Tom Mangan recommended Dersu Uzala, so I added it to our Netflix Queue.
Funny, Netflix isn’t quite sure what other movies are like Dersu Uzala. I don’t really blame them — what is like a masterpiece?
What is like Dersu Uzala?
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Author Archives: Walter Underwood
Paly Librarians Rock!
I stopped by the Palo Alto High School Library to personally thank the librarians this morning.
They have purchased books specifically for my son’s special day class. In addition to the resources for AP US History, now they have a picture book of all the dogs that are in Disney movies.
The librarians sat down with the class and talked with them about their interests and which books they like, then used part of their scarce acquisitions budget (the donations really help) for books which would fit the reading levels and interests of the students in special ed. Of course, this is what librarians do, but it is almost always to support general ed.
Our son loves libraries and has a period of student service in the Paly library. In eleven years in a great school system, this is the first time I can remember that a school library has specifically served the special ed students.
I’m really touched.
Weetzie Bat
Um, wow.
Let’s talk about the style. The psychedelic flow of Richard Brautigan with flashes of the journalistic precision of Raymond Chandler.
I’m betting you don’t buy the Chandler connection. From the first page of The Big Sleep, listen to the rhythm, the excess of observation, all from the viewpoint of the main character:
I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with blue clocks on them. […] The main hall of the Sternwood place was two stories high. Over the entrance doors, which would have let in a troop of Indian elephants, there was a broad stained-glass panel showing a knight in dark armor rescuing a lady who was tied to a tree and didn’t have any clothes on but some long and convenient hair.
I love the black wool socks with blue clocks.
My New Favorite Cookbook
How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman is my new favorite cookbook. It was a Christmas present last year, so I’ve had a few months to break it in. It reminds me a lot of the book I learned from while cooking in college, The Fanny Farmer Cookbook, 11th Edition (1965). This was the last edition before Marion Cunningham’s rewrite. The modern Fanny Farmer is fine, but Bittman reminds me of some things I especially liked the 11th edition.
Don’t judge a book by its cover
Do these cover designs look familiar? Perhaps like a recent massive, multi-volume bestseller? No, not Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
Nice try, but you can’t beat the original window cut-out cover on that last one.
Also, one of the best review titles ever, part of a series revisiting books you read as a kid, this time, Flowers in the Attic, “He Ain’t Sexy, He’s My Brother”.
Operation Beautiful
Two days ago, a student at my son’s high school committed suicide on the train tracks near our house. This is the fourth student suicide at that spot in six months. The Mercury-News article said it well, it “renewed a sense of shock and helplessness” in the community.
The Gunn students are shocked, but they are certainly not acting helpless. They continue to do smart things, reaching out, talking, trying to make Gunn a better place for teens. They did this after the first suicide and have not given up.
Best Version of Windows Ever
Sorry to be negative on a Monday, but when the lede on reviews of Windows 7 is “best version ever”, that is very bad news. That is the buzz for a service pack, not for a major release. Is it news that it didn’t get worse?
“Best version ever” is not even as strong as “sucks less”. It might mean there is some groovy new feature you will never use. For example, explain to me how “aero shake” is better than Option-Command-H. Shaking titlebars with the mouse multiple times a day? I can feel my wrist hurt already.
Tarp Camping in the Sierras
Summer in the Sierras is probably the best place to try tarp camping, since you would do fine with no cover at all most nights in our dry California summers. Still, there was hail the week before we were up, so it is worth getting your shelter dialed in. Here are some moments from our eight day trip through the Hoover and Emigrant Wilderness Areas.
Is it obvious or is it the wrong abstraction?
Lovely observation from Katja Grace:
Things can be obvious if they are simple. If something complicated is obvious, such as anything that anybody seriously studies, then for it to be simple you must be abstracting it a lot. When people find such things obvious, what they often mean is that the abstraction is so clear and simple its implications are unarguable. This is answering the wrong question. Most of the reasons such conclusions might be false are hidden in what you abstracted away. The question is whether you have the right abstraction for reality, not whether the abstraction has the implications it seems to.
My Gear List for the Emigrant and Hoover Wilderness Trek
Prodded by Scoutmaster Jerry’s post “So what’s in my backpack?”, here is what I carried on our eight-day trek in the Hoover and Emigrant. My base weight (not counting food and water) is on the lightweight side at under 25 pounds, but with at least five pounds of gear that other people might not bring, mostly the camera and Crazy Creek chair.
I’ll list the gear by category in decreasing order of weight, but first, a photo of everything that went into my pack laid out on my groundsheet, taken on day 7 of the trek.
Fighting a Wildfire with Milk Jug Basins
On our Boy Scout trek in the Hoover and Emigrant Wilderness Areas, about half the crew brought basins made from the bottom of a plastic milk jug. Cut it just below the handle, and you have a free, ultralight basin.
The original idea was to use it to keep the freezer bag meals from falling over while they were rehydrating, but we kept finding new uses.
The least-expected use was for a bucket brigade to fight a single-tree wildfire that we found. The initial containment and a satphone report were done by Troop 959 from San Diego, but they needed to move on to evac an ill crewmember. Our crew (Troop 14, Palo Alto) took over and spent most of an hour putting it all the way out.
How do you know that your shoes breathe?
This is what my feet looked like after a day hike up Mount Diablo. All that dirt came through the mesh in my shoes and through my thick wool hiking socks. My feet may be dirty, but they were dry, cool, and happy.
Nice oak floors, too.
Does your dog ever get to play?
When we are out with Loken and he is working (he is very serious when he works), people sometimes ask (in a worried tone) whether he ever gets to play. The answer is “yes”. This is from our vacation to Oregon.
Mission Peak from Sunol
The other times that I’ve climbed Mission Peak with the Boy Scouts, we’ve started from Ohlone College. That is a 3.5 mile, steep, shadeless, climb on dusty roads through cow pastures. This time, I took the advice of a nice person at the East Bay Regional Park District and we started from Sunol. Still mostly on roads, but lots more shade, the climb is spread out very evenly over 5.5 miles, and the views are of Mt. Diablo instead of cows.
Even better, we overnighted at the Eagle Springs trail camp. Here is the view north across the campsite:
Sharp knives! Tomatoes!
My big birthday present was an electric knife sharpener, a Chef’s Choice 130. I’ve been using an arkansas stone for years, but it takes forever and the kitchen knives were getting to be a problem.
The first sharpening takes a while, since you need to grind the edge at the correct angle. Subsequent sharpenings are much, much faster and don’t leave metal dust on the counter. Read the instructions carefully, because there is some skill involved in getting it right. Just because this thing has a motor doesn’t mean it is automatic.
To celebrate the newly sharp kitchen knives, I bought some vine-ripened tomatoes, fresh basil, fresh mozarella, and some nice olive oil. I don’t think I’ve ever sliced a tomato that easily. They were tasty, too.
Most Casual Observer 