Teacherman

Teaching confuses me. I’ve been a Sunday School teacher since Marchish, so reckon I’ve taught the class six or seven times. But I’m not at all convinced I’m getting any better.

Some things are certainly improving. I started my first lesson with 5 pages of notes. I have yet to get much beyond 2, so have cut back to 2. This has yet to backfire on me, though if it does the worst case scenario is finishing class early, and who would complain about that. So I’m preparing less, if that could be considered progress.

But are my lessons better? I have a problem in that I don’t like to follow what the manual tells me to do. I nearly always find the exercises it suggests annoying, so don’t do them. Why put the class through something I wouldn’t want to do? The manual also suggests reading long sections of scripture, which I find exceedingly tedious. You know that half the class can’t hear the person reading, that nearly half of them zone out immediately, and that the person reading isn’t even paying attention to content, just pronunciation. So that’s not a worthwhile activity for any extended period. And I do my best to not reteach primary. If we’re going to go through the stages of repentance, we’re going through them in under 30 seconds. So following the manual is pretty well out of the picture.

Lest it sound that I’m disregarding the lesson itself, I don’t think I am. If the lesson is about the afterlife, as it was this week, I want to talk about it in a way that’s new to the class. My mind is twisted enough that I should have a new way to look at resurrection for ten minutes. And maybe they’ll never use my analogies but at least I’ve not hammering the same old thing into their heads. And maybe they’ll disagree with my personal take on the subject, but that can bring some debate.

My problem is that my lessons, with no template on which to build them, seem vastly different each time. And I can’t tell which type are the best. I like to bring in nonreligious quotes and stories, but these seem very hit or miss. Personal stories usually keep attention well, but more often then not I don’t have anything particularly relevant. Some weeks I feel like I use too many scriptures, other weeks too few. Games and exercises are great when the work, but they almost always seem contrived.

This week seemed good, but I’m not sure why. Two times ago there was a deafening amount of silence, and I haven’t the slightest idea what I did differently. Candy helps. That’s really all I’ve figured out.

Cat . . . ladies

I was asked today why there are crazy cat ladies, but not crazy dog ladies. Here are some thoughts:

-The strongest connection between animal hoarding and mental illness is OCD. Hoarding in general is common with OCD and animal hoarding can both serve as an obsession and a compulsion.
-They frequently are delusional, so don’t realize they are incapable of caring for all their pets. This really throws out any logical reasons as to why they’d collect cats (they are easier to keep indoors, are quieter so easier to keep hidden, somewhat easier to provide with food.)
-They often have attachment disorder (overly fond of their pets) and paranoid/antisocial disorder (dislike of people) which may be more conducive to keeping cats than keeping dogs.
-Men more often collect dogs, women collect cats. I would guess there is no dog-man stereotype because dog collecting men would more often be homeless or in jail (two large repositories of mentally ill men.)
-Animal hoarding may be connected to a mothering instinct. So there would be more cat ladies than dog men.
- If they’re schizophrenic they could be having auditory hallucinations and cat’s are quieter.
- If they’re paranoid cats are generally less threatening. There is no cat equivalent to Kujo. And we all know that cats are horrible team players so they can’t gang up on you.

This article was way interesting: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/magazine/09_10_catcoat.html?_r=2&ref=magazine&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
They become cat ladies because a parasite makes them like cats. Awesome. Probably not true, but awesome.

Chris Emmys

In a perfect world, these are who should win the Emmys. Emmies? I don’t know how to pluralize that. And in a perfect world lots of these shows wouldn’t have been nominated. Sorry for the all-caps, I’m copasting it. I just made up that word, but it’s not that much shorter than copy/pasting, so it probably won’t stick. But anyway, here we go.

OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES
30 ROCK
CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM
ENTOURAGE
THE OFFICE
TWO AND A HALF MEN

Winner: Two and a Half Men. Kidding. That show is horrible and the committee must be a little bit brain dead. And as much as I love 30 Rock (and I do) I’d also prefer if the previous year’s winner wasn’t a contender. But I’ll still pick 30 Rock. Flight of the Conchords or It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia would be better choices.

OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES
BOSTON LEGAL
DAMAGES
DEXTER
HOUSE
LOST
MAD MEN

Winner: this one’s really hard. The first season of Dexter was fantastic, the second was only good. This season of House was also not as strong as previous efforts. So while I love those two shows, Lost wins. Lost was excellent this year. I would’ve liked to see Battlestar Galactica or The Wire on this list.

OUTSTANDING REALITY TV PROGRAM
AMERICAN IDOL
DANCING WITH THE STARS
PROJECT RUNWAY
THE AMAZING RACE
TOP CHEF

I really dislike reality tv. Pretty much all of it. But I do find Project Runway interesting. It’s pretty inexplicable. Perhaps Heidi’s mere presence is enough to get me to watch.

