Saturday Night's Alright For Quizzing

Ok, I know it's been awhile, but let's not talk about whose fault it is, let's not bring up the past and just make up, okay?

Last time you guys tanked the lyrics :) but did pretty well on the questions. I'll leave the lyrics to your own googling prowess, but here are the answers for the questions:

He’s not strange, he just wants to live his life that way. Who is he?
He's a vicar in a tutu

He was in a jam. Where was he?
He's in a GIANT CLAM! (screams in the background)

Motherly advice: Who should you not mess with?
You can mess with your brother, but don't mess with a missionary man.

Now, let's get on to the new. Allez Cuisine!

1.

Write my letter
Feel much better
use my fancy patter on the telephone

2.

I'm shy but I'm friendly baby
I'm sad but I'm laughing
I'm brave but I'm chicken shit
I'm sick but I'm pretty baby

3.

As shadows fall, I pass a small cafe where we would dance at night
And I can't help recalling how it how it felt to kiss and hold you tight

4.

When I'm with you are you somewhere else?
Am I gettin' through or do you please yourself?
When you wake up will you walk out?
It can't be love if you throw it about

5.

And so it goes
Till the day you die
This thing they call love
It's gonna make you cry

6.

I come to you, so silent in the night
So stealthy, so animal quiet
I'll be your savior, steadfast and true

7.

Out here in the fields
I fight for my meals
I get my back into my living
I don't need to fight
To prove I'm right
I don't need to be forgiven

8.

The music is weaving
Haunting notes, pizzicato strings, the rhythm is calling
Alone in the night as the daylight brings, a cool empty silence
The warmth of your hand and a cold grey sky, it fades to the distance

9.

She gets mad
Starts to cry
She takes a swing but
She cant hit
She don't mean no harm
She just don't know
What else to do about it

10.

When you wake up tomorrow
You'll be all alone
Oh the love that we had
I have quickly outgrown

And a few questions:

11. What is the internet for?
12. If the high school head is giving you the blues, who should you go to and how expensive would it be to fix things?
13. Where is the loose talk, and where are the strong words?
14. What did Rocky find in the room at the local saloon?
15. When you're out of touch and you need a little give and take, what should you read?

[Edited to add a punny title]

Fallen Off the Wagon Again

and on to the running track.

3.18mi (5-ish km) 21'45"

Since I was on the track I did a recalibration before the run, and I think it helped a bit. Every lap was a smidge shorter than the previous one, but the end of the 5km was only about 100 meters short of where it should have been on the track (just the last two turns), so I think it's better anyway.

I wanted to get a clean 5k time, but alas, I was huffing and puffing so much at the end, that I clicked 'Menu' on the ol' Nano, figuring that it would pause, and it did, but unless you confirm that your run is over, It'll unpause. Hmm... Convenient or bad design? Since there is no such thing as bad design at Apple (only exploding batteries), it must be the former.

Anywhoo, my ankle felt fine, even after the run there wasn't any tweakiness, so I guess that's the end of my no running excuses.

On the plus side, since I'm running again, I feel perfectly allowed to buy those new chocolate covered mint oreos. Seriously yummy. They are ambrosia. Or crack cocaine. Maybe both.

Whooooooo Are You? Who Who - Who Who?

Sheepish mentioned this, and as long as I'm ranting, I'd like to add my voice to the clamor. I have a few Google accounts. I've got one for blogging, one for classwork and dealing with student-types, and then one for personal use. It's important to me that they each stay separate.

This wasn't a big problem with old blogger, but with New and Improved Blogger eXtreme 2.0 Plus Executive Edition, it seems to choose the login that it wants to use all by itself. I've already accidentally posted from the wrong login once, and almost done it again two or three times.

Blogger, I love you folks, but could you get on that for me? Thanks.

Open Letter to CNN

Dear CNN,

For a very long time, I've watched and enjoyed you. I've been with you since the days when Bernie Shaw was Bernard. I used to keep the TV on in the background, tuned to CNN, so that I could keep track of what you were reporting.

