Amulet Graphic Novels

I was listening to a Talking Comics podcast the other day and heard them recommend the Amulet graphic novel series.  I figured I had nothing to lose by seeing if my local library carried a copy.  Surprising, they carry a lot of graphic novels including the Amulet series.  I went ahead and checked out the first two volumes (the others are currently on hold) and read them both in about 1 1/2 hrs.  Loved them!  The artwork is a nice break from the typical DC and Marvel superhero styles, which is most of what I read.  It definitely gears itself towards a younger audience but without sacrificing quality.  The artwork was in fact engaging enough that I had an inner soundtrack going for all of the  implied sound effects without really even trying.  I also thought the story was well put together.  While it clearly has the Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings vibe going for it, no story is really original anyway.  If it comes across as enjoyable without being super predictable, I can give it a thumbs up.  I of course plan on giving a more detailed  reaction/review later but for now I will wait for the other volumes before going further.

Arrow Pilot

Last night, my husband and I watched the Arrow pilot on Hulu.  This show is being carried by the CW--same network that gave us Smallville.  As a big fan of Smallville (recognizing that it is not the greatest show ever or terribly if at all faithful to the source material), I was pretty excited to learn that CW was going to be taking on the Green Arrow character.  To be honest, it seems like the only network that knows how to make a successful, live-action, superhero TV show.  The primary key being to minimize the superheroness.

My general reaction to the pilot is mainly positive. The Stephen Amell seems to fit the part in a very Bruce Wayne fashion, which is completely appropriate since Green Arrow was designed to fill in for Batman on the comic book shelf.  At first I thought the actor was just awful because of how deadpan his delivery was.  Then he really opened up his box of acting tricks when he played the happy-go-lucky party boy at his homecoming bash.  I really enjoyed the juxtoposition.  I also liked the reference to so many different characters that play an important role in Green Arrow's comic book existence (e.g. Speedy, Merlyn, Black Canary).  It almost felt like the show picked up where Smallville left off in terms of character cast.  Some people have complained that there are too many character nods.  I say, if you live in a city, there's going to be a lot of people.  No need to create an entirely original cast when you're coming from such a rich source material.

I also liked a Green Arrow who is willing to kill.  For some characters, it makes total sense as to why they won't kill an enemy no matter the level of scumbaggery.  Superman vs the Elite addresses this issue thoroughly enough to satisfy me.  And Batman is practically standing on the wrong side of the line with just a fingernail still hanging onto it so killing is clearly out of the question for him.  But Green Arrow?  Finally, we have somebody who's willing to make a TV series where the protagonist is actually willing to do what it takes to get the job done.

My major complaints about the show may go away over time.  First off, there are a few "really?" moments.  When Adam Hunt is yelling, "Untraceable?!" and we cut to a very visible and very traceable arrow embedded in the wall that is freaking flashing.  Really?  Yeah.  Second, the acting from a lot of the supporting cast is a little cringe worthy.  Laurel's co-worker at the legal aid office made me wince almost every time she was on screen.  In fact, she seemed to have a negative impact on Katie Cassidy (playing Laurel) with the latter's performance going down a notch whenever they were together. Lastly, supposedly Oliver Queen has extensive injuries that never healed properly on the island.  For a guy with some pretty major damage, he sure dishes it out pretty well.  I think I would have been happier if they just talked about burns etc.  It would have made the frankly amazing shape that Stephen Amell is in a lot more believable.

My one cautionary piece of advice to myself?  Avoid reading anymore Green Arrow comics.  It's painfully obvious that the CW is going to be doing some major reworking of the Green Arrow mythos.  As long as I don't realize how extensive that reworking is, I should be fine.

Tri-Cities Quality Forum 2012

I think that a forum discussing quality improvement and analysis qualifies as something nerdy even if it isn't in the entertainment sector so here are my thoughts on the portions that I attended.

