Co-Geeking

Rating: Castle Season 4

May 7, 2020April 26, 2020Erik4 Comments

Season 4 of Castle is mostly solid, with a mix of highs and lows. Here’s how we rated the episodes:

“Rise” – 2
“Heroes and Villains” – 9
“Head Case” – 6
“Kick the Ballistics” – 2
“Eye of the Beholder” – 6
“Demons” – 8.5
“Cops and Robbers” – 7.5
“Heartbreak Hotel” – 6
“Kill Shot” – 6
“Cuffed” – 5.5
“Till Death Do Us Part” – 6
“Dial M for Murder” – 5
“An Embarrassment of Bitches” – 6
“The Blue Butterfly” – 4
“Pandora” – 1.5
“Linchpin” – 1.5
“Once Upon a Crime” – 6
“A Dance with Death” – 5.5
“47 Seconds” – 5
“The Limey” – 3
“Headhunters” – 1.5
“Undead Again” – 8
“Always” – 0

The average for this season is 4.8, a bit of a comedown from season 3’s 5.9. Still, this season has a lot to offer. The average is dragged down by a bunch of boring hyped-up drama episodes, but this season still delivers the crime-solving comedy action we come to Castle for.

The bottom of the heap is the finale, “Always,” that we gave a complete 0. This episode is one more step in the long, drawn-out saga of Beckett’s mother and has absolutely nothing to appeal to us. A number of other episodes also hang out near the bottom of the pack, including “Headhunters,” at 1.5, which, despite reuniting Nathan Fillion with an over-the-top Adam Baldwin, spends too much time wallowing in the dysfunction of Castle and Beckett’s relationship. There’s also the bizarre two-parter “Pandora” and “Lincpin,” both at 1.5, which takes the Castle crew into a hard swerve from crime-solving into international intrigue. It’s not something this particular writing/production team does well.

At the top end, though, we have a good set of wacky cases-of-the-week, which are just what we want from Castle. The best is “Heroes and Villains,” at a 9, about do-it-yourself superheroes. Some of the other great episodes this season similarly dig into geeky subcultures, like ghost-hunting in “Demons” (8.5) and zombie LARP in “Undead Again” (8).

Along the way there’s also a good batch of episodes in the mediocre but perfectly serviceable 5-7 range. There’s a lot to like this season, even if there are several episodes well worth skipping.

Image: Beckett and Castle research superheroes, from “Heroes and Villains” via IMDb

In the Seen on Screen occasional feature, we discuss movies and television shows of interest.

Gandalf’s Staff-Top as Table Lamp

May 6, 2020May 3, 2020Eppu

This shall most definitely pass!

Marco at 3dartem on Etsy makes and sells 3d-printed table lamps featuring the top of Gandalf’s staff from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies.

If the power supply weren’t 220 V type L, I’d seriously consider buying one. It’s absolutely gorgeous!

(We have no connection, financial or otherwise, with Marco.)

Image by Marco at 3dartem on Etsy

In Making Stuff occasional feature, we share fun arts and crafts done by us and our fellow geeks and nerds.

Death Star Lamp Tutorials for Star Wars Day

May 4, 2020May 3, 2020Eppu

Happy Star Wars Day!

Have you heard of Ikea hackers? It’s a site for sharing projects modifying the DIY furniture store’s products. The hack below is both clever and timely: exploding Death Star ceiling lamp.

(Note: The Ikea hackers post I’m linking to has a few different options; I like Maria Krüger’s best, so the pictures are from her project.)

The hack starts with the PS 2014 lamp with copper insides. First it is spray-painted grey before details are applied. Maria Krüger masked in some stripes and used darker grey to paint most of the outer pattern.

Here’s a closeup of her Death Star:

And the finished lamp:

She’s also posted a short video of the lamp Death Star “exploding”:

Star Wars Death Star Lamp – IKEA PS 2014 Modification – Todesstern Lampe by Maria Krüger on YouTube

Isn’t it handsome? I’m not sure I’d have the patience. Or maybe I should say that I don’t care for the Death Star enough to go through the trouble and mess with paint. Now, if you have a fabric project, we might talk…! 🙂

Images by Maria Krüger via Ikea hackers

In Making Stuff occasional feature, we share fun arts and crafts done by us and our fellow geeks and nerds.

WoW Warrior Transmog Loosely Inspired by Ancient Greece

April 29, 2020October 15, 2022Eppu

Hanging around World of Warcraft and taking advantage of the Winds of Wisdom buff inevitably leads to new transmogs. Here’s my new female gnome arms warrior mog:

I was idly flipping through the various leg slot possibilities when I noticed that one of the plate legguards has this short skirt-like fold at the top. I was able to find a color-matched chestpiece to go with it, and noticed they vaguely reminded me of ancient Mediterranean garb. I then turned off the head, shoulder, cloak, wrist, glove, waist, and boot slots; in the end, the only pieces I mogged were chest, shirt, legs, and the weapon.