I have to say, I can't do that anymore. I've tried. I would say that 'it's not you, it's me,' but let's be honest, it's you. You've steadily gotten worse and worse in your reporting and choice of stories to air, so that now it seems that I can tell what isn't newsworthy simply by flipping to CNN and seeing what you are talking about.

I've tried different ways of telling you what I feel has gone wrong, but you haven't changed your ways, you continue to deteriorate. However, I will try one more time to help out. I do this not out of a generous nature, not out of compassion or high minded ideals, but because I want a news channel, and I'm just not getting it.

Therefore, I present a few (by no means comprehensive) bullet points that might help you out.

• Popularity does not equal news.
  
• If you absolutely must, make a 15 or 30 minute side show about all the actors and their freakshow lives, but there is no reason whatsoever to announce what award they've won or who they're sleeping with as news. It's not. It's gossip and other channels do it already, better.
  
• Lay off the criminal cases
• Fire Nancy Grace. Do not hire a replacement
  
• 99% of all criminal cases are not news. The only real news-worthy cases are the ones that reinterpreting laws in ways that are important to understand
• If you must, announce verdicts in high-profile cases, but there is no need whatsoever to send out a team of reporters to find out what the man of the street thinks about Martha Stewart or Kobe Bryant and his wife. It's not news. It's barely even gossip.
• Stop chasing FOX
• Fire Glen Beck. Do not hire a replacement.
• You can't beat them at their game. They've got way more flag graphics and over-inflated blowhard egomaniacs.
• Start doing investigative reporting
• Follow the money. Remember that? It's not just from a good movie.
• Cover international news besides wars
• By all means cover wars - but if you are going to cover wars, cover the ones involving brown people, too.
• Let Americans know about the world around them. News is also education.
• An argument doesn't have two sides.
  
• sometimes there is no argument.
  
• When a person presents a specious argument call them on it. Ask hard questions. When someone starts spouting talking points, call them on it. Don't allow people to use your shows simply as a venue to publish their daily hot phrases. Don't worry about not getting invited to the next press conference
• Sometimes the argument has more than two sides. If everything is dumbed down to a right-wing and left-wing position, the original issue gets mangled beyond recognition.
• Don't be afraid of trying to explain complex things.
  
• Take your time and explain them as best as you can. Then do it again in a different way. There are important yet complex ideas that are worth the time.
  

Thank you for your time and attention, CNN. I will drop in occasionally to see how things are going, but I've got great hopes for my next big move. See, I'm moving somewhere where there's a bigger market, and if there are other options out there, you don't stand a chance.

Overread

'Nother Meme

Zerodoll has the coolest memes. I may have done this before, but maybe not...

4 things thing

FOUR JOBS YOU'VE HAD IN YOUR LIFE:
1. actor
2. burger-flipper
3. Soldier
3. English Teacher in a Far-Away Land

FOUR MOVIES YOU COULD WATCH OVER AND OVER:
I generally don't watch movies more than once, but...
1. Grosse Point Blank (I love Minnie Driver)
2. Cabaret (I'll sing the songs, too!)
3. Most James Bond movies (aren't they all pretty much the same anyway?)
4. Princess Bride (I'll keep this one - Zerodoll's right on.)

FOUR CITIES YOU'VE LIVED IN:
1. NYC (yea!)
2. Houston (boo!)
3. Small place on Oahu (yea!)
4. San Fransisco (very briefly, but yea!)

FOUR TV SHOWS YOU LOVE TO WATCH*:
1. CSI (a very recent and demanding addiction)
2. The Simpsons (I know, I know, I actually still think they're funny though)
3. Mythbusters
4. Sportscenter (Problem is that I don't watch all of it. I watch for the top ten plays and then move on. I mean, I couldn't really care less about T.O.'s current hissy fit, but I'm all over wanting to see the guy jump out of his shoes trying to catch a line drive. Oh, and injuries.)

