This list is a bit late because I have been migrating the site to a newer, cheaper server. Hopefully this new server will be able to handle the crush of 12 people accessing my blog. This list also may includes books, movies, games, etc that didn’t actually come out in 2011. That is because I’m old and it takes me awhile to get around to things so just deal with it.
Best Novel: EasilyEast of Eden, Steinbeck’s grand tale spanning three generations. Absolutely loved the book and can’t recommend it enough to others.
Best History (or otherwise scholarly) book:Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, this massive tome delves deeply into the politics, military, and social history of the Civil War. A great starting place for anyone who wants to learn more. McPherson’s prose never bores but keeps you engaged through 800+ pages.
Best Comic: I read a lot of comics this year and enjoyed the majority of them. The ones I have been looking forward to the most though have been X-Men schism/regenesis storyline particularly Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine and the X-Men, and Uncanny X-Force.
Best Movie: Winter’s Bone. Yep I was about 8 months late on this one but still it was one of the best movies I saw this year, much better than The King’s Speech.
Best Movie (that I expected absolutely nothing from): Hall Pass. Hah! Seriously, I got this movie on Netflix and expected one or two funny jokes but it was hilarious and had one of the funniest/grossest laugh out loud moments of any movie I’ve seen for a long time.
Best TV Show: Damn there was a lot of good TV this year: Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Board Walk Empire, Louie, Modern Family, and I could go on and on. However, I think the show that I enjoy the most, can’t wait to watch every week, and am disappointed when the season ends is Justified. It’s easily one of the best/funnest shows on TV that literally no one watches or knows about.
Best Game: I slacked on the game playing this year but the most enjoyable game I played was Batman: Arkham City. GTA style Batman fun with tons of side missions and plenty of bad guy skulls to crush. Plus Mark Hamill reprises his role as the Joker. What’s not to like.
Best Album: This may be because I have been listening to it constantly for the last couple weeks but by far (and I admittedly didn’t listen to a ton of new music this year) my favorite album of the year is The Black Keys’ El Camino. The quality of their albums doesn’t seem to diminish with time or listens and it never seems like they release a lazy album. Pick it up.
Best Gadget: This is a tough one because I have picked up quite a few gadgets this year but I’m sticking with the latest one, my Kindle Fire. I absolutely love it. Full review coming soon but so far it’s fast becoming my go to gadget.
Next up my worst of list, because the only thing better than things you like are things you hate and get to trash.
Well this is it; the final list in my series on presidential nicknames. This one is reserved for the most badass nicknames. Not all of these presidents are military heroes (nor should they be), but they all have badass names for one reason or another. If you haven’t yet, you should read Part I and Part II first. Hopefully, this series has been as enjoyable for you to read as it was for me to write, and hopefully it has sparked in you some interest in history.
10. William Henry Harrison
Nicknames: “General Mum”, “Tippecanoe”, and “Washington of the West”.
Anytime that you get compared to George Washington you have to be doing something right. A tip of the ol’ cap to Harrison.
10. John Quincy Adams
Nicknames: “Old Man Eloquence” and “The Abolitionist”.
John Quincy Adams although alive during the founding era is not one of the founders. His time came a bit later. The scion of “His Rotundity” proved to have great eloquence and also character. He was an outspoken supporter of abolition in a time when it wasn’t exactly popular. Also for bonus points and real badassitude, legend has it that Adams didn’t take the oath of office on a Bible, but on a book of laws. Now that’s badass.
8. William Jefferson Clinton
Nicknames: “Bubba”, “The Comeback Kid”, “The First Black President”, “Slick Willie”, and “Teflon Bill”.
Slick Willie for somehow weaseling out of every single scandal that he was involved in and the Comeback Kid for some how always rehabilitating his image after said scandals. Aside from Nixon, Clinton probably is one of the most resilient presidents ever. Every year his presidency (and thereby himself), despite the scandals, looks better and better.
