Minor Link Dump

1. How many people can you recognize in this picture?

2. Wasn't someone talking about hot Dr Pepper?

3. Fun distorted world maps.

4. Weird Yin/Yang Game.

5. A really interesting post (with really interesting comments) on the idea that if the human body is intelligently designed, the job was poorly done.

6. Ans finally, a couple of videos of the same song. I'm not a big fan of the song, but the choreography is quite cool. It starts really slowly, so bear with them.



or, with box-headed folk:

A Quiz, A Quiz, My Kingdom For a Quiz

So, you guys did well, but I was able to get you guys on a few songs last time. Here's the remainder:

1. Pictures Of Matchstick Men - Camper Van Beethoven (told you that one was hard)
3. Somebody to Love - Queen
4. What's Your Name - Lynyrd Skynyrd
10. Stop Dragging My Heart Around - Tom Petty

So let's dive in again! I put this one together pretty quickly, so it's not as devious as the last couple - enjoy!

1.

Well our fathers fought the Second World War
Spent their weekends on the Jersey Shore
Met our mothers in the USO
Asked them to dance
Danced with them slow

2.

Some would say I was a lost man in a lost world
You could say I lost my faith in the people on TV
You could say I'd lost my belief in our politicians
They all seemed like game show hosts to me

3.

If someone else is suffering enough to write it down
When every single word makes sense
Then it's easier to have those songs around

4.

There's a black man with a black cat
Living in a black neighborhood
Hes got an interstate running through his front yard
You know, he think, that hes got it so good

5.

Sitting on a sofa on a Sunday afternoon
Going to the candidates debate
Laugh about it, shout about it
When you've got to choose
Every way you look at it, you lose

6.

Do you remember when we used to dance
And incidence arose from circumstance
One thing lead to another we were young
And we would scream together songs unsung

7.

And even as I wander
I'm keeping you in sight
You're a candle in the window
On a cold, dark winters night
And I'm getting closer than I ever thought I might

8.

I've been waiting for the phone to ring all night
Why you wanna make me feel so good
I got a love of my own
Shouldn't get so hung up on you

9.

Before this river becomes an ocean
Before you throw my heart back on the floor
Oh baby I reconsider my foolish notion
Well I need someone to hold me
But I'll wait for something more

10.

Loving you isn't the right thing to do
How can I ever change things that I feel
If I could, maybe I'd give you my world
How can I, when you won't take it from me

and a bonus that I unexpectedly heard tonight:

Here I stand, the goddess of desire
Set men on fire
I have this power
Morning noon and night it's drink and dancing
Some quick romancing
And then a shower
Stage door johnnies always surround me
They always hound me
With one request
Who can satisfy their lustful habits
I'm not a rabbit
I need some rest

What, Me Advise?

I got a note from a student a few days ago entitled "Thinking about dropping - advice?"

He's a good student, and he's doing fine in the class, but I can see that he's a stressball. He transfered into USU from a community college, and I think he may be still a bit overwhelmed about what he's being required to do in classes here. Added to that, my class is a monster timesink. There's a big classtime commitment and the expectation is that people really need to put in at least an hour at home for every hour in class (aren't all classes supposed to be like that? 20 credit hours = full time student, right?).

So anyway, I asked if he wanted to meet up and talk about what was going on. He said he was really trying to keep a 4.0 is his core classes and my class was eating too much into his other study time. The class is also just hard. It's really not intuitive to most folks, and although it does get easier with time, we increase the speed as we move along.

It's all understandable. Major classes are obviously more important to graduation that mine. He's taking this class because it may help his grad application look better (which it may), but mainly because he really likes the subject. We talked for a long while, and I aimed him toward a few folks that might advise him from a less biased point of view.

I was able to get him to stay in the class. I hope I did right by him, because he's doing fine in the class (and not taking it for a grade), but it's always going to be a timesink.

