The Year in Ann Arbor [2019]

Another year in Ann Arbor. For the first time in three years, I did not start January at the airport. Instead, I was already back in Ann Arbor following my Singapore trip. I baked pecan rolls, began my fourth round of TA’ing (second time as a grad student), wandered through the arboretum, practiced for the second band concert of the season, and did research, that thing I’m paid to be doing.

In February, I continued my TA duties and baked a lot – snickerdoodles, brownies, lemon bars, pumpkin cranberry bread, and pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. The Revolution began preseason and got ready to disappoint all their fans as usual, though we didn’t know it for certain then.

March was the month that my family got Netflix. With hundreds of exciting shows and movies to choose from, I have thus far mainly watched The Office and the Great British Bake Off. Things started warming up so I went out on a bike ride on the border to border trail. I also filed my taxes, gave a presentation on COMSOL, and went to see the Detroit Pistons play the Orlando Magic at Little Caesars Arena (they won, 155-98).

To celebrate lab members graduating, we had a lab party in April where we played Pandemic and again saved the world. I attended a harp recital, a piano recital, and a men’s glee club concert. As the weather improved further, I went on bike rides to the botanical garden and along the river, and continued stomping through the arboretum.

I began May by grading the heat and mass final. As soon as I finished, I went downtown to celebrate the end of the semester with lab members and alcohol. In research news, I finally put something in the rheometer. The rest of this exciting month included building a LEGO robot, the first trip to Blank Slate of the season (I got peanut butter cone crunch ice cream, would recommend), mandatory gender/sexual harassment training, a trip to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) to hear the Haydn horn concerto, a rugel-off (two of my coworkers and I all made different versions of rugelach), and a Memorial Day picnic. There was also barn soccer, barefoot soccer, bad soccer (thanks, Revolution), better soccer (thanks, Mike Lapper), and the beginnings of Bruce Arena soccer. The last three are because the Revolution decided that starting the season 2-8-2 (2 wins, 8 losses, 2 draws) was really not good, fired their coach, fired their general manager, and hired Bruce Arena. For a team that never fills up their roster because “roster flexibility” and likes to find “good deals” in the Slovakian fourth division, this was . . . revolutionary. You can read more about spring here and the Revolution here and here.

In June, I went to see Beauty and the Beast put on by a local theater group, it was peony season at the arboretum, and I walked across a pool of cornstarch and water. At the end of the month, friends from Cornell came to visit and we spent four days catching up while also visiting the U of M art museum and natural history museum, escaping from an escape room, making the rounds through Greenfield Village and the Ford Museum, hiking at the Pinckney Recreation Area, and walking through the botanical garden and arboretum. And eating. There was plenty of eating.

Days after my Cornell friends left, another Cornell friend came to visit in July. After spending a couple days in Michigan seeing the DSO and fireworks at Greenfield Village and the Meijer sculpture garden, we headed off for a whirlwind tour of Toronto, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. In Toronto, we saw the Scarborough Bluffs and walked along the lakeshore through Coronation and Trillium Parks, then headed back to the United States via Niagara Falls and viewed the falls from both the Canadian and American sides. We stopped briefly in the Allegheny National Forest before driving on to Dayton to see the prairie where the Wright brothers developed their flyers. Following all the excitement, I returned to research.

August marked the end of summer, but not before I biked to all corners of Ann Arbor because that’s what I do in summer. At the end of the month, my mother came for a visit. We did all the free Ann Arbor things and hung around my apartment. Plus there was research. In case my advisor reads this, I worked very hard every day and did lots of research. End of summer recap here.

Classes started again in September. I enrolled in my last required class, which required coding in Matlab, which I hadn’t touched since my Intro to Computing class my freshman year at Cornell, because real engineers engineers stuck in the 1970s code in Fortran. I made (yet another) trip to Greenfield Village for fall flavor weekends with a friend and her family. With one game to spare, the Revolution clinched their playoff spot. In May they had a 1% chance to make the playoffs.