7. Theodore Roosevelt
Nicknames: “The Cyclone Assemblyman”, “The Hero of San Juan Hill”, “The Lion”, “Old Four Eyes”, “Theodore the Meddler”, “Teddy”, “TR”, “The Trust Buster”, and “Teedie”.
The Lion and The Hero of San Juan Hill are pretty fierce names for a dude with glasses thicker than Professor Farnsworth’s. Oh yeh and he was a weak, sickly kid with asthma who learned boxing and started a fitness regime to overcome his weakness. On top of that believed in the conservation of our natural resources and helped protect millions or acres of wildlife. He also didn’t let himself get punked by a bunch of plutocrats. Trust Buster indeed. On top of all of this he is the inspiration for the Teddy Bear, Bam! Bonus points for being the first president to go by his initials.
It’s time for round two of presidential nicknames. This time we move on to the funniest, most ironic (hence the hipster edition) nicknames. So these nicknames will be funny, or ironic, or both. Huzzah! If you haven’t done so yet read Part I.
10. Chester Alan Arthur
Nicknames: “Chet”, “Gentleman Boss”, “Prince Arthur”, “The Dude President”, and “Walrus”
The Dude President. I have a sneaking suspicion that Arty wasn’t really elected president. Instead it was one Chester Alan Arthur of Ohio. However, our Chester A. Arthur, from California, preferred drinking white russians whilst bowling. Unfortunately, he spent his entire presidency trying to get a new rug from the English PM after a couple of limey thugs peed on his (if you don’t get any of these references punch yourself in the face now). Also did anyone ever call him Chester the Molester? I dunno but that definitely would’ve made for a great attack ad.
9. John Adams
Nicknames: “The Colossus of Independence”, “The Duke of Braintree”, “King John the Second”, “Old Sink or Swim”, and “His Rotundity”.
Here we have one of the founders who accomplished a lot to bring America into being. He was also the second President of the United States, but he also spent more time on vacation on his farm in Quincy than actually presidenting. He spent more time on vacation than George W. Bush (and that’s saying something) Perhaps we should add “His Vationness” or “Vacation-in-Chief”. Of course Adams was also a colossal cock who rubbed everyone the wrong way (his own party didn’t even want to endorse him for a second term). Adams also was particularly fond of seemingly British titles and procedures, hence all the Dukes, Kings etc. in his nicknames, despite the fact that the US had just fought a war to get rid of a lot of that shit. He is a complete contradiction. Oh yah and he was fat. His Rotundity is one of my favorite nicknames ever.
8. Thomas Jefferson
Nicknames: “The Apostle of Democracy”, “The Man of the People”, “Mad Tom”, “The Negro President”, and “The Sage of Monticello”.
Jefferson the first President elected because of the three-fifths compromise hence The Negro President. Jefferson helped his own cause by fathering a horde of half black kids. Jefferson begins a string of presidents from the south (not all in a row) who get elected primarily because of slavery. The only reason he could be a sage was because he didn’t have to work. He had plenty of time to think and contemplate philosophy whilst his slaves did all his work. One of the few things that Jefferson ever let get in the way of all of his sageing was all the slave banging he did.
While reading Battle Cry of Freedom McPherson, at times, uses the nicknames of presidents. When I read a couple of these immediately a dim light bulb went off in my head and I thought “I should write a post about presidential nicknames”. Because I’m too lazy to do the research I am going to use this list from Wikipedia as my source, but because I am excited about the prospects of this post I have decided to turn it into a trilogy of posts (Huzzah!!). We have had 44 presidents so I figure I will keep the lists to 10 name plus some (dis)honorable mentions, which should pretty much take care of all the interesting ones. The rules for this exercise are fairly fluid but the main one is no president will be on two lists. If they have a good one and a bad one I will pick which ever I like the best or worst and go with that one. This list will be of worst presidential nicknames, with worst being defined in two ways. Either boring uninspiring names for boring uninspiring presidents or bad nicknames for presidents who should have fared better. Here now is my subjective list of the worst presidential nicknames:
10. Warren Gamaliel Harding
Nickname: “Wobbling Warren”
Not a name that helps inspire confidence.