Adding to the VH1 love, I love 'I Love The [insert decade here]' shows, but I can't watch them a lot, 'cause I've seen 'em already.

*addendum: I don't love any shows really. I get way too bored of most shows, so I'll watch them a lot and then get sick of them and move on once I've seen both dimensions of their characters.

FOUR PLACES YOU'VE BEEN ON VACATION:
1. London, England
2. Moscow, Russia
3. Taibei, Taiwan
4. Harbin, China

FOUR WEBSITES YOU VISIT DAILY:
1. Fark.com (all the news that's not fit to print)
2. Boingboing.com (err... .net?)
3. Cute Overload (CUTE!)
4. Scary-Go-Round (very funny and clever cartoon)

FOUR OF YOUR ALL-TIME FAVORITE RESTAURANTS:
1. The Phoenix (when I was growing up, this was the best restaurant, ever.)
2. That funny little burrito place in Hawaii that had the best mango salsa on the planet.
3. Hole in the wall Chinese place that I never remember the name of
4. The Ethiopian place my brother takes me to when I'm up in his neck o' the woods

FOUR OF YOUR FAVORITE FOODS:
1. pizza (It's everything a food can be)
2. tacos. (Crunchy and meaty and veggie and just flat out yum.)
3. Hummus (I know, I'm just weird)
4. Tortilla Chips w/ salsa (looking at these four, it's a wonder I'm actually alive.)

FOUR SCHOOLS YOU'VE ATTENDED:
1. Where I grew up
2. Where I moved for the second two years of high school
3. That other university
4. This university

FOUR THINGS YOU FIND YOURSELF SAYING A LOT:
1. 'Massive'
2. 'Crack-smoker' (this is what I call people who say something I don't believe. Example: A: "Tom Cruise sure is a together guy. He really knows where his towel is." B: "Crack-smoker."
3. 'Not so much'
4. 'Woohoo' (you have to say it in a sarcastic slow kinda way)

FOUR PLACES YOU'D RATHER BE RIGHT NOW:
1. Vegas (I'll keep this one from Zerodoll too)
2. Under the sea, in an Octopus' garden, in the shade.
3. somewhere chilly (I know, I'm a freak.)
4. At the office for the lottery picking up my big oversize check for 50 million dollars.

Riding the Gift Horse

So, I did a favor for a lecturer-friend o' mine. It really wasn't anything big. She is running off to somewhere fun with her significant otter (I actually misspelled that, but I'm keeping it that way because I love the idea of having a significant otter.), and I helped her format some business cards and loaned her my thumbdrive so she could go get them printed out somewhere.

When I went to check my mailbox in the office today, I found a very sweet thank you note and two and a half pounds of coffee. So nice! So kind!

So sad that I don't drink coffee. :(

Meme O' Five Quotes

Frankly, I forgot where I saw this first, but it's been everywhere. Pick five quotes from here that reflect yourself. Odd, but 'kay.

In every age 'the good old days' were a myth. No one ever thought they were good at the time. For every age has consisted of crises that seemed intolerable to the people who lived through them.

Brooks Atkinson (1894 - 1984), Once Around the Sun (1951)

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.

Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)

I was gratified to be able to answer promptly. I said I don't know.

Mark Twain

Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little.

Plutarch (46 AD - 120 AD), Lives

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.

Andre Gide (1869 - 1951)

Antsy and Anxious

Smell that? I think it's my impending doom. See, karma's like that (even when she's a chameleon). When you call doom down upon others, more likely than not, doom shall fall upon you. And that's a good enough saying to stitch on a pillow.

So, I think I've set my bright young scholars up for failure with a rather weak paper prompt. I basically let them choose their own topic, but I gave them suggestions if they wanted, because heaven knows that some folks simply demand to be told what to write.

