The Hobbit and Mr. Deitch

As cool as Gene Deitch's "Tom and Jerry" cartoons are, I have to think it was a good thing that this version of JRR Tolkien's "The Hobbit" never saw the light of day until now. The story is so altered. It's not the art that bothers me -- I realize this is a scratch film, used to show that perhaps those with the ideas could pull it off. It's nice '60s pop art. But they meddled with the story so much, it's disgusting.

Picked A Hell of a Time . . .

(Note: I do not condone any of the activities Lloyd Bridges is trying to quit in this clip. Those who use drugs or jump out of control tower windows or pick their noses in church end up you-know-where.)

Even years tend to be pretty good for us, given our past track record, so I’m hoping that despite the whole Mayan calendar thing, 2012 turns out to be a pretty good year for us as well. Though it’s too early to tell, 2012 has all the auspices of being such a year, even with the employment turmoil I’m facing at the moment.

First: the turmoil. Still tumultuous, though we are now making steps to open up and dig in the new waste retrieval tent we finished late last year. That’s a bright spot in that it means not everyone will lose their jobs, just more than what was originally expected. I still have no idea whether or not I’ll be employed in two weeks or not. I am making inroads (I hope) with another local employer, though it appears if that pans out I’ll have to take a pay cut in order to get the job. I guess that’s better than not having a job at all. Right? RIGHT?!

On to the better news: After barely two months on the market, we’ve sold our house. The intention is to get one that’s slightly bigger – and by bigger we don’t mean ginormous, but one with an extra bedroom or two and a bit of property around it. We’ve been looking at homes in the 3,000 square foot range, with an acre or more. There seem to be plenty available, some at some pretty good prices that look relatively affordable. Bad news there is that there appear to be a lot of people out there looking at homes in this price range and configuration, so they’re going fast. We looked at one just before we listed our home in November, and it sold a day or two after that. So we’ll see what happens. We’re looking at everything from an art deco-themed fixer-upper in rural Bonneville County to one that’s way in the heck out in the boonies in Jefferson County, near Menan (OK, I’m the only one looking that that one, but it’s got possibilities, I think.) There’s also one in Ammon that I think we did some brick repair on many moons ago.

We looked at a few over the weekend, and are struggling to deal with real estate speak, or at least a general overselling of what’s out there. We looked at a remodeled farmhouse that had possibilities for rooms in the attic and basement until we got there and saw that there was no attic access and the basement is accessed through a trap door that leads to a room still occupied by a huge coal furnace. Another house in Idaho Falls inspired me to utter that famous Ghostbusters quote:

Oh, it wasn’t that bad. But it was filthy, owned by hoarders and home to a leaky water heater turning the basement to mush. And outside were a feedlot and a gravel pit. Yuck. Tawna, our agent, didn’t even ask us what we thought of that one – she just said as we left, “Okay, I’ve got more houses for you to look at.” Funny, that.

We’ll have to get serious over the next week or so and find something, because the lady who’s buying our house wants to close mid-February. We’ll see if that date sticks, and see how things go from here.

Comix Artists Take Note

Though at times I think Scott Adams of Diblert fame is kind of a goober (sock puppeting certainly comes to mind), I have to admit that one of the things I admire most is that he’s allowed for the finest comic archive ever conceived by a comic strip artist.

I wanted, for example, to find two comic strips related to Dilbert’s company’s business plan being in complete disarray. Ordinarily, with comics like, well, any of them, I’d have to swim through years worth of archives if they’re offered online at all to find them. Not at Dilbert.com. I plugged “disarray” into their comics search engine and had the two comics pulled up in no time flat.

I don’t know if this comes through Adam’s genius, his clout in the industry letting him convince his publisher to offer all these goodies in an easily-searchable online database or if it’s something to do with the world ending in 2012, but I like it. Kudos to whomever came up with the idea.

Oh yeah. He’s got strips with “kudos” in them as well.

Older

I am, like El Guapo, getting older.

I turned 40 today. Not that 40's all that bad. Though our oldest son Liam pointed out that since the average life expectancy of a man in North America is 80, so my life "is half over." A good laugh, of course. And not something I'd ever thought much about.

Perhaps it's all downhill from here?

Naw.

I'm not that worried about my mortality - the effects of finding out about my slightly elevated cholesterol level having worn off. I am walking a lot, I am trying to watch what I eat (usually as I'm shoveling it in) and figure since I don't smoke, don't drink, don't kiss no women, I ought to last for a while longer. Trying to remind myself of the things Ezra Taft Benson spoke about in his famous "digging our graves with our teeth" speech.