9. John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Nicknames: “JFK”, “Jack”, and “The King of Camelot”
For all the bluster about the Kennedy years and how wonderful they were and how much JFK inspired the nation these are some pretty weak nicknames. And the whole Camelot meme is seriously worn out, especially as time drags on.
8. Andrew Johnson
Nickname: “The Tennessee Tailor”
Profession + State = boring and uninspiring. Johnson was the first President to be impeached. So hows about “Commander Impeach”.
7. Franklin Pierce
Nicknames: “The Fainting General”, “Young Hickory of the Granite Hills”, and “Handsome Frank”
There are many, many (you could say a plethora or myriad) attributes you would like your General or President to have. Fainting is not one of them. I see the situation playing out like this:
“General the enemy is coming.”
“OOOOH the enemy is coming!”
“General?!? General?!? Shit he fainted again. Sound the attack and carry the Generaless to her tent.”
Also I would say that “Handsome Frank” was probably a sarcastic nickname.
It’s been around 24 hours since I have seen Avatar. I have let it percolate in my head and I have also had the chance to to hash out some of my thoughts with fellow geeks. What follows will be spoiler heavy so if you haven’t seen it yet and don’t wish to know anything then stop reading.
First I’ll start with my gripes.
One of the biggest annoyances in the movie was the lack of any character development for the villains. They were all just evil dudes who were bent on destruction no matter the cost. In the case of Col. Quaritch he was just a Marine that was hell bent on kicking ass and killing whomever, or whatever, was in his way. Understandable but he was like a person devoid of any human emotions who seemed to hate the Na’Vi for no apparent reason. If he was the only person in the movie like that I would let it slide. However, virtually all the Marines (except for two) in the movie were also one-dimensional characters devoid of any moral compass or any semblance of a human emotion. I find it hard to believe that out of the thousands of people there 99.9% of them were completely on board with massacreing the aliens just because they wanted to get some unobtainium (stupid name btw). Besides I don’t think there is a need for anymore stereotyping of Marines as crazy, evil whack-a-doos. There was just too much black and white in the movie, and rarely were there any shades of grey–morally speaking.
Secondly, I get the whole allusions to slavery and the plight of the American Indians, but it was a bit much. Actually it wasn’t even an allusion it was pretty much a straight up comparison to the westward expansion of the United States. The unobtainium is gold, and the Marines are the evil frontiersman who murdered and pillaged their way across the west. Now is not the time for a moral or historical debate about that time period. What bugged me was the ham-fisted attempt to wed that time period with the modern one. Throwing in phrases like “shock and awe” and “fight terror with terror” took me out of the movie momentarily. I get it you’re against the Iraq War, slavery, and westward expansion. Good to know, but unfortunately it was all shoe-horned into the story. Plus there are other movies that have done a better job with those themes–namely Return of the Jedi. The ending of both movies is basically the same. The peace loving simple people defeat the technologically superior, but moralistically inferior people–except in Avatar there is the added element of a Deity that interjects and helps out.
Ok now you may think that with all that griping and complaining that I hated the movie, but if you thought that you’d be wrong. Watching this movie I got the same feeling I got when I watched Jurassic Park, Star Wars, or Terminator 2. This movie is a game-changer. All the work that was done by ILM over the years in creating digital sets and characters was put to spectacular use in Avatar. The interaction movie is virtually seamless in blending all the real with the digital. Watching this movie totally blew my mind. (And despite my gripes with the story, the story was actually pretty good. There is a decent and simple plot line to follow, there’s a bit of a love story, and there are some moral themes that could have been powerful if I wasn’t beaten over the head with them.) The 3D was great because it wasn’t a gimmick. The characters weren’t breaking the fourth wall trying to engage the audience. There wasn’t an overabundance of spears, vehicles, or whatever coming directly at the camera. Instead the 3D was used as a way to create a more immersive environment. Pandora felt more real. There was more depth to the world, and this helped to draw you in. This is how these technologies were meant to be used. I finish by restating what I’ve already said. The movie is a game changer, and it must be seen in 3D. This movie should become a blueprint for how 3D and CGI should be used to create new immersive worlds. If it does and other directors keep improving it then there should be a lot of exciting movies in the future. It’ll be amazing to see where this all leads too. So if I was going to give this movie a grade I would say it’s a solid 95%, so go see it now.
