Movie Review: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The day before Christmas Eve, I got off work a little early, so I scooped Leann up and we went to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. We went to the new Cinemark theater up by the University Mall. One of the employees there says it's been there for three years, but I could swear it's been less than that. As usual, the bag of popcorn ran out before the previews did.

Movie Review: Joongchun

Joongchun (중천, distributed as The Restless in the United States, though the title is more correctly translated as Midheaven [1]) is a South Korean fantasy film. According to the film, departed souls that haven't achieved nirvana end up in Midheaven. After 49 days have passed, they are reincarnated. The film deals with a man, Yi-gwak, who awakes to find himself in Midheaven—even though he never died.[2] There he discovers the soul of his murdered fiancée, Yon-hwa. But she doesn't remember him because she had her memories destroyed.

Movie Review: Tron

I've been aware of the movie Tron for a while now. As far as I can tell this is the first cyberpunk film.[1] I've seen snippets of it on TV, but until recently I'd never bothered to watch the whole thing. I finally buckled down to watch it for two reasons. First, I saw a trailer for the sequel, Tron: Legacy, and was intrigued. Second, I had an idea for a story but I suspected it might be too similar to the plot of Tron.[2]

Movie Review: Around the World in 80 Days (1956)

Interestingly, the iconic image of Around the World in 80 Days, the hot-air balloon, doesn't even appear in the book by Jules Verne—this film was the first to introduce it. But it's become so closely tied to the story that subsequent productions (including The Chipmunk Adventure and the 2004 remake of Around the World in 80 Days) have incorporated the hot air balloon.

2010–2011 Mid-Season Television Reviews

Television series that start a new season in the fall of one year and end in the spring of the next year will usually take a hiatus during the Christmas holiday. They will air a mid-season finale in late November or early December and then pick up again in January or February. So I've written reviews of the series I'm currently watching (with the exception of Psych, Season 3, which I finished a while ago), up to this year's mid-season finale. That is why there are so many posts today.

Television Review: Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Season 3.0

When Revenge of the Sith came out, George Lucas made it clear that he wasn't interested in shooting any more films in the Star Wars franchise. However, he wasn't done with the Star Wars universe, either. Production soon began on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, a cartoon series chronicling the events of the Clone Wars that take place between episodes II and III. The series debuted with the release of a feature film which was almost universally lambasted.[1]

Television Review: THE EVƎNT, Season 1.0

The Evɘnt is kind of like a cross between LOST and 24. It features human-looking extraterrestrials [1] who are being kept imprisoned in a secret facility in Alaska. When the new President of the United States learns of their existence, the plans to reveal it to the world. This precipitates an attack on the President which is mysteriously  and fantastically averted. This prompts the President to hold his tongue but also start an investigation into who was responsible for the attack and who was responsible for preventing it.

The Boothification of Bones and the Bonesification of Booth

The television series Bones follows a forensic anthropologist, Temperance Brennan (a.k.a. 'Bones') [1], as she helps the FBI solve cases (usually murder) where human remains have been recovered. She and her team work at a fictional non-profit organization called the Jeffersonian (modeled after the Smithsonian). Most episodes are stand-alone, but there are a few story arcs that cover multiple episodes—most concerning interpersonal relationships. One of the major relationships that is explored is that between Bones and her FBI counterpart, Agent Seely Booth.

Television Review: Psych, Season 3

A few weeks ago Leann and I finished season 3 of the television series Psych. It features Shawn, a stereotypical 'post-adolescent' [1] who has been taught to be hyper-observant and analytical by his policeman father (with whom he now has a complicated relationship). He, with the help of his best friend, Gus, employs these skills to help the Santa Barbara Police Department solve cases. And along the way we are treated to some of their antics.