Long and rambling post, but I'm trying to post a bit more about what's going on in my world, so there ya go.

With Great Quiz Comes Great Responsibility

Well, I guess I got a little overly-excited about the possible return of the lyrics quiz, and I went bit bonkers with the more obscure parts of the songs. If you didn't google to find out what the songs were, perhaps you'll get a kick out of the unguessed answers:

3 - Right Now - Van Halen
4 - Olivia Newton-John - Magic (Reverse skate!)
6 - Dan Fogelberg - Leader of the Band
7 - Phil Collins - Jesus He Loves Me
8 - Pat Bennatar - Invincible

Special points awarded to Zerodoll and Brightstar. Even though you didn't know that I Want to Be a Cowboy was written by Boys Don't Cry, well, I bet they don't even remember they wrote it. Is it still running through your brain?

Your homework is to listen to the songs that you weren't able to guess. Don't like, buy them or anything, but listen to 'em. Ya know... legally and stuff.

So, now that I've got a little bit of time, what say we try this again? Maybe with a bit better balance? :)

1 - Another really hard one to start things off:

Windows echo your reflection
When I look in their direction now
There your face is haunting me
Your face just won't leave me alone

2 - The 'how old are you' entry

Come Friday we'll be jacked up on the football game
And I'll be ready to fight
We're gonna smash 'em now
My girl will be working on her pom-poms now
And she'll be yelling tonight

3 - High on my list for singing loudly and badly

Got no feeling, I got no rhythm
I just keep losing my beat (you just keep losing, and losing)
I'm ok, I'm alright (he's alright, he's alright)
I ain't gonna face no defeat (yeah, yeah)

4 - Ah, bands behaving badly...

It seems that one of the crew
Had a go with one of the guests, oh yes
Well, the police said we can't drink in the bar
What a shame
Won't you come upstairs girl
And have a drink of champagne

5 - Um... Less romantic and more gross

I've got your picture, I've got your picture
I'd like a million of you all 'round myself
I want a doctor to take your picture
So I can look at you from inside as well

6 - How geeky are you?

Standing there alone, the ship is waiting
all systems are go, are you sure?
control is not convinced
but the computer has the evidence
"no need to abort"
the countdown starts

7 - Sing this with a bit of reverb at the end

You're in his eye
And you'll know why
The more you live
The faster you will die

8 - Bonus for spelling

Now you’re the prettiest by far
No party she’d not attend
No invitation she wouldn’t send
Transfixed by the inner sound
Of your promise to be found

9 - Air piano is required here

What does it matter to ya,
When you've got a job to do you gotta do it well,
You gotta give the other fellow hell

10 -

Baby, you'll come knocking on my front door
Same old line you used to use before
I said yeah well, what am I supposed to do
I didn't know what I was getting into

Question of the Week (Perhaps the Month)

(undergrad furiously typing on her cellberry thing): Is it "'abstinence makes the heart grow fonder' or 'absence'?"

And better yet, the question was aimed at me. I feel good that I can help out the leaders of tomorrow like this.

(alternate title: 'Bush's New Sex-ed Czar Speaks')

TMI Theatre

well, now. Looks like roommate got lucky last night. Either that or he's developed a refreshingly unconventional taste for be-sparkled sandals.

Quiz First, Ask Questions Later

No telling how long this will last, but hey, I'm in the mood, so the quiz comes back.

So #4, which Jayfish mentioned was the joyous Talk Talk with It's My Life (or the No Doubt cover which is what I googled up)

So lets try another few, eh? Funny thing is that I'm sure I've done some of these before, but hey, it's not like I remember which ones. I'll try to keep it slightly fresh. Obviously I need to make it a bit harder though, right? :)

1.

Four young chiquitas in Omaha,
Was waiting for the band to return from the show.

2.

Takes him out to look at the queen
Only place that he's ever been
Always shouts out something obscene

3.