I have consistently been a late adopter of technology. The last time I jumped on the techno band wagon from the get go was when I bought an mp3 player back before there was such a thing as an iPod (it was the equivalent of the Zack Morris cell phone). Needless to say I got burned and I learned my lesson. Since that time I have always waited and waited for new technology to go through a few iterations before I buy it. Last Friday I decided to finally jump on the iPhone band wagon, and although I wish I would have done it sooner I am glad that I waited for them to work out some of the bugs.
Anyways I have been trolling the app store looking for good apps and wanted to promote one of my favorite apps so far. The app is from BeamItDown Software and it is a collection of 150 Great Books (and counting). Usually I feel the same way about digital books as I do about new technology, I really don’t like it. There’s really nothing that can beat reading a real book, as opposed to the digital incarnation, but the price was right so I figured what the hell I’ll give it a try. Up until this point I have only really read research papers and the like in digital form, and those usually don’t exceed fifty pages or so, but even those few pages are taxing on my eyes. Now with all my complaining and griping about digital books you might be asking “well I thought you liked this app?” I do but I just had to get some minor complaints out of the way first.
Lately I have been packing–in preparation for my imminent move to somewhere, don’t know where just yet–and I filled up two twenty gallon plastic storage containers with my books. And when I went to move them into the other room I almost gave myself a hernia. Seriously books are fucking heavy and annoying to move. I had forgotten about that. So until the time comes where I settle down and have a room dedicated as my library I think I am going to calm down on buying books. Secondly, I went to do my laundry the other day and usually along with my colossal bag of dirty laundry, detergent, softener, and bounce sheets, I usually take my phone, iPod, and a book to read. Now instead I just grabbed my bag of laundry and my iPhone and I was off listening to my music during the long trek to the laundromat, and once there I dove into A Tale of Two Cities, which is a book I have been meaning to read for years. Despite my aversion to digital books I really enjoyed it and so far I haven’t really felt that I am missing that much by reading it off of my phone. Actually it’s pretty damn great, and bonus because there are so many choices of books to read I will never be without a book. And besides it’s much better than carrying my satchel (it’s not a man purse it’s a satchel) into the city filled with books and what not.
By the way the app is now 50% off and is only $4.99–which when added to the price of a new iPhone is cheaper than the Kindle, and the Kindle doesn’t play music or make phone calls (suck on that amazon). That $4.99 price tag is also cheaper than buying even one of the books on the list. Speaking of the list here are some of the highlights of what books are included on the app: a collection of Dickens, Twain, Doyle, Dumas, Hardy, London, Poe, and Wells. Oh but wait there’s more it also includes political tracts from Hamilton, Locke, Marx, Milton, Paine, and Plato. And there is a ton of other stuff including Epic Poetry, regular poetry, and fables. There is really a grip of worthwhile books on the list just begging to be read, and hey did I mention it’s really a phenomenal deal. The app itself works smoothly and saves where you left off in every book that you are reading. Instead of simulating a book and page turns this app works like a “teleprompter” which makes it easier to read. You can set it to move automatically so that you don’t have to touch the screen and can just keep reading. Personally I hate the mode because I either feel that I am being rushed or that it’s moving too slow–I haven’t found the “just right” speed yet–and besides I like to read well written passages over and over again so I can fully appreciate them. So I’d rather move the script on my own, but the option is there which is nice.
