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May 19, 2014 Shaver's Creek made an appearance at the State College Renaissance Faire today! Our crew was under the guise of "falconers," despite bringing a red-shouldered hawk, a great-horned owl, and a golden eagle to share with the public. —photo of Raptor Center intern Sam Arner

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Some bottle caps

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That month-late revelation of "So that's where the apple pipe got to."

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Film adaptations

2 movies this weekend.  My friends all leave town and I don't know what to do with myself besides watch movies...?? Friday's movie was The Hunger Games, which I was not interested in until reading the book.  I went into reading the book knowing that it contained a similar concept to Battle Royale, and little else.  I found that the level of detail in the setup really made it distinct from that movie, and once things actually got rolling, I couldn't put it down (literally read the latter two-thirds in a night).  Still high off of this, and surprised to hear that the movie was still in the theatre, I went to see it. Not bad; didn't blow me away, either.  It's a tricky thing, these adaptations.  So many adaptations of things I've been reading lately; the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in two versions, Game of Thrones in a spectacular rendition of that epic series.  So I found it hard not to think about the movie as an adaptation, which I'm sure is a significantly different experience from someone seeing the movie without knowledge of the book. The movie is good; it's true to the book, tweaked for the screen in no bad way, and some of the actors truly bring life to the characters (Peeta was very good; Woody Harrelson was great as Haymitch; the Gamemaker was cool; Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman was amazing; Rue's actress was very good, and upstaged Prim I think).  Jennifer Lawrence was good—but not quite how I pictured as events progressed. Although it follows the book very closely, it follows it very BLUNTLY; there's not much room for subtlety, which I felt was key in Katniss's [spoiler]impression that she is coming around to love Peeta; I wanted to feel that she was making an impression as a viewer, not necessarily watch some tv assistants flip fancy switches with a 3D computer.[/spoiler]  It is certainly an admirable job, and does lots of things right, and I don't really know if I would feel the same way if I had seen this before reading the book.  I have mixed emotions about it. Saturday was Snow White and the Huntsman, a different kind of adaptation.  I can't help but think of an old live-action Hunchback of Notre Dame that I saw as a kid, which I always thought was way cooler than the Disney version.  I'm not terribly attached to fairy tales in general, but I thought this might be a really cool take on that old Brothers Grimm tale. And it was!  Visually spectacular, to be sure, with some amazing locations, both real and computer-generated.  Charlize Theron is amazing as the queen.  Kristin Stewart (this is the first film I've seen her in) makes for a very sexy Snow White.  Chris Hemsworth is a likeable dude.  The queen's brother is notably good, too. Typically I'm not a big fan of CG in films.  Everything here that was created with a solid, imaginative basis is really good: the evil forest, and the magical happy one, too, with all their small touches.  The queen's goopy transformations.  Other things are less exciting, like ghastly soldiers exploding into shards of black glass; we see too much of it. What I really like about this movie is the human nature of it.  What it is is a fantastic opportunity to bring some human emotion to what is often retold as a straightforward, simplistic story.  The moments between the queen and her brother, between Snow White and the huntsman, between the dwarves and the huntsman.  These moments were cherished for me. [spoiler]Then, I found it a little disappointing that the story devolved into a castle siege; and unless I missed something, violence really is the answer.  Aside from Chris Hemsworth's kiss.  And while I did appreciate that this movie didn't dwell on its romantic underbelly, it's probably good that it didn't, because there's a half baked love triangle involving an archer that Snow White grew up with.  However, I did appreciate that the huntsman's kiss is the one who lifts her from the queen's spell, not the archer's - I like that.  But after that, it's all castle stomping, and after watching the Game of Thrones 'Blackwater' episode last week, felt sorely underwhelming.  Pointless, almost.  For such a visually stunning movie, I wish they had some restraint and let the human emotion act as the climax of the film, not a bunch of axe-swings into exploding dark soldiers.[/spoiler] But certainly a worthwhile movie.  While I may not be enthralled with the final act, the first two are very good, and it is definitely one of the coolest fairy tale adaptations I have ever seen.  I have a feeling this is only the first of many films like this.  For one thing, I'm now very interested in the history of this story, and how its details compare to other tellings. One more thing. I'm not sure I would have thought of this if not for Roger Ebert's review, but the movie uses popular actors's CG heads on top of dwarf-like bodies.  It's flawlessly done, and the dwarves are so well written and acted that it's hard to complain about.  In fact, they're easily one of the best parts of this movie.  Ebert says: "While this technique is effective, it nevertheless deprives eight working (real) dwarves with jobs, which isn't really fair."  I'm inclined to agree, especially after seeing the brilliance of Peter Dinklage in Game of Thrones.

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Maltese sketch #2.

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Maltese sketch

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Bee on concrete.

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This appears to be a walrus in a tophat in a stop-ahead sign.

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These vines be creepin'.

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Cool bug.  Anybody know what it is?

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I'm still waiting for an RPG (MMO?) just based on the detail of the natural world... you could be an ant, or with enough experience, a bird.  Or you could make a home of leaves, like these galls...

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Miniature eco system.