Grey Matter Splatter

Free Speech

2012-01-22T00:14:00.000-08:00

We take free speech for granted. In this day and age, we've gotten used to being able to say what we want. And if something comes up that restricts what we do, we can claim that it's actually encroaching on our speech and we are therefore allowed to do it.

It didn't used to be like that. The English government used to have the right to punish anyone who threatened the image of ruling class because they couldn't rule properly if they weren't properly respected by the people. That was later done away with in America, but changed into the government being allowed to punish any who threatened the harmony of the community. It didn't matter if the things being said were true or not. In the case of that English law, it was even worse if it was true because it only highlighted that the rulers were like the commoners and equally fallible.

These are troubled times, my friend, when initiatives turn into debates for laws-in-the-making about issues that will take away freedoms that have been paid for at a premium during the decades it's taken us to get away from that time when someone could be punished for honestly stating that the judge was corrupt.*

There are reasons behind what's going down, but acts like SOPA and PIPA are not the answer. No matter what good security comes from such highhandedness, so much more collateral damage will build up as innocent bystanders are wiped out either by accident or from abuse of the system. And it's not okay.

*Source: Freedom of Speech, for the thought we hate the most, a biography of the First Amendment.

Does this match?

2011-11-20T01:00:00.000-08:00

Getting dressed successfully in the dark is actually a great accomplishment. First of all, you need to get the right garments: the right number of underthings (bra, undershirt, undies), two socks, one top, one bottom, two shoes, and maybe one jacket. Not including accessories. Secondly, and the thing I often find most difficult, you need to put these things on properly. Undershirts are easy to get mixed up with regular t-shirts. Did you get all your buttons in the right holes? Oh, nope. You missed that one in the middle. Gotta do it over again. Socks are interchangeable, but are you sure you didn't put them on inside out? How about your underwear? Are they on right or maybe they're either backwards or inside out? Maybe it's all of the above. Oopsies. Kind of as an after though, do all of your clothes match now that you've put them on properly? Black, red, blue, green, purple... they all look the same at 5:30am in the faint reflected glow of the porch light as it bounces down the hall.

If you're one of those who doesn't like additional light when you first get up, setting your clothes out the night before is a huge help. If that's too put-together for you, make sure you're really familiar with your wardrobe. Know where everything is and know what the different articles feel like. Sadly, Method Two is how I keep from being naked all day. I know that the clean laundry is on the chair by my bed. I know that the rough socks are the ugly green ones. I can tell by feel which shirts I don't want to wear. I can't really tell which are the ones I do want to wear, but the uncertainty at least lessened some.

But you know what? You have my slacker respect if you put on whatever is on your way out the door. Doesn't matter if it's backwards, doesn't matter if it's clean. You're out of bed and dressed. What more can we ask of you?

Extended Sales Force

2011-11-13T23:04:00.000-08:00

Maybe you've been to an electronic store like Fry's or Best Buy recently and seen new sales guys with different uniforms and been like "What's up with that?" Well, probably not, but I'll explain anyway.

The guys in the white polo shirts with the assorted computer company logos on them are employed by the guys on the shirt rather than the logo on the building. The guy in the Lexmark shirt is not being trained on the sales floor at Fry's by the guy in the suit even though it might look that way. The white shirt guys are hired and trained by their respective companies to be experts about their products and are placed in the different storefronts as part of the Extended Sales Force, ESF, to answer questions about the ins and outs of the different machinery. Wait, they're getting people who know what they're talking about to talk to you about the merchandise? *shock*

If you want to know about the new Epson printer, find the white shirt with Epson on it. If you want to know about the new HP laptop, don't ask the Epson guy where you can find him cuz chances are, you'll never find him.

If you happen to be at Fry's or any other store where a regular store employee is stalking you, it's probably because they're trying to hunt you down and take the commission.

Fried Worm Sandwiches

2011-11-01T21:34:00.000-07:00

It's a little late for Halloween but this is definitely something to remember the next time you have some kids to entertain. I admit that I haven't tried it yet, but I heard one of the best uses for hot dogs.

