Being a student of an education program, occasionally I step back and look at what I’m being taught. While I look I often wonder whether the education I’m receiving is always for my betterment, or the betterment of the students I will one day have. I also wonder how in tune the professors are with the demands of classes today, and whether they are working for the students, or their paycheque.
Much of this questioning boils down to a simple dichotomy of Theory versus Practice. Are we really being taught skills or instructional methods that will be useful in the classroom, or that can even be implemented?
It is easy to say that something works well in theory, but it may very well be impossible to implement in real life. Much of the theoretical teaching we receive revolves around teaching the mythical perfect classroom full of perfect students. They all sit in perfect rows, pay attention to your every word, and hand in all their work on time. This classroom does not exist, and as a result much of the theoretical teaching ends right there.
If we cross the bridge into the real world of teaching we will likely find that our classrooms are far from perfect. Student may have demanding exceptionalities, the school supplies may be lacking, and parents may be completely apathetic to our cause as teachers. In these cases what are we to do with all this theory we’ve been spoon fed? Are we to just pound the theory against the students until they give in and respond, or are we to remain flexible and teach to the student, not our lesson plans?

We need to look from a realistic point of view at the ideal classroom our theory teaches us with. Is this perfect little room useful to us in an everyday situation? If used properly, this perfect room can be the most useful tool in the world, and at that point it changes from being a useless theoretical example into a useful practical tool.
We need to use this perfect classroom as an assessment tool. Not to assess the students though, but to assess ourselves. We need to have aspirations for our teaching methods and classroom management. We cannot expect our students to be our perfect classroom, but we should aspire to be that class’s perfect teacher. Our teaching theory hold place as a way of comparing our actions in a classroom with our potential actions as an ideal teacher. We can reflect on our actions, and compare them with what we could theoretically be doing. We then wouldn’t need fret that the theory is impossible to meet, we would be well aware of that. We would just always have a source of inspiration and aspiration, which I think is something we will all need one day for motivation.
I look forward to continually grasping at these ideals. Though I don’t look at these only as ways of improving life for myself, I look at these and how great the lives of my future students can and will be.

So I’ll be perfectly honest, when I get hits to my blog I get excited. Which is why I made sure my fiance installed the Wassup stats widget on the back end of this blog. So after making two posts yesterday I decided to see how many people had been to the blog. Much to my surprise, when I went to check the stats, in the last 7 days I’ve had 109 visitors and 38,798 page views.
The weirdest part is that the 38,798 page views were mostly made up of one viewer continually going to a page with no content. I’m baffled to the utmost extent, and I can only laugh at whoever you are because 1) you’re using Windows, and 2) you’re still using IE6. IE6 really? At least upgrade your browser, or move to a real one like Firefox or Opera.
I’ve got your IP address now though you strange user, not sure what I can do with it, but I’ve got it. Next time maybe spend your time a little more wisely and read something? Also you really screwed up my drooling over viewer stats, You Suck whoever you are.

Earlier this year I began a mass cleansing of useless but valueable objects in my life. Near the top of the stack was my original silver Nintendo DS and a stack of games to go with it. Since I got rid of the DS I’ve missed it on a few occasions, but not enough to warrant going out and getting one of the shiny new Nintendo DSi.
So I got to thinking, why is it that I don’t miss my Nintendo DS? I did play the games on it, and I know that most of the games for it don’t have any direct versions available on other platforms I own. Then I realized, I just have versions of these games. I don’t miss playing New Super Mario Bros. on DS because I’ve got all the Mario games on the Wii and I’ll be playing Super Mario Galaxy 2, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii this winter. I don’t miss Legend of Zelda on DS because I still have an unbeaten copy of Twilight Princess collecting dust on the shelf.
There was one Nintendo DS original game I never got to play and that game was Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. It was designed from the ground up for the Nintendo DS and its touch screen interface, and was a step outside the normal for the GTA franchise. But I just read some exciting headlines today, and it seems that GTA: Chinatown Wars is being adapted this fall for, the PSP, and Apple’s iPhone & iPod Touch. Thankfully I just so happen to own a nice shiny iPhone 3GS, and I’ll be looking forward to downloading that game, regardless of the crazy price they’ll be charging.

So thanks to Rockstar Games being awesome and realizing the iPhone is a valid game platform, I will never again miss having my Nintendo DS. Today I am a happy geek!

Surprising I wasn’t on the ball in hearing about this one. I saw people making weird name mash-ups on twitter of Marvel and Disney characters, and just thought it was something stupid like usual. Once I heard about it a second time from my friend Terry I thought to maybe go check out the news. What a surprise I was in for when I found out at Comic Book Resources, that Disney had acquired Marvel Comics.

So what exactly does this mean for Marvel and Disney? Disney has stated they’re taking a hands off policy, but hope to help promote and market Marvel properties, and Marvel now has financial security, and backing of one of the most powerful companies in the world.