The Tri-Cities Quality Forum 2012 had David McClaskey as the keynote speaker.  He is the president of Pal's Business Excellence Institute and gave his address focusing on what the spoke on what his company does to help others improve their quality.  When I attended last year, I heard speakers from two different companies talk about how they had used the principles from Pal's BEI to dramatically improve their quality.  One was a restaurant and the other a gas station/convenience store.  Hearing the basics from David McClaskey brought those previous presentations to the forefront of my mind.  The most important principles (to me) are (1) to strive for 100% right 100% of the time even though you know that it is an unreachable goal and (2) never make the job easier to do wrong than to do right. There were of course several other principles, but these stuck in my head the most.

Because I am a stay-at-home mom right now, I don't get very many opportunities to think about things from a business or scientific perspective.  However, the nice thing about these types of presentations is that they are very general and broad.  They have to be in order to reach out to businesses running the gamut from restaurants to convenience stores to hospitals to chemical companies.  The two principles I mentioned above stuck in my head because I could see how to apply them to my daily life.  As an individual, I should strive to achieve perfect eventually by giving myself clear expectations and holding myself accountable for both failures and success.  I can do the same for my son by giving him clear expectations and holding him accountable for failures but also giving praise for his successes.

This relates directly to the second principle: never make the job easier to do wrong than to do right.  If I always fix everything for my son, he never learns to take responsibility for himself and never learns from his mistakes.  He only learns to make mistakes so that I will do it all for him.  Other than fixing other people's mistakes for them, we can also make the job easier to do wrong than right by never admitting to them that they have failed.  Too often we tell children that everyone is a winner and any effort is praiseworthy.  The truth is that people fail all the time, but if we never tell them they've failed, they will never learn to do it right because wrong is just so much easier.

The breakout session I attended was "How to Lie With Statistics" by Mark Ewing (no relation to the book by the same title).  This presentation focused on the things that people frequently do with statistics that lead to intentional or unintentional lies.

1. Claiming a difference between things when a statistical tie is the reality.  It doesn't mean there isn't a difference; it just means the data can't tell us what that difference is.  This is especially common during political election seasons.
2. Poor data collection resulting in an unrepresentative sample.  When this happens, you just can't make the claims you want to about the "population."
3. Excessively wide confidence intervals (resulting from a variety of things) leading to a meaningless point estimate.  When people only then report the point estimate, this misleads the recipients of the information.
4. Multiplicity of error.  If you keep on looking and keep on looking for connections between things that aren't there without adjusting your statistical methods, you're going to find things just by coincidence.

I really enjoyed the presentation (even though I already knew everything) and hope that other's attended might become more reliable consumers and producers of information.

The Ones You Love

My husband and I just watched the most recent Warehouse 13 episode ("The Ones You Love"), and we very much enjoyed it. In this episode, we see things come to a head between Brother Adrian and Artie.  Three artifacts have been sent to loved ones of the three people that Artie cares most about in the world--Pete, Myka, and Claudia.  As each of our three heroes heads out to rescue their loved ones, Artie attempts to determine how Brother Adrian has been infiltrating the Warehouse.  Pete saves his ex-wife from the explosive tattoo of a suicide bomber.  Myka saves her sister from a chord that brings sibling rivalries to murderous levels.  And Claudia saves her brother from being encased in amber.  Meanwhile, Mrs. Frederic and Steve discover that the Brotherhood of the Black Diamond has been trapped the last few months in a painting in Rome.  When Brother Adrian is the last to leave the painting, we realize that the Bro. Adrian we have been seeing as the viewers is actually a manifestation of Artie's evil alter ego created by the astrolabe.  Leena confronts Artie and is apparently killed by him at the conclusion of the episode.

My first reaction to this reveal is, "Sweet!" I actually did not see that coming until half way through the episode.  The major fault of this show has been its pleasant predictability.  So to have something actually surprise me was very refreshing and makes me excited to see where the show heads with this new Artie development.

My other reaction to the reveal is more of a reaction to the conclusion of the episode.  Finally someone dies! I'm not too heartbroken about Leena being the one to bite the dust.  To be honest, I cringe every time I see her come onto the screen so here's hoping that I won't see her on screen again.