Monthly Archives: February 2006

Candy or nutrients?

A common reaction to a child reading comics is that comics rot your brains. They’re not real books, as they’re just pictures, with a handful of words in word balloons.

Let’s examine a recent series of comics from an educational perspective. There was a recent major crossover in the Marvel Universe entitled, Spider-Man: The Other. It covered 12 issues, or approximately 280 pages. 4 of the 12 were marked All Ages, and the other 8 Teens + (Brief summary: Spider-Man was killed, came back to life, and has gained some cool new powers.)

I catalogued all the scientific references, cultural references, and vocabulary words I could find, looking at it from the perspective of a young teenager. It’s been a few years since I was that age so I may have misjudged.

Scientific References

Cellular degeneration
Blue dye canisters
Human genome
Code blue
Stabilizing patients
Arterial tear
Upper vena cava
Intracranial bleeding
Duodenal ulcer
Colonoscopy
Types of spiders: Cannibal, Pirate, Katipa, Redback, Recluse, Orbweaver
Spiders carry young on their backs
Microprocessor
Chronal displacement

Cultural References

“To everything there is a season. A time to live. A time to die”
Anansi, the spider god
Indiana Jones
Gregor Samsa turning into a cockroach
Leonardo Da Vinci
Vitruvian man
Eddie Haskell
Survivor’s guilt
Sing out Louise
Troma movie
Man of La Mancha / Don Quixote / Aldonza
Tom Cruise / Color of Money
Steinbrenner / Yankees
Ivana Trump
“Queer eye for the dictatorial guy”
Back to the Future
Coup Contra Coup
“Lucy, I’m home!”
Magic Eight Ball
Presidential pardon
Groucho Marx not wanting to belong to any club who would have him as a member
Steven Seagal ponytail
“Though I walk through the valley of death…”
Igor/Frankenstein
Martha Stewart
Helen Keller
The Fly

Vocabulary

Mercurial
Tai Chi
Matzoh
HMO
Cathartic
Anomalous
How many of you can say you know all of the above without looking them up? If a child’s been properly trained to look stuff up if they come across something they don’t understand, look at everything they’d have learned from just those 12 comic books.

Schizoid

Ok. I’ve gone to a slightly more standard theme, but one with a really froody name.
However, I also installed a plugin called theme-switcher, for those who might like to try other designs. I have three choices right now; that will probably grow.

Wilton Hilton

Want to see the trailer for the pilot of a potentially upcoming television show?

I can vouch for the acting talents of two of the stars. Those of you who have been following my blog for awhile know I have a cousin in Hollywood who starred in a short that made the tour of many film festivals last year. (Sundance, St. Louis, Dubai) Well, he has a younger brother, who spent the past year in London furthering his education. And they star in this pilot as (I know, this is a stretch) brothers.

I can’t vouch for the writing ability of the two who co-wrote the pilot. I’d like to. But I just haven’t ever seen anything they’ve written. If genetics means anything, then they’ll turn out to be excellent writers too. But since I suck at acting, there might not be much to this genetics thing. Of course, a good actor can overcome a bad script.

And if they need any help writing future episodes, they can always call their cousin in the Midwest…

I like your font

I’m curious what people think about the somewhat unusual design of this blog.

Regarding the font, I didn’t create the template, but I did modify the stylesheet somewhat. Specifically, if you were viewing it on a Mac, everything was in a cool cursive font. And while it remains cool for headers and footers and the like…the posts were very difficult to read. I loved the concept of a template designed for best viewing on a Mac…but I didn’t agree with the designer on the importance of readability.

The font is called Zapfino. If you own a PC, and your PC doesn’t already have the font, you could buy it from linotype.com. (How do you know? If the titles of these posts aren’t in a cursive script, you don’t have it.)

However, I’m going to look into the concept of server-side fonts so that I can make this look uniform regardless of your OS, and still make it look cool. If I get it to work, I won’t be using Zapfino, as my host’s server is not a Mac, so I’d have too buy a copy, and I’m not that in love with it.

note: yes, i am aware the default font should be changed (probably to arial). I am also aware a few of the links are a little small on some browsers. that can be fixed. the one pc issue that might be difficult to fix are the ugly gray bars. the graphics run smoothly together on a mac.

It’s time

I’m sick of Blogger.

For new entries: go here.

Hopefully we won’t run into the same spam problems I had with Movable Type. All of my old Movable Type archives are at the new place.

I was unable to import any of these Blogger entries prior to December of 2005. Not sure why. I will continue to work on it. As long as they aren’t at the new place, this blog will be kept for the archives.

And I will once again have categories.

It’s time

I’m sick of Blogger.

For new entries: go here.

Hopefully we won’t run into the same spam problems I had with Movable Type. All of my old Movable Type archives are at the new place.

I was unable to import any of these Blogger entries prior to December of 2005. Not sure why. I will continue to work on it. As long as they aren’t at the new place, this blog will be kept for the archives.

And I will once again have categories.

Howard Nemerov quotations

One-time US Poet Laureate, and a St. Louisan, late poet Howard Nemerov is one of my inspirations. Here are a few quotes attributed to him:”Nothing in the universe can travel at the speed of light, they say, forgetful of the shadow’s speed.”

“Religion and science both profess peace (and the sincerity of the professors is not being doubted), but each always turns out to have a dominant part in any war that is going or contemplated.”

“The only way out is the way through, just as you cannot escape from death except by dying. Being unable to write, you must examine in writing this being unable, which becomes for the present – henceforth? – the subject to which you are condemned.”

“I’ve never read a political poem that’s accomplished anything. Poetry makes things happen, but rarely what the poet wants.”