This isn’t the first case of acquisition in the comic book industry, considering DC Comics has been owned by Warner Bros. since 1969, and it’s this case that is really the best comparison for Marvel Comics. From a consumer point of view there really doesn’t seem to have been a lot of influence in DC Comics other than from film and television franchising options. Occasionally there is a call from Warners to not kill comic book characters they’d like to use, but honestly when is the last time a comic character stayed dead?
I see Marvel/Disney forming a large film and television franchise that will reach an ever increasing global market. The comic aspect of the company I believe will stay relatively unchanged. Comics are having trouble across the field, and being bought by Disney is not going to help it. Though one major headache will be the large number of existing business relations Marvel has in Film, Video Games, and other aspects of its marketing or distribution. Secretly I’m sure Disney would love to bring all aspects in house to control all flow of money, but that kind of change could take years. Also there is a severe chance of conflicting rights to characters being used in other mediums now that they are all owned by Disney. With any luck they may be able to avoid large scale fiascoes like the fight going on over the Adam West Batman series, which involves no less than Warner Brothers, Fox, all music rights owners from the show, and all celebrities and their likenesses that appeared in the show. As a result the red tape and pride has prevented this show from doing anything other than languish in reruns, and fuel black market DVD sales.

For the sake of Marvel fans I hope this change is for the best. Though I think its going to be much more difficult than everyone really anticipates.

Yesterday I finally grew tired enough of the look of this blog and went searching for a replacement theme. I had narrowed it down to two choices and excitedly downloaded them for installation. Little did I know that I was moments away from near total destruction of this beautiful blog. I had updated the Wordpress back-end of the blog before installing the new themes, and neglected to create a backup of the blog in total. Needless to say when I went to install a theme called Whiteout, I instead got what is known as the White Screen of Death. Turned out Whiteout is not all that compatible with the new version of Wordpress. Though thanks to the magical ability of my infinitely more tech savvy fiance the White Screen of Death was banished to the depths of the internet, and the blog in its entirety was recovered and put back up. I don’t know how, and I know enough to not ask how all this was done, but I am very thankful.
So now you can enjoy the new theme Bluemod, which is not fatal, and decidedly prettier than Whiteout anyways.

Being an avid reader, I always have more than one book on the go. As a result the less exciting books in my reading pile often get pushed to the side and remain partially read for long periods of time. Every once in a blue moon though, a book is so boring, or so catastrophically bad that I call it a day and never read the rest of it. The most recent offender of this calibre is PYGMY by Chuck Palahniuk.
I’ve read much of Palahniuk’s work and I’ve been impressed on almost every occasion. His work is often vulgar and graphic, but is usually has some redeeming quality or story quirk that makes it enjoyable. I have yet to find a single redeeming quality about this book. It nearly induces physical pain when reading the hobbled english of the narrator and the story wanders aimlessly along with no real goal being apparent after forcing myself through 94 of the 241 pages. The only real hope I have for this book is that it will make the rest of Palahniuk’s work look better. Worst case scenario is that it will deter readers from discovering a very talented author.

Watchmen: The Black Freighter & Under the Hood

Movie Running Time: 66 minutes
My Running Time: 60 minutes
Elliptical Revolutions: 3294
Calories Burned: 778
My Mass: 190lbs, 86.2kg (-0.0lbs, -0.0kg)

The Black Freighter and Under the Hood both existed as supplements to the main story in the original graphic novel of Watchmen. The Black Freighter was a story from a pirate comic being read by a secondary character. Under the Hood was published as excerpts from the autobiography of Hollis Mason, the first Nite Owl, and was presented often in single spaced text at the end of an issue. To adapt these two stories into a film version of Watchmen is difficult at best, and director Zack Snyder took his best shot at both.

The Black Freighter was originally supposed to be a live action 300-esque production, complete with Gerard Butler playing the lead role. Due to the projected $20 million that would have been needed to make that portion, it became an animated film, though it retained Gerard Butler as a voice actor for the lead role. The story of the Black Freighter is meant to mirror the moral dilemma proposed by Adrian Veidt in his attempt to scare the world into peace. In the Black Freighter, the lead character struggles to get home and save Davidstown after his ship is sunk by the infamous freighter. Instead he turns himself into a murderous monster when he accidently kills his wife and two other residents, believing them to be crew members from the Black Freighter. In the end he is welcomed into the rotting arms of the freighter’s hideous crew.
I think if inserted into the Director’s Cut of Watchmen these animated portions will be too jarring. The production quality of the animation is subpar for Warner Brother’s animated material, almost looking as poor as the Motion Comic chapter included with this release. If it had been live action, I think the comparison would have been more appropriate, between the “real” comic book world that the Watchmen exist in, and the “fake” comic book world of The Black Freighter.

Under the Hood presented an even more difficult adaptation. Other than directly filming the events described in the text of the autobiography there really isn’t any other way to convey the information. The solution arrived at was to make Under the Hood an interview television special with Hollis Mason, where the host discusses the actual book with him, and some other interviewees. The most enjoyable part of this production is seeing the vintage footage of the original Minutemen, whether its in their golden years of retirement, or in old newsreel or promotional material. It highlights the attention to detail Snyder and the rest of his crew had, and gives a bit more screen time to characters that were more fleshed out in the graphic novel.

