A Night At the Museum (2006)

For about six weeks now we've had Ben Stiller's 2006 comedy A Night At the Museum sitting on our DVR. My son had seen it twice through school but my wife and I had not seen it at all. So, last night she and I finally had time to sit down and watch it. We thought it was cute.

Stiller plays a divorced father who is trying to find a steady job. He lands one at the NY Museum of Natural Science as a night watchman. Thing is, the other guards (played by Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney) fail to tell him about the strange things that happen in the museum at night. As they say, "the history comes alive at night" - literally!

The film was enjoyable. The special effects worked very well. It was a nice family film that could be enjoyed by young and old alike (hard to say that these days). It was also nice to see veteran Hollywood legends like Van Dyke, Rooney and Stiller's mother Anne Meara (in a small cameo role) getting work. I also enjoyed Robin Williams' and Owen Wilson's roles in the film. It's a nice film to catch if you hadn't seen it in the theatre.

RIT's Student Orientation Service (SOS)

From the fall of 1983 through the fall of 1987, I attended Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Rochester, NY. It was a good college experience - I got a great education, made a lot of friends and had a lot of great memories.

One of the big foundations of my time there was my involvement with the Student Orientation Service (SOS). This was a volunteer organization - about forty to fifty students - with two faculty advisors to coordinate the program. The reason SOS is back in my head today because I got an email from one of the faculty folks - Dawn - who was sort of the motherly figure for our group (Joe, then by default, served as the fatherly role for us students).

SOS worked through out the year to plan for three orientation weekends in the summer (two for freshmen, one for transfers) and one big orientation week in the fall at the start of the year. We'd have weekly meetings with our committees, Sunday night training sessions monthly as a whole group, various social events through out the year to keep us motivated (like the huge Poster Painting Party in the spring to paint all those posters we'd need for the programs and the Cabin Party in the winter where we'd go chill for the day, play games, and dance). At the end of the year, we'd have our semi-formal Fall Banquet to celebrate the work we had done for the year.

I first got bit by the SOS "bug" when I arrived in the summer of 1983 for my own freshmen orientation. Here they were - all these students in matching t-shirts and cool buttons pinned - ready to help answer questions, show us around and make the transition to a new college life easier. I knew immediately this is what I wanted to do!

Freshmen year (SOS 84) I was on the Operations and Scheduling Committee (chaired that year by Beth Charney). We coordinated the plans for things, and made sure reservations for places on campus for programs were set.

Sophomore year (SOS 85) I decided to try out for the Executive Board and be a committee chairmen myself. I made it in the group of 10 chosen and headed the Deaf Awareness Committee (RIT has an affiliation on campus with NTID - the National Technical Institute for the Deaf - so I took a crash course in sign language). My committee was responsible for programming on the diversity of the hearing/deaf culture on campus as well as for scheduling interpreters.

Junior year (SOS 86) it was back to the general committe (I don't recall at the moment whose committee I was on that year) and for my Senior year (SOS 87) I was in the general committee for most of the year but stepped up to the plate for the Fall program to help run our committee when our chairperson went off on a co-op assignment. During these years, I was also the editor of the SOS-BS, our monthly newsletter that covered what each committee was up to during the year in preparation for the programs as well as a little bit of insider social messages between members.

Some of my favorite things included: chaperoning the dances we had for the incoming students (I loved to dance then), hanging out with the parents in the Ritzskeller (to help ease their minds about sending their kids off to college), performing in the skits we did for the parents and kids (to show them what college life was and was not like), and, of course, move-in day when we helped folks unload their cars and get their stuff from parking lots to the buildings ("we gotta move these refrigerators...we gotta move these color TV's...").

On my wall, the SOS group pictures hang proudly. Beneath them are the souvenier mugs from each year on display. In 1987, I was awarded the Most Outstanding Committee Member for Summer Programs (the plaque hangs proudly on the wall too). My photo albums from my college years have a lot of pictures from SOS events and after-hours parties (when we'd unwind after a long day of orientating folks).

Some of my closest friends from college came were in SOS - folks I still keep touch with to this day.

Crazy About Gas part 2

Well, things have gone from bad to worse here in western North Carolina in regards to gasoline. When Hurricanes Gustav and Ike hit the continental US, they took out some of the oil refineries that feed the pipeline that gets gasoline to our part of the country. Those storms were two weeks ago.

As of yesterday, many gas stations in our area are still without fuel.

Actually, that's not completely true. While many have the little plastic bags on the nozzles or signs out front saying "No Gas", not every station is completely out - at least not at the same times.

Wednesday night I witnessed about thirty cars lined up on the main drag of downtown Hickory (US-127) in front of an Exxon. A tanker truck was in back depositing fuel, and as soon as he finished filling the station up - the customers drained the place. When I drove past this morning, it was plastic bag city there.

Just up the same road I saw traffic in the right lane backed up for nearly a mile. I got in the left and continud by the BP where cars were lined up to fuel up. Had to be at least fifty cars. I swear, it was as if I had suddenly been transported back in time to the mid-1970's. Crazy!