Cut the hot dogs lengthwise into quarters.
Dip them into a mix of mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard and then fry them in a skillet with a little bit of oil.
The hot dog strips will curl up a little and the condiments will add color so they look like disgusting, dirty worms.
Serve on a bun with some relish and you have one fried worm sandwich with a bit of mold for garnish.

pseudo "slaved all day"

2011-10-15T22:16:00.000-07:00

My new favorite ingredient is green enchilada sauce. It comes in whatever spice intensity that suits your personal tastes, it's readily available in grocery stores, it has all the seasonings you need (though it can always stand a little bit more :), and someone else did all the work to give it that rich and deep flavor that you can pass off as your own. I currently have two favorite applications for my new favorite ingredient: chile verde and regular chili.

Chile verde: Cube then brown whatever kind of meat you want (doesn't have to be pork but pork shoulder really does work the best) with an onion and some garlic in a deep skillet until it all picks up some good color then add a big can of the green stuff and maybe another can of diced green chiles. Let it simmer for 30-60 minutes and it tastes like it's been several hours.

Chili: brown ground protein (again, doesn't matter but ground sirloin is absolutely delicious) with onion and garlic, throw in whatever tomato products you like as well as any pre-cooked/canned vegetables or starches, and drown it with the enchilada sauce. Let simmer for at least 20 minutes to let the flavors mingle, but the longer it bubbles on low, the better it tastes. If you don't use juicy tomato products or only a small amount, you'll most likely need to add some water to loosen your chili up. I have used a can of tomato sauce before and tonight I used a large can of crushed tomatoes. I haven't tried ketchup, but go for it if that's your thing and report back!

"new" roof

2011-09-26T16:35:00.000-07:00

We got some work done on our roof. It's a traditional wooden shake roof that looked like it was time for an update, but we don't have the money to re-roof. So when this guy going door-to-door came by saying they could restore the roof for a fraction of the cost, we were all for it. No, it wasn't a scam. They made the roof look beautiful. They power washed it to get all the dirt and moss and lichen and whatever else out/off of it and then they sealed it, maybe they also stained it. It makes the house look so much younger and lighter. BUT! But, I think that the sealant blew into the leaves of a nearby tree because it's already started to turn colors while the others haven't. Maybe it's not because of the roof stuff because, as I said, the other trees haven't turned yet. It's just that the timing is rather sketchy.

Regardless, our roof looks fantastic.

Right vs Left (brain, not wing)

2011-05-14T14:51:00.001-07:00

I've taken those lame magazine quizzes: I am whole-brained. And I agree. My left and right lobes seem to be equally prominent. While in general that seems to be awesome, it can make me a little bit obsessive and impulsive when only half of my personality seems to be getting quality time out in pubic.

When I was a science major, it was fascinating at first but became very very hard and drew out the creative side of me. I was driven to write and felt like I was going crazy under all of the figures and facts and tables when I didn't. I cranked out A LOT of wordage in those few years. When I switched majors, it went away. I joined the College of Humanities instead and couldn't produce a single decent piece outside of a classroom assignment for several months. I tried because I missed writing, but there wasn't anything behind the drive aside from habit. My muse was free of her prison and she wasn't ready to come back.

The right side of my brain greatly enjoyed all the reading and essays I had to do, but the left side missed the structure of the sciences. It began to self-medicate with crossword and sudoku puzzles to try to erect structures in the void. Not a big deal, no, but the puzzles were easy and slightly interfered with my concentration during class. Classes which were not conducted in English, I might add.

Now that I have graduated university, I work. I don't know if it's because of the whole left-right brain thing, I got creative spark that won't be satisfied until my project is done, or because I feel ineffectual at work and need something with enduring results but I have become crafty. There is an afghan-ish blanket that I want to make and I've been spending a lot of my free time working on it. I've also been checking out project books on almost every trip to the library. They're mostly beyond my skill level, but I like looking at them.

I often say that my style involves a little bit of chaos. Perhaps that's what it takes for both facets of my personality to assert themselves since they obviously haven't discovered how to play nicely with each other.

2011-05-04T16:25:00.000-07:00

You know what I want? Chocolate cupcakes with fresh raspberry sauce poured over them and topped with whipped cream.

OK GO with Atomic Tom, The Relay Company, and The Parade

2011-02-09T19:16:00.000-08:00

I was at last night's show at Avalon, sponsored by 92.3 FM. It was a good show at a great price. The first two opening acts were local bands and were typical of local bands; they made you glad when the people with recording contracts hit the stage.