Television Review: Fringe, Season 3.0

When J. J. Abrams left LOST to start producing Fringe, I was a little diffident. What right had he to abandon such an awesome show when we didn't have all our answers, yet? The series started out with a format that was largely (but not entirely) stand-alone episodes rather than serial episodes, which further added to my disappointment. Similar to Abrams' first series, Alias, the main protagonist is a tough girl working in intelligentsia. Fortunately the series progressed to a more serial format and things have gotten interesting. And I've come to terms with Abrams leaving LOST.[1]

Television Review: No Ordinary Family, Season 1.0

ABC's new series, No Ordinary Family, features a family quite similar to the family in The Incredibles, only their powers develop suddenly. Thus they are forced to cope with how these new powers affect them personally and in their relationships with those around them. They also have to decide how they're going to use those powers.

Mayan Hieroglyphs, Part III

In previous posts [1] I've 'translated' my name and Leann's name into Mayan hieroglyphs. But we also have a surname, so I next tackled the task of converting Crook into Mayan hieroglyphs. As I've discussed before, the last name Crook could have many meanings.[2] Since we're unsure what the exact origins of our last name really are, I searched the English–Mayan dictionary [3] for all of the possibilities. I was able to find witza (which means "a person from the hills"), ch'at (which means "hunchback"), and eb'et (which means "messenger"). The rest did not appear in the dictionary. Well, I decided that I liked all three, so I did all of them.

Find It: Snow

I mentioned previously that a few days before Christmas we received a lot of snow in Provo.[1] Well, here's a picture of the snow covering the pfizter junipers (Juniperus × pfitzeriana or Juniperus × media) on the south side of campus. Can you find Leann hiding? [2]

Click on the photo to see a larger version.

Christmas Day

The youngins dragged us out of bed at 7 am (which was, mercifully, an hour later than the last time we were at my parents' house for Christmas). As we came down the stairs, the tree was lit up and surrounded by mounds of presents. We made out like bandits this year.[1]

Video Game Review: LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1–4

One of the things that I really like about the LEGO brand of games is that you can't defeat the game by playing through each level only once. There are always items that you can't find or collect with the characters you're originally given. So you have to go back and retrieve those things during "free play". For example, in LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1–4, there are places you can't go or actions you can't complete unless you have a goblin character (like Griphook), a strong character (like Hagrid), a Dark Wizard character (like Lucius Malfoy), etc. But you don't just get these characters automatically—you have to find their tokens hidden throughout the levels and then go buy them on Diagon Alley. Then you come back and replay the level with them.

Recipe: Milk Toast

A sister in our ward brought us some homemade bread for Christmas. So for the last three days I've been having milk toast for breakfast. It's one of my favorite breakfasts.

Product Review: Utah Truffles Mint Truffle Bar

This is another one of those items that I walked past over and over at the grocery store until my curiosity finally got the better of me. Since it has the name 'truffle' on it, that implies that it should be better than your standard chocolate fare. Right? So I finally bought one and Leann and I tried it.

Product Review: Hershey's Candycane Kisses

We first tried these when they showed up on a plate in front of our doorstep, left by our next-door neighbors. They're rather like peppermint bark. We really liked them, so we went to Smith's to buy some more. They were clean out. Then I tried Macey's where I found some. I brought them home as a surprise for Leann. It was a good surprise.

Product Review: Queen Anne Cordial Blueberries

Queen Anne Cordial Cherries are a staple at my parents' house around Christmas. Even when there were 12 cordial cherries in a box (now there are 10), they didn't last very long. I still really like them, but Leann's not very fond of them. Even so, when we saw cordial blueberries at the store, we were both intrigued.

Mayan Hieroglyphs, Part II

Last time [1] I showed you the hieroglyphs that I designed to represent the meaning of my name. To be honest, it seems rather pretentious and self-centered to do just my name—especially given its meaning. So I decided to design hieroglyphs for Leann's name, too.

Carl Bloch: The Master's Hand

Yesterday for Family Home Evening [1] Leann and I went to see Carl Bloch: The Master's Hand. It's an exhibit at BYU's Museum of Art (MOA) featuring the religious paintings of Carl Bloch.[2] Bloch was a Danish painter during the latter half of the 19th Century. He was very popular during his lifetime [3] but he was largely forgotten after the advent of Impressionism. (This only reinforces my distaste for the Impressionist movement.)

