This month, I cut the cord, cancelled my Spectrum cable TV service, and switched to YouTube TV, which meant I needed a way to watch YTTV on, well, my TVs! There’s a dizzying array of devices for the cord-cutter (Roku, Apple TV, smart TV apps, and more), but since I’m already an Amazon Prime subscriber, I choose the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K.
movies
Spring Training 2018: Day 1
We all slept in this morning to recover from yesterday’s travelling and time zone change (for some of us, anyway). Once we were all cleaned up and ready to go, we stopped for a late breakfast at the Wildflower Bread Company (we were going to go to the Black Bear Diner but the Saturday morning crowd was too big). Then we drove up to Surprise (insert puns here) to see our Cleveland Indians take on the Texas Rangers.
This is the first time we’ve come out to spring training on the very last weekend. It was cool to see a lot of the starters in the lineup. The weather was also a little cooler than we’re used to (but still very pleasant). The fourth inning got a little crazy as Roberto Pérez lost his bat and it flew into the screen a few rows in front of us. Then on the next pitch the bat splintered and flew into the outfield, almost hitting the Rangers’ third baseman (who still managed to catch the ball and throw Pérez out at first). A few pitches later, Erik Gonzalez hit a foul ball into the Rangers’ dugout that hit Howard Johnson in the face. Ouch! Play was stopped for about 10-15 minutes as medical staff treated Johnson and eventually wheeled him out of the stadium on a cart.
Our new favorite Indians player is Rob Refsnyder (#33), whose name we would mispronounce as Griffindor. We kept hoping he would score some runs (“2 points for Griffindor!”) 😀 With 8,900 people in attendance, the Indians blew out the Rangers 10-3. Good game!
On the way back to our hotel, we stopped at Dillon’s KC BBQ at the Wildlife World Zoo. We sat outside on the patio near the flamingos and snacked on some appetizers and also checked out the large shark tank inside.
After cleaning up at the hotel we still had the whole evening ahead of us. So we decided to head over to the Westgate Entertainment District in Glendale where we saw “Black Panther.” This was the second time my daughter had seen it, but the first time for my sister and me. It was good, but I didn’t think it was amazing (sorry!). I didn’t even recognize Andy Serkis! After the movie, we popped into Dave & Buster’s to play some video games and air hockey. On our way back to the car, we grabbed a gelato pop at the Popbar for dessert.
July 4th Road Trip: Day 5
Today is a sight-seeing day … no serious driving except around town as-needed.
After packing and checking out of the hotel, we left the car in the garage and walked to breakfast at Bruges Waffles & Frites (I had the Pig on a Cloud … yummy!). Across the street, near Pioneer Park, we spied a rack of rentable GreenBikes and decided to use these to get around ($7 each got us “unlimited” 30-minute rides for the day).
Disney Very MerryTime cruise
Three years ago we went on our first cruise (on the Disney Dream) right before Thanksgiving. This year for Christmas, we decided to go on an eastern Caribbean Very MerryTime holiday cruise. After months of planning and preparations, we just got back from a week of relaxation and recreation on the Disney Fantasy, and we had an incredible time.
West Coast Road Trip: Day 2
Today was a touristy day in Los Angeles.
After sleeping in from our long day yesterday, we started off with a late Sunday breakfast at Brent’s Deli (mmmm … potato latkes!). Then my sister-in-law and brother-in-law drove us down to Hollywood Boulevard so we could see the Chinese Theater, Hollywood Sign and the Walk of Fame. Hollywood Boulevard was shut down to road traffic because it was being set up for the “Terminator Genisys” premier at the Dolby Theater later that evening. People were lined up across the street waiting to maybe catch a glimpse of Arnold but I managed to sneak a peek at the Terminator they had set up (presumably for photo ops on the red carpet).
On the way home, we stopped at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, which was incredible. Reagan’s actual Air Force One jet and Marine One helicopter are the centerpiece in a giant glass-walled hangar overlooking the valley. There was even a piece of the Berlin Wall. It was a very educational and moving experience (regardless of your personal politics).
After freshening up at the house we went out for a nice dinner at the Melting Pot. Tomorrow we’re on our own as our hosts need to go to work (ha, Monday!).
WIJFR: Heinlein time travel (and “Predestination”)
The other week I saw “Predestination,” a recommendation from Steve Gibson on episode #492 of his Security Now! podcast. The movie is a pretty good brain-twisting time travel romp starring Ethan Hawke and was based on a short story witten by Robert A. Heinlein in 1958. I’ve read Heinlein in the past (i.e., “Stranger in a Strange Land“), although the last time was before I started my WIJFR posts on this blog.
I started with “By His Bootstraps,” an earlier (1941) time travel story by Heinlein and then read “All You Zombies” (which is significantly shorter and the basis of the movie). Both are packed with time loops, paradoxes, and multiple occurences of the same character, but lack the humor and pop culture of, say, the “Back to the Future” series. I recommend them both and have added some more Heinlein to my “to read” list.
