New Movie: WOW

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UNDERWORLD 3:
The third film in the $200 million UNDERWORLD franchise delves into the origins of the centuries-old blood feud between the aristocratic vampires, known as Death Dealers, and the barbaric Lycans (werewolves). A young Lycan, Lucian (Michael Sheen), emerges as a powerful leader who rallies the werewolves to rise up against Viktor (Bill Nighy), the cruel vampire king who has persecuted them for hundreds of years. Lucian is joined by his secret lover, the beautiful vampire Sonja (Rhona Mitra), in his battle to free the Lycans from their brutal enslavement.

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ANGELS AND DEMONS

The team behind the global phenomenon The Da Vinci Code returns for the highly anticipated Angels & Demons, based upon the bestselling novel by Dan Brown. Tom Hanks reprises his role as Harvard religious expert Robert Langdon, who once again finds that forces with ancient roots are willing to stop at nothing, even murder, to advance their goals. Ron Howard again directs the film, which is produced by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, and John Calley. The screenplay is by Akiva Goldsman and David Koepp. When Langdon discovers evidence of the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati - the most powerful underground organization in history - he also faces a deadly threat to the existence of the secret organization’s most despised enemy: the Catholic Church. When Langdon learns that the clock is ticking on an unstoppable Illuminati time bomb, he jets to Rome, where he joins forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and enigmatic Italian scientist. Embarking on a nonstop, action-packed hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and even to the heart of the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra will follow a 400-year-old trail of ancient symbols that mark the Vatican’s only hope for survival.

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Field Book

A friend of mine wanted to know how I was taught to layout a field book. It's a simple process by which you can use almost any notebook for most forms of field research. I learned this technique when I was in Archaeological Field School at Ohio University almost a decade ago. You could use this format for:

1. Journaling
2. Writing (character /scene development)
3. Class Notes
4. Field Research

All you'll need is a lined notebook (or graph), some colored pencils and a ruler.

I always stuck the ruler in the back of the notebook because I had to lay out a grid in the notebook in case we found something on the site.

1. Lay the ruler against the outside edge of the notebook and draw a red line down page. For sake of ease, I would just draw the line the width of the ruler since it was usually plenty of space for what I needed in the margins.

2. In the margin that you've created, you can record whatever headings you need to outline the entry. When I was doing archeology, we had to record the date, what plot we were on, what level, etc. If you were using it for class notes or story ideas, then you can change the headings as you see fit.

3. Alternate the colors of pencil you use for the various functions in the layout. I usually used a blue pencil to divide one entry from the next as it was a good visual cue. The body of the text was written however you wanted it to be and along the margin I would list any buzzwords that I knew were important from the entry. This could be anything from a "buzzword" in a conversation, a vocab word from a class' lecture, or something that you would need to easily reference.


I would circle the buzzword in the margin and point to the entry that spoke of it. Usually this was done in green.

4. Anything that was a follow-up to what you were writing about, a to-do, was added and marked with a yellow pencil.

Since it was troublesome to carry a lot of colored pencils with me in the notebook and a bit too complicated to use them while entering the data in the field they were usually used when I got home as a follow-up.

I would usually mark out the margins of a few pages in advance of where I was in the notebook so that I had plenty of room to write. Inside the book itself I would stash a green pencil since that was the color I used to mark anything important on the page.

You could easily substitute the use of colored pencils for high-liters if that's what you like

Have you ever wondered?

Have you ever wondered what your teacher does while you're sweating away on a test? Well,if you were in my Criminology class, you would have an idea.

I'm actually doing this to see if the keyboard still works. I haven't had the opportunity to use it that often since I got it back from you, but since it's with me I can toss it into my gymbag and write up lecturees, emails and such when I have a few minutes.

Not all of us have the cool, new IPhone so we have to make due with technology that is ... Eight years old?

God, I'm starving. My sinus gick finally decided to drain away about an hour before class tonight so now I need to put something on my stomach and quickly.

I wonder if that student realizes that wearing a low-cut shirt doesn't affect me like other professors? Ok, the question-mark is a bit harder to use since the keyboard is not as sensitive as my usual one.

You would think guys could bother to put on real pants when they come to class - it's not that hard. I mean, really - pajamas are cool...when you're in bed, in the dorms or stumbling towards an eight o'clock class.Not bothering to change for an evening class is just lack of effort.