One step ahead, one step behind it
Now ya gotta run to get even
Make future plans I'll dream about yesterday, hey!
Come on turn, turn this thing around

4.

From where I stand
You are home free
The planets align so rare
There's promise in the air
And I'm guiding you

5.

People see me
I'm a challenge
To your balance
I'm over your heads
How I confound you
And astound you

6.

He earned his love through discipline
A thundering, velvet hand
His gentle means of sculpting souls
Took me years to understand.

7.

I'll get you everything you wanted
I'll get you everything you need
Don't need to believe in hereafter
Just believe in me

8.

We can't afford to be innocent
Stand up and face the enemy
It's a do or die situation

9.

She's raised on leather
With flesh on her mind

10.

Riding on the chuck wagon,
Following my man.
His name is Ted,
Can you believe that?
(Ted, oh Ted, fighting off danger!)

I sincerely hope that that last one makes you laugh as much as it made me laugh.

Mr Roboto?

Short Term Lodger Dude just left. He's headed off to his new home, happily, hopefully.

After putting him up for 5 days, treating him to lunch at a halfway decent sit down chain restaurant, offering hours of (solicited) advice about how to present at our colloquium, and other various aiding and abetting over the week, he finally thanked me, halfheartedly...

for opening the door as he left.

Now, I know I'm not the best host. I didn't cook dinner for him. I didn't wake him with the gentle smell of fresh roasted coffee or sprinkle the fold out couch with rose petals.

It's not like I think I need to be praised to the sky, I just put him up for a few days, but "thanks?" Is it too much to ask for a "thanks?"

Am I being a prick for being annoyed about this?

If It Were A Quiz, It Would Have Bit You

Ya know what I think we all need to celebrate an extra hour of life today?

A lyrics quiz.

You folks remember these? :)

If not, or if you are a new reader (doubtful, but, hey, I can hope, right?), I'll give you a lyric, and you supply the song title and the artist who sang it. If there are multiple versions of the song, I highly encourage petty fighting and arguments about which is the superior one.

These are mostly pretty easy, I think, but might be fun.

1.

Tonight's the night well make history, honey, you and I
And I'll take any risk to tie back the hands of time
And stay with you here tonight

2.

When we hear the voices sing
The book of love will open up and let us in

3.

Wendy let me in I wanna be your friend
I want to guard your dreams and visions

4.

I've asked myself
How much do you
commit yourself?

5.

All alone I have cried
silent tears full of pride
in a world made of steel,
made of stone.

6.

She said I'm sorry baby
I'm leaving you tonight
I found someone new
he's waiting in the car outside

7.

Stop playing with my heart
Finish what you start
When you make my love come down

8.

I still recall
A sad cafe
How it hurt so bad to see her cry
I didn't want to say good-bye

9.

we were both too tired to sleep.
So we took turns a staring out the window at the darkness
'til boredom overtook us, and he began to speak.

10.

At school they taught me how to be
So pure in thought and word and deed
They didn't quite succeed

I had forgotten how much fun these were to create :)

Zeros For Everyone!

It is so hard to feel any sense of accomplishment after finishing a marathon session of grading. Why? Because there are another two big stacks over there to get through, oh, yeah, that there's more on the way.

grrr.

Well, Now I Know

The plural of 'corpus' is 'corpora.'

Good Chump/Good Samaritan

We, like most schools, I imagine, rely on the skills of overseas students for some of out TA slots. I think we're been pretty lucky in getting some real winners from our department and some stolen from other departments. However, we've got one now who... well, let's say he's not terribly popular amongst the students. That's a charitable thing to say. His accent is heavy, but that's not a big problem. He's just a really awkward person. He really has had a very hard time trying to figure out what US students and the atmosphere in a US class are like.