Now, I was lucky enough on Monday to top off my tank so I've still got about 2/3rds of a tank in my van. Also, with doing a third shift project for work (which I can do remotely from home), I am saving on gas a bit for this week and the next couple. Still, eventually the little trips to pick my son up from school and to the grocery store and such will eat away at the gas I have.

Hopefully things will get better soon. The news every morning is always so depressing. The story from Charlotte is the same - no gas here or there, lines where there are some, everyone is in a panic. The word is saying things will get better by the weekend - we shall see.

Comics of the Week (9/24/08)

Ambush Bug: Year None #3 (of 6) - okay, this was a weird issue. Yes, Ambush Bug as done by Giffen and Fleming tends to be weird, but this one was beyond the usual for them. I probably would have gotten it more if I wasn't tired when I read it. Ah well.

Reign In Hell #3 (of 8) - Giffen seems to be crafting a great war epic here, with lots of focus on the squirmishes and such in the battle for the underworld. It works okay, but I'm starting to lose my interest in this one. Not sure if I'll make it to the end before dropping it. Next issue will decide that.

Teen Titans #63 - mostly the issue focuses on Bombshell, but we do get to see some of the fallout (pun intended) from last issue's slaughter. One of the two victims is still alive, luckily. Would have liked to have seen some of the funeral rather than hear about it second hand as we did. Points off for that.

Trinity #17 - we're a third of the way through, and it all hits the fan. You know its bad when the stars of the book aren't in but a half dozen panels total. Didn't like the back up focusing on Konvict, though it makes sense he will have a bigger role in the end of this story (otherwise why start with him at all?).


Secret Six #1 - okay, this came out at the beginning of the month, but I picked it up last week and just read it this week. Man, this is good! Love what Gail Simone is doing with this title. Great scene at the convenience store with Blake and Lawton. Interesting way for them to try and perk Scandal up. Very curious who will be their new sixth. And next issue - Batman! Can't wait for October.

Birds of Prey: Dead of Winter

This trade paperback volume collects issues 104 to 108 of the Birds of Prey comic. It is the last story arc from Gail Simone's run on the title as writer, and it features the Secret Six - the group whom Gail is currently doing the monthly writing chores on.

After the loaded last volume of the BOP trades line, I felt this one was a little skimpy with only five issues collected in it (and DC charges the same price as the previous volume with had seven issues in it). Still, I wanted to read this arc as it sets up some elements for the monthly Secret Six title (like the interaction between Catman and Huntress, for instance).

The story overall read pretty well. I like the return of a certain favorite heroine in this arc. Also, seeing Hawkgirl and Big Barda in action with the team was fun. And, of course, seeing Harley Quinn hook up briefly with the Six made for a fun element as well.

Secret Six: Six Degrees of Devastation

In late 2006/early 2007, Gail Simone with the help of artists Brad Walker and Jimmy Palmiotti continued her take on DC's rag-tag team of super-villains - the Secret Six - in an all-new mini series. This collection puts those six issues into a single trade paperback, and is a perfect prelulde to the new Secret Six ongoing series that just started last month.

Following up from Villains United, the regulars (Catman, Deadshot, Ragdoll, Savage and Knockout) are down one member. Who do they get to join them? Would you believe the Mad Hatter? In Gail's capable hands, she turns this goofy Batman foe into someone formidable and dangerous. Of course, the book is about villains, so there is some really twisted and violent scenes in this book. Her writing makes it work.

Being a fan of villains myself (heck, I wrote a "Secret Society of Super-Villains" fanfiction series for three years on the 5 Earths Project group), I really enjoy her spin on this cast. Having got the first issue of the ongoing title last week (which I enjoyed as well), I can see she's got some more wild ideas in mind. Hopefully she'll stay with this title for a good long run.

Heroes season premiere

NBC kicked off season 3 of Heroes last night with a bang - in fact they went all out. First, there was the countdown special at 8 which did a full recap of characters and such to catch viewers back up. Then at 9, we got not one but two (count 'em - two!) episodes back to back. Wow! I didn't realize that was the case until the first one ended with "Heroes continues...NOW".

I was very impressed with the first hour. It had the feel of the first season opener. Lots of interesting interactions, lots of mysteries, lots of surprises. Okay, I'm a little done with time travellers but oh well...

The second hour seemed to settle things in a bit, to start to expand on some of the new storylines. I love the whole Level 5 stuff as well as the introduction of other new villains (like the speedster to vex Hiro). Given that this season is subtitled "Heroes and Villains", it looks like we are getting a good mix of that. About time too.

Another neat thing - the cameo by William Katt, former start of Greatest American Hero. I hoped he would last a bit longer but ah well. Nice nod to a super-hero show from back in 1981.

It definitely looks like Kring and company are ramping this season up to get viewers back. I hope the stories can match the introductions so far.