However, there are a couple add-ons I would like to see. One is a way to highlight, mark, or dog-ear certain passages. I have the tendency to write notes and bracket particularly good passages, but the ability to write notes is probably asking for a bit much so I would settle for a way to just highlight passages for reference later on. Secondly, I would like some kind of page reference that lets me know the approximate page number that I am currently reading. One of the benefits of reading books is noting the progress you make each time you sit down and read for a few hours, and that is really lost on this format. Other than those minor gripes the app is the tops and well worth the money. I don’t think I’ll ever go completely digital but being able to have so many good books on hand at all times is priceless (cliche I know, but also true).
Today I drug myself to my computer to begin the process of writing more cover letters and to scour the internet for more jobs. It never happened though because I made myself a pot of coffee and turned on the TV and as I was searching around I saw that G4 was having their E3 coverage. Some days it is down right fantastic to be a nerd and today was one of those days. I spent the better part of the day watching Microsoft’s XBOX 360 E3 presentation. It was two hours chalk full of surprises that whetted my appetite for the fall releases. So for those of you that are gainfully employed here are some of my favorites (in no particular order).
The Beatles Rock Band–even though I generally suck at Rock Band I will think about getting this game just because it looks great and I love The Beatles. Besides how cool would it be to play Drive My Car in Shea Stadium in front of 50,000 screaming fans?
Modern Warfare 2–the first Modern Warfare was awesome and I didn’t even explore the multi-player features, a mistake I won’t make again. It looks like Infinity Ward upped the ante on this version and the level displayed at E3 looked great–especially when you get to drive and fight on a snowmobile, which had a Bond feel to it. The 360 version will also have two exclusive map packs.
Halo: ODST–Bungie is one of those developers that I will pretty much buy anything they make because they are one of the best out there. The fact that this is a new Halo game, which plays differently than previous incarnations, and you can count me hyped and excited to play this game. Also Bungie teased a prequel to the Halo series entitled Halo: Reach.
So I have been hard at work on my paper this entire weekend. Actually, I was supposed to be working on this paper all weekend. However, instead of doing actual work I have been procrastinating, well, like it’s my job. So Sunday I turned on my XBOX 360 so I could listen to some music whilst writing, but before I started playing my writing music, I started looking at some of the new arcade games. One game in particular caught my eye, The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai (and also check the developers blog). I decided to check out the demo, and damn I was hooked with a quickness. Although $10 can be a steep price for a broke ass student like myself I didn’t think twice about buying it. This game is amazing and I spent the better part of my Sunday afternoon furiously killing some fools.
The game is about some dude who washes dishes–amazingly I don’t think he is Mexican haha–who dies or something and somehow lives and wants revenge. Someone also kidnaps his sister and he needs to save her. The cut scenes are done as comic strips and the whole style of the game is very comic booky. The game does a very good job of feeling like a comic book come to life. Each level feels like individual frames of a comic book that you are slowly progressing through. Obviously this is all part of the design, but the fact that it comes through so clearly, and works so well, speaks highly of the designer not dropping the ball on his vision. The actual gameplay though is kick ass and the closest approximation for it is Ninja Gaiden. If you like Ninja Gaiden you’re going to like this game. If you like the action of Ninja Gaiden, but your fingers aren’t nimble enough to hit the combos (coughneverbesocialcough), you will most likely enjoy this game. It has all the cool action without the mind-numbing and finger contorting combos of Ninja Gaiden (although if you play for long enough your hands will cramp up like the caretakers). Oh yah by the way did I mention that there are zombie in the game? No? Well there are, so bonus points for the zombie slayage, and you even get a chainsaw in the game to slash those zombies back to hell. Also of note there are sweet executions that you can perform to finish off your enemies. One of my favs is when the Dishwasher grabs the psuedo-FBI agents gun and uses it to splatter said agents brains onto the wall.
I have consistently been a late adopter of technology. The last time I jumped on the techno band wagon from the get go was when I bought an mp3 player back before there was such a thing as an iPod (it was the equivalent of the Zack Morris cell phone). Needless to say I got burned and I learned my lesson. Since that time I have always waited and waited for new technology to go through a few iterations before I buy it. Last Friday I decided to finally jump on the iPhone band wagon, and although I wish I would have done it sooner I am glad that I waited for them to work out some of the bugs.