WQRob’s Neighborhood

Of course, it doesn't have the word 'Batman' in the title but I'm guessing everyone knows what movie it is.

Don't worry - no spoilers here.

My Batman is Michael Keaton as done by Tim Burton.  Sorry but I'm a child of the 80s.  But I refuse to judge other movies in the franchise by that.

I freely admit I didn't see the previous Batman movie with this actor playing Batman.  Maybe I would have been more prepared for some of the storyline if I had.  Or maybe not.

Overall it was an enjoyable movie.  We saw it at the drive in so I know I missed details (text on cell phones and such) and it was dark enough on the screen some of the action was difficult to follow.  Which means we'll have to see it either in a real theater or on DVD.

I don't know if it's just me but I found Batman/Bruce Wayne to be more of a plot device to launch other characters rather than the center of the movie.  Odd, but that's how it looks upon reflection.  All the other 'main' characters were given much more in-depth treatment and more fleshed out roles.  And then there's Batman.  Maybe that was the intention and the deeper meaning is that they're defined by how they perceive Batman.  But to me if the movie is a Batman movie then maybe, just maybe, Batman should be the main character?

Oh well.  It was a lovely evening and we had fun.  But we didn't stay for the second feature (Hancock) because we were tired.

Yesterday I spent most of the day making some relatively minor updates on the Saint Julian's Cat Care page. The main problem was

that I couldn't remember the username or password. It had been a couple of years since the last update. We really need to update more often than that. Maybe have a picture of the week and/or a news section that gets updated weekly. Maybe I'll see about embedding a blog in the site so that Shera or Vera can easily update news as frequently as they want.

I guess I should point out that much of my time in front of the computer yesterday was really spent working on a few graphics for the site. Shera had sketched out some pictures a while ago at a time I was really busy, so they got set to the side. So, I had to relearn how to use the program I used to turn her logo from a sketch into a vector graphic so I could do it again. Then I realized that the images I'd uploaded to the CafePress store weren't quite right so I had to recreate all of them as well. Sometimes it sucks to want to do things right.

I've got all my great ideas.  But actually doing something about them is tough.

But I did work on my design for the large display base I'm doing.  It's in two pieces - inner and outer.  I'm starting with the inner since it will have more detailed painting.  Yes, I'm faux painting again.

Since the pieces are assembled pieces there are join lines.  In the past I've just painted over them and lived with the result.  This time around I'm trying an idea of filling them in using caulk. 

I did some pre-assembly last night.  I consider pre-assembly things like making columns to length and working with sub-sections.  Essentially making the pieces that will make the larger pieces.

Tonight I filled the join lines.  One of the sub-sections will become a hemispherical roof and there are join lines all over the place.  I'm hoping the caulk will fill them enough so there are nothing but smooth sections where there should be smooth sections.  Considering I'm going to be faux painting those areas I'd like them to be smooth.

I also got smart enough to make a test piece that will be a small section of the intended whole.  That way I can see if my color ideas will work.  I think they will but without a test I can't be certain.  I caulked that thing too.

Tomorrow I hope to do more assembly.  The columns are at length but still need to be glued together on the long sides.  The roof is down to 8 sections from 16.  Tomorrow there will be 4.  Then I'll fill the join lines on everything again.  I'm working on the join lines as each sub-section is assembled because it's easier to get into all the little nooks and crannies when they're still separate.  It might take longer but I'm hoping the final result will be smoother and nicer.

Right now there's nothing that would warrant pictures.  It's just some partially assembled pieces.  And the caulk filling really doesn't show up well.  I don't expect the pictures to start until the main unit is dry-stacked and the test piece is painted.

yo!

Show us why you get up in the morning.
Submitted by David.

Sun

Where do i start...
I'm still working on branding, I'm not sure when that will be done.
I have to research a few things for photography. that's going to take a while.

My grandfather is still not well. He had emergency surgery two weeks ago for a pace maker and he came out fine but he has a big chance of having a stroke and have prepared us for it esp my mom and grandmother. The doctors r giving him 6 weeks to get better before they go to plan B.he looks like he's lost a lot of weight and so run down. I mean I get it he's 84 or something like that but he's always been healthy. Just another thing to worry about.

I'm out of my french class. I've been in bed for a couple of weeks to heal it. it's not like it was some time ago. Dr. Beau tells me to rest and wear my trainers at all time and this blows. it's summer i want my flip flops. My books r heavy, but it's ok I'm studying at home and working on the rosetta stone program. Also watching french movies. that'll help me.
I'm worried about my photography i have not shot anything in a while now and I have a lof pictures to go through. I guess i better get to it.

He emailed me, after a few months of not talking and his cocaine habbit i wonder if i should comment back... I don't want to be his friend anymore... I feel bad for saying it but really i feel like it's just a waste of my time now. I'm to old to have friends addicted to drugs.

Music, because of where i work i really like the Pussycat dolls, madonna and katy perry. " when i grow up..."

I cleaned yesterday, it was about time. now if i can get someone to do my laundry.

