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Over the years I’ve started collecting events and places that I’ve been, compiling mental lists of various sorts. It takes up a lot less space than the collections of physical items I also seem to acumulate. I’ve decided to document and share these lists in blog format.  

To get this started, I am including the list of museums that I have visited, sorted by city:

Baltimore, MD
Maryland Science Center
Baltimore Museum of Industry
American Visionary Art Museum
Washington, DC
Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
Smithsonian Natural History Museum
Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport
Hirshhorn Art Museum
New York City, NY
Guggenheim Museum (Art of the Motorcycle)
Museum of Modern Art
Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
Minneapolis, MN
Weisman Art Museum
Minnesota Sculpture Garden
Walker Arts Museum
Museum of Questionable Medical Devices (defunct)
St. Paul, MN
Minnesota Science Museum
Chicago, IL
Field Museum of Natural History
Chicago Institute of Art
Houghton, MI
A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum
Panama City, FL
Museum of Man in the Sea
Ocala, FL
Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing
Los Angeles, CA
Peterson Automotive Museum
Berlin, Germany
Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin
Pergamon Museum
Natural History Museum
Haus am Checkpoint Charlie
Berliner Dom
Zwickau, Germany
August Horch Audi Museum (In the former Trabant Factory)
Brussels, Belgium
Atomium

We often use the Latin words “Alma Mater” to refer to the University we attended, but I never knew what the words literally meant. You’d think that three years of Latin might help me figure it out, but nope. And now that I know what it means, it’s a little bizarre.

Alma Mater literally means “Nurturing Mother” or “Kind Mother” and was used by the Romans to refer to their Goddess’. Apparently, the term came to be used to refer to your university by the English in 1710. So, to the British, your university becomes the mother that nurtures you after you graduate. Sounds a little creepy to me, silly Britons.

This is an interesting contrast of two similar movies, both based on comic books (or graphic novels.) To paraphrase a great book, it was the best of movies, it was the worst of movies. Amazing how similar but completely different these two movies were.

Ghostrider – This looked like a “superhero” movie that didn’t take itself too seriously. It looked like a mix of action, fantasy, and comedy. It was all of those things, but perhaps it didn’t take itself seriously enough. The movie looked ok at times, and terrible at times. The acting was poor, although I’ve never thought that Nicholas Cage could really act anyways (watch Firebirds to see my point.) The story was poorly told, and seemed to include elements that didn’t need to be included, and skips other elements, that would have helped the story. It’s primary redeeming factor was the unintentional (or perhaps intentionally “unintentional” ) comedy of the bad story, stupid characters, and very cheesy cinematography. This is the only factor that prevents a “bad” rating. Rating: Entertaining –

300 – Wow. The cinematography was incredible. The really had the graphic novel feel while clearly remaining a movie. The action was captured in all of the ultra-violent intensity that graphic novels use to try to simulate the action that only a movie can truly bring. The result is a pretty incredible mix of movie action, and the gritty, over the top graphic novel visuals. The story had a great mix of action, suspense, fantasy, and gore. It’s intense enough that I’m not sure I’d really want to see it again, but it was incredible to see. And this is definitely a theater movie, and could end up sliding into a “great movie” rating over time. Rating: Entertaining ++

A review of the The Soren Movie Rating Scale:
Bad                  Terrible, avoid this movie, I likely did ot finish this movie
Entertaining -     Entertaining, but not a very good movie
Entertaining       Good, solid entertainment
Entertaining +    Very entertaining, bordering on great
Great                A classic, excellent movie, I will probably watch this movie again    

Do we really need to drink 8 8oz glasses of water a day?

We’ve all heard the statement that we need to drink 8 8oz glassed of water a day for our health. Most people cannot say why this is so, or why the number is 64oz per day. The reason for this is that there is no scientific basis for the assertion that we need to drink 64oz of water a day.