A White Christmas

Just before Thanksgiving BYU campus was shut down early because they anticipated a blizzard worse than anything we'd seen in many years. The storm dropped a lot of snow on Ogden and Salt Lake City but didn't have enough momentum to make it around Point of the Mountain. In Utah Valley we didn't even get an inch of snow. Well, last night we finally got our white stuff. I took pictures:

Seminary Doodles

I often doodle when I get bored. Last week I found my seminary [1] folder on the shelf in my closet and decided to clean it out. Most of it went into the recycling bin, but I kept a few things (like my report cards) for sentimental value. I also kept all but a few of the many, many doodles I drew during my four years in the seminary program. Here are some touched-up scans of my favorites that I found:

Our Little Christmas Tree

We finally put up our Christmas tree earlier this week.

We were originally planning on buying a tree this year since we're staying in Utah for the holiday. But after Leann went to Texas for her sister Sherri's wedding, her mom decided that she wanted to fly us down to Texas after all. It was too late for me to go because I have things to do in the lab all that week, but Leann is going to fly down on Christmas day and come back after the New Year. With that development we scrapped the idea of buying a real tree and put up our old one. It's only about a foot-and-a-half tall, but it still helps set the mood.

Recipe: Mediterranean Kabobs

A few weeks ago my Elders quorum  [1] organized a clothing swap activity for the ward. Almost at the last minute, the Bishop asked that there be light refreshments there. So I ran to the Fresh Market (formerly Albertson's) which is only two blocks away from our meetinghouse to buy some cookies. While I was there, I saw some grilling cheese. Intrigued at the possibility of being able to grill cheese, I bought some. But then I had to figure out a recipe to eat it with. This is what I came up with.

Product Review: TGI Friday's Jalapeño Poppers

I'm generally not a fan of the flavor of jalapeños [1], but one exception is jalapeño poppers. I first had them at IHOP one early morning after staying up all night with some friends. I don't make it to IHOP very often [2], but TGI Friday's has jalapeño poppers available in the frozen section of the grocery store, so I can still eat them on occasion.

Book Review: The Last Juror

John Grisham's The Last Juror starts out with a grisly crime in 1970s Alabama and the subsequent trial of the man arrested. There is plenty of potential for suspense since the accused comes from a powerful family with a long history of organized crime. There are thinly-veiled threats against the prosecution, the jurors, and the narrator, a recent college graduate who just purchased the county newspaper from the ailing previous owner.

Movie Review: The Watcher in the Woods

When I was little, I remember seeing a commercial for Buena Vista Distribution Company (or perhaps it was Disney) that featured snippets from a variety of their films. The snippets from The Watcher in the Woods always featured a ghostly blindfolded girl begging, "Help me!" This was somewhat terrifying to me. This last October Leann and I queued it up so that we could watch it for Hallowe'en. Apparently Netflix doesn't have very many copies of it because we kept getting skipped over; it went from "short wait" to "long wait" a week before Hallowe'en. It finally came just before Thanksgiving.

Mayan Hieroglyphs, Part I

I recently watched a NOVA documentary called Cracking the Maya Code, which explains the efforts of archaeologists, linguists, cryptographers, and artists to decipher the hieroglyphs left behind by the ancient Maya. As it turns out, Mayan script is syllabic, which means that they have a separate symbol for each syllable.[1] It took researchers a long time to figure this out because Mayan often has several unrelated symbols for each syllable.[2] Since, disappointingly, I don't have any new chapter art to draw for The Wheel of Time [3], I decided to try my hand at drawing Mayan hieroglyphs.

The Lights at Temple Square

Last weekend, after Leann came back from her sister Sherri's wedding, we took advantage of being in Salt Lake City and hopped over to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. It was foggy that night and it turns out that our cameras are really good at taking pictures of the fog. When we tried to take pictures of the lights the flash would illuminate the water droplets in the air and the camera would focus on those water droplets. So we have lots of pictures of sparkly air with fuzzy Christmas lights in the background. We tried taking pictures without the flash on, but that seems to be impossible for digital cameras to do—every picture was blurred. Well, every picture but one:

Wedding Flowers

I did the flowers for my sister Sherri's wedding, on December 4th. Her colors were eggplant, white, and black. I used roses, calla lilies, carnations, stock, misty, Easter lilies, snapdragons, myrtle, bear grass, eucalyptus, variegated pittosporum, and other greens. The final product was ten table center pieces, the sign-in table arrangement, the food table arrangement, three boutonnieres, five corsages, and the bridal bouquet.