Monty Python Live (Mostly) simulcast
“It’s …”
This afternoon I went to my local theater to see the live broadcast of Monty Python Live (Mostly) from the O2 Theater in London. I’ve been a Python fan ever since some friends introduced me to “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” back in high school and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see their last live performance.
WIJFR: Ender’s Game
In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race’s next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew “Ender” Wiggin is drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training. Ender’s skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the Buggers. This futuristic tale involves aliens, political discourse on the Internet, sophisticated computer games, and an orbiting battle station.
I just finished re-reading “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card. I first read this book about 25 years ago when I stumbled across it in my high school library. With the movie coming out next month I recommended it to my daughter, who unbeknownst to me had already read it, so I read it again myself to be prepared for the inevitable letdown of the film version (although maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised, and I’m looking forward to Harrison Ford’s portrayal of Colonel Graff).
I won’t go into any plot summaries or spoilers here (you can read the wiki entry for that), but even though I still remembered the major elements (and obviously, the ending) of the story it was an enjoyable read. I’ve read a lot of SF novels over the past 25 years and can almost see the influence of “Ender’s Game” (and its sequels) on the genre. For example, the Buggers (or Formics as named later in the series) are a hive-mind species, with all central control being performed by a queen. This, along with their sheer unstoppable numbers reminded me of MorningLightMountain and the Primes from Peter F. Hamilton’s “Pandora’s Star” and Commonwealth Saga novels.
Card’s personal views have been the subject of controversy lately so we’ll have to see what happens once the film is released. I’ll probably still take my daughter to see it, though.
WIJFR: Pirate Cinema
Trent McCauley is sixteen, brilliant, and obsessed with one thing: making movies on his computer by reassembling footage from popular films he downloads from the net. In the dystopian near-future Britain where Trent is growing up, this is more illegal than ever; the punishment for being caught three times is that your entire household’s access to the internet is cut off for a year, with no appeal.
Ok, yeah, it’s another “young adult” novel like “Little Brother” but who cares? I just finished Cory Doctorow’s “Pirate Cinema,” which recently won a Promethus Award (along with Neal Stephenson’s “Cryptonomicon,” another personal favorite).
“Little Brother” tells the story of Trent McCauley, a British teenager whose obsession with making mash-ups using commercial movies gets his family cut off from the internet for a year. This turns out to be a bigger punishment than Trent anticipated, however, as his sister needs the internet for her school studies and his parents need it for work. The strain Trent has caused on his family is too much for him to bear so he runs away to live in London on his own.
What follows is a tale of being homeless, squatting in abandoned buildings, making new friends, showing movies in the sewers and cemeteries, politics, government, lawsuits, intellectual property, art, and copyright law. It’s a lot of heavy (and topical) subjects, but Doctorow does a good job of making the content accessible (and exciting) to younger (and, ahem, older) readers, all in a sort of Londoner writ and tone I haven’t seen him use in previous novels (the book definitely has its own “voice”).
If you’ve followed the news around SOPA and PIPA recently, or enjoy watching mash-ups on YouTube, you” probably enjoy “Pirate Cinema.”
Star Wars Weekend at Disney 2013
The last time we went over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios for Star Wars Weekends it was the 30th anniversary of “The Empire Strikes Back.” How appropriate, then, that we were back among the Star Wars faithful this Saturday (also Geek Pride Day and Towel Day) celebrating the 30th anniversary of “Return of the Jedi” (which was released on May 25, 1983).
The park was packed, which we expected, but it’s always fun to see all the Star Wars t-shirts and costumes people wear for the festival weekends. With the acquisition of LucasFilm by Disney last year (and the planned new movies), I expected a lot more “Disneyfication” of the franchise and thus wasn’t surprised at the sheer amount of merchandise and Disney/Star Wars swag available at Darth’s Mall and around the entire park.
The parade/motorcade was pretty much exactly the same: a long phalanx of characters from all of the movies with a health sprinkling of their Disney counterparts (Jedi Mickey, Darth Goofy, Chip & Dale as “chipwoks,” etc.). The special guests were Warwick Davis (Wicket the Ewok), Ray Park (Darth Maul), James Arnold Taylor (the voice of Obi Wan in Clone Wars), Ashley Eckstein (the voice of Ahsoka Tano in Clone Wars), and Jim Cummings (voice of Hondo Ohnaka in Clone Wars). We didn’t see nearly as many wandering characters as last time but my daughter did get to give a Wookie a high-five after the motorcade.
Of course we rode the new Star Tours, which had a relatively short standby line (we got through in 15 minutes!). We missed out on a photo opportunity with R2D2 and C3PO again (they were hidden in Darth’s Mall and by the time we got there we had little time before we had to leave and the line was very long) but did wait in line for a photo opp with a clone trooper and Darth Goofy with storm trooper Donald. In Darth’s Mall they had a LEGO-by-numbers exhibit where you could put together a tiny square of colored LEGOs and then add it to the larger mosaic creating the different “Return of the Jedi” movie posters … pretty cool.