I was recently questioned in my assertion that this “fact” is actually not based on scientific evidence. After doing some research on the subject I present the following to demonstrate that this “fact” is, indeed, not based on scientific evidence. In fact, is it now believed, through analytical evidence, that the average person does not need to drink this much water, and that caffeinated and lightly alcoholic drinks do count towards your total needed intake.

An interesting aside is that, according to several polls, most people actually drink more than 64oz a day when you add coffee, soda, etc.

From “Drink at least eight glasses of water a day.” Really? Is there scientific evidence for “8 × 8″?
By Heinz Valtin, Department of Physiology, Dartmouth Medical School

http://ajpregu.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/283/5/R993

“Despite the seemingly ubiquitous admonition to “drink at least eight 8-oz glasses of water a day” (with an accompanying reminder that beverages containing caffeine and alcohol do not count), rigorous proof for this counsel appears to be lacking.”

“Thus I have found no scientific proof that we must “drink at least eight glasses of water a day,” nor proof, it must be admitted, that drinking less does absolutely no harm.”

Another interesting (although far less scientific) site that discusses this is:

http://saveyourself.ca/articles/water.php

First, thanks to all of those who remembered my birthday through email or myspace, it was noted and appreciated. It was indeed a great birthday, my 34th so far. Here’s all the redneck, and non-redneck fun I had over the weekend.

Friday – I headed over to Denise’s and we watched the Prestige, which was a very interesting historical fiction movie. See my review below.

Saturday – Did a few things around the house and then headed to Denise’s for Dinner and the night’s entertainment, Ron White, of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis. Dinner was great, and Ron White was hilarious. See below for my review.

Sunday – Up later than planned (oops, it’s time to set our clocks forward) and then Erik came over to aid in the removal of a Trabant engine. Turns out a guy in Utah is ready to buy the car as soon as I can fix a bearing issue in the Trannie. I keep having to tell him to not send me any money until the repair is complete. More motivation for me to actually do it in the cold garage.

Since Sunday was a beautiful, sunny, 50+ degree day, we opened up garage to let it all warm up. Then move a few things around, and start shoveling the ice and slush out of the garage. Due to poor drainage in my backyard, unusually heavy snow recently, and the warming, there was 1/2″ of ice in about half of the garage, conveniently the half that contained the Trabant in question. Once much of that was removed, we just had to shop vac out all of the water that kept flowing in from under the ice. Made for some wet work, but it wasn’t too bad. We got most of the way through getting the engine out and then headed out for lunch/dinner, before wrapping up the work. Three bolts and two axles and the engine and trannie is out. Then I just need to decide if I should fix this trannie first, or swap it with another car and have a little more time to open this one up… 

I also spent a bit of time over the weekend doing some vacation planning. I found a hotel for this weekend in Chicago, and worked on flight times and Visa requirements for a trip to China in May. The China trip should be awesome (I’m looking forward to Chicago as well, but it’s been far and away eclipsed by the trip to China.) I’m going with Erik’s brother Fritz, and his wife Rain, along with a few other family members of theirs. Rain is Chinese, and Fritz lived there for quite a while and is fluent in Mandarin, which will make this a really cool trip. We’ll be in Beijing, and the Sizuan province primarily, with a side trip to Rain’s hometown, a small farming area in central China.

The Prestige – I knew there was a twist to this movie, and I was kind of on what it was based on previews and such, but I certainly did not get it. The obvious twist hid more and more less obvious twists as the movie progressed. I’ll stop there to prevent any spoiling of the movie, but it was really well done, and kept you thinking about what is happening throughout the movie. Rating: Entertaining ++

Ron White – We were a little concerned going to the second show at 10PM, since he is known to drink just a little, but it turns out that was not a problem, he is clearly a professional drunk, and a funny one at that. The biggest drunk was the woman who tumbled down the stairs in front of us during the show. She was not a professional drunk. Rating: Entertaining ++

Trabant engine removal: Amazingly simple to take out compared with most cars. While 30 year old 2 stroke engines get a little greasy, all of the bolts were easy to remove with no signs of rust (thank you 2 stroke, oil belching exhaust.) Rating: Amazingly Easy (so far)