Dude... Stop jiggling. Once is an itch. Three times and it's pocket-pool.

Ew.
Have I started rambling yet?

Yeah, I think that at least one of my students is not with it right now. He is just staring off into space and occasionally mussing up his hair as though the stimulation will create a static charge and it will somehow make the neurons fire ONCE more.

Feh.

Bottles of Mountain Dew: 14
Amp: 2
Ambiguous Coffee Cups: 3
Cans of Pepsi: 2
Guys who don't appear to have showered today: 4
Guys who don't appear to have showered for two days: 2
Women with a rooster-tail of hair tied back into a mess with something akin to a scrunchy: 4
Vacant stares by students up and to the right - 15
Concentrated stares down and to the left- 4
Number of strange looks by students as I type this out: 3

Well, I'm still waiting for a few of the students to finish. There are only four left in the room - one of them is a student who never shows up for class unless there is something to turn in or a test. He has a D and that's probably only because of the chapter reviews that post for the students to reference when they study.

I'm such a nice guy.

Don't sit there and snicker - I am.

Really.

I always try and help my students whenever possible. Professors who seem to have a chip on their shoulder and dare their students to knock it off have miss-placed priorities in my opinion. Yes, you should challenge your students but it should be challenging them to succeede, not to failt.

Hey, the skinny kid with the army buzz is done.

One more student left.

She's one hell of a writer though; her essays are always well-phrased and thought-out.

I think she's basically done so I'm goingto finishthis up and headout.

(yes, must focus on actually hitting the space bar to get it to work)

Later.

-T

Time for the Change

In every society that I have studied, there are moments when the there is a change, an evolution of the society to become something different. In early societies, this may have been the change that occurs in the great gatherings of the summer: leaders are replaced, the shaman are initiated and the boys and girls are recognized as young men and women. This change was an accepted element of their society, something that would occur every summer or so as the need arose.

As society has become more and more complex, the annual or semi-annual change was stretched out more and more until it became a rare event that occurred only once a decade.

In our world, change is embraced and feared in the same breath. We are eager to buy up the latest change in communication's technology with Iphones and laptops and the like. Technological change is almost too common. Every Thanksmas (the combined holiday of Thanksgiving and Christmas), people are all too eager to seek out the latest tech toys not because we may need them but because the consumption of new technology is not only 'GOOD' but also required.

Change, within society however, happens slowly.

Thankfully it does still happen.

Without yammering about the merits of the new President-Elect, I will let him speak for himself.

The "Yes We Can" speech has gone viral throughout the net. Though many people are looking to him for the salvation of the country, he doesn't seem like he is presenting himself as the "leader" of the country but more like motivator.

Not "Yes -I- Can" but "We".

Pulling ourselves out of the past eight- years will be difficult, but I think that it is time for a change. Oddly enough, this is the year of balance, of the Crane. It is time to learn from our history and find a place to stand that works for us.

It is time for a Change.

-T

Athens Halloween 08

Once more, the streets of Athens, Ohio were filled with the rowdy masses of the "Tweenty" Crowd (Eighteen through twenty) for the annual Halloween festival. The main street in Athens, Court St., was shut down and upwards of ten-thousand people walked from end to end drinking and carrying on in all manners of costumes.

My friend Dan and I walked down so that I could get some pictures (because everything is just fodder for the Blog) and it was nice to know that we had grown out of such things.

At one time it was fun to go up and make the laps around the 'party', but once you've done it a few times it becomes somewhat boring; especially if you're not someone who drinks alcohol.

There were scantily-clad guys and gals as far as the eyes could see. I tried to get some pictures of the throng of people, but my camera doesn't like taking pictures at night. There was also the problem that court street has a large hill in the middle of it; separating it off into North and South Court respectively. These shots are taken from the end of North Court looking back onto the street. Campus is at the foot of South Court with the Court House in the center.

To my knowledge nothing bad happened at the party. There are always going to be people who get arrested at the Party but I don't believe that there were any serious offenses.

It really made me miss my adopted "Home Town".

-T

A shot from Greenlawn

This is a shot I took today in the Greenlawn Cemetery in Portsmouth. I was surprised to find out that not all of the trees had lost their leaves and the vibrant yellows against the harsh browns of the branches was just too cool not to grab.

I may try painting this sometime.

-T

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