Mr. Yates

When I arrived in High School, my Freshman English Teacher was Mr. David Yates. He was a rather avuncular fellow who liked to stroke his chin and grin when he was about to say something that he thought was clever. It was a source of endless frustration to him that I could talk to my neighbors, distracting them, but still pay attention to his lectures.[1] He also lived in the same LDS ward [2] as several of my friends, which meant we knew where he lived. Thus we put this information to good use: we toilet-papered his house.[3]

Samurai Sudoku

I was recently rear-ended by another driver.[1] Even though I had an easy time finding my registration and proof of insurance, I decided that it was time to clean out the glove box. There were coupon books from 2007 and 2008, registration and safety inspection certificates dating back to 2006 (when I bought my car), and over a dozen old proof of insurance cards, a menu from Pier 49 Pizza, and a printout of an incomplete samurai sudoku [2], all of which no longer needed to be in the glove box. But I couldn't help myself—before throwing away the sudoku, I had to finish it.

Television Review: Prison Break, Season 1

It surprises me that this series, Prison Break, made it through four seasons. I was originally under the impression that each season had a new cast of characters and featured a new prison break. But I've since been disabused of that idea. I'm curious to see how the subsequent seasons maintain the theme of prison breaking. The main actor, Dominic Purcell, seems to do a lot of his acting by squinting his eyebrows, but then opening his eyes as wide as possible.[1] Leann and I couldn't help but make the comparison with Robert Pattinson of the Twilight movies. (We've never seen any of those movies, but we like to characterize Robert Pattinson's acting as consisting entirely of moving his unusually bushy eyebrows around for dramatic effect.[2])

Television Review: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Season 1 (Water)

I intentionally waited to watch the television series until after I'd seen the movie [1], since movies are generally less impressive than their source material. Just to be sure I was being fair, I went back and watched The Last Airbender again after finishing the first season (also called Book 1: Water). My principal suspicion about the movie proved to be true: the plot was rushed because they were condensing 10 hours of television (20 episodes) into not quite 2 hours of film (103 minutes, to be exact). I was surprised, however, to see how much the personalities of the characters were altered in the movie. And I was baffled by some of the plot points that they chose to change.[2]

Television Review: EUReKA, Season 3

There are two major story arcs in Season 3 of EUReKA. One involves the arrival of a corporate fixer, named Eva Thorne, to oversee things at Global Dynamics (the fictional company where all the scientists in he fictional town of Eureka, Oregon work). She's reputedly fixed more Fortune 500 companies than anyone else living and she's bent on streamlining the company (though there's no evidence ever given that this has any positive effect). The other involves the arrival of Sheriff Carter's pregnant sister, Lexi. A few other smaller developments include Tess (a new love interest for Jack [1]), Andy (a robotic sheriff [2]), the death of a major character, the pregnancy of another major character (besides Lexi), the approach of a ship transmitting a mysterious signal to Earth.

Out of the Old and Into the New II

The week after Lillian was born [1] I was rear-ended by another driver while on my way home from campus. I reached an intersection and was going to turn left. A pedestrian entered the crosswalk [2] and since there was no turn lane, I stopped in the intersection. The driver behind me [3] wasn't looking and slammed into me going 30–35 mph. Thankfully, neither of us were injured. After my car was examined by a commercial appraiser and two independent appraisers (one from my insurance company and one from his) it was declared totaled.[4] So we bought a new car.

Movie Review: Pure Country

On several occasions since we've been married, Leann has mentioned this movie and then expressed surprise that I'd never seen it. It is one of her family's favorite movies, so eventually I was obliged to watch it. In essence it's kind of a long music video for George Strait's country music album of the same name.[1] It's about a country music star, Wyatt Chandler (stage name 'Dusty'), who gets sick of the flash and pizazz of his tour and runs away, hoping to 'find himself'.[2]