Rhizoctonia solani

Have you ever been scrubbing a potato and there are clumps of dirt that just won't scrub off? Well, I have news for you: that's not actually dirt. That's a fungus, called Rhizoctonia solani. And since it's growing into the potato, no amount of scrubbing will get it off—you're going to have to peel that potato to get rid of it. But if you don't peel the potato, you don't need to worry. The Rhizoctonia solani won't harm you.

Video Game Review: Halo: Reach

I find myself in a situation very few men in this world share: my wife likes to play Halo. In fact, she's better at it than I am. So as the release for Halo: Reach approached back in September, I pre-ordered it on Amazon. But I still got in trouble because I selected Free Super-Saver Shipping. Which meant that it came 7–10 days after the release date instead of arriving the day-of. So while the rest of her family were already playing, we had no means to do so. So she went over to her sister Jennie's house to play. I was too busy that week to tag along, so I had to wait until our copy of the game arrived before I could play.

Product Review: Cheetos Mighty Zingers

Before I went on my mission to Monterrey, México [1], I didn't really care much for spicy foods.[2] But while I was down there, I developed a certain taste for it. Admittedly I'm much less immune to the spice as I was while I was down there [3], but I still like a little kick now and then. For a long time now I've seen Cheetos Mighty Zingers on the shelves at the grocery store and been curious about them. Well, I finally bought some and tried them out.

Movie Review: The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail

The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (虎の尾を踏む男達) is the fourth film shot by Japan's most famous movie director, Akira Kurosawa.[1] Many of his films are considered among the greatest ever made, including Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Ikiru, Yojimbo, and many others. It tells the story of a war hero, Yoshitsune, and his six retainers who are trying to escape into a country to the north. They are fleeing an execution order issued by the Shogun, Yoritomo, who is also Yoshitsune's brother. But the border guards have been warned of their coming. And along the way they are beset by a nosy peasant.

Quaver

A few of my friends, from the days when I lived in the Colony Apartments in Provo, are members of a website called Writers on the Loose. (Despite the name of the website, most of them don't write fiction—they just bicker over politics and post nasty comments to each other.) Last week one of those friends, Jonathan, held a writing contest on the site for the few who actually compose fiction. It's an open contest where anyone can participate, even if they're not a paying member of the website. I forgot about it until the night of the deadline, so I cranked something out in just a few hours. It's still a little unpolished, but I thought I'd share it here. It's entitled Quaver.

Fuzzy Wuzzy

Most of us have learned the poem or tongue-twister or whatever it is about Fuzzy Wuzzy.[1] The thing is, most of you have learned the lame version. That's right, your version is probably the mediocre one. And here's how you probably think it goes:

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear;
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't very fuzzy, was he?

Recipe: Migajas

Migajas (or sometimes just migas) is the Spanish word for "crumbs". It is also a Mexican dish [1] for getting rid of left-over tortillas. Because it has eggs in it, it's traditionally a breakfast dish, but it can really be eaten for any meal. I never had these while I was on my mission (because we always made our own breakfast) [2], but I've had them since and quite enjoy them. This recipe serves 4–6 people.

Movie Review: Miss Potter

Miss Potter tells the story of Beatrix Potter, the author and illustrator of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, as well as many other children's books. In fact, the film claims that she is the best-selling children's author of all time. The story focuses on her efforts to publish her work, her conflicts with her parents, and the men in her life. I understand the limitations imposed by the film medium, but I wish they'd managed to slip in at least a hint that she was also an accomplished mycologist and that she collected fossils.[1]

Music Review: Angels & Airwaves

I love it when songs have long intriguing intros. And nothing is more disappointing than for the intro to end only to discover that the singer is awful. Angels & Airwaves start a lot of their songs with great intros and the singing is only mildly disappointing. They sound a lot like Blink-182 (actually the lead singer of Angels & Airwaves, the weird-looking Tom DeLonge, left Blink-182 to form this band, so that explains why).