The thing is that the ideas that people seem to be wanting to write about are, well... bad. This isn't a world where 'there are no know answers.' There are bad paper theses, and I'm seeing a bit too many. The paper is due on Friday and I think I'm in for a looong weekend of grading.

Also, I retwisted my ankle last weekend, so I'm not running until it's absolutely happy with me. If felt fine this morning, but I'm demanding a full day's worth of tweaklessness before I start running again. So I'm antsy. And I have no energy. And I want to eat a lot and do nothing but watch CSI reruns - and that's no way to meet and frolic with the runners-up from the Brilliant and Beautiful competition*. I'm pretty sure that's all connected to my ankle.

* I should note that the vast majority of blogs I read are written by bloggers, both brilliant and beautiful (and I bet they all appreciate alliteration as well), at least as near as I can tell :)

Update:
Zerodoll's right, NC's no good as a pseudonym. I would hate for someone to think I lived in North Carolina (eh, John?)
I figure I'll have to wait until I get there before picking a good name. It's just like you should always wait until your child is 3 or 4 years old before giving them a permanent name - how do you know whether or not they'll end up to be a good fit for the name 'Brandon' until you see if they look good in a polo shirt and feathered hair?

Also noted: 'runs' is a perfectly good label, but perhaps not for what I meant it to be. 'Running' will suit a bit better, I think.

Mission Complete

Because I have soooo much time on my hands, last spring, I agreed to help out a professor who needed some data work done. It honestly wasn't a lot of work, but it was very... umm... of a specific type that I don't know a lot about. Anywhoo, I finally got it wrapped up and emailed the results to said professor. Praise was heaped upon me for being finished early. Yea me!

It's not publishable material, and I'm it's still problematic in several areas, but the fact that it's done and appreciated makes me happy - And it'll get me a little cash, too!

Now I can put all my free time back to use where it belongs... sadly not frolicking with a bevy of runners-up in the 'I'm a brilliant and beautiful woman' contest (not the winners - they'd be stuck up), but alas, in class prep and trying to organize myself for the upcoming move to New Collegeland.

By the way, I still need a pseudonym for New Collegeland...

Possibilities:

1. New Collegeland (NC)
   
2. Holy Crap It's Huge University (HCIHU or HCHU)
3. Our Teams Can Beat Yours University (OTCBYU)
4. Urban Blight University (UBU)
5. Calcutta College, Black Hole (CCBH)
6. Great Big University (GBU)
7. PhDU

Those seem a bit evil... Anything better out there? Most of you guys know where I'm going already, right?

Doom Be Upon You

If:

• You leave five copies of a huge file in the print queue and then let the paper run out so that when I refill the paper, I have to wait for all your crap to print out before I can get to mine.
• You walk in the bike path. This is a seasonal pronouncement, as last year's recipients have either learned where the sidewalk is or have been since run over. It's the new arrivals that need doom brought upon them. Either than or an 18-speed to the shin. That'll learn 'em
• You insist that writing a paper on 'Irrelevant Topic A.' Yes, I did say that writing on a topic that interests you will generally lead to a better paper, but we are not studying 'Irrelevant Topic A.' Nothing remotely related, in fact. Try again.

Blogger Beta

Just go the ok to migrate to the new Blogger Beta. It does look nicer, but there aren't that many changes. I do like the tags... er... they call them 'labels' here. I guess we've got to be different, don't we?

I'm still neck deep in work (isn't this a weekend?) and a bit bummed, so the posting's have been light in quantity and quality, and probably will be for a bit yet.

On the plus side, I did get a chance to go out yesterday and shoot a couple of events. I haven't done that in months. It felt really good to be back there snapping photos, even if it seems that I've forgotten how to take pictures of this kind of event. Ah, well, I got some decent ones anyway :)

Ok, enough dilly dallying, back to work.

The Majesty of Centuries in a Few Hours

So, I was screening films and such for class, and I decided to make Angkor Wat while I watched. It’s a pretty wretched little thing, but I think it’s cute. You can make it too to you like! Just go here and print it out