Awesome roar, right?!? LOL!

If interested, you can have a look at the set in Wowhead’s Dressing Room.

Image: World of Warcraft screencaps

Of Dice and Dragons is an occasional feature about games and gaming.

Happy Belated Birthday, Hubble!

April 28, 2020April 26, 2020Eppu

Oh my goodness, the Hubble telescope has turned 30 years!

More specifically, it’s been operating, up there in Earth orbit, for 30 years. It was projected to be in service only about 10 years when it launched on April 24, 1990, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Impressive.

What a Long Walk Does to Your Body

April 27, 2020April 5, 2020Erik

A lot of speculative stories involve characters going for very long walks, whether it’s carrying the One Ring to Mordor or keeping away from other tributes in the Hunger Games. If you’re feeling cooped up inside right now, you may well be imagining a new story in which your characters travel a long way through the wilderness on foot.

I’ve written before about some of the practical details of walking long distances (here), but you may also want to think about the effect a long walk has on the human body. Here is a very interesting article by Robert Moor from a few years back about how walking the Appalachian trail affected him.

The whole article is fascinating reading, but here are few noteworthy observations from Moor about the effects of strenuous walking.

Your body learns to recognize good and bad foods: “you begin to acutely feel the quality of the nutrition you are putting into your body.” You come to crave those that will give sustaining energy for hours of walking, while cheap highs of sugars and fats can come with a devastating crash afterward.
Many walkers loose weight, shedding fat and building muscle. The result is often that as walkers go on they can walk farther and farther distances.
The body’s adaptation to walking, though, makes it less adapted to other demanding activities. A simple swim in a lake left Moor and another hiker “blue-lipped from the water, clutching ourselves and shivering electrically.”

Enjoy your explorations. Even if you are stuck between four walls at the moment, the imagination knows no limits!

How It Happens is an occasional feature looking at the inner workings of various creative efforts.

Representation Chart: Star Wars, Prequels

April 23, 2020October 15, 2022Erik

We all know that the representation of people of different genders and races is imbalanced in popular media, but sometimes putting it into visual form can help make the imbalance clear. Here’s a chart of the Star Wars prequel movies (Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith).

Characters included

(Characters are listed in the first movie in which they qualify for inclusion under the rules given below.)

Episode I: The Phantom Menace: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jin, Anakin Skywalker, Palpatine, Chancelor Valorum, Padme Amidala, Shmi Skywalker, Captain Panaka, Mace Windu, Kitster
Episode II: Attack of the Clones: Captain Typho, Jango Fett, Boba Fett, Count Dooku, Cleigg Lars, Owen Lars, Bail Organa, Beru, Captain Typho, Dorme
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith: Commander Cody

Rules

In the interests of clarity, here’s the rules I’m following for who to include and where to place them:

I only count characters portrayed by an actor who appears in person on screen in more or less recognizable form (i.e. performances that are entirely CG, prosthetic, puppet, or voice do not count).
The judgment of which characters are significant enough to include is unavoidably subjective, but I generally include characters who have on-screen dialogue, who appear in more than one scene, and who are named on-screen (including nicknames, code names, etc.)
For human characters that can be reasonably clearly identified, I use the race and gender of the character.
For non-human characters or characters whose identity cannot be clearly determined, I use the race and gender of the actor.
I use four simplified categories for race and two for gender. Because human variety is much more complicated and diverse than this, there will inevitably be examples that don’t fit. I put such cases where they seem least inappropriate. “White” and “Black” are as conventionally defined in modern Western society. “Asian” means East, Central, or South Asian. “Indigenous” encompasses Native Americans, Polynesians, Indigenous Australians, and other indigenous peoples from around the world.
There are many ethnic and gender categories that are relevant to questions of representation that are not covered here. There are also other kinds of diversity that are equally important for representation that are not covered here. A schematic view like this can never be perfect, but it is a place to start.

Corrections and suggestions welcome.

Chart by Erik Jensen

In the Seen on Screen occasional feature, we discuss movies and television shows of interest.

New Find: Neanderthals Worked with Fibers to Make Yarn or Cord

April 22, 2020April 12, 2020Eppu4 Comments

The world’s oldest yarn or cord has been found. The fragment was discovered at the prehistoric cave site Abri du Maras in the south of France.

The 3-ply cord fragment was made from fibers by twisting, likely of inner conifer bark, and found on a stone tool. A number of artefacts at the same site also have plant / wood fibers adhering to their surfaces, but the remains are not extensive enough to classify as cords.

