Portal in Pictures

There was going to be a huge post here about Portal, but then I wanted to play some more. So I just took a bunch of key or cool screenshots and decided to caption them. So come with me on a short tidbit of Portal.

And as a bonus, I ripped the final song out of the GCF for all of you too lazy to do so yourself: "I'm Still Alive" with Ellen McLain.

Something prettier than what you're used to

I suddenly felt compelled to make a new homepage today. The thought process went like this: I'll go through my links today, Kottke's blog is still alright, I don't have enough blog links, Lokesh Dhakar has a blog that I wish was updated more frequently, Lokesh is famous for Lightbox, Lightbox is pretty, I have some images from my AE-1's first roll on the computer downstairs, right align is always fun, the left side looks so blank, I can reuse that Mr. Moerer post, there needs to be another post, posts about redesigns are easy to write. Especially when you just list a bunch of crap in one sentence. I may or may not do more tomorrow.

A Moerer aside

Mr. Moerer refuses the role of an objective teacher, rather preferring to view us as malleable automatons that can be converted with his partisan rhetoric. The subtle-as-a-train bile that this man spews is simply stunning: when there seems to be a limit to the subliminal messages he slides into his lectures, it leaps five steps further. Today, I was literally taken aback by a deceptively simple aside he made.

To give some background: this is AP American History, and we're watching an innocent video on the cult-like status of George Washington in post-Revolution time. After a short snippet about the painting on the ceiling of the Capitol (an eerie depiction of Washington being carried to heaven by angels), he paused the movie to expand a little more but couldn't resist throwing out a jab: "We don't make paintings on ceilings of other presidents. You don't see FDR in there. In fact, JFK would probably be going the other direction." And then he moved on.

My jaw was on the floor. It's not just that he blatantly insulted JFK, nor that he gave no foundation for his irreverence arguement, nor even the apathetic acceptance of my peers. No, the thing that really stung me was that he knew he could get away with saying things like that—whether that's seen in a snarky tone or his disparaging rebuttals to any opposition. For the rest of class, my teeth were getting ground to a pulp. I fear it's only a matter of time before I burst an artery.

Here are a few fun facts that I gathered:

• Kennedy is the only Catholic president that has ever been elected. (Mr. Moerer is a Lutheran.)
• In scholar surveys of United States Presidents, JFK averages a rank of 6th.
• The Kennedy Administration supported the coup wherein the Baath Party took power in Iraq. The CIA supplied lists of Communists and Leftists that led to systematic killings of "untold numbers of Iraq's educated elite." (Saddam Hussein is said to have participated.)
• John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

[Update] I wrote this a couple of weeks back now and would like to clear a few things up. I know that Mr. Moerer is a very intelligent, very scholarly man—after all, he's a former professor—that has a traditional Nebraskan conservative viewpoint. Some of his ideals are not my own, and his noted solidarity in those ideals can be seen as both a positive and a negative. It is fairly clear that this short word-splosion was somewhat muddled by my initial shock. Though I still point to this event as an example of his over-opinionation, the vehemency of my contempt has lessened proportionately to the amount of his rhetoric—which is to say significantly (though it could be conjectured that my mind has started glossing over the bullshit). The end, go home.