The Parade was reminiscent of Panic! At the Disco and fronted by clean-cut Asian boys with a couple of scruffy white guys. I wasn't paying much attention other than that and to note that the lead was alright when he used his boy band register or went into scream-o mode, which wasn't as often as it should have been.

The Relay Company was pretty good for an opening act. One of their songs took the hook straight out of Beauty and The Beast, which totally worked for me. They were cute and could probably go somewhere after a few years of hard work. I hope they do; I liked Second Guitar's dimples.

Atomic Tom was amazing. Great energy, set list, talent, everything. They even did a cover of "Don't You Want Me, Baby?" and won the whole crowd's adoration. My friend spotted the lead, whose name is Luke and not Tom like we expected it would be, after their set and talked to him for a minute. Nice guy.

OK Go was their typical fantastically oddball self. They were in their rainbow suits and rocked it out. I really really liked their rendition of "Return" on the hand bells. It was beautiful. The down side, for me, was that their energy was all over the place and the lead seemed drunk in his patter with the audience. It was kind of annoying patter about how the wifi in Santa Clara sucks and that they don't take requests. Maybe they overused their confetti cannon, but I personally loved it and had way too much fun with the ticker tape.

The club itself was nice, good acoustics, and there was room to move around despite it being a Sold Out show. The bathrooms looked clean as I walked by, the people standing next to me had food that smelled great, and the bouncers at the door weren't too scary. I didn't buy any drinks either, so I have no idea how those rate. Parking sucked a little, but that's to be expected. They at least have a designated parking lot with overflow space from the supermarket that went out of business.

OK Go: Yes
Atomic Tom: Yes!
The Relay Company: Sure
The Parade: perhaps not...
Avalon: Sure

Trader Joe's "red" velvet cupcakes

2011-02-08T14:59:00.000-08:00

I got a 4-pack of these cupcakes the other day and was greatly disappointed. Sure, the price was right, but that's all they had going for them. For starters, the red velvet cake part was not red. They looked like your basic chocolate cupcakes. "Psshh, you big baby," you say. "Nuh-uh!" says I. A gigantic part of the allure is that these things are RED. Mine were not red. Ergo, disappointment.

Secondly, I found the cake to be really dry. Not crumbly, thankfully, just something I can't bear to call moist. The frosting helped me get over most of that, but it shouldn't have to. Actually, the frosting didn't do much for me, but I won't blame my beloved Trader Joe's for that since I have issues with store-iced cupcakes.

Conclusion: 2 stars out of 5

2010-07-09T10:47:00.000-07:00

It's My Cause Because!
Brickfish

2010-05-10T16:57:00.000-07:00

Permanently Borrowed?
Brickfish

Kiss with a Fist

2009-10-09T16:32:00.001-07:00

The song is about violence. Lots and lots of mutual violence. On their MySpace page, the band Florence and the Machine claim that it's really about emotional violence in a relationship that thrives on drama and oneupmanship. Since there is no actual mention of anything in the song itself of something mental, emotional, or psychological, the song is not about that.

It's just a song that condone's domestic abuse and should not be endorsed.

Among many other places, you can find the lyrics here: http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858724512/

Romance language vs. romance novel

2009-08-27T10:32:00.001-07:00

When the Romans invaded Spain, the country was known as Iberia and the people spoke Ibero. The Romans, being Romans, enforced their language onto the people so the people of Iberia began to speak Latin in addition to their native languages.

Through time, the language evolved and became known as Romanice ("ro-MA-ni-kay") and eventually romance. The people were really fond of love stories. Any book lying that wasn't written in classical Latin had a very high probability of being a love story. As with any language, slang takes hold and changes meanings. At first, they would have asked, "Is that a love story?" it eventually became, "Is that a romance?"

Vote for me!

2009-07-13T14:50:00.000-07:00

http://www.brickfish.com/Pages/PhotosAlbums/PhotoView.aspx?picid=942997_1646426&=SGN_Email_PPIMEMAIL&isep=1&pbapi=-1&pbvi=93813466

Handshakes in Late 19th Century America

2009-05-29T13:11:00.000-07:00

Around the time of the American Civil War, there were several different handshakes and each signified something different. When two men made a contract, such as buying property, they would each spit into their palm and then shake. As a greeting, they would shakes hands the same way that we do now.