Brown Alert! Brown Alert! Evacuate the Lower Chambers!

So we got a heartening, yet nerve-wracking memo from the higher-ups this week, viz:

I would like to update you on recent project changes. Based on competing funding demands in 2012, we received DOE direction to suspend work in some project areas. The suspension of work has resulted in reductions of force account personnel who were supporting work scope at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex and will affect workforce restructuring activities planned in January.

CWI has provided a preliminary impact analysis to DOE; however, final impacts have not yet been determined.  I continue to work with DOE, the Idaho delegation, and others to find additional funding.  I have meetings planned this week and next.  I remain hopeful that our advocates will find supplemental funds that will allow us to continue the safe, efficient, quality cleanup work we have delivered over the past several years.

Again, I ask you not to speculate. We will not know the number of individuals who will be impacted by workforce restructuring until all meetings are held and work and staffing plans are finalized.

Remain diligent in your safety focus. I will update you as soon as new information is available.

In other words, clench your buttocks, folks.

I played hooky from work today so I could finish up the last details on our kitchen floor remodel, so I don't know what happened -- or didn't happen -- out at work today. I can assume that any bad news would filter through rather quickly, but then again you never really do know about bad news, do you? (My shaky theory is if I stay away from work for a while, they can't lay me off because technically I'm not there to get that little tap on the shoulder. Of course, this isn't a sustainable theory. Nor a very good one.)

On another front, I'm going to call a fellah tomorrow who might be able to help me get another job with another company. We'll see what happens. Details on that under wraps until, of course, I have something solid to report.

Until then: Brown Alert! Brown Alert!

 

Don't Worry, Just Wet Your Pants

As is typical with cases like this, the time to worry has passed. It may indeed be time to panic.

But a rational panic. A pro-active panic. A Don’t-Worry-Be-Happy Panic.

Or at least a Bobby McFerrin-Falls-Down-the-Stairs Panic.

The chances that I’ll be unemployed in the next few weeks continue to soar. Just found out today (because I asked someone about the sudden lack of activity, not because anyone’s actually communicating) that we’ve got a $20 million budget shortfall going into the year and to make up for it the powers that be are pretty much considering scuttling any of our current workscope, at least at ARP. The money suck-hole that is IWTU will still get fundage because we’re contractually obliged to get that work done by the end of the year while at ARP, since we’re ahead of schedule and under budget we’ll be penalized since the scope of work under our current contract is completed.

I’m trying not to be bitter about this situation, but it is kind of comical in a way. As one of our engineers said today, it’s like we’re being congratulated for being ahead and under budget by losing our jobs. And with the layoff of some of our design engineers yesterday, it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that most of the rumors that we’re hearing are going to come true and as the ol’ lady in “Ernest Scared Stupid” says, ‘Them that dies will be the lucky ones.’

And then again it may all go away and the rumors we’re hearing of a 600-body layoff mid-January may not come to pass. Then again, maybe it will.

So HELLLLLLLLLLP!

Why We Drill

An interim report on the emergency response at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant following the March 11, 2011 9.0 earthquake and tsunami paints a picture of poor human performance and emergency response conduct in the hours following the twin disaster that left four damaged reactors at the facility and spread radiation across a fair amount of the neighboring Japanese countryside.

Dan Yurman at Idaho Samizdat offers a good summary of highlights from the 507-page report here. A full summary can be read here.

As I read it, I’m reminded why we drill, drill, drill, and drill in emergency response at the facility where I work. (Where I work is a waste dump, we have no reactors but are still cautious about safety and emergency response.) We see time and again as we drill where our human performance falls short and where we need to improve our ability to respond under pressure and in a timely fashion. We also see with each drill where our emergency planning may be lax and how we can fix it.

Now, I can’t imagine trying to respond to a disaster of the Fukishima-Daiichi magnitude, with an earthquake, tsunami and power outage all occurring near simultaneously. But I can also clearly see the necessity for planning a response to such events, given Japan’s proclivity to earthquakes, the potential for tsunami and the resultant consequence of having backup electrical generation systems washed away in a tsunami. Simply imagining that a disaster won’t happen doesn’t mean it won’t – you have to prepare for the worst. So the next time we have an outlandish emergency response scenario – say a plane crashing into one of our waste retrieval tents – I’ll remember this and think, well, sure it’s far beyond the worst we expect. Maybe that’s a good thing we’re drilling on that.

