainment was taking place off of the battle strip though. Eager contestants set up shop everywhere busily folding, measuring, testing their goose-feather-weight jets. The bar set by previous paper aviators added pressure. The world record paper plane flight is 207 feet and 4 inches, that's 69 yards! NFL quarterbacks can barely throw a football that far! The most hang time is 26.7 seconds. However, I would estimate the model flight vector of the average wiz-kid participating in this competition at about 14 inches.
Hot Shots
Envision a vigilant effort by a novice plane technician to build the ultimate airborne weapon. Leaving his detailed 12-step blueprints of how to construct the "stealth bomber" of paper planes, he straightens up from the workbench to find a suitable test site o the ballroom floor. He winds up after a couple of practice shoulder cocks, lets his wrist travel forward at the perfect release point and whoosh... the plane pathetically topples end over end, corkscrews agonizingly one too many times, subsequently dashing to the ground a half-a-pace away from the pilot. The plane enjoyed a welcome back to land led by a chorus of mocking laughter from bystanders including me.
As karma would have it, the next moment I would be parrying to the left avoiding an AWOL flight path of a junior Howard Hughes, only to nearly have an eye gouged by another plane originating from an aspiring Chuck Yeager 30 feet away at my 3 o'clock. The paper plane had just zoomed over my head to a cruising altitude of 20 feet, before about-facing into a sunlight glare-soaked descent, hurling back towards its rightful owner like a boomerang. I think to myself "I should have brought my Sabotage aviator glasses to protect my walleye vision."
One particularly nonchalant plane-launcher heaves loose one that flies a respectable distance before ascending to the balcony above, shrugs and walks away. I'm thinking this guy will never meet the girl of his dreams. A couple hours into the festivities the floor looked like the Terminator just got done blowing up some innocent file cabinets.
I end up taking refuge at one of the workstations close to the official competition area. After about a minute, one of the Red Bull staff offers to help me get more hooped-up off of their complementary neon potions (I had one earlier and should have left it at that) and I accept. Then an unassuming lad in a knit hat rushes up with a fresh sheet of paper in his hand, followed by his conspicuously natty trusty assistant (white dude with dreads, sonic the hedgehog-like minus the sonic).
I confide to the knit hat guy I'm happy to see the lost art of paper-airplane-making stay alive and that from my experience know-a-days kids would rather just throw text books in class. He laughs and mentions that he actually is the leader in the indoor space race. I asked him what was his secret, of course it was nothing special just fold and pray. Although far short of the international benchmarks, turns out the knit hat guy, Tyler, wins the two main events, furthest in flight at 82 feet plus an inch, and longest in hang-time just edging out lil' Izak at 6.66 seconds. The DJ in a fitting gesture raises the hook 'em horns salute.
Hot Shots: Part Duex
Before the main event winners were announced, planned outrage necessarily had to take place. The 'freestyle' flying competition allowed the severely esteem-challenged and the most dedicated attention-seekers to get one more chance at the center stage. Accompanied by a certain Top Gun soundtrack hit, courageous women and men alternated entering the competition ring, cordoned off with a polygonal shaped perimeter of masking tape, adeptly declared the "danger zone." This really was code for "if you sucked at actually constructing a flying device, please step into this area and be rewarded for being a jack-ass."
By this time the event host "stewardesses" are shot-gunning Red Bull, which gives one collegiate an idea to throw his plane then bust a back flip, then shot-gun a Red Bull. Of course deviant behavior though often shunned in controlled environments, in this setting is contagious and concomitantly causes a fairly large, markedly dorky dude in pajama pants (who actually crashed two of his planes inches from me earlier) to toss his plane into a whirly-jig flight path spanning one decimeter, and vault himself into a Chris Farley somersault to back-splash, with tremendous impact, then stunning the crowd further by revealing each hand clutching a Red Bull, both of which he simultaneously cookie monster chomped, drenching himself from bib to thighs with energy juice. Why, my friend, why!?!? I found out why about 3 hours later when I felt my heart palpitating from the two Red Bulls I downed earlier. If I learned anything, it's that I am easily amused and more importantly that the most ridiculous talents, especially ones reprimanded by teachers, can win you free trips to cool places. All you hand-in-armpit squishers your day is coming...
America... F*%K Yeah!
Red Bull will be spreading McWorld with a qualifying round in Tehran, Iran tomorrow morning at 10:00am. I thought that country was unstable, hostile to American culture, and on the brink of nuking us. Ahmedijad must not be that bad of a guy after all, at least they can freely fly paper planes. Closer to home the next stops are in Iowa City, IA and Corvallis, OR, then back to the mid-west in Champaign, Il, Duluth, MN, Bowling Green, OH and Madison, WI. Make sure you have your college i.d. to prove you're among the best and the brightest and worthy of a flight pass.
Hypnotized by all the commotion, I walked carelessly onto the indoor launching field and immediately caught a gliding airplane in the leg. I scanned the area in front of me to find the owner of the stray plane. In the bottom of my periphery I see a whipper-snapper, at best 7 years old, barreling towards me. I congratulated the young engineer with a thumbs up for "good one!" which he eagerly flashed back. Young Izak would later go on to win second place, at 5.8 seconds, for the airplane with the longest hang time. I'm not surprised judging by how far he ran from across the room to collect his paper machine.
Deja Boom Box
Milwaukee is now in its fourth year as a stop on the national tour. A Red Bull hostess, dressed appropriately in a navy hued flight attendant-esque shirt-dress and white pro-ked-like sneakers, filled me in on the fact that the event started in a high school gym, but now has grown to reside in the Eagle's Ballroom.