He's also had about the worst first couple of months in country as possible. One of the least catastrophic things involved basically the destruction of the apartment where he lived. As with most campus areas, there just aren't many options after school starts. Eventually, with the help of who knows what kind of dark mojo, the collective found him a place where he can move in. on the 5th. 5 days after he has to leave the hotel where his ex-landlord put him up.

three guesses on whose couch he'll be sleeping until then?

It's been suggested that I can take this as an opportunity to talk to him about TAing.

Have I mentioned that I don't like people?

This will be an interesting week.

Shame, shame

Oops, I forgot to add a horribly offensive and kinda funny quiz - Fox News Anchor or Porn Star. Submit your complaints below. By the way, I only got 6/10. Maybe I should watch more Fox News? Or more porn?

10K II: The Blisters Strike Back!

Ok, no 10 page post about this morning's 10k, but it was a lot of fun. It was much less hard-core than last weeks. A lot of people had costumes - if fact one of the folks lining up in the fastest ranks for the 5k was Spiderman. Isn't that kinda cheating? I imagine that if they had a urine test, he'd turn up a wee bit hot. There was also a fund-raising walk, and that's where most of the costumes were. I saw a very impressing Opimus Prime, and several assorted cats and such. No bunnies, oddly enough. I guess I should have worn the ears...

The goodie bag was much better though:

quality running shirt - cool
ketchup-sized packet of 'udderly smooth' udder cream - a bit scary. I don't have, erm, udders.
8 cups worth of ground coffee - odd
hideously ugly yellow sweatband - maybe I can give it to someone?
2 strange 'Cashew cookies' - I vote yuck.
Mango Coconut Soy Joy Bar - why did it have to be coconut?
Powdered energy drink stuff - meh.
Powdered 'flavored fizzy drink' - hmmm...
Various ads and coupons - nice, but nothing really useful
A toothbrush - Wha?
2 elastic hair bands - I only wish I had long hair, they're pretty nice...

Minutia of the run:

Best tracks that I added to the playlist (didn't get to them all, but I'm working through them):

• Billy Joel
• Movin' out
• Big Shot
• Pressure
• Tell Her About It
• You're Only Human
• Starship - Don't Stop Believin'
• Sting/Police
• Message in a Bottle
• Can't Stand Losing You
• Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
• Heart
  
• Magic Man
• What About Love
• Smashmouth - All Star
• Steely Dan - Reelin' in the Years
• Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride
• Stevie Wonder - Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Oh, yeah time: 46:22 (ish - my gps says I only ran 9.9k. Did I cheat?)

Self-Portait in Pixels on Monitor

You can play here if you like.

Running in Circles

Another reason why I might have been confused about last week's 10k - There's another one tomorrow. Pardon me while I adjust my running playlist. :)

Colloquium Colloquium Colloquium - C'mon, It Is Fun to Say

One of the coolest things going on this year is a student-run colloquium for the grad-folk. Everyone even remotely related to the study of Gruub in all her glory can feel welcome to come on down and talk shop. Nothing to spectacular there, right? We bring in articles from various parts of the Gruub matrix and talk about them, which is cool, because we get to see what's state of the art in related fields that we've never really mucked about in. Every other week, we invite professors in to talk about what they are working on and such, which is nice, because on no-prof weeks, we can have the more informal talks without the stress of a possible advisor or committee member hovering about, but we've still got them around when we need them.

What's very cool about this, and what makes it better than I thought it would be, is that we've ended up talking about things that we need to know on a practical level that I've never heard discussed openly and freely in groups of academics that didn't involve booze. Not only are we talking about the field, but we're asking, and actually getting fairly important professors to talk seriously and thoughtfully about the politics of (for example) writing reviews ('You cannot write any kind of review, positive or negative, without making enemies' - obvious in hindsight, perhaps, but very good to know). We're talking about the hows and whys of inter-departmental and inter-field-al (?) territorial fights and biases, and because we've got people from so many fields, we're getting a really broad overview. It's a lot of stuff that seems to be generally learned by painful experience.