The researchers estimate the meaning of the find thus:

“While it is clear that the cord from Abri du Maras demonstrates Neanderthals’ ability to manufacture cordage, it hints at a much larger fibre technology. Once the production of a twisted, plied cord has been accomplished it is possible to manufacture bags, mats, nets, fabric, baskets, structures, snares, and even watercraft. […]

“Ropes and baskets are central to a large number of human activities. They facilitate the transport and storage of foodstuffs, aid in the design of complex tools (hafts, fishing, navigation) or objects (art, decoration). The technological and artistic applications of twisted fibre technologies are vast. Once adopted, fibre technology would have been indispensable and would have been a part of everyday life.”

Fascinating! Like the research team says, fiber making allows for an incredibly large variety of material culture, from utilitarian objects to clothing to decorative motifs. As a bit of a fiber nerd, it’s tantalizing to think that people were making yarn already 40,000 years ago.

Found via CNN. Read more in Scientific Reports.

Image: Hardy, B.L., Moncel, M., Kerfant, C. et al. in “Direct evidence of Neanderthal fibre technology and its cognitive and behavioral implications” via Scientific Reports

Teaching in a Pandemic 5: Online Teaching Leaves Me Feeling Drained

April 20, 2020April 19, 2020Erik1 Comment

(Read previous entries part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4)

Things are starting to get routine. My teaching day goes like this: I check my email for any messages from students and respond to individual questions and problems. If someone raises a question that I think others may be wondering about, I send out a general email to the whole class or to all my students. I try not to send more emails than necessary, because I know my students are already getting a lot of information from the administration, but sometimes important things need to be said or reiterated. I’ve been surprised by how many of my students have missed or misunderstood basic instructions about how to participate in online discussion for my classes, but I don’t hold it against them. We’re all struggling right now, and I have to be aware that just because I understand something doesn’t mean that my students do. My job is to give them the information they need, and if that means repeating the same information in different words four or five times, then I will.

Next I grade and comment on any assignments that have been submitted. Then I move on to the online discussions. Wherever there are new comments, I record who participated in the discussion so that I can give credit. To do this I have a sheet of paper, on the same model as the sheet I always use for taking attendance at the start of class, with rows for all my students’ names and columns for the different discussion topics. When a student makes a comment on a given topic, I make check mark in the corresponding box on my sheet. At the end of the semester I will put this sheet together with the attendance sheets from the first part of the spring and combine them to give participation grades.

Depending on the day, this process can take anything from an hour to the whole afternoon. When I have time to spare, I work on my current book project, which is getting close to being finished. This schedule is exhausting, but in an entirely different way than a day of in-class teaching is. After a good day in the classroom, I feel energized and alive. Even at the best, this online teaching just leaves me feeling drained.

I miss the spontaneity and verve of the classroom. I miss the way a good class takes on a life and spirit of its own. I miss the dumb jokes and pointless but entertaining tangents that help bind students and professor together. I miss the performance-art craft of leading a discussion so gently from my students’ own questions and ideas to the points I wanted to make that they feel like they got there on their own. I miss the wonder of seeing my students strike off in new directions and arrive at ideas I never expected them to come up with.

This is an emergency situation, and we all understand that this is how things have to be for now. My fear at the moment is that we will not be able to return to the classroom in the fall. I know that there are some professors who are amazing at online teaching, but I am not one of them. For all of us, the end of this spring semester has been a rickety tub held together with duct tape and twine. With a summer to prepare, I’m sure I could make my online teaching better in the fall if I have to, but I cannot be at my best for my students from the other side of a screen.

Image by Erik Jensen

How It Happens is an occasional feature looking at the inner workings of various creative efforts.

Folk Art Blooms in Zalipie in Southern Poland

April 15, 2020October 15, 2022Eppu

In the village of Zalipie in southern Poland, some blossoms never stop blooming: they’re painted. Not just on the walls inside or outside, but on ceilings, beams, stoves, sheds, dog houses, wells, buckets, paved ground, and bridges.

No one apparently knows exactly how the flower-painting tradition came to be. Common features of the origin stories involve covering up stains, or simply perking up the homes, or uplifting people’s mood following World War II.

Regardless of the custom’s origins, it’s a fascinating feature of village life. These kinds of details would make spec fic stories even more alive, wouldn’t you say?

Found via Good Stuff Happened Today on Tumblr. More photos e.g. via My Modern Met or your favorite search engine.

Images via Flickr: Cabin by magro_kr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Museum interior by mksfca (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Sweep well by magro_kr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Shed by Mariusz Cieszewski via Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (CC BY-ND 2.0). End of house by magro_kr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

Out There is an occasional feature highlighting intriguing art, spaces, places, phenomena, flora, and fauna.