SAW XXVII

I'll come back to explain this more, but here's the parody-trailer for Law Revue, a comedic group at Columbia that I'm on the writing team for. This particular video I wrote the script for and edited, but I didn't do the filming itself. It's basically an ad for the show, which consists of full-blown skits and so on, which occurs in a few weeks. Edit: The video is based on the idea that the killer in the SAW movies comes to Columbia Law School (CLS) but instead of his devious, intricate games that his captors play instead he uses everyday, normal law school experiences to torment - because those experiences are bad enough on their own.

You have to have seen some of the SAW movies and/or know the law school environment to get some of the jokes, but maybe it's more widely-appealing than I suspect. In any event, the video is below. Edit: On further thought, this trailer is probably nonsensical to those not in law school. Oh well, I'll leave this post up anyway!

The trailer is not at all R rated, but I wouldn't watch it with little ones around either.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdVpZ-zbHzg

ferret interlude

There's not a lot to report here, so I thought I'd post a few recent ferret pictures for your viewing pleasure. Brussels was feeling a little sick this weekend, but he seems to be doing better now. The first picture shows Brussels (in a stuffed octopus toy), and the next two show Rex.

October birthday

Well, we are really into fall now. Leaves are changing color and the air is usually crisp and cool. Overall, I think this fall has been enjoyable so far. We had cold rain for a few days last week, which was not very pleasant to walk around in. The air seems so fresh in the fall, and I love that. This is a picture I took this afternoon, showing the trees in front of our place. The leaves on the smaller tree have changed color, but the larger tree to the right is still mostly green. I will try to post another picture when the larger tree's leaves have changed.

Yesterday was Brian's birthday. We celebrated by having our friend Stip over. Stip lives on Long Island, so it was a bit of a drive but not too bad. We hung out, played some games, ate some food, and relaxed. It was a very nice visit.

We also had some cake for Brian's birthday. The cake was decorated beautifully with Halloween-themed colors and a spiderweb design. Unforturnately, I tripped on the way home from the cake shop and the cake fell. It got a little messed up, but it still tasted good. Here is a piece that survived the fall unscathed.

Brian received some very nice cards and packages, which he opened yesterday evening (well, a couple packages were opened on arrival). Thanks to everyone for the thoughts and gifts.

The Sky Calls to Us

Very entertaining. I really, really like this video.

Financial District

On Friday, I took the PATH train to the World Trade Center stop. The stop had been closed for quite a while (since it stops under where the twin towers used to be), but it is open again this year. It was an odd place to be. The stop has signs of continued construction, and the exit to street level is basically at the site of the 9/11 attacks. It is striking to see a whole city block totally leveled in this city, where all around there are tall skyscrapers.

Also on that trip, I got stopped on the street for a few moment. The street was closed for a short time for a film scene. The scene involved racing taxis and motorcycles. :)

Quick picture

This last week, there was an exhibit of pictures of various parts of the universe on display at Columbia, just outside the main administrative building that I walk by each day. I took a moment to look at them on the way home and took this photo of one I like in particular. If you look closely at this photograph, you'll see a white dot at about 10 o'clock in Saturn's rings. That dot is Earth.

Tampa trip

I've been in Tampa the last several days for work. I organized a conference with a few other people on archaeological science. It was a lot of work, but it seemed to go well. I was quite busy for the conference days (Thursday, Friday, Saturday), but on Sunday, I had a few hours to explore before my return flight. I spent that time walking around downtown Tampa a bit (our hotel location was in the heart of downtown). Less than a mile away, at the University of Tampa campus, is a place called the Henry Plant Museum. It is an old hotel with great architecture and many interesting items. Many soliders were stationed close to the hotel during the Spanish-American War, so they had many items from that time, including a series of letters from a soldier stationed there. President Roosevelt was stationed there when he was a cavalry officer, so they had a series of pictures relating to that as well. While the items were interesting, the building itself and all the Victorian architectural details were more interesting to me.

Between the Plant Museum and the main dowtown area, there is a park and a river. Here I am in that park. The pictures that follow show the main area of downtown from the park.

Nice Florida trees:

This palm fell a while ago, and has started the grow up again.

Downtown through the trees at the park:

The main skyline. I know it is hard to see, but there is a river between the trees and the buildings.

This is a picture I took right after my plane took off from the Tampa airport. You can see the same downtown buildings as in the previous picture (they are the tallest ones in almost the center of the pic). This shows you how close the airport is to downtown in Tampa. That was pretty convenient.

The flight back was pretty relaxing, which was nice. There was a small amount of turbulence, but there were also some great clouds to look at.

During the flight, the sun set, and by the time we got to NY, everything was dark.

It was a good trip, but I am happy to be back home again.