Sweater and I went to vegas for Info comm and at the 3M booth we swiped our cards and He won a Ipod Nano and gave it to me. He rocks I asked him if he wanted to keep it and he said no because he hates itunes. Anyway it's black and hold 8gigs of whatever i want to put in it. Sex and the city is going to be a regular in it.

I guess this is it for now. This is enough of an update. 

What question do you hate being asked?

"When are you two getting married?"  i really hate it when my family asks this. I have to explain my reasons to them almost every time I see them. I mean nothing has changed in one week.

Well, I already blog, but its all work stuff. I originally set up Vox for a personal blog, but that was back when it was in a somewhat closed beta. Now that people are actually here I suppose I should start using it.

I've been pretty busy this summer so far. Here's the capsule version. I designed and ran a week+ long technology boot camp for teachers. Additionally, I've been continuing to build my web presence so that maybe I can get other schools to pay me to run professional development for them as well. Last week Shera and I went to San Antonio. I went for a conference, Shera went for a vacation. This week I've been working on throwing away stuff we don't use/need.

Today the main focus has been the basement play room. It has accumulated years worth of Happy Meal toys and such. It's mostly done. It will become a multi-use room. There will still be toys, but I will be setting up an electronics workbench and or Mad Science Station!!!!

Well, I suppose the cleaning will not finish itself.

Quoted from an opinion piece by Ted Rall.

 

"When it works, nothing is better at creating an endless variety of reality TV shows than free market capitalism. But when it doesn't, it isn't just that extra brand of clear dishwashing liquid that goes away. Businesses fold. Banks foreclose. People starve. And no one can stop it.

The G8 nations met in Osaka last week to try to address soaring food and energy prices--a double threat that could plunge the global economy into a ruinous depression. But the summit ended in failure. "Any hope that the G8 meeting would result in coordinated monetary action--or concerted intervention in foreign exchange markets--to counter rises, principally in commodity prices, was dispelled by their failure to agree on the phenomenon's underlying causes," reported Forbes.

So the G8 ministers punted. "Due to the lack of consensus, they have stated the need for further study," wrote the magazine.

The problem isn't the weak dollar or the non-existent housing market. It's capitalism. A sane government doesn't leave essential goods and services--food, fuel, housing, healthcare, transportation, education--to the vicissitudes of "magic" markets. Non-discretionary economic sectors should be strictly controlled by--indeed, owned by--the government.

Consider, on the one hand, snail mail and public education. The Postal Service and public schools both have their flaws. But what if they were privatized? It would cost a lot more than 42 cents to mail a letter from Tampa to Maui. And poor children wouldn't get an education.

Privatization, particularly of essential services, has always proven disastrous. From California's Enron-driven rotating blackouts to for-profit healthcare that has left 47 million Americans uninsured to predatory lenders pimping the housing bubble to Blackwater's atrocities in Iraq, market-based corporations' fiduciary obligation to maximize profits that is inherently incompatible with a stable economy whose goal is to provide people with a decent quality of life."

This was taken from an article in The Buffalo News.

 

Following a whirlwind eight-month tour of all 44 Erie County towns, villages and cities, citizen activist Kevin Gaughan today is proposing a drastic move — dissolving all 16 villages in the county.

Under his proposal, unveiled during a noon luncheon presentation at the Harbour Club downtown, Gaughan is proposing that each of the 16 village governments merge into its surrounding town by 2012.

"This reform will place us among those successful communities unburdened by overlapping governments, reduce taxes, free more public funds for service delivery, and most important, reconnect citizens with their communities," Gaughan states in his eight-page written report to the community.

In the report, titled "Ending the Age of Large Local Government," Gaughan zeroes in on the high costs county residents pay for their relatively oversized village governments.

The numbers show that the 16 villages account for some 9 percent of Erie County's population, but 23 percent of the elected officials throughout the county.

One example: the village of Orchard Park has 3,147 residents and six elected officials, according to Gaughan. For the city of Buffalo to have the same ratio of residents to elected officials, it would have to have 445 Common Council members. Instead, Buffalo has nine Common Council members.

Gaughan knows the opposition that will greet his proposal. Politicians will claim that village government is needed to create the loveliness of Orchard Park, Williamsville and East Aurora.

"But the same quality of life exists in places like Eggertsville, Wanakah and Snyder," Gaughan states in his report. "And while these locales maintain services and setting equal to villages, they are not incorporated governments that add to our tax burden."

A village, he added, is not a government.

"A village is an idea, a sense of place, a community."

During his tour of the county's 25 towns, 16 villages and three cities, Gaughan attended 150 town and village board meetings.

Witnessing those local meetings, formal affairs that follow Robert's Rules of order, is akin to traveling back to the age of horse-drawn carriages, gaslights and frock coats, Gaughan wrote.

"Local government is our nation's most intimate level of government," his report states. "In Erie County it is also the most remote. By holding meetings in which decisions are pre-agreed — and limiting citizen participation — politicians have broken citizen spirit sufficient to have them all but give up.

"Which makes repairing the system more difficult."

 

 

All I really have to say is I totally agree.