Women had options when shaking hands with men; they could shake normally or present their hand to be kissed. If a woman presented her hand, she would hold her hand out about waist level with her palm down and wrist limp. The man would lightly hold her fingers, bend the wrist so the downward angle was more pronounced, bring her hand up while bowing to meet it, and give the lightest kiss to the back of her hand. If a man initiated the shake, the woman would place her hand into his to be kissed. If the woman wanted to be informal or as a slight to the man, she could change the kiss into a shake by how she positioned her hand.

If they wanted to flirt, the kiss could be more than a light brush. A more discrete way was either could give a squeeze while he as kissing her hand and no one watching would be any the wiser.

Of course, none of this would happen if either one was bare handed. Gloves must be worn by each before they could touch or it was highly improper.

If a man brushed a finger across the other man's palm while they were shaking, it meant he was propositioning him.

The Dole way to cut up a pineapple

2009-04-23T19:31:00.000-07:00

I personally am afraid of pineapples because they will either bit me or make me sick, but for those of you who like them or just have to cut them up yourself, here is what Dole has declared the best way to get one into pieces. I'd take their word for it; those guys know their pineapples.

1) Hold the body of the pineapple in one hand and the leaves in the other and twist your hands in opposite directions to remove the top.
2) Cut the pineapple in half the long way, then in half again to make quarters.
3) Place a quarter cut-side down and cut out the core. Do this but making a diagonal cut to remove the core as a wedge.
4) Turn the pineapple so it is parallel to you. Place the knife and cut down and around the flesh, essentially scooping it out of the rind.
5) Remove the flesh from the skin and cut into smaller pieces as you see fit.
6) Repeat with the other sections.

Some people take the skin off first, but that ends up being very messy. Doing it this way makes less of a mess and makes the pieces you're dealing with more structurally sound for the longest amount of time so you are less likely to send slippery pineapple chunks shooting off in all directions.

Eat a nice, juicy chunk for me, okay?

Leftover Bread?

2009-04-18T13:55:00.001-07:00

Don't throw out whatever bread you have left just because you don't know what to do with it. You paid for it and you can still use it. With the economy the way it is, you might not be able to afford to toss it out.

You can "recycle" the bread into something else. It's good for thickening soups, and can be turned into crutons or bread crumbs if you toast it first. Cut the bread into cubes and put the bread in a low-heat oven until it's crisp. For breadcrumbs, pop the cubes into a food processor and Pulse until they are the consistency that you want.

Maybe you've never cooked with breadcrumbs or crutons because you didn't have any. Since they're so easy to make and a good way to get the most fromo the money you already spent, maybe now you will try something new.

Cleaning out the Fridge Pasta

2009-04-11T19:59:00.000-07:00

We had 2 bags of opened pasta in the cupboard so I decided we needed noodles for dinner.

1/2 bag rotini
1/2 bag wide noodles
3/4 (what was left of a whole jar) jar alfredo sauce
2 cups of corn
1 can diced tomatoes
1 package mango chicken sausages.

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add a teaspoon of salt and the pasta and boil for approximately 8 minutes.

Drain in a collander and return to the pot. Return pot to the stove.

Add the sauce and stir to lubricate the pasta, then add the remaining ingredients. Stir well to combine.

The Thumb Test for Firmness

2009-03-28T14:09:00.000-07:00

An easy way to judge the doneness of a piece of fish, meat, or poultry is to compare its resilience to muscle on the base of your thumb. The further the thumb has to reach, the more resilient the ball of muscle becomes, which is similar to what cooking does to the proteins in meat. You will know if the meat is done enough for you when it matches the Finger Stage you prefer.

First-finger stage - for lightly cooked fish and underdone/ blue meat. Touch your thumb to the tip of your index (first) finger. With a finger on the other hand, press the ball of your thumb with. The ball will offer no resistance.

Second-finger stage - for rare meat. Touch your middle (second) finger to your thumb and press the ball of your thumb. The ball will feel spongy.

Third-finger stage - for well-done fish and medium-cooked meat, game or duck. Touch your ring (third) finger to your thumb and press the ball of your thumb. The ball will feel resistant.