My thinking resembles one of the conclusions from the summary report:

It cannot be denied that viewpoint of looking at a whole picture of an accident was not adequately reflected in nuclear disaster prevention program in the past. The nuclear disaster prevention program had serious shortfalls. It cannot be excused that the nuclear accidents could not be managed because of an extraordinary situation that the tsunamis exceeded the assumption.

The Investigation Committee is convinced of the need of paradigm shift in the basic principles of disaster prevention programs for such a huge system, which may result in serious damage once it has an accident.

(The language is a little stilted; I’m assuming it’s just been translated poorly from Japanese to English, but the message gets through.)

LEGO Imbroglio

So LEGO, it appears, has come out with sets now specifically targeting girls. Of course, there are people who take offense at this. Witness Ruth Davis Konigsberg’s piece in TIME Magazine.

I don’t disagree with her when she says that the LEGO world, as far as minifigures and marketing goes, is overwhelmingly male-oriented.

But I have a major quibble with this bit of her screed:

I have also been more than a little disheartened to see his younger sister initially drawn to our buckets of expensive plastic only to lose interest. I can’t say I blame her. I suspect that girls don’t like to play with today’s LEGOs because they so rarely see themselves represented in the minifigs, and because the events being reenacted — battles to the death, alien attacks — are unappealingly violent. (That and the fact that LEGO is routinely shelved in the “boy” section of the toy department in stores.)

I have two boys and a girl. We also have plenty of LEGOs in the house. And while it is true that my daughter has noticed that the majority of minifigures offered by LEGO are male, we have made efforts – and found it easy to do so – to find sets that include female figures, from Indiana Jones- and Harry Potter-themed sets to more generic pirate and LEGO City sets. Gender equity exists in the LEGO world, when you choose to look for it.

The latter part of Davis Konigsberg’s argument is hogwash, because my kids – and I suspect most kids are like this – liken their toys and the adventures they place them in to their own life experiences, not necessarily the marketing aims companies set for them.

A few days ago our daughter and our youngest boy were playing with their LEGOs while I washed dishes in the kitchen (not because I’m engendering a gender-bending role mixture in a progressive household, but because the dishes needed to be done). They had their Harry Potter and Star Wars minifigures engaging in the climactic and ultimately violent battle of a simple domestic scene, in which they’d go for a drive and someone would get hurt not because they liked the violence but because they wanted something for their Star Wars medical droids to do.

Same goes on with the Barbies and the GI Joes in the house. There are no epic gun battles in which Barbie is excluded or encouraged to participate as she wears her pink camo uniform with matching flower-bedecked Uzi. Just a batch of simple domesticity in which they all pile into their pink Barbie motor home or follow along in the purple convertible to go on a picnic or surf or whatever the hell else Barbies and GI Joes do when they go out together. The only distinction we have to be careful to make when they play is that the GI Joes are not dolls, they are action figures. Other than that, there are no gender-specific rules enforced.

I’m happy to see LEGO marketing towards girls, and I have seen our daughter ogling the girl-friendly LEGO displays at our local Wal-Mart. But I’m nowhere near ready to sign an anti-LEGO petition as Davis Koningsberg offers, nor am I overly concerned that the LEGOs offered to girls are marketed in a way that may pander to a stereotypical feminine meme. I’m just worried that they’ve eliminated the minifigures in favor of little dolls that look human and not like this:

That’s just as wrong when Fisher-Price stopped making their people look like this:

I guess what I’m getting at is this: Generally, when I see kids playing, I don’t necessarily see them playing with toys as the manufacturer markets them. Our daughter doesn’t play with Barbie dolls in a way that makes them stereotypically female or in a way that makes her play more progressive in the gender sense. She plays with them because she likes them. Same with the GI Joes. Same with the LEGOs. I think as long as parents don’t get all wound up over stereotyping and progressiveness (or conservatism, see, I let my boys play with dolls) and just let kids play, they’ll figure things out.

Read in 2011

So. Fell 50 pages short of my 2011 reading goal -- had hoped to read 1,000 pages a month, but didn't quite make it there. Got distracted a lot, especially as the year went on. December was particularly dismal.

But life does go on, and there are still plenty of interesting books to read.

