more cats and more names

 Some time ago, I posted a list of names of cats we have had. It's been a while and there have been a few new cats. So it's time to post an updated list. Following is the text of the prior list, updated with the new names. As before, these names are in chronological order. Copper is the last cat that was on the old list. The new entries start with Wilko

• Bungee: When I first brought this cat home, I started playing with her. The way she went after a string toy, she looked like she was bungee-jumping.
• Speck: One of his distinguishing features was his pink nose with a black speck on it.
• Lena: Ethan picked out the name Lena. I have no idea why.
• Hrothgar: Ethan was studying Beowulf when we got this cat, and I really liked the names of the characters.
• Tiger: This one looked like a miniature tiger.
• Morgan: We got Morgan used, so I have no idea how he got his name.
• Red: He had a beautiful red coat so we started calling him "Red." We never got around to giving him any other name.
• Cream: He had a beautiful creamy coat so we started calling him "Cream." We never got around to giving him any other name.
• Snowflake: She was white, so...
• Spiderman: This was Asher's first cat. He was into Spiderman and had picked out the name before the cat was even born.
• 18: Asher was understandably upset after Spiderman died as a kitten (while we were in Florida). As a way of consoling him on the thousand-plus mile drive home, we talked about him getting another cat. When we asked what he would name it, he suggested "Please Don't Die, Baby." That seemed a bit awkward. 18 is a lucky number in Judaism as it symbolizes life*, so I suggested that it would be a good substitute. I'm very glad that Asher went for it.
  
• Wiglaf: This name was another name from to Beowulf.
• Copper: He had a beautiful copper coat.
• Wilko: Named after British guitarist, Wilko Johnson, who was in the original ,lineup of Dr. Feelgood.
• Copic: Named after Sharon's favorite brand of professional quality markers
• Bugsy: Named for Bugs Bunny
• Tarantula: I'm not sure how Josh came up with that name. The alternative was "Brick," which I prefer.
• Tuli: "Tuli" is a diminutive form of "Khatool" which is the Hebrew word for cat. So "Tuli" is, essentially, "Kitty."
  

flower show '24

2022 marked the first time I entered the LIDS flower show. Before then, I had clerked at shows and used that as my reason for not entering. That strategy worked until someone noted that a person can enter a show and be a clerk. What a person cannot do is be a judge and an entrant in the same show. I have no interest in being a judge, and am not qualified tom judge a show anyway. But I enjoy clerking.

This year I agreed to enter again. I really didn't want to -- it means getting up super early to prepare. But the club has been shrinking lately -- due largely to demographics and deer. And I felt the club really could use all the entries it could get. My 20 plants (the entry limit is 20 plants per household) -- less, considering that some would get damaged in transit -- would make a difference.

As I groomed my scapes for entry, I didn't worry excessively. I got a bunch of ribbons two years ago, so I had decided that ribbons didn't matter to me anymore. I was doing it for the club. So my attitude was somewhat lackadaisical. "I don't care about ribbons" was my mantra, and that really made it a lot easier to relax while I groomed. Some brown marks on the foliage? ugly scars from old buds? Who cares. These'll be pretty flowers for the public to appreciate. I felt a twinge of shame when someone on the placement team summoned me to say that I should be grooming my scapes better before submitting them. And, after that, I did try to do a better job. But most of my entries were already in and I had come without the tools you really need for the job. Instead of an X-Acto blade, I had my fingernails. Instead of a little brush, I had my breath.

And I wasn't really worried -- confident in my conviction that all that mattered was helping with the number of entries. But the judging began, and I had to follow my team of judges around, obeying their instructions. And I soon found my convictions going out the door. As the judges looked over one of my entries they were merciless. "Did they even groom this at all? Look at this!" Of course, the judges didn't know that this was one of my entries. So when they noted some imperfections in the petals, and one looked at me and said "I would have just thrown it in the garbage," she wasn't trying to get personal. It stung, but I had to just stand there and not show any emotion. But at that moment I started wishing I had taken the grooming more seriously.

Fortunately, that was among the worst of my entries. Though another one lost a lot of points because I had failed to remove seed pods. That was actually a surprise. You don't want to remove buds (unless they're interfering with the bloom), so it never occurred to me that you had to remove seed pods. Live and learn.

But when one of my entries earned a purple ribbon -- scoring a 97, I was starting to get some hope. Maybe it would be a candidate for Best in Show. That thought lasted until the next flower was judged a 98. But now there was hope. And, with it, there were recriminations. If only I had groomed better, that 97 could have been a 99 -- or maybe 100. BUT NOOOOO! I had to relax through the grooming, and now I was paying the price. Damnit.

But a little later, one of my entries (Run N The Green Light) earned a 99! Though another plant in that class also scored a 99, the judges decided that mine was better. And the euphoria hit as I realized that I had won a best in class. In the end, I scored another best in class with Anniversary Lace. But I didn't even realize that at first, since it was judged by the other team of judges.

So now, in the second show I had entered, I had two flowers on the winner's table. I didn't get Best in Show, which comes with a cash prize, but I guess my results were pretty good -- especially considering my attitude going in. Next time I'll actually try to win.

cinema history class: x: the man with the x-ray eyes (1963)

The session: "June is Corman! Corman is June!"
In memory of famed director (who died in May), Roger Corman, we view four films that he directed.