Book Review: Next

I recently finished reading Next, by the late Michael Crichton. It is a fictional account of the legal and moral complexities posed by genetic engineering. The biotech industry is booming and Crichton was disturbed by the legal morass that has been growing up around it. And, as is his style, he felt like addressing the issue in a fictional format would be more powerful and have more far-reaching effects than doing so in a non-fictional format would.

Tree Trimming

When I used to live in The Colony Apartments in Provo, I would walk past this tree every day on my way to and from BYU campus.

Now, I understand that some trees need to be trimmed to keep them from damaging power lines and telephone lines. But tell me, why didn't they just chop this one down all the way? It's so mutilated that no one would make the argument that it's beautifying the city. It just stands as a testament to human atrocity.

Out with the Old, in with the New

At the beginning of the summer, our computer (a Dell XPS M1710) started giving us the following message:

The Stomach Flu

Let's just get it out of the way right here at the beginning. There is no such thing as the stomach flu. The flu (short for influenza [1]) is caused by a virus which infects the respiratory tract. The most common symptoms of the disease are catarrh [2], chills, coughing, fatigue, fever, headache, malaise [3], muscle aches, and a sore throat.[4] Only very rarely is the flu accompanied by vomiting and never by diarrhea. So if what you have isn't called the stomach flu, then what should it be called? Gastroenteritis.

Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, Leann and I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I. I can remember when the book came out. We went to Smith's around 11 pm and stood in line until midnight. I bought the book and we immediately went home. I read for a while and then I prudently went to bed—even though I wasn't tired, yet. The next day (a Saturday), I got up and read until I finished the book sometime in the afternoon.[1]

Book Review: Towers of Midnight

Well, I finally got Towers of Midnight (Book 13 of The Wheel of Time series) for my birthday. And since I've had the flu for the last two weeks, I've had plenty of time to read it (it clocks in at nearly 900 pages). It's unclear how much of The Gathering Storm (the previous book) was written by Robert Jordan [1] before his death, but I think we see more of Sanderson's hand on this one than we did in that one. For one thing, the chapters are more likely to have multiple POVs than I recall Robert Jordan doing. And Sanderson was more willing to stick to the POVs of the major characters and only use sparingly POVs from secondary characters.

Some Typographical Considerations

I'm a little bit particular about formatting. When I edit someone else's document (or even, sometimes, when I'm just supposed to read it) I will go through and vigorously attack sloppy formatting. Here are some of the things that I just can't help fixing.

Movie Review: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

When I watched the first Madagascar, I had low expectations. Some of those low expectations were met: the animation was unimpressive and the moral was derivative and predictable. And yet I liked it. The penguins and Mort (the lemur with unnaturally big eyes) stole the show.

Emo Pants

It seems that every generation has to have a uniquely awful style of pants to wear. We've seen bell-bottoms in the 1960s and 1970s, acid-wash jeans in the 1980s, and baggy jeans in the 1990s. Now we're in the age of 'emo pants'. These unfortunate pants are extremely tight on the legs, yet saggy in the butt.

Is there really anyone out there who objectively thinks that emo pants are fashionable? Actually, yes.

Lehi's Family

Last night for family scripture study, Leann and I read in First Nephi, Chapter 18.[1] In this chapter Lehi's family boards the ship that Nephi and his brothers have built and begin their journey across the Indian and Pacific Oceans in order to reach the Promised Land on the American Continent.[2] Along the way they got into trouble when Laman, Lemuel, the sons of Ishmael, and possibly Sam began causing trouble and incurred the displeasure of the Lord. Here are some of my thoughts about this chapter.

On Falling Food, Part II: The Five-Second Rule

Earlier this week my little sister, Ashley, asked me some questions about falling food. In yesterday's post I addressed the phenomenon of bread falling buttered-side down. Her other question concerned the colloquial rule about when food dropped on the floor becomes unsafe to consume.[1] The actual time span varies, depending on who you talk to, ranging from a two-second rule to a thirty-second rule. So is this a good rule of thumb, or are we setting ourselves up for multiple rounds of food poisoning?

