Son of the Commonwealth

Monday, December 26, 2011

The Dark Knight Rises

In case you've been living under a rock and you haven't seen this trailer, here it is.

Seven months. At least that isn't as long as I have to wait for "The Hobbit," but that still feels like forever.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Photologue: White Christmas (From 2010)

Since this Christmas will apparently not be a white one around here like last year, I take a look back at some photos I took outside on Christmas 2010.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

A Christmas Present From Me To You

Friday, December 23, 2011

Sounds of the Season

I've inadvertently given some people the impression that I dislike Christmas music. This isn't true, well not exactly...

The Ugly:

Pretty much any version of any song done by any pop star or, even worse, when they did an original song by themselves. All of the pretty much sounds like garbage. This is the stuff that you''l hear while shopping at the mall among other places, which is probably another reason Christmas shopping sucks (that and you go freakin' broke). I can't stand this rubbish.

The Bad:

Ever since I played "Sleigh Ride" in grade school, I haven't liked that song. Part of that is because the French Horn part (which was my primary instrument) was awful and I had to play it multiple years. I guess I hold a grudge against that song. There is also "Baby It's Cold Outside." some time last year, I actually payed attention to the lyrics and came to the realization that this song is pretty much about date rape. She wants to leave and he won't let her. He's getting her drunk. She says "what's in this drink." I'm betting it was GHB. It just sounds creepy as all Hell.

The Good:

Most of the stuff I actually listen to willingly is classical/choral in nature. There is also some Christmas jazz albums that I like too from the days that I was REALLY into jazz. There was this version of "Greensleeves" from middle school that was absolutely beautiful. I would say that my favorite song would be "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." There is a version I have listened to since childhood that has this amazing organ solo (which is actually half of the song). A close second would be "We Three Kings." There is a great version of it by Mannheim Steamroller (wow, this paragraph just aged me about 20 years). Third Would be "Waltz of the Snowflakes" from The Nutcracker.

There actually is lots of great Christmas music out there, you just have to sift through all of the crappy stuff to find it.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Spreading Christmas Cheer

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Gravity Rides Everything

When I was in high grade school, I had a physics teacher named Mr. Templeton. He was such an awesome teacher that I had him in grades 11 and 12 (physics then AP physics...even though I didn't need either of those classes). I loved the classes and the teacher, but all these years later, I don't remember much of the material. I remember that Force =Mass*Acceleration and that's about it.

There is, however, something I remember him telling us. I remember him saying that there were two points in a year where it is possible to balance an egg on-end without assistance from anything. It has something to do with the way gravity works. Those to points are the Summer and Winter Solstice (I don't know what the plural of that word is). I tried it the first time after he said that and managed to do it. For some reason I forgot about this for years...until this week. So earlier today, the Winter Solstice, I decided to give it a try and about 3 minutes later...