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.

Week 3: X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963)
Directed by Roger Corman

My Level of Prior Knowledge
I hadn't heard of this.

Plot:
A doctor has developed eyedrops to improve people's vision, and tests them on himself, with interesting results.

Reaction and Other Folderol:
First things first, there's something I need to get off my chest about this movie. It's not a big deal. Or, at least, it shouldn't be. But there's something that bugged me -- more than I should have let it. And you'll think I'm petty for caring about it and mentioning it. At the start of the movie, Dr. Xavier talks about his motivation for developing his experimental eyedrops. He talks about how people can only see a very limited subset of the electromagnetic spectrum. But that's not the limitation that the drops addressed. Or at least it's not the only issue they addressed. In the first experiment we see, the drops give a monkey some level of x-ray vision. That's very different from an extended visual range. And that's what we see as the movie unfolds: the drops produce all kinds of enhanced vision. The full nature of the enhanced vision isn't even made clear. So maybe my issue can be explained away very simply -- Dr. Xavier had one idea in mind, and his experimental eyedrops did a lot more. That's not really problematic. In fact, it makes perfect sense as the premise for a movie. So I really shouldn't complain about this. But, damn, I already wrote this long paragraph and I don't want it to go to waste. So spare me your lectures about sunk cost.

Putting all that aside (and, please, let's do put it aside), X is an interesting and cerebral film. At times it meanders as Dr. Xavier goes from adventure to adventure, fleeing the trouble that he and his experiment have gotten him into. And things go from bad to worse until the ultimate denouement, which seems like something The Twilight Zone would have done. It's actually impressive that they were able to accomplish so much on such a small budget. The evolution of Dr. Xavier's eyes was truly horrifying.

I hadn't thought about it until Vin noted it, but there are ways that this felt like The Invisible Man or a variation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Myself, I saw more of Flowers for Algernon and Mr. Superinvisible. But that last one may be because of the party scene. But that party scene was great. Ray Milland, as Dr. Xavier, was great with his sly lecherous grin.

Overall, a very strong film.

Ratings
Me: 8
Bob-O: 9.7
Dave: 9.5
Ethan: 9
Joe: 10
Vin: 7.5

cinema history class: the undead (1957)

The session: "June is Corman! Corman is June!"
In memory of famed director (who died in May), Roger Corman, we view four films that he directed.

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.

Week 2: The Undead (1957)
Directed by Roger Corman

My Level of Prior Knowledge
I hadn't heard of this.

Plot:
An experiment with hypnosis sends a woman back in time to one of her earlier lives

Reaction and Other Folderol:
The Undead is an exercise in contrasts. It's a story of damnation and a story of salvation. And it's an odd mix of science fiction and fairytale. It also explores a topic that fascinates me (and that is often poorly portrayed), the fact that all aspects of our lives are interrelated. And the fact that you can't simply change one thing and expect everything else to remain intact.

The ending was way more Twilight Zoney than I was expecting, but that saved a sometimes-confusing plot. Once again I am learning that not all low-budget directors are the same. Roger Corman is definitely not Ed Wood. 

Ratings
Me: 8.5
Bob-O: 9.6
Ethan: 8
Joe: 10
Rich: 8

cinema history class: day the world ended (1955)

The session: "June is Corman! Corman is June!"
In memory of famed director (who died in May), Roger Corman, we view four films that he directed.

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.

Week 1: Day the World Ended (1955)
Directed by Roger Corman

My Level of Prior Knowledge
I hadn't heard of this.

Plot:
After a nuclear war, seven people find themselves in a sheltered valley. They survived the war. Can they survive each other?

Reaction and Other Folderol:
This wasn't really what I was expecting. Because of Corman's reputation for putting together movies on a tight budget, I was expecting a trashy kind Plan 9 type of thing. But apparently Roger Corman was very different from Ed Wood. Despite the low budget and sometimes claustrophobic feel, this was a very good movie. And it was, dare I say it, surprisingly cerebral.

I did enjoy some cute touches that blurred that played with the distinction between beginning and ending. And the movie did a good job of teasing us early on by just showing a little bit of the main antagonistic monster (that is, the nonhuman one).

There was one element of the movie that I think was too subtle. There was a secondary plot involving that monster and one of the women. It was clear that the movie was trying to imply something. But it wasn't entirely clear what. I guessed correctly at part of it, but the rest eluded me. Keith explained afterwards, since none of us got it. And that was a loss, because that understanding would have turned an "oh, that's clever" moment at the end into a full-blown "Holy Shit!"

The characters were reasonably well developed, so the interaction was interesting to watch. And rooting for one person over another was pretty easy. But there were ways that the characterizations were inconsistent, which detracted from the overall movie.

Finally, I'd be remiss if I failed to mention that this reminded me of the terrible 1992 sitcom, Woops!. But that show sucked, so maybe I shouldn't mention it. Too late.

Ratings
Me: 8.75
Bob-O: 9.4
Ethan: 6
Joe: 10
Rich: 8