If you plan on buying these films in any form, skip the Blu-ray edition. The production values of both films do no warrant High Definition in any form, and the cost is far too extreme for 66 minute runtime of the two films together. I recommend either renting this movie, or if you have the know how, buying it for only $4.99 on the US iTunes store as a digital version.

Today marks the beginning of a new type of post I’ll be trying to make on this blog. It is called “Running to the Movies” and will hopefully fulfill two purposes. Purpose one is to help me get through the large stacks of DVDs and Blu-ray movies that sit unwatched at my house. Purpose two is to get my lazy ass running on the elliptical and to keep track of time, steps, calories and weight. So without further ado, here is the first of hopefully many posts.

The Last Emperor (1987)
Director:
Bernardo Bertolucci
Starring:
John Lone, Wu Tao, Tijger Tsou, & Richard Vuu as Emperor Pu Yi
Peter O’Toole as Reginald Johnston

Movie Running Time: 165 Minutes (Theatrical Cut)
My Running Time: 150 Minutes
Elliptical Revolutions: 8500 approx.
Calories Burned: 1800 approx.
My Mass: 190 lbs 86.2 Kg

The Last Emperor covers the life of Pu Yi from the time of his gaining the title of Emperor at the age of 3, to his death at the age of 61. The movie deals with both his personal life and political life as Emperor of China, Emperor of Manchuckuo, and as a citizen of the People’s Republic of China. The acting in this film is astounding with Pu Yi being played extremely well by four separate actors bridging the length of his life, as well as a notable performance by Peter O’Toole as Reginald Johnston, an English tutor to the Emperor. This film falls into the category of Docu-Drama, but does not seem to add any unnecessary drama to an already exhilarating set of historical facts.

The edition of the movie I viewed was the Blu-ray edition produced by the Criterion Collection in 2008, which has the 165 minute theatrical cut of the film. It features a flawless director approved high definition transfer, which only adds brilliance to this being the first film allowed to film inside of the Forbidden City. One odd problem I encountered with this film has to do with the audio transfer, though I am unsure if it has to do with my particular home theater setup or the disc itself. While viewing the film I could max the volume on the television and still have difficult hearing portions of the audio track. Outside of the audio volume there was nothing I could possibly imagine complaining about with this edition put forth by the Criterion Collection. Special note should be made to the eco-friendly cardboard packaging used as opposed to the standard plastic cases found with most DVDs and Blu-ray discs.

As usual for a Criterion Collection presentation, the supplemental features set is extremely informative and entertaining. The provided documentaries help explain the background surrounding the history of China during this time period. Additional information is present in regards to the production of the film, which fulfills the unstated mission of the Criterion Collection to provide you not only with a thrilling feature, but also a mini Film School in a box.

For those who already know about and love the Criterion Collection, this movie is an instant buy with no additional thought needed. For those unfamiliar with the content, or the Criterion Collection, this epic film can be a bit daunting and may not warrant ownership or repeat viewing. I leave it up to you to make the best choice. For those who want more information, clicking on the image of the cover will take you to the Criterion Collection listing for this Blu-ray.

It took a very strange occurrence the other day for me to realize it was time to change the ringtone on my iPhone. (BTW I got an iPhone 3GS about a month ago, and I love it to death) While in the waiting room at Central Car Wash my iPhone rang, with the ever so familiar Marimba ringtone, and no less than 3 other people in the room all reached for the iPhones. Turns out that this is a good ringtone, and the most common one used. I got a kick out of this either way, as well as when someone else’s Glass text message notifier went off and all four of us reached for our iPhones in sync for a second time.
At first glance, it appears to be difficult to add a ringtone to your iPhone or iTunes, unless you are tech savvy enough to have some killer audio mixing software. After that the options slide to paying an additional $0.99 to have Apple make a ringtone for you. I decided to find something simple and free for making an iPhone ringtone, and that solution was Audiko. Turns out all you have to do is upload an audio file (AAC, MP3…) or link to a Youtube video. Once the track uploads you are given a very elegant visual editing bar. This bar provides playback options, and markers for maximum length for iPhone ringtones. Once you are done selecting your cut of the song you click through, add any needed track info, and then download the track to your computer. Double click the file, and it gets automatically added to iTunes under the Ringtones sidebar. Then next time you sync your iPhone your new ringtones are added instantly.
So far as I’ve read this site makes ringtones for other types of phones, but I do not know the full details of what formats. Check it out though, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

This week saw the loss of Ed McMahon, Farah Fawcett, and most recently Michael Jackson.
Michael Jackson’s passing marked the first time I’ve come across truly breaking news thanks to Twitter. The speed that news travels today is baffling, but goes to show that there really isn’t anything more horrible in the world these days, we just hear about all of it, and hear it faster.
On the passing of Michael Jackson I wish his family well, and stand firmly in my belief that all of the allegations against him in recent years were false. Regardless, nobody can argue that while at the height of his career he was, and will always remain the true King of Pop.
I encourage you to go out and do and remember him however you like, whether thats doing the Moonwalk in your room, or Thriller dancing with a group of friends.
We’ll miss you Michael. Love and best wishes to your family, and may you rest in peace.