October was more of the usual. Research, class, band rehearsals, baking, watching TV. There were trips to the arboretum in search of fall colors, bike rides, and a Michigan hockey game against Cornell's ECAC rival Clarkson.

For the first time since I graduated from Cornell, I got to see Cornell hockey when they came to play Michigan State in November. They won. Let’s go red. We had our first band concert of the season, and then I headed to Orlando for AIChE, the annual meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. My coworker and I presented, listened to talks, looked for free food, met up with former labmates, classmates, and professors, and when the conference was over, went to Disney World (Epcot).

Finally, we made it to December. I finished my class, went to Tuba Christmas at the farmer’s market, and took off for home. Once home, I did a lot of sleeping and eating. There was also Jeopardy!, Wegmans, a day trip to Castle Island/Boston, Star Wars – The Rise of Skywalker, jigsaw puzzles, reading, and baking – cranberry/white chocolate/macadamia nut cookies, cream puffs, and a cake. And that was 2019.

2019 Life of an Engineer book awards

Honestly, I didn’t read that much last year. I read less than half the number of books as movies I watched, which doesn’t even include the 7.5 seasons of The Office I watched on Netflix. But there were still a few good books I wanted to mention.

Best nonfiction:
In this basically uncontested¹ category, the winner is In Search of Bacchus, by George M. Taber². In this book, Taber visits twelve of the major wine producing countries around the world and gives a brief overview of the development of the wine industry, including wine production and tourism, in each. The book’s a little niche but gives a decent overview of some of the big players in the wine market. I actually think it would have gone well with the wines class I took at Cornell.

¹Apparently the only other nonfiction I read last year was two nature photography books.
²Taber is also the author of Judgment of Paris, which I read in 2017 and would also recommend.

Best fiction:

Crazy Rich Asians, by Kevin Kwan. When Rachel Chu travels with her boyfriend Nick Young to Singapore for his childhood friend Colin Khoo’s wedding, she meets his family of crazy rich Asians and enters a whole new world. I both read the book and watched the movie last year, and I liked both for different reasons. The movie was a visual spectacle (I expected nothing less) and the book was a tangled web of siblings, cousins, husbands, wives, aunts, uncles, friends, roommates, children, grandchildren, and everything else in between. It’s a light read, but fun, and the interactions between the scores of characters are highly entertaining.

Head On, by John Scalzi. Crime mystery novel set in an alternate or near-future Earth where members of the population stricken by a flu-like virus become consciously “locked in” to their bodies and operate humanoid robots (threeps) to navigate the physical world. The book follows FBI agents Leslie Vann and Chris Shane as they investigate the death/possible murder of a Hilketa player. Hilketa is a new sport played by humans controlling sword- and hammer-wielding threeps. The goal is to decapitate a specific opponent and carry their head through the goalposts. The concept and characters are interesting and the plot is plausible enough.

Best graphic novel:
Hey, Kiddo, by Jarrett J. Krosoczka. A graphic memoir based on the author’s experiences being raised by his grandparents while his heroin-addicted single mother comes and goes as she spends time in and out of rehab. As he grows up, his grandparents provide some measure of stability and encourage his artistic pursuits. It’s a story of growing up amidst addiction and navigating often shifting familial relationships.

Nimona, by Noelle Stevenson. The evil Lord Ballister Blackheart has the services of shapeshifter Nimona thrust upon him as he seeks to avenge himself against his nemesis Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin. Havok reigns as Blackheart and Nimona’s plots don’t always go according to plan, and though the science fiction/fantasy parody mashup mainly remains light on the surface, there’s a depth to the story as well.

Best young adult fiction:
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, by Jenny Han. (Also P.S. I Still Love You, and Always and Forever, Lara Jean, the other two books in the trilogy.) The plot centers on what happens after Lara Jean’s private, never-to-be-sent love letters get sent to various boys from her past and present. At its heart, it’s a boy meets girl story, but it’s also about friendship, family, growing up, and enough other things that it’s not just bearable to read, but pretty good.

What was Watched in 2019, part 2

Here are the rest of the movies* I watched last year:
*I also watched a lot of TV, including 7 seasons of The Office, 4 or 5 seasons of the Great British Bake Off, and the latest Fresh off the Boat season.

