The world, and Brazil, is full of surprises

I know its three posts in a day, but this one was too cool to pass up:

BBC NEWS Science/Nature 'Lost towns' discovered in Amazon

Basically scientists have discovered evidence of "urban" human habitation that predates European settlement in what was thought to be virgin rainforest. Just think of what you'll know tomorrow...

Flyman might have kicked Spiderman's butt.

For those of you knocking down the last of these before fall sets in (well those of us north of Colorado) the following is interesting:

BBC NEWS Science/Nature Fly's brain 'senses swat threat'

Forget "spider sense" the article indicates that a flys brain and reflexs kick into gear pretty much instantly. No wonder spiders use webs. Even they would tire of chasing the little guys.

Quick update

The trip tot he University of Utah wa snice. It was a chance to spend some time with the wife as well. My father came along, and was able to see the grandkids when we got back. For right now no news is good news. The EMG came back as normal. The next step will be for me to get a muscle biopsy to fully rule out a metabolic muscle disease. From there we are following the inflammatory disease route for the time being. I see a rheumatologist in October. I wish I got two months to give an answer on development proposals :)

Uno and the Undead

Amaryllis and I went out with some friends for a date night last night. We saw the Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. It was OK for what it was, a popcorn flick with a kid in a candy store special effects budget (In comparison to subtler CGI effects films like Iron Man, it looks like they might have stretched the buck a little too far).

Brendan Fraser is an interesting one. I missed him in Encino Man, and was introduced to him though more serious works like School Ties, With Honors, and Gods and Monsters. So for me, I have this illusion that he has been slumming for 2/3 of his career, when in reality he has a handful of solid films among some interesting box office fare (Blast from the Past anyone?). The Mummy series seems to suit him, by allowing him to be quirky without downright goofy. For me this entry into the franchise falls somewhere between the first and second. The general story concept is better than the second, but not as good as the first.

What really hurt the film was the absence of Rachel Weisz. Once she decided that she wasn't going to be involved they should have written her part out of the script. That way poor Maria Bello wouldn't have tried to play someone she obviously wasn't, and the movie wouldn't be forcing you to swallow Brendan Frasier having a son old enough to be a college drop out. (Word of advice: the appearance versus actual age difference works for Sean Connery and Harrison Ford. It doesn't for Brendan Fraser and Luke Ford. Maybe Brendan Fraser should have grown a beard.).

Jet Lee and Michelle Yeoh were wonderful, and their fight sequence was too brief for the build up. The sequence is over American quick as opposed to the 5 minute intensely choreographed affair I dreamed of.

INSERT RANT:

Ok I have one real beef with a lot of CGI films these days. Can we have some CGI without the little humorous asides inserted into nearly every sequence? Yes we get it, an animator's life is hell, and director's love the new toys. It doesn't mean that every film has to have a Charlie Chaplain slap stick sequence in it, or that CGI animals have to poke out of every nook and cranny acting like teenagers on an MTV production.

Sometimes I long for the days when CGI was so expensive that if an animation team blew a million dollars making the zombie in the third row pick his nose, someone was getting fired.

END RANT

The highlight of the evening though was picking up the kids from the babysitter. We walked into the door to see Kate in the middle of a very serious game of Uno with Gabe. We watched her play a handful of cards, and she was doing really well without prompts accept for the more complex action cards. A guess soon we'll walk in to find her displaying a full house and raking $5 dollar bills across the table.

Marks of manhood

I went paintballing yesterday. For those of you who know me, it's probably not one of those activities you would imagine me participating in. Although I am not Ganhdian in my pursuit of nonviolence, I do have a habit of avoiding pastimes which involve the use of camouflage. A friend of mine caught me at a weak moment, and with my health I figured, "What the heck, this might not come my way again for a long time."

So I was outfitted with a basic mask and gun, and turned loose on a ranch boneyard that had all kinds of fun nooks and crannies. We played teams, with a kind of kill the other guys objective, which suited me fine. In each match we were granted a certain number of "lives". The first time around I died gloriously by being shot in the head (right between the eyes), my kneecap, and the rear end (we got flanked).

The second time around I was a lot more cautious, and even managed a couple of kills (Ha ha, nothing like pegging someone in a bright shirt who thinks he's being sneaky in the grass. Oh and desert cammo only works in... never mind, it just doesn't work.). I was surprised by how much I enjoyed myself, though I will probably never pick it up as a hobby. My friends gun, which shoots something like 10-15 balls a second (at what point do you just start throwing cans of paint at each other) ran him $600, and I'm told you can shell out quite a bit more. You might catch me out there a couple more times though.