Here's what I read in 2011:

1066 and all That, by W.C. Sellar and R.J. Yeatman. 116 pages.
5,000 Year Leap, The; by W. Cleon Skousen. 338 pages.
Big Nate: In A Class By Himself, by Lincoln Pierce. 214 pages.
Book of Mormon, The; Translated by Joseph Smith Jr. 541 pages.
Bullwhip Griffin, by Sid Fleischman. 193 pages.
Case of the Snowbound Spy, The; by E.W. Hildick. 132 pages.
Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in A Connected Age, by Clay Shirky. 242 pages.
Consolation of Philosophy, The, by Boethius (Translated by V.E. Watts). 188 pages.
Coyote V. Acme, by Ian Frasier.118 pages.
Crispin: The Cross of Lead, by Avi. 262 pages.
Dave Barry Turns 50, by Dave Barry (natch). 219 pages.
Dark Sun, the Making of the Hydrogen Bomb, by Richard Rhodes. 731 pages.
Diary of A Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, by Jeff Kinney. 214 pages.
Diary of A Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth, by Jeff Kinney. 224 pages.
FDR My Boss, by Grace Tully. 384 pages.
Feet of Clay, by Terry Pratchett. 248 pages.
Grey Seas Under, by Farley Mowat. 255 pages.
Halloween Tree, The; by Ray Bradbury. 145 pages.
Hitler's Social Revolution, by David Schoenbaum. 324 pages.
Hobbit, The; by JRR Tolkien. 290 pages.
How Do You Go to the Bathroom in Space? by William R. Pogue, Astronaut. 178 pages.
How to Write, by Richard Rhodes. 229 pages.
I Shall Wear Midnight, by Terry Pratchett. 355 pages.
I Think, M. Kip Hartvigsen and Suzette Gee, Ed, 221 pages.
Interesting Times, by Terry Pratchett. 295 pages.
Letting Go of the Words, by Janice Redish. 363 pages.
Melba the Mummy, by Ivy Ruckman. 135 pages.
Moving Pictures, by Terry Pratchett. 254 pages.
Orbiting the Giant Hairball, by Gordon MacKenzie. 224 pages.
Perloo the Bold, by Avi. 225 pages.
Recres du Petit Nicholas, Les; by J.J. Sempe. 181 pages.
Rumpole Rests His Case, by John Mortimer. 211 pages,
Secrets of Successful Fiction, by Robert Newton Peck. 115 pages.
Silmarillion, The, by J.R.R. Tolkien. 442 pages.
Snuff, by Terry Pratchett. 398 pages.
Song of Roland, The; translated by Dorothy Sayers. 206 pages.
This Book Will Change Your Dog's Life, by Charles di Bonio. 224 pages.
Treasury of Laughter, The; edited by Louis Untermeyer. 712 pages.
Wall and the Wing, The; by Laura Ruby. 328 pages.
Whoppers: Tall Tales and Other Lies, by Alvin Schwartz. 128 pages.
Why do Clocks Run Clockwise, and other Imponderables, by David Feldman. 251 pages.
Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame. 272 pages.
Winston's War, by Max Hastings. 555 pages.
Yeager, by Chuck Yeager and Leo Janos. 331 pages.

Page total: 11,950.

What's my favorite read of the year? Too many to narrow it down. I rarely read a book I don't like -- I started a few this year that I just couldn't finish because the writing style or the subject matter were just too offensive. And as people continue to smuggle books into my house baked inside loaves of bread, I have little choice but to continue reading in 2012.

Goal this year? Well, I've got a massively thick biography of Sinclair Lewis sitting on my shelf that needs a read. Also have a collection of biographical sketches of John Steinbeck that I need to read. And I've got at least two books I need to read so I can blog about them. More on those later.

Teaching Five-Year-Olds

I started my third year in Primary today, moving down the ladder from the oldest group (10-11 years old) to one of the youngest: Five-year-olds.

My wife, and my teaching material, warned me that they have short attention spans. They were right. Right to the point that a few of these kids, bless them, didn't have enough of an attention span to finish making a drawing, let alone find the crayons they needed to do so. They're cute, they're well-behaved (well, I think they were scared of me, a feeling that I'm sure won't last) and they're pretty fun kids. But I definitely have to change my teaching approach, plan more hands-on activities -- at least two per class -- and make the lessons mini-lessons so I have enough time to get my point across but not much beyond that. They're also only emerging in literacy, so my practice of having the kids read the scriptures as part of the lesson will have go out the window.

My cheese has moved. Better be off to find it.

And, for what it's worth, here's the picture I drew during picture time. We were drawing things that make me happy. I drew a camping scene. Note it's not a getting ready for camping scene, just a camping scene. Getting ready to camp stresses me the heck out.