On Falling Food, Part I: Buttered-Side Down

Earlier this week my little sister, Ashley, asked me to explain why a dropped piece of bread usually lands buttered-side down. I assume that she was referring to an example of Murphy's Law (or Sod's Law) in action. Namely: "the probability that a piece of buttered [1] bread will land buttered-side down is proportional to how expensive the carpet is."[2] But Ashley didn't include the correlation with the price of the carpet, so I'll just address the question, "why does a dropped piece of bread usually land buttered-side down?" The short answer is: it doesn't.

Book Review: Along Came a Spider

Last summer I flew out to Colombia, Missouri for the 21st North American Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation Conference.[1] It was hosted by Gary Stacey at the University of Missouri. While on the plane, I glanced through the magazine that was stuffed into the pocket on the back of the seat in front of me, along side a Sky Mall and a barf bag. One of the articles caught my eye. It was about an author, named James Patterson, who holds the World Record for most hardback bestselling novels.[2] This intrigued me since I'd never even heard of him. So I made a note to read his first novel, Along Came a Spider.

Invasion!

Just after Leann and I got married, I started trying to germinate an avocado seed. My first several attempts met with dismal failure. The only one that even managed to put out a root radical was immediately attacked by damping off fungus. Then one of Leann's coworkers suggested that I try using distilled water instead of tap water. I did so. I also changed the water every day to reduce the likelihood of damping off. It worked.

Hershey's Kisses

First of all, I don't think they're really all that good. At least not the plain ones. If they have an almond, or swirls of white chocolate, or a caramel center, then they're a little more tolerable. But a plain dollop of waxy milk chocolate isn't really that spectacular. And sticking them on top of a plain cookie doesn't make them any better. Or the cookie.

Humor U

Saturday night Leann and I went to see Humor U, BYU's stand-up comedian troupe [1], at the Varsity Theater in the Wilkinson Center. We showed up half an hour early, but the line to get in already stretched nearly to the other end of the building and people were still coming. I didn't remember the Varsity Theater being that large, so I started to suspect that they'd overbooked the event. However, my doubts proved to be unfounded since they squeezed us all in with a few seats to spare.

Movie Review: Life in Cold Blood

We recently watched Life in Cold Blood, hosted by the naturalist, David Attenborough (brother of Richard Attenborough). It is a BBC nature documentary about reptiles and amphibians and is the last installment in The Life Collection. We have previously watched and enjoyed The Life of Birds, The Life of Mammals, and Life in the Undergrowth (which is about insects).

Cheese

There are lots of yummy cheeses in the world, like cheddar, gouda, muenster, mozzarella, pepper jack, etc.

There are also some that most people don't enjoy, like:

Roquefort (which tastes like a goat) or Gorgonzola (which tastes like turpentine).

Brain Damage

For the last few weeks I keep getting a song stuck in my head that I haven't heard since the mid-1990s. The song is "All Cried Out" by Allure, featuring the band 112 (both are R&B groups). It's an okay song [1], but I really have no idea why it's suddenly stuck in my head. So I can only conclude that the part of my brain where the memory of that song was stored has been recently damaged [2], causing that song to replay in my mind. Thing is, I can't remember anything happening recently that would cause brain damage. But then, that's good evidence that brain damage has occurred, isn't it?

The Colors of the Rainbow

Before I began public school, my mom had tapes that we would listen to that taught us many of the great folk songs like "Yankee Doodle Dandy", "Shoo, Fly, Don't Bother Me", and "Momma's Little Baby Loves Shortnin' Bread". One of the songs on these tapes was called "I Can Sing a Rainbow", by Arthur Hamilton. The lyrics are:

Red, and yellow, and pink, and green; purple, and orange, and blue. I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow, too.