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Alec Baldwin - 30 ROCK
Tony Shalhoub - MONK
Lee Pace - PUSHING DAISIES
Steve Carell - THE OFFICE
Charlie Sheen - TWO AND A HALF MEN

Winner: Alec Baldwin. Steve Carell does an amazing job, but Alec is just a bit better. Steve gets the laughs because of the situations he’s placed in and his excellently buffoonish dialogue. Alec makes me laugh just saying normal things in moderately normal situations. Jemaine might’ve taken my vote away from Alec, but I’m not sure if even he can stand up.

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Tina Fey - 30 ROCK
Christina Applegate - SAMANTHA WHO?
Julia Louis-Dreyfus - NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE
America Ferrera - UGLY BETTY
Mary-Louise Parker – WEEDS

Winner: Tina Fey. Honestly, Tina Fey, though on My Island, probably isn’t the best actress on this list. But I don’t watch any of the other shows, so she wins by default. Sweet Dee from Always Sunny does a great job.

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
James Spader - BOSTON LEGAL
Bryan Cranston - BREAKING BAD
Michael C. Hall - DEXTER
Hugh Laurie - HOUSE
Gabriel Byrne - IN TREATMENT
John Hamm - MAD MEN

Winner: Another tough one. I hear that Breaking Bad and Mad Men are excellent, but I haven’t gotten around to seeing them. So it’s the near godlike Hugh Laurie versus the newcomer Michael C. Hall. I like Hugh more, but I’d rather have Michael win so his show gets some more props. House doesn’t need more of a following.

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Sally Field - BROTHERS & SISTERS
Glenn Close - DAMAGES
Mariska Hargitay - LAW & ORDER SVU
Holly Hunter - SAVING GRACE
Kyra Sedgwick - THE CLOSER

Winner: Mariska Hargitay. She rocks my friends. If I had more time and wanted to hear more about rape cases I’d watch SVU a lot more.

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Jeremy Piven - ENTOURAGE
Kevin Dillon - ENTOURAGE
Neil Patrick Harris - HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
Rainn Wilson - THE OFFICE
Jon Cryer - TWO AND A HALF MEN

Winner: Neil Patrick Harris all day long. He does a fantastic job. I like Jeremy Piven and Rainn Wilson as well, but they just can’t touch Barney.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Kristin Chenoweth - PUSHING DAISIES
Jean Smart - SAMANTHA WHO?
Amy Poehler - SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE
Holland Taylor - TWO AND A HALF MEN
Vanessa Williams - UGLY BETTY

Winner: Kristen Chenoweth. My sweet Olive. I like Amy Poehler a lot, but more with her improve work (Check out Upright Citizens Brigade.)

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
William Shatner - BOSTON LEGAL
Ted Danson - DAMAGES
Zeljko Ivanek - DAMAGES
Michael Emerson - LOST
John Slattery - MAD MEN

Winner: Michael Emerson. Ben Linus rocks in most every way possible. I’d watch a show of just him stuck on an island. I’d love to see most any of the actors from Battlestar on this list, but especially James Callis (Baltar.)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Candice Bergen - BOSTON LEGAL
Rachel Griffiths - BROTHERS & SISTERS
Chandra Wilson - GREY’S ANATOMY
Sandra Oh - GREY’S ANATOMY
Dianne Wiest - IN TREATMENT

Winner: no vote. I haven’t seen much of any of these shows. But I am moderately embarrassed to admit that I’ve seen 2 episodes of Brothers and Sisters and enjoyed them both. Whichever character Rachel Griffiths plays, I’m sure she does a good job.

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A COMEDY
30 ROCK - Jack Burditt (”Rosemary’s Baby”)
30 ROCK - Tina Fey (”Cooter”)
FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS - James Bobin, Jemaine Clement, Bret McKenzie (”Yoko”)
PUSHING DAISIES - Bryan Fuller (”Pie-lette”)
THE OFFICE - Lee Eisenberg, Gene Stupnitsky (”Dinner Party”)

Hard. I’ll give it to the Conchords just because they’re awesome. But Daisies has strong writing, and those are good episodes of 30 Rock and Office. Especially Cooter, which was amazing.

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A DRAMA
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA - Michael Angeli (”Six of One”)
DAMAGES - Todd Kessler, Glenn Kesller, Daniel Zelman (”Pilot”)
MAD MEN - Matthew Weiner (”Pilot”)
MAD MEN - Matthew Weiner, Robin Veith (”The Wheel”)
THE WIRE - David Simon, Ed Burns (”30″)

Winner: Battlestar. A very very close second to The Wire. I didn’t love this last season of The Wire (nor was this season of Battlestar as excellent as normal) but on an episode v episode fight, BG wins this one.