Last meeting, we had a wonderful knock-down drag-out fight over the implications of emerging broadening and lengthening of copyright laws as it relates to Gruub Studies. How Frickin Cool. And not something that would come up in a seminar except to perhaps feel a twinge of guilt as you run off copies of entire books.

I guess this kind of colloquium might not be a groundbreaking thing, but I've never seen it before, and I'm really impressed how it's working out. It seems to be a very useful way of easing us into the role of academics in a broader way than just writing another paper.

The copyright issue was especially interesting. I may need to do a post or three on that one. What do you folks think? Is copyright helping you more than it hurts you nowadays?

New York State of Mind

Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you guys, I had the perfect New York City morning yesterday. I went out to get bagels for breakfast. There was an insanely long line with only one guy at the counter. When I got there, there was one woman at the front of the line holding everything up while she decided what kind of shmear (schmear?) to put on her single untoasted plain bagel. 5 minutes later I got to the front of the line and got a real quality NYC scornful sneer from the counter guy. Then, as if it couldn't get better, I moved to the cashier line where the guy in front of my was texting War and Peace on his blackberry. He would type, and the counter intelligence folk would tell him how much he owed and then he would finish his sentence and the ask how much he owed before digging around in his pocket for change. After handing over the change he started typing again, only to be interupted by the CI guy trying to give him his change. The them proceeded to finish typing that sentence before putting out his hand to get the change. Then he didn't move. I had to basically elbow him out of the way to get to the counter to pay for my bagel.

I guess if I were a New Yorker, I would have cussed him out and told him that I was walking there.

Bonus New Yorker-tude: (Although actually, this is very par for where I live.)

I was running this morning and headed toward a crosswalk. A giant Fuck-The-World SUV was coming my direction, but making a left turn (toward me). I had the light, so I went into the crosswalk, with my eyes locked on the driver of the Screw-The-Planet SUV (I've been in this situation many times). Naturally, she looked me in the eye and proceeded to make the left hand turn into my crosswalk. As I have been trained when approached by wild animals, I puffed up my feathers to appear larger than I am while spreading out my arms and waving them at the idiot in the I've-Got-Money-And-No-Soul SUV. She got within 5 feet or so before slamming on her brakes and gesturing rudely toward your correspondent for daring to follow the rules of the road and have the gall to impair her ability to ignore the world around her. I have to say, that horrible piece of Offense-Toward-the-World SUV has good brakes though.

Welcome to the Anti-Social

I am very much not a social person. I don't really like people that much, see? However, I'm trying to be more sociable, especially for academic stchuff.

So I did go to the big Gruub Studies-related umbrella group gathering tonight. Yes, I did mainly mingle with folks I already knew, but I did get introduced to a couple of new people. I even stayed slightly beyond the standard mandatory 'enough time to eat, listen to the introduction and remarks + 5 minutes."

Important people saw me there, which is probably good. I got free-to-me snacks, which is definitely good. All in all, not a bad deal.

Also, a decent idea from another gradfolk: Keep a sportcoat in the office so when there is a speaker or other gathering, you can just throw it on and look a little more respectable. Maybe I need to look into this.

Can I Try Today Again?

Wednesdays suck.

I'm teaching a 10am and 11am class. Then I've got a 12pm Japanese class followed by a 3 hour seminar at 1pm. So, you read that right, 6 hours straight of class. Today was even better because I had a presentation in the seminar on a topic that I don't really grok. In the seminar of course, we spent more time on other material that I not only don't grok, but also didn't prepare. When we got around to my presentation, there wasn't enough time, so I had to rush through it.

To recap: I'm tired. I didn't teach well, I wasn't able to turn in some homework for Japanese, I looked like a complete idiot on the seminar material we covered and I didn't have enough time to even try to make up my ignorance with a mediocre presentation.

I might also add that there is a Japanese test tomorrow, too.

Guh. Feh. and Bah.