So this is the rainbow that I learned. Imagine my horror when, in first grade, we were given an assignment to draw and color a rainbow—and I did what the song said! That fiendish cassette tape had led me astray![1] In vain I tried to convince my sneering peers that mine was right and theirs was wrong, but to no avail. Finally my Deeping Wall was breached when the teacher, Mrs. Point, sided with the class: the proper order of colors was red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. This proved the perfect opportunity for her to introduce us to that unfortunate mnemonic: Roy G. Biv.[2]

Music Review: Love Never Dies

Last weekend I went up to Brigham City to see Box Elder High School's production of The Phantom of the Opera, which my little brother, Nathan, had a part in. Overall it was a pretty good performance, though the wireless mics kept going out.[1] Truth be told, though, I don't think anyone—not even Gerard Butler—can top Michael Crawford as the Phantom.[2]

Daylight…Savings?

Many of us are pleased when Daylight Savings Time (hereafter DST) ends because we "fall back" an hour and so get to sleep in a little longer.[1] On the same note, we dread when DST begins because we "spring forward" an hour and so we lose an hour of sleep (because, let's face it, no one goes to sleep an hour early on the night before). However, my sister Rachel recently pointed out (here) that having young children can reverse the effects of DST. All in all, it is rather a hassle having to remember when DST begins and ends. And its especially bothersome to change all of your clocks—especially if you miss one and, seeing it, you're sent into a panic. So is DST really worth it? Or is Arizona the only sane state in the Union?

Dress Shoelaces

Simply put: they're awful. You tie them and within roughly three minutes they're untied again. There's no stopping it! I suspect that dress shoe laces have a coefficient of friction even lower than that of BAM.[1]

We can put a man on the moon and fling a satellite out of the solar system, so why can't we make dress shoelaces that stay tied?

---

Notes:

[1] Its friction coefficient is 0.02, half that of Teflon. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAM_(material).

What Is It That Matt Does, Anyway?

I am currently a graduate student at BYU, in the Microbiology and Molecular Biology Department. I work in Dr. Griffitts' lab studying the symbiosis between rhizobia and legumes. Read on to find out what that means.

What's in a Name?

Ever since grade school I've been teased to a greater or lesser degree about my last name. When people ask how to spell it, my Dad likes to tell them, "Crook, just like a politician" or "Crook, just like Nixon". And I have jokingly considered the possibility of finding someone with the last name Connor to start a law firm with me (we would be 'Crook and Connor, Attorneys at Law').

Anyway, turns out it's a bad rap. Before the late 1870s no one ever used the word crook to mean "thief" or "robber" [1] (which is, I believe, before my Crook ancestors came West as pioneers). As such, that particular usage of the word crook began as slang in Chicago and has slowly spread to the rest of the English-speaking world.[2] Even so, the origins of the last name Crook [3] aren't entirely clear. Here are some of the possibilities I've been able to uncover.

Recipe: Asian Orange Pork

While I was serving my mission [1] in Monterrey, México, I was often served mole (pronounced MOH-lay, mouse over for IPA) with rice and chicken. Mole is from the Náhuatl [2] word molli, which means "sauce".[3] Usually we were served mole poblano, which was a sauce that included chocolate and dark red mulato chili peppers. Less frequently we were given mole verde, which replaced the chocolate with pumpkin seeds and tomatillos and was typically spicier due to the use of serrano and poblano chili peppers. On one occasion, however, I was given an orange-flavored mole (which included choclate) served over pork. It was spectacular. Since then I've searched in vain for an orange mole recipe.[4]

Even though they don't include chocolate, the orange sauces offered at Chinese restaurants have satisfied my yearning. However, every Chinese restaurant I've ever been to has orange sauce served over chicken or beef, but never pork. Never pork! So last week I formulated my own recipe.

The Wheel of Time Chapter Art

Sometime in the early 1990s I discovered The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. It is a fantasy series which rivals The Lord of the Rings in its sheer scope. It is replete with interesting characters [1] and is much deserving of the moniker 'epic'. One interesting idea that the author introduced was to include an icon at the beginning of each chapter that served as a clue to the contents of that chapter.

Robert Jordan unfortunately died in 2007 of cardiac amyloidosis [2], before finishing the series. Recognizing what this series means to his fans, Mr. Jordan feverishly wrote out copious notes so that the series could be finished by another author after his death. That lot fell to Brandon Sanderson, an adjunct faculty member of the English Department at BYU.

