Double Double Feature

Carrie and I have been enjoying the excellent Summer Film Series at the Paramount Theatre. On August 3rd, we saw both The Black Cat (1934) and The Mummy (1932). This was our first time seeing both films. The Black Cat has a pretty weak plot –  A couple has car trouble, winds up in a creepy house, and hijinks ensue. It is watchable because it features both Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi as adversaries, delivering strange lines and creepy stares. The Mummy, on the other hand, not only features Karloff as the mummy Im-ho-tep, but has an actual story to tell. It is fascinating how little could actually be shown on screen in the 1930s – it cuts away right as a doctor is about to give a patient a shot in the arm, and we see the husband flinch. In lieu of actual gore, there are lots of suggestive shadows, screams, and reaction shots.

On Sunday, we spent our afternoon enjoying cold air conditioning and watching a sci-fi double feature: First up was The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), followed by Forbidden Planet (1956). Again, this was our first time seeing both films, and they were both great. Day was definitely the more serious of the two, delivering an anti-violence message with a tough love attitude. Forbidden Planet had a message, but it was more about exploring a strange alien world. With tigers. The theremin was in full effect in both films, used for both music and sound effects – very cool stuff. Of course, the real question here is: Which robot would win in a fight? I am pretty sure that Gort could take out Robby the Robot, but you have to admit that Robby has a lot more charm. Plus, he makes good booze and fancy dresses. What more could you ask for in a robot?

The Maelstrom

A little over a week ago, I was exposed to a massive dose of Legos at the Lego Imagination Center in Downtown Disney. Given that information, it should come as no surprise that last weekend, I assembled Lego Model 7048, aka Troll Warship. Cower in fear of the Maelstrom!

A dragon vs the Maelstrom - Who will win?

Disney World Vacation

For our vacation this year, we chose to spend a week at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and it was awesome!

Cinderella's Castle

Some of our favorite moments were seeing the big fireworks show in the Magic Kingdom on our first night, catching La Nouba, the Cirque du Soleil show, and riding classic rides like Pirates of the Caribbean (twice!), Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (twice!), and the Mad Tea Party:

Teacups!

During our time in Animal Kingdom, Carrie used her cat-like reflexes to completely dominate a game of Whack-a-Dino and walk away with a large stuffed dinosaur! We immediately named her Bertha:

Bertha & Carrie

Apparently, we were just a week or so shy of the big re-opening of the Hall of Presidents, featuring an animatronic President Obama. Plus, we also missed this:

There are a lot more pictures over in the photo gallery. Have a Magical Day!

Sunday Papercraft

This afternoon, Carrie and I cut, folded, and taped together a bunch of  stuff from Paper Foldables. Behold:

Pinata, Hero, Krang, V Guy, Parrot

Each figurine has a special feature: The pinata splits in half so that you can stuff him with candy, the hero has a sword that fits in his hand, Krang is removable from his robot body, V guy’s face flips back to reveal his true reptilian visage, and the parrot has a removable bandanna/eyepatch. Neat!

Happy Birthday, Eeyore!

We went to Pease Park to participate in Eeyore’s Birthday Party today, and had a blast hanging out with friends, juggling, and people watching. I am disappointed to report that, unlike past years, I did not see the dude who paints himself silver and walks around in a thong. I did see Leslie wearing a cheerleader uniform though, so I guess it’s a wash.

Easter Eggs

Carrie, Christina and I dyed a bunch of eggs for Easter. This is the first time I’ve dyed eggs in a really long time, and I’m quite happy with the results:

Star Wars Eggs

Marbled Eggs

SXSW 2009: Film Report

Here are a few of my favorite films I saw at this year’s SXSW Film Festival:

• Lesbian Vampire Killers (Trailer, IMDB) – Narrative. As the name implies, it was awesome. To clarify, the vampires are lesbians, and there are people who attempt to kill them (as opposed to a group of lesbians who attempt to kill vampires). Destined to go down as the Shaun of the Dead of vampire movies.
• Trimpin: The Sound of Invention (Trailer, IMDB) – Documentary. There is an artist in Seattle who makes cool musical sculptures, and his name is Trimpin. This is his story. I have added him to list of people I would hire if if I got rich –  Trimpin would be in charge of doing Awesome Musical Stuff. The next time I am in Seattle, I will have to stop by the Experience Music Project and check out the gigantic self-tuning guitar sculpture. Apparently a few of his pieces were on display during the fest, but I missed seeing them. Dang!
• Anvil! The Story of Anvil (Trailer, IMDB)- Documentary. Yes, this is a documentary, not a mockumentary. It follows a Canadian metal band that’s been around since the 80’s but never broke through. Just watch the trailer. Oh, and here’s an interview with the lead singer, Lips.
• The Dungeon Masters – Documentary. Follows the lives of three different Dungeons & Dragons game masters. This is one of those documentaries that starts off focusing on an interesting topic and then quickly pushes it to the background in order to do a character study. Regardless of the quality of the film, this style always feels like a bait and switch to me. While I think that the filmmakers chose some very interesting and strange people to focus on, I am not particularly thrilled that they are effectively representing the gaming scene. Hopefully audiences will realize that not all gamers like to paint themselves black and have extremely large dice collections – For example, my dice collection is only medium-sized. That being said, I did enjoy the film.

10 Tanks of Gas

Today I finished the 10th tank of gas in my new Fit. The EPA mileage estimates for a 2009 Honda Fit Sport with manual transmission are 27 mpg in the city and 33 mpg on the highway. Here are my mile per gallon stats:

1. 33.91 mpg (317.0 miles, 9.349 gallons)
2. 33.13 mpg (310.4 miles, 9.368 gallons)
3. 33.84 mpg (337.7 miles, 9.979 gallons)
4. 34.93 mpg (339.6 miles, 9.723 gallons)
5. 35.13 mpg (341.9 miles, 9.737 gallons)
6. 35.93 mpg (330.0 miles, 9.185 gallons)
7. 35.02 mpg (327.0 miles, 9.337 gallons)
8. 33.71 mpg (277.3 miles, 8.225 gallons)
9. 36.98 mpg (346.8 miles, 9.377 gallons)
10. 35.68 mpg (357.0 miles, 10.005 gallons)

That gives me an overall average of about 35 mpg. Not bad! The car is totally stock, and I am primarily driving in stop and go traffic on the way to and from work. I try to start slowly, shift around 2500 rpm, and coast down hills. Also, I have not needed to use the air conditioning very much. The biggest factor, however, is the realtime and per-trip mpg displays on my dashboard.

There’s nothing quite like instant feedback. If I zoom up a hill, my realtime readout gets into the low teens and the per-trip display may drop a tenth of a point or more. Conversely, when I set the cruise control to 60 mph on a flat stretch of highway, I see the realtime mpg go above 40 mpg and the per-trip meter starts ticking upwards. I have to wonder what would happen if these displays were required in all cars. In fact, if you own a car made after 1996, you could add such a display right now by purchasing a widget that plugs into your cars OBD II connector. Although I have not used it, the ScanGauge II has been recommended by several people over at cleanmpg.com and fitfreak.net.

Howdy, World

Hello there, person. My name is Jeremy. Welcome to my Web Journal of Strange Things & Excellent Ideas. If it makes you feel better, you can just call it my blog. Expect changing themes and random brokenness for the next few months. Thanks for reading my words!