Nobrainer’s Think Tank

On my way home, a black cat ran in front of my car. I’m sad to report that it survived unscathed.

I just ran across this:

“We hold this truth to be self-evident, that all campuses are not created equal, some are rowdy, some are modern, and some are knock-your-socks-off beautiful, the University of Virginia…is all three.” –Sports Illustrated

I don’t believe the statement to be true, so I’m not sure that SI ever published something that erroneous.

If that quote is properly attributed and is meant as some high level compliment, then Clemson is clearly in the upper echelon of universities. Or SI is just a worthless publication.

I have spent long amounts of time on two college campuses. UVA wouldn’t know rowdy if it was synonymous with straight A’s. Furthermore, any major lack of modernity (which is actually rampant) is attributed to tradition. The real perpetrator is of course cheapness and/or incompetence.

I won’t go out of my way to disparage UVA’s appearance. But there is no single sight on this campus that approaches any of the best dozen that Clemson has to offer.

But then again maybe I always hate my employer…

Update Feb. 11, 2006: I finally ran across a reference to the quote on the SI website. It shows up as a result in a search, but the story is special content and thus not accessible.

I should add that I still don’t think UVA is a rowdy school. It has its moments, but it’s not all that great.

The story is dated November 6, 2003. That is before basketball season kicks off, and is before football season is over. What does that 2003 schedule look like? The Hoos started off 4-1 with wins against powerhouses Duke, Wake Forest, UNC, Western Michigan and a loss to perennial uber-major-powerhouse South Carolina. Then they lost at Clemson, to FSU at home, beat Troy, and lost again at NC State on November 1st.

I guess the kids were rowdy during the FSU loss. Otherwise there obviously wasn’t much to be excited about.

In my world, football season is effectively over. I care for neither of the remaining teams. Although, through the relations of Clemson, I reckon that I prefer for the Eagles to win the Super Bowl.

At this point, however, I’m much more looking forward to the the start of the NASCAR Nextel Cup season. Whereas I have never played football, I have driven cars. Moreover, I have studied vehicle dynamics, and I can really relate to stock car racing.

The key points of this post are: neither the Patriots or the Eagles are worth rooting for, machines are cool, I’m still ready to enter NCAA tourney pools, and I hope against hope that Clemson can make it into the NIT.

Good night, and Cheers!

- nobrainer

A movie buff I am not. The differences between a great movie and a horrible one are often lost on me. I only know what I like.

Why should I write a script then? By my own admission, anything I wrote would likely be some concoction of all the movies I enjoy. Of course, that does not necessarily mean that the resulting movie would be bad. Are “Animal House”, “Old School”, “Van Wilder”, and “PCU” really all that different? To this blogger’s mind, they are not.

Of course, ripping off a successful movie isn’t always a guaranteed hit. There also seems to be a new trend to taking old plots and gags from movies with white characters and replacing them with a black cast. Combine those two aspects and you can end up with a really worthless screen production.

Consider 2004’s “Johnson Family Vacation”. You may remember the commercials, and I’ll wager you didn’t see the movie. It seems to be a rehashed form of “National Lampoon’s Vacation”. The new version features Cedric the Entertainer and Vanessa Williams as the Johnson Family drive cross country. Of course the family truckster is replaced by something with more bling. Anyone with a memory knew this movie was going to be crap as soon as the commercials featuring the same schtick that made the Lampoon’s version so good. Everyone else seems to agree as the current rating on IMDB is 3.5 stars out of 10.

The newest ripoff seems to “Are We There Yet?”, which the reviewers at CNN find lacking. Here the suitor of a single mother is stuck hauling her offspring on a long road trip. Of course numerous problems arise and hilarity is intended ensue. Does this sound familiar? It might not, because I reckon few people are familiar 1991’s flop, “Dutch” with Ed O’Neill (That’s right, the same Ed O’Neill who played NO MA’AM founder Al Bundy).

Now I actually enjoyed “Dutch”, but it wasn’t worth paying to see (thank you Cinemax). And the new ripoff movies may be worthwhile, too. However, since I no longer have cable movie channels, and I don’t relate too well the modern Afro-American family comedy, I doubt I will watch them.

Which brings me to my point. Why am I not successfully writing Hollywood type movies? (Please ignore the lame writing on my blog. It lacks the general “planning” and “revision” stages so often encouraged in written work.) It would appear that there’s a fairly simple equation to follow. Find a family comedy that is at least 10 years old. Note that the quality of said comedy is not a key element. Watch said comedy a few times. Watch 24 hours of BET. Add a few liters of hard, and/or malt liquor and a laptop computer. Lock yourself in an apartment for 48 hours and spew forth 90 pages the soon-to-be Hollywood bile script. Submit said script to movie-making honchos and await $10,000 payout.

Is Hollywood lacking in their supply of scripts? I seriously doubt it. Why then is such garbage made? At least when the RIAA drops a collective deuce the deluded public drops serious dough and falls in love with it. It seems that Hollywood has much to learn.

I’ve gotta say, that I have enjoyed some of Nickelback’s songs. I thought they were generally bland and definitely nothing revolutionary. Of course, I also thought when the lead singer recorded a song for some movie, that it sounded a whole like an older Seal song, which I think was also made for a movie.

Anyway, the folks at Webshite.net put together a comparison of 2001’s “How You Remind Me” and their 2003 effort “Someday.” I recommend using a pair of headphones, otherwise try to get as much stereo separation as possible.

This offers yet another example of the crap the music industry slings to the herd of consumers.

Thanks to Grooveswitch for the link.

I attended a seminar today sponsored by the folks in Biomedical Engineering. The presenter was describing his research in post-natal, ie. adult, stem cells.

The first point of interest was about embryonic stem cells. He noted a rarely reported detail about such stem cells. In experiments on mice, they became malignant. Apparently they can grow so well, that they may be too difficult to stop.

He’s more interested in the use of stem cells gathered from human adipose tissue (read: our own fat). His work was interesting, but far from being practicable. However, he envisions the medical community recommending lyposuction for people so that they can have stem cells on reserve should they ever need them. It seems that fat is one of the few tissues that is not only relatively easy to harvest, but patients are generally more than happy to be rid of it.

And here I thought that extracted human fat was only good for making soap - and dynamite (”Fight Club” reference, if you didn’t know).

The rest of the details were primarily lost on me my due to my lack of background in anything relating biology or medicine. Nonetheless, the free coffee and cookies were excellent.

If you feel the need to research this further, here’s the information I have:

Adam Katz, MD
Assistant Professor of Plastic Surgery
Director, Chronic Wound Care Clinic
University of Virginia