Fourth-finger stage - for well-done meat or poultry. Touch your fourth finger to your thumb and press the ball of your thumb. The ball will feel firm.

From page 28 of Anne Willan's Cook It Right cookbook.

This is an excellent book. There are color photographs for each main ingredient she describes showing the underdone, perfect, and overdone stages along with an explanation of what might have gone wrong. There are also Quick Fix sections that offer ways to possibly salvage the ingredient, dish, or meal.

The recipes are easy to follow and the measurements are given in both Imperial and Metric.

The sections are Perfect Sauces, Perfect Vegetables, Perfect Breads, Perfect Meats, Perfect Pasta, and Perfect Desserts.

It's a Reader's Digest book and winner of the IACP Julia Child's Cookbook Award

Eat It! (TM)

2009-03-21T13:54:00.000-07:00

We played Eat It! last night at my friend's birthday party. We had a great time, mostly because we are West Coasties and had no idea what some of that stuff was.

Eat It! is Trivia Pursuit, but all the questions are about junk food. The categories are Candy, Ice Cream & Dessert, Chocolate, Snack Attack, and A la Carte is the Wild space that lets you pick your category. You move around the board, answering questions about your given category, and collect Triangle Cards on certain special spaces. If the game is dragging on too long, you can come to a consensus and agree that the first person/team to collect two or three cards gets to advance to the Food Pyramid in the middle. If the team gets each question in the Pyramid correct and gets to the top first, they win.

It was mostly a learning experience for us since none of us regularly eat Little Debbie snack cakes or have ever had a Zero Bar. If you are a foodie, junk foodie, or trivia junkie, you and your friends will probably get a kick out of this game.

To be or to be happy: that is the question

2009-03-14T12:13:00.000-07:00

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows or outrageous fortune, or to take Zoloft against the sea of troubles, and by opposing be oblivious to them?

At least, that's how it would read if Hamlet had been depressed instead of crazy. It's a question we have been contemplating a lot now that both of my grandmothers have moved in with us. Grandma J has been here for four years now and Grandma M for a week. Both suffer from some form of dementia, just not the same form. In this stage of their lives, quantity and quality of life begin to conflict.

Grandma J is on Zoloft and has been on and off a variety of Alzheimer's preventative medications in the past. The brain deterioration due to depression combined with the imbalance in her brain chemistry make her dementia more emotional. When she is on the medication that makes her think clearly, she is depressed and will sleep/mope and be rebellious. When she is on the meds that make her happy, she will be fatigued (which may or may not maker her sleep), unclear in her thinking, but in decent spirits.

Grandma M isn't on any medication and may mostly be suffering from malnutrition since she has been living alone for the past five years and not taking care of herself too well. Her dementia seems to be more like true Alzheimer's in that she doesn't want to eat and forgets important things, like that she lives here now and how to get back to her room in the dark. After eating, she thinks more because the nutrient is fueling her body. However, she doesn't have full capacity so she knows she doesn't want to be here but forgets that nothing will happen when she demands to go home. After the food wears off, she is more biddable but sometimes seems to be catatonic (yesterday, she sat in her chair for an hour almost without moving). Once again, the deteriorated state puts her in a more pleasant frame of mind.

Which state is better: to be lucid and miserable or out of it and content?

Wifi + Aluminum Foil

2009-03-10T17:56:00.000-07:00

My room is really far away from the wifi source in our house, and there are several walls in the way. As a result, the signal is so pathetic it's almost nonexistant. My computer occasionally refuses to connect. We heard something about using foil to "relay" the signal and improve its strength. My dad turned his bulletin board around and pinned aluminum foil to the back and placed it behind the router. As if by magic, my laptop now shows a signal strength of Good to Very Good and a speed of between 12.0-24.0 Mbps when it used to hover around 1.0. Wow, foil really does work! The deflector had directionality, though, so if you decide to use this method to give your wifi a boost, make sure it's pointing in the right direction before you get too far away.

Wifi + foil = speed

Writen Accents in Spanish

2009-03-03T12:46:00.001-08:00

If you're wondering which version of a word has the accent, remember that it goes on the word with more importance. "Si" can mean "yes" or it can mean "if" depending on the written accent. An affirmation is grammatically more important than an conditional so yes would be sí.