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A COMEDY
30 ROCK - Michael Engler
ENTOURAGE - Dan Attias
FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS - James Bobin
PUSHING DAISIES - Barry Sonnenfeld
THE OFFICE - Paul Lieberstein
THE OFFICE - Paul Feig

Winner: Pushing Daisies. All fantastic shows, but I think Daisies has the best directing.
OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A DRAMA
BOSTON LEGAL - Arlene Sanford
BREAKING BAD - Vince Gilligan
DAMAGES - Allen Coulter
HOUSE - Greg Yaitanes
MAD MEN - Alan Taylor

Winner: House by default. I actually think House’s directing could use some work, but the quality of the show is excellent overall.

Other categories –

Best guest actor – Will Arnett does an amazing job on 30 Rock.
Best guest actress - Sarah Silverman on Monk. I didn’t see it, but I’m guess it was great.
Reality series – I hate most of these shows, but Dirty Jobs is alright.
Variety show – Conchords gets shut out here too. Jerks. I’ll go with the Daily Show. I like Colbert as well, but I think the Daily Show is more reliable.
Miniseries – John Adams was very good.
Actor in Miniseries – I loved Tom Wilkinson in Recount. Kevin Spacey probably deserves it more (he was a more bigger character, and did it well) but I like Tom more, and he drank Dr. Pepper throughout the show.

Superheroes and Such

Dark Knight

I went into this movie with mixed feelings. It had received such great reviews I didn’t feel it could possibly live up to them. But I did plop down my extra dollar to see it in IMAX and I wasn’t disappointed, even with the high hopes.

The good: It is quite a bit deeper than a straight-forward superhero tale. I think I may actually go see it again to try to pick up all the pieces. Not that it’s super subtle: if Alfred or Gordon are speaking it’s probably about the thematic elements. But I want to see the action again too, so I’ll have a lot to look for a second time around. Ledger does steal every scene he’s in, which is a lot of them. He probably has nearly the same screen time as Bale. And Eckhart does a great job as Harvey Dent. For even a casual fan of the comics his story is telegraphed loud and clear, but they did a good job making it all seem very natural. That sentence will make more sense once you watch the movie. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the first one, but this one seemed funnier. I actually couldn’t hear some lines because the audience was laughing too loudly.

The bad: Action scenes were pretty choppy. It’s Nolan’s style, but I think it obscures some of the impact of the scenes. Although I was never bored and was happy to get a full 2.5 hours of plot, I’m pretty sure it could’ve been trimmed down a bit without losing any real content. I foresaw every plot twist but one; but I do watch a lot of movies. And they kept the horrible Batman voice! I was sure after all the complaints from the first movie Bale would stop that raspy Bat voice. I understand why he does it, but it’s annoying and obscures the dialogue. But no, it’s like they gave the finger to reviewers and did the voice even more.

All in all, a very good film. I’m not really sure where they’re going to go with the third film. I’m assuming there will be a third, since trilogies are where it’s at, for whatever cinematic reason. They used up Batman’s most powerful foe Ra’s al Ghul in the first film, the arch-nemesis Joker in the second, as well as the most personal villain Two-Face. Batman has a long list of villains that could be used, but I’d hope the third film is even more epic than this one, and it would be hard to do that with Poison Ivy or Killer Croc. They did introduce Batman’s paranoia in this film so I wouldn’t be surprised to see Brother Eye make an appearance next time around. Nolan’s done an excellent job so far, so I’ll trust him to figure something out.

Hellboy 2

Sadly, not as good as I hoped it would be. Not bad certainly, just not great. They created a fantastic world for the characters to play in, but it just wasn’t terribly compelling. Though Hellboy had better visuals, more laughs, and about equal action, it just lacked the depth of Batman. And the dialogue was just bad at times. It’s nice that they didn’t take themselves too seriously, but perhaps a bit more work would’ve helped. But the film did seem like a segue from the apocalyptic conflict of the first film and the impending apocalyptic conflict of a third film. It’s certainly worth a watch, especially if Batman is sold out when you show up.

Get Smart

Surprisingly good. We saw it on a whim, and I for one was greatly pleased. It wasn’t as funny as an Apatow gut-buster, but it was pretty darn funny. It might be a step away from family friendly (there’s definitely an anal sex simulation in there) but it’s getting closer than my normal choice. I’ve seen just enough of the original series to recognize catchphrases and references, which was an added bonus. Carell does a great job stepping away from the massive shadow of Michael Scott, and it was the first time that I’ve liked Hathaway. I certainly wouldn’t mind if this turned into a smart and fun little franchise.

Charmed Life

It must be pretty sweet to be Joss Whedon. I expect he’s put a lot of work into his career to get to this point, but it seems like he gets to do whatever he wants. TV (Buffy, Firefly), movies (Serenity, he co-wrote Toy Story, Speed, Titan AE), comics (he writes an X-Men comic, as well as a Buffy comic) and now he’s taken to the internet. His latest is an odd combo of comedy, comics and musicals. After Sunday you’ll have to pay to watch it, so get over there:

http://www.drhorrible.com/

I don’t think it’s the most amazing thing ever, but it is pretty fun. And it has Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion, so how bad can it be?