Things I Don't Care To See

And yet I saw and heard them today:

• Going to get a bit o' caffeine this morning, what to my wandering (wondering?) eyes should appear, but a man kneeling and bent over on the ground as if in prayer. With his pants around his ankles. full moon. And lets say charitably that he hadn't... washed... much recently. By the time I got out of the store, there was a man talking to him, telling him that the cops were on the way and he might think is wise to skedaddle. The pious gentleman screeched, "I can pray here! I've got every right to pray here!" As I left, the gentleman was prostrating himself again and pulling his pants down further. It was also pretty cold.
• I grabbed lunch on the way to class, and had a few minutes, so I sat down to eat near a couple of young men talking to an much older woman. My first thought was that it was probably a prof talking to a couple of undergrads - cool. I love that. That wasn't it. the woman became very agitated and started in on the men, making it quite clear to them that being Jewish wasn't going to do them a lick of good when they were in hell, because that's absolutely where they were going and only by accepting Jesus as their personal saviour... I have to admit I tuned out after that. By the time I finished my lunch and headed off to class, she had accosted a few other students in the area. She avoided me. It's not that I'm not grateful, but I wonder why?
  

Now I'm home and it's not late at all, but I just feel so exhausted. Everyone I know is sick or getting sick out just getting better. I don't feel sick at all just very very tired. Perhaps this is my body's warning to take it easy. So I'm going to curl up with a book and some tea, and rest. Maybe sleep. Who knows.

No Fair

Newspapers should not be allowed to reprint the crossword puzzle from yesterday, accidentally or no.

Hooray for a Mental Health Day!

Today was very fun. This weekend, I'm only 125% behind schedule instead of the standard 200%, so, rather than catch up on Saturday and Sunday, I took a mental health break today. It was a bit of a journey, but I headed out to a Major Metro Museum! yea for museums!

I generally go to museums alone so that I can hover over things that I like and not worry about other folks getting too bored. It was a good thing today, too. The main big touring exhibit they had there was very underwhelming to me. I wont go into details, lest I blow what's left of my cover, but it was a fairly big to do about a name most of you recognize - and aside from a few interesting pieces, it felt pretty flat. Eh.

On the up side, their permanent exhibit was very yummy. One of the areas that I would have loved to see was closed for remodeling, but there was a nice European Renaissance and Medieval section as well as some really kick-ass South and Southeast Asia stuff.

Most entertainingly, