Jenno’s Ool

Thursday, December 30, 2004

Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower

I've been working my way through Stephen King's final volume of his Dark Tower series for the longest time. Life kept getting involved and as a result it took me a lot longer to finish than I thought -- Tania would be mortified! I finally finished it a couple of days ago. Wow!

Seeing King write himself into the series was different enough, but to then realize that this hadn't been the first time that Roland Deschain had been to the Dark Tower really threw me. To have Roland reach the top of the tower only to be transported back to where we picked up his journey in volume one, The Gunslinger, was a twist I had not been expecting. The series is set up as a never-ending cycle -- "Ka is a wheel and it must turn" -- but there are signs that this may be the last time Roland will have to restart. With King though, you're generally left hanging and not entirely sure that the last words you've just read really are the "end of the story" or not ... most times, I would guess "not".

I'm not going to go into detail about what the series is about; if you're a fan, you already know it. If you're not, you can read the books for yourself -- I would highly recommend them to people looking for a darker and sometimes bizarre alternative world to wander into. The journey is over for us, the Constant Reader, if not necessarily for Roland.

Posted by Jennifer at 8:25 PM | Comments (0)  

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Thank God for the Bots!

Ever since I first saw Mitchell with Jonathan, I've been hooked on MST3K. This has led to my trying to see or own as many of these "reworked" films as I can and subsequently listing a number of them on my wish list. This Christmas I received not only MST3K Vol.3 from Jon's dad, but Jon gave me The Essentials which has not only "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" but also Manos: The Hands of Fate. This last has been touted time and again as the best of the MST3K films...which means that the original movie is exceptionally bad.

*URK*

"Exceptionally bad" can't even begin to describe it! Joel and the bots make it semi-watchable but even for them it's a stretch! Here's a review of the original (non MST) movie. I really hope the director didn't give up his day job (which was selling fertilizer--go figure!)

Aside: Also on the "Manos" DVD was a "Poopie Reel" of outtakes: VERY FUN! We had to pause several times just to catch our breath!

Posted by Jennifer at 10:45 PM | Comments (0)  

There Will Be a Quiz...

As well as teaching "traditional classes" at my high school, I also teach an online physics course through the DECN. In the last class I taught with my physics kids they asked me if I had heard of any science or chemistry songs. At the time the only songs that would've matched were "Particle Man" by TMBG and Tom Lehrer's "The Elements" (flash). Now I can send them to this site if they're still looking. Some of the songs seem to be trying to educate a bit much rather than being just fun -- but a neat site all the same! (via MetaFilter)

Posted by Jennifer at 7:10 PM | Comments (0)  

Monday, December 27, 2004

Green = Down, Red = Up

Jon suggested I look at some other science/tech/geek sites for things that might catch my eye to post here. He directed me to Boing Boing where I found this little gem. I laughed then realized that I could have made use of this while still living at home; I have two brothers and a father who weren't as diligent as Mom and I would have liked them to be at times.

Posted by Jennifer at 7:18 PM | Comments (1)  

Water Clocks and Thermometers

While cruising on MetaFilter tonight I came across a really neat post about water clocks.

The water clock works on three basic principles of physics: energy cannot be destroyed only changed; gravity pulls objects down to the lowest possible level; and water seeks its own level.

These clocks can be from about 6' tall to over 20' tall -- that's a lot of glass blowing and oh-so-precise balancing of the entire system! The pendulums have a 2.22 s period (the time taken for a complete swing) to maintain accurate time keeping.

Seeing these clocks put me in mind of Galileo's thermometer. I've always loved these thermometers that work on the principle of water density. Then again, half the time I think I've chosen science teacher as a career is so that I can play with all the cool toys!

Posted by Jennifer at 6:26 PM | Comments (0)  

What Is an "Ool"?

I used to work at the pool and tennis courts at the Algonquin in St. Andrews-by-the-Sea, New Brunswick. In the pool shack there were two telephones: one to call the pool and one for the tennis courts. The phones were labeled "tennis" and "ool". Guests would ask about the "ool" name all the time. Our reply: "Because there's no p(ee) in our pool".

Posted by Jennifer at 2:37 PM | Comments (0)