The book was better
Blade Runner – I enjoyed Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? more. I was not a huge fan of the film noir-ness of the movie.

A Wrinkle in Time – Not a great adaptation. It looked great, but felt like there wasn’t enough substance to either the characters or the plot.

Unspoiled
Fight Club – I had never seen the movie or heard the ending until 2019. I can’t talk about it.

Not a fan
You may have noticed I’m not super picky about movies. I enjoy most of the ones that I watch. But not all of them.

The Shape of Water – The cinematography, score, characters, cast, and setting were all great. The plot was not. Midway through, there was one thing I knew the writers were going to put in, and I’m still asking – why?

Phantom Thread – Slow in the beginning, picked up in the middle, but then took that sharp left turn into why? territory. I’m usually fairly forgiving of characters doing dumb things (see Finn interrupting Rey in the middle of a lightsaber battle with “hey Rey, it’s me. I’m here! Also I can’t really do anything to help you right now.” in the latest Star Wars movie) but this crossed some sort of line for me.

Gravity – I couldn’t get over the incorrect orbital mechanics, and I don’t know orbital mechanics.

Epic finales, or Fanservice

Take your pick.

Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame – To prepare, I watched every Marvel movie up to this point. I do think a lot of these two movies was explosions, people fighting each other, people chasing each other, questionable plot points, and “act now, think later” moments, but in the end, I’m happy (and impressed) with how they concluded their twenty-three-movie superhero saga.

Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker – A big complaint about the whole trilogy was that the writers and producers had no creativity and were basically telling the same story they did the first two times we had Star Wars trilogies. I agree somewhat with that, but it’s also intentional in a non-money-grubbing sort of way. Each trilogy follows the development of a character who discovers they have the force and the fight between rebels and an evil empire. Same story, different characters, variations on plot points and settings. The critics can complain, but I liked the movie. [If you have a lot of interest and time, you can also read a theory about how the first six movies are connected through ring composition.]

Everything else
Solo: A Star Wars Story – Han Solo and Chewie go on an adventure. Probably not as good as Rouge One, but it’s still a fun movie that tells the story of how Han, Chewie, and the Millennium Falcon came together.

Crazy Rich Asians – Some of the nuances of the book are lost because of the number of characters involved. Similarly, some plot points were either simplified or eliminated, but it was a pretty good adaptation, all things considered. Overall, it’s a spectacle, one that I enjoyed watching.

Dunkirk – The movie depicts the evacuation of Dunkirk during WWII, shown from land, sea, and air. Recognized for being fairly historically accurate and unsensationalized.

Mr. Holland’s Opus – It’s a two-and-half-hour-long movie about a high school band teacher. Does anything much happen? No. Do I care? Also no.

The rest: O Brother Where Art Thou?, American Pie, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Die Hard, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Graduate, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, Napoleon Dynamite, Julie and Julia, Lady Bird, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Moonlight, Legally Blonde, Call Me By Your Name, Eighth Grade, Love Simon, Ocean’s 8, A Simple Favor, Let it Snow, Drumline, The Devil Wears Prada, Ocean’s Thirteen, The Irishman

Disney: Pocahontas, Hercules, Mulan, Tarzan, Lilo & Stitch, The Emperor’s New Groove, The Princess and the Frog, Bolt

Rewatches: The Prestige, The King’s Speech, Stardust, Meet the Robinsons, Chicken Little, Men in Black, Good Will Hunting, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Adventures of Tintin, Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi

What was Watched in 2019, part 1

I watched approximately 70 movies in 2019. Some of them were rewatches; most weren’t. They also skew toward newer movies, but there are a few on the list that came out before I was born, some of them movies that I shockingly avoided spoilers for. I’ll go through some of the highlights and lowlights, with commentary.

Animated
Kubo and the Two Strings – The plot follows a typical quest – find these items/do these tasks and everything will be revealed to you – but the animation is amazing.