Nouns are more important than anything, else and pronouns are more important than possessive words. So the tea that you drink is "té" with the accent, and the reflexive pronoun "te" is without the accent.

Other examples:
él - pronoun for him vs. el - masculine article
sé - I know vs. se - reflexive pronoun
más - more vs. mas - but

The Studio System in American Film

2009-03-01T13:22:00.000-08:00

The studio system was formed in the 1930s when "The Independents" won the battle against "The Trust" (The Motion Picture Patent Association), who had tried to run the Independents out of business by patenting all of the film making equipment so they didn't have access to it. Obviously, the Independents did it anyway. They used the concept of movie stars and feature-length films, both of which the Trust shunned, to draw in the crowds.

The system included several new measures, the most important of which were that actors were under contract and that the studios developed a certain personality that distinguished one movie from another.

MGM was the most prestigious and best funded. They also had the most movie stars. Their slogan was “More stars than in the heavens.” It was the motion picture leader in the 1930s. Their movies were classy and reassured the people that there was an escape from the Depression. The attitude was relentlessly positive and the movies were first rate, no expense spared. They were romantic, elite, and idealistic and were geared to attract a female audience. Cedric Gibbons was the set designer responsible for the “MGM glow” all of the films had. Stars under MGM contract were Clark Gable, Mickey Rooney, Joan Crawford, Spencer Tracey, Jean Harlow, and Greta Garbo.

Paramount was the second studio in prestige and power. They had more of a European flair due to their heavily-European talent. The films were also smart, sophisticated, comedic, and the DeMille films were epics with lots of sexual emphasis. They had relatively few stars, but those they had were powerful. The list included Marlene Detrich, Joseph von Sternberg, Ernst Lubich, Claudette Colbert, Cecil B. DeMille, Bing Crosby, Gary Cooper, Bob Hope, and Mae West.

Warner Brothers was the third-ranked studio. It was a younger studio and was only created in 1917. They had very few stars, relatively. They had Betty Davis, Jimmy Cagney, Errol Flynn, Joan Blondelle, and Humphrey Bogart under contract. Since they couldn’t rely on star power as much, they had a policy called the Three Ts: their films had to be Timely, Topical, and not Typical. They were very socially conscious and were called the Depression Studio because they actually acknowledged the tough times. The Warner Brothers also didn’t play down their Jewish roots like most of the other studios did, and most of the people in cinema production were immigrants. They were mostly known for their gangster movies and were male-oriented. The “look” of their films was more flat, like a newspaper photo or a documentary, which was very different from the MGM glow. They were also very successful with their musicals after they got Busby Berkeley, a choreographer, to direct them. His style was that they were often frame stories, like how the film 42nd Street is a movie about the production of a play.

20th Century Fox was created in 1939 when William Fox merged his studio with Daryl Zanuck’s Century Pictures. Their films usually featured curvy blondes and tall, dark men. It is said that their Alice Fay is responsible for the image Hugh Hefner used to create Playboy. This studio had very few stars. They had Will Rogers, Shirley Temple, Warner Olin (known for his role as Charlie Chan), Alice Fay, and Betty Grabble. They also got John Ford to direct a few non-contract pictures for them. The Charlie Chan films where mostly what kept them afloat until Pearl Harbor Day, but they could rely on their musicals by then. Also, they had Technicolor.

Columbia Pictures was a Poverty Row studio that clawed its way up. Henry was the head of Columbia and was “the meanest man in Hollywood.” Frank Capra was an important director and they also had success with The Three Stooges, who did 190 shorts between 1934 and 1958. They also created the first “screwball comedy” in 1934 with It Happened One Night. Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable were the stars, but they were each borrowed from another studio. Colbert was from Paramount and Gable was from MGM.

RKO Pictures is short for Radio Keith Orpheum, a theater circuit. This was the only studio burn during the talking picture era. RKO pictures were elegant, stylish, witty, and funny. They were also considered to be a daring studio and were responsible for King Kong and Citizen Kane. Their cast list included Katherine Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Orson Welles.

Universal Pictures was famous for their horror movies. They made Dracula with Bela Lagosi and Frankenstein in 1931. The Mummy and The Invisible Man were in ’32, and The Bride of Frankenstein in ’35. These movies had a very distinct feel as James Whale (the director) borrowed heavily from the German Expressionist style.