Milwaukee locals know Eagle's for its mid-sized concerts. It was eerie being there in the middle of the day. Blinded by sun rays beaming through the south windows that I never knew the Eagle's had, my memory projected back to the shows I spectated there in 1998-99. I saw the Roots perform one of the most dynamic sets I've ever witnessed, lip-induced sound effects and live instruments abound. I'm pretty sure the uncanny Rahzel even attended this one. Can't forget to mention Common made an unexpected cameo. He spontaneously b-boyed a helicopter increasing his legendary 20-fold in my pages. The Run D.M.C. show irrevocably comes to mind also. I feel fortunate to have waved my right Adidas shoe here in the presence of Jam Master Jay before his day ended. Need I say more. The house DJ aided my flashback pumping some unidentified Pharcyde track to encourage the participants to prolong their flights as long as possible, and that they did on and off the runway.
At a gaudy inflatable Red Bull arch, the competition tarmac began, lined on both sides with white Christmas lights. Most of the entertainment was taking place off of the battle strip though. Eager contestants set up shop everywhere busily folding, measuring, testing their goose-feather-weight jets. The bar set by previous paper aviators added pressure. The world record paper plane flight is 207 feet and 4 inches, that's 69 yards! NFL quarterbacks can barely throw a football that far! The most hang time is 26.7 seconds. However, I would estimate the model flight vector of the average wiz-kid participating in this competition at about 14 inches.
Hot Shots
Envision a vigilant effort by a novice plane technician to build the ultimate airborne weapon. Leaving his detailed 12-step blueprints of how to construct the "stealth bomber" of paper planes, he straightens up from the workbench to find a suitable test site o the ballroom floor. He winds up after a couple of practice shoulder cocks, lets his wrist travel forward at the perfect release point and whoosh... the plane pathetically topples end over end, corkscrews agonizingly one too many times, subsequently dashing to the ground a half-a-pace away from the pilot. The plane enjoyed a welcome back to land led by a chorus of mocking laughter from bystanders including me.
As karma would have it, the next moment I would be parrying to the left avoiding an AWOL flight path of a junior Howard Hughes, only to nearly have an eye gouged by another plane originating from an aspiring Chuck Yeager 30 feet away at my 3 o'clock. The paper plane had just zoomed over my head to a cruising altitude of 20 feet, before about-facing into a sunlight glare-soaked descent, hurling back towards its rightful owner like a boomerang. I think to myself "I should have brought my Sabotage aviator glasses to protect my walleye vision."
One particularly nonchalant plane-launcher heaves loose one that flies a respectable distance before ascending to the balcony above, shrugs and walks away. I'm thinking this guy will never meet the girl of his dreams. A couple hours into the festivities the floor looked like the Terminator just got done blowing up some innocent file cabinets.
I end up taking refuge at one of the workstations close to the official competition area. After about a minute, one of the Red Bull staff offers to help me get more hooped-up off of their complementary neon potions (I had one earlier and should have left it at that) and I accept. Then an unassuming lad in a knit hat rushes up with a fresh sheet of paper in his hand, followed by his conspicuously natty trusty assistant (white dude with dreads, sonic the hedgehog-like minus the sonic).
I confide to the knit hat guy I'm happy to see the lost art of paper-airplane-making stay alive and that from my experience know-a-days kids would rather just throw text books in class. He laughs and mentions that he actually is the leader in the indoor space race. I asked him what was his secret, of course it was nothing special just fold and pray. Although far short of the international benchmarks, turns out the knit hat guy, Tyler, wins the two main events, furthest in flight at 82 feet plus an inch, and longest in hang-time just edging out lil' Izak at 6.66 seconds. The DJ in a fitting gesture raises the hook 'em horns salute.
Hot Shots: Part Duex
Before the main event winners were announced, planned outrage necessarily had to take place. The 'freestyle' flying competition allowed the severely esteem-challenged and the most dedicated attention-seekers to get one more chance at the center stage. Accompanied by a certain Top Gun soundtrack hit, courageous women and men alternated entering the competition ring, cordoned off with a polygonal shaped perimeter of masking tape, adeptly declared the "danger zone." This really was code for "if you sucked at actually constructing a flying device, please step into this area and be rewarded for being a jack-ass."
By this time the event host "stewardesses" are shot-gunning Red Bull, which gives one collegiate an idea to throw his plane then bust a back flip, then shot-gun a Red Bull. Of course deviant behavior though often shunned in controlled environments, in this setting is contagious and concomitantly causes a fairly large, markedly dorky dude in pajama pants (who actually crashed two of his planes inches from me earlier) to toss his plane into a whirly-jig flight path spanning one decimeter, and vault himself into a Chris Farley somersault to back-splash, with tremendous impact, then stunning the crowd further by revealing each hand clutching a Red Bull, both of which he simultaneously cookie monster chomped, drenching himself from bib to thighs with energy juice. Why, my friend, why!?!? I found out why about 3 hours later when I felt my heart palpitating from the two Red Bulls I downed earlier. If I learned anything, it's that I am easily amused and more importantly that the most ridiculous talents, especially ones reprimanded by teachers, can win you free trips to cool places. All you hand-in-armpit squishers your day is coming...
America... F*%K Yeah!
Red Bull will be spreading McWorld with a qualifying round in Tehran, Iran tomorrow morning at 10:00am. I thought that country was unstable, hostile to American culture, and on the brink of nuking us. Ahmedijad must not be that bad of a guy after all, at least they can freely fly paper planes. Closer to home the next stops are in Iowa City, IA and Corvallis, OR, then back to the mid-west in Champaign, Il, Duluth, MN, Bowling Green, OH and Madison, WI. Make sure you have your college i.d. to prove you're among the best and the brightest and worthy of a flight pass.
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