People Who Smell Like Their Pets

My coworker and I were discussing how you can tell if someone has indoor cats because they smell like 'a cat lady' i.e. they smell like cat urine. These people are easy to pick out in society. For example, the other day I was at the temple, and I was sitting next to a lady whom I'd never met—I didn't even know her name! Yet I knew that she had multiple indoor cats because of the way she smelled.

Hallowe'en

Fall is my favorite season and Hallowe'en is my favorite holiday. I like carving jack-o'-lanterns, I like eating all the pumpkin bread and candy, I like listening to certain scary soundtracks [1], etc. In honor of this wonderful holiday, I'm going to share a few facts I've learned:

Apparent Magnitude and the Degrees of Glory

A while back in Elders Quorum we talked about the plan of salvation, including the three degrees of glory. In 1 Cor. 15:41–42 it says:

There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.

So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:

That got me thinking—just how bright are those luminaries in comparison with each other? So I looked it up. Astronomers use apparent magnitude to define how bright something looks from where you’re standing, here on Earth. This is different than how bright they would be if we observed them all from the same distance, or absolute magnitude. But Paul was only interested in comparing how bright things are to the earthly observer, so I’ll use apparent magnitude. The scale used for determining apparent magnitude is a logarithmic scale where the smaller the number, the brighter the object appears.[1] So here are the apparent magnitudes I looked up:

Raster Graphics and Vector Graphics

There are two basic kinds of graphics: raster graphics and vector graphics.

Most of us are familiar with raster graphics. They are images which are stored as pixels arranged in a grid. A perfect example of a raster graphic is a digital photograph. They include file types with the extensions .bmp, .png, .gif, .jpg, etc. One of the weaknesses inherent in raster graphics is that they lose resolution if you zoom in or blow up the picture. I think we've all seen pictures that looked pixellated—that's because they're raster graphics.

Vector graphics, on the other hand, aren't as well known. They are images which are stored as points, lines, curves, and shapes. An example of a vector graphic would be a TrueType font. No matter how big you make the font it looks smooth rather than pixellated.[1] Vector graphics include file types with the extensions .svg, .vml, .swf, .ttf, etc. One of the weaknesses inherent in vector graphics is that they require every detail to be drawn by hand. The result is that it's easier to draw cartoonish pictures rather than draw a highly detailed image.

I Looked Out the Window and What Did I See?

Yesterday the weather was quite nice and before I went into my lab, I walked around south of BYU campus and took some photographs of the fall colors.

Recipe: Brazilian Lemonade

For my last graduate retreat we went to Tucanos Brazilian Grill in Provo. They gave us a Brazilian lemonade to drink (actually, it was a limeade, but they insisted on calling it a lemonade). It was really good. So, with a little help from this blog, I've recreated the recipe. Along the way, I'll point out how this bears a striking resemblance to the preparation of an alcoholic drink, called absinthe, which was until recently illegal.[1][2]

Yay for Scotty!

Last Friday my high-school buddy Scott got married in the Salt Lake City temple.[1]

Yod

I dislike it when people pronounce coupon as CYOO-pon (mouse over for the IPA [1]) instead of COO-pon. Once, when I was complaining about this unfortunate phenomenon, my sister, Camille informed me that historically the long u was pronounced with a y before it. I've since investigated her claim and learned more about it.[2]

It's Better to Be Zimri

In a recent issue of the Ensign, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf shared a tale about two brothers named Abram and Zimri:

Good Company

There are lots of health benefits to a vegetarian diet, including improved cardiovascular health; reduced incidence of Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer; and a longer lifespan.[1]

Sounds pretty good, right?

Well, I was thinking about it and, despite the health benefits of being a vegetarian, carnivores find themselves in much better company.

Incipit

Welcome to Matt and Leann's blog.

We'll start you off by introducing you to the image in the background. What you see back there is a composite photograph of the Whirlpool Galaxy (also known as M51a or NGC 5194) taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2005.[1] On a clear night it can even be seen with just a pair of binoculars.