The Peanuts Movie – The production team did a good job keeping the spirit of Peanuts without directly remaking any of the previous films, except in a different animation style. In this movie, the hapless Charlie Brown tries to impress the Little Red-Haired Girl while Snoopy takes on the Red Baron.

Incredibles 2 – Another Pixar sequel, another box office success. It picks up where The Incredibles leaves off and continues the superheroes’ efforts to reemerge into the public eye through fighting crime and villains. Featuring stay-at-home Mr. Incredible, new math, and an Edna Mode suit for Jack Jack.

Ralph Breaks the Internet – Ralph and Vanellope leave the arcade in search of a replacement arcade game part and discover the wonders of the internet. It has its funny moments (there’s a Disney princess scene), and the ending resolves things without being too “and everyone lived happily ever after.”

The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part – After the reveal at the end of the first LEGO movie, the writers focused more on the human characters in the sequel, but it’s interesting to see things from both the human and LEGO perspectives. This time, the worlds of siblings Finn and Bianca, Bricksburg/Apocalypseburg and the Systar System, collide. Can Emmett and Lucy rescue their friends and defeat the Systar System’s Queen Watevera Wa’Nabi? The music’s fun/annoying/catchy and overall the movie’s worth a watch. I did figure out an aspect of the ending because of something I heard, but that’s all I’ll say about that.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – This was a different take on Spider-Man. Kind of. It’s still a superhero movie, so the plot can be summed up as Spider-Man fights bad guys. But the animation style, meant to imitate the Ben Day dots used in comic book printing, is cool, and I enjoyed the Spider-Man variations. I almost would have liked them to cut down on some of the action scenes so the characters could interact more.

Musical
Shrek the Musical – As bad as this sounds, it’s actually kind of good. I wouldn’t pay a hundred dollars to see it on Broadway, but the music is surprisingly well done. The plot follows the first Shrek movie, which itself is better and more clever than people would think of a princess story with ogres.

The Greatest Showman – A sanitized version of P. T. Barnum’s creation of what would eventually become the Barnum and Bailey Circus. I do agree with the critics who say that the movie would have been better off not trying to base the story on Barnum’s life. The songs by Pasek and Paul are really good, which doesn’t redeem the story, but I can’t dislike a movie with that soundtrack.

Bohemian Rhapsody – Watched this for the music, and as it turned out, the plot mostly felt secondary to the music throughout the movie anyway.

A Star is Born – Again, I mainly watched this for the music, but the plot ended up being more well-developed than I expected. Stars Lady Gaga as upcoming musician Ally and human Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) as alcoholic singer-songwriter Jackson Maine as they navigate the music world and their relationship.

Mary Poppins Returns – No matter what, a sequel to Mary Poppins was always going to be missing the classic feel of the 1964 movie. That said, it was still a good movie with a storyline in the same vein as the first movie – Mary Poppins and children and friend (originally Bert, now Jack the lamplighter) go on fantastical adventures – with the added conflict of trying to save the family home. The songs did feel more modern, but several songs from the first movie were quoted in the score. And if you’re going to have Lin-Manuel Miranda playing a prominent part, you might as well add some rap.

Absolutely Serious
Spaceballs – Last year, I watched Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and thought it was great, so you shouldn’t really be surprised that I liked this satirical, I mean serious and artistic, take on Star Wars.

Best in Show – A documentary (okay, mockumentary) of characters and their dogs coming together for the Mayflower Dog Show. Again, this is the kind of ridiculousness that I find highly amusing.

Moderately depressing
For real this time, these are some really good movies about some actually serious topics. Just read the rundown below:

Wind River – A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tracker and FBI agent investigate the rape and murder of an Indigenous woman on the Wind River Indian Reservation.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – A woman rents billboards to question the Ebbing police about the lack of investigation in the case of her daughter’s rape and murder.

Manchester by the Sea – After the death of his brother, a man returns to Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, to care for his nephew. He left the town because his actions while drunk caused a house fire that killed his children.

Spotlight – The Boston Globe uncovers widespread child sex abuse by priests in the Roman Catholic church. Based on true events.

I’ll stop here for now; back next time with the rest of my 2019 movies.