Alien Covenant

I thought it was an excellent film,  if you stop it midway through.  The last half was OK,  but the final act was a pastiche of the franchise,  and the twist at the end as obvious as a toddler's lie.

As It Should Be

I can't think of a single celebrity,  Right or Left,  whose political opinion matters to me.  Not a one.

The Solar Eclipse of 2017

I never bought into the hype surrounding the eclipse. I love astronomy, and give me a new picture of Saturn any old day, but an eclipse? The moon passing in front of our view of the sun might be great if you're starring in A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court, but here in 2017? Eh.

Still, in the end it was a hoot to see.

The day before I'd taken Smiley and Ginger to a science and surplus store where they made free eclipse viewers.

When it came time for the eclipse, we headed back to the store, which was holding a get together in the parking lot to celebrate the event. My friend Tre and my Godson met us there.

There was heavy cloud cover, and save for a few minutes the homemade kits didn't work.

Thankfully, one of the store clerks slipped me a pair of (sold out) eclipse glasses during a handshake, and so we got to see some of the show.

We didn't get any good pics of the eclipse, as you'd expect. But in person, it was genuinely kind of neat; certainly more impactful than seeing it on TV or in a book.

It was  a good memory to make with the kids, and I'm glad I experienced it with them.

Good News

Good news.We got the test results back from Junie's EEG - no evidence of epilepsy. Bad news: unless this is some weird habit (and I doubt it) we have to eliminate the other possibilities the doctor brought up.

Sigh

Tomorrow my classes resume.  As was the case in grade school,  high school,  college,  and now law school,  I detest being in a classroom.  But I go, and I'm reasonably good at it.  So,  this evening,  dinner on my deck,  and a final farewell to summer.

Bear Head

Just because I try on a bear head doesn't mean LuLu and Smiley  have the right to don one and engage in a wrasslin' match.

I Do Stupid Things

Here's a tip: if you try and burn off a gray chest hair the flame will quickly spread and light your whole chest on fire. 

Lulu : You do stupid things.

The Eclipse

I swear, this eclipse is the biggest bunch of overdone hoopla since Y2K. If it isn't endless prattle about the glasses, it's dire warnings to "save your eyes!," or worse yet don't let your dog stare at it. Newsflash: your dog doesn't care about the eclipse, and neither do I. I'll participate with the kids if they are interested, but otherwise, yawn.

Anyway. 

Continuing the eclipse phenomenon, I took the youngest two to make eclipse viewers and watch the event at American Science and Surplus. Ty to Tracy for the tip.

Welp.  Saturday was a day to forget.  Better tomorrows.

My Thoughts

I realize that I sound like a conspiracy nut when I rant about the media being "the enemy." It isn't that I think there's a monolithic entity guiding the media along a master plan to do X or promote Y. I think this Facebook comment I wrote does a good job of explaining the seed of my doubt

I came close to minoring in journalism, and spent three semesters in the program.  All the professors were very liberal,  but with the exception of one they were very honest and fair.  They took great care,  way back in '92, to point out what they saw as a decline in journalism standards and a slant to the left. 

In one exercise,  a comparison of news broadcasts from the same day,  that of a big event.  Each ran with different stories about the same event,  each obviously based on what exclusives they could muster.  One even ignored the event,  burying it in the broadcast, despite its importance to the community. 

Another exercise had us watch TV detective shows. Time and again, the bad guy was a businessman.  (this is the era before Law and Order made "ordinary" crime entertainment). The prof called on a producer/writer to explain why. The answer?  There wasn't enough conflict if the villain was a common thug,  and isn't corporate America evil anyway? Why not show that? 

Almost all in profs blamed  Watergate. They said it lead to an influx of liberals into the profession,  based on the glory of Woodward and Bernstein,  and that as a whole they were more agenda driven and far more liberal than what they'd seen before. 

Liberal as they were,  the professors warned that this lead to a decline in objectivity and an isolation of opposing pov's. 

The Chudnow Museum

My boy and I visited this neat little museum in downtown Milwaukee. Very neat, and worth a trip.

Went to a museum with. My dad had one fashion phone you can use to talk to people on the other side of building replying​ neat 😀 - Smiley

The Media

Yesterday NBC ‘s evening broadcast spent 60 percent more time on stories about Trump than on the terror attack in Barcelona that killed 14 people and injured over 100. Two days before that news that North Korea had backed down was buried fifteen minutes into a broadcast I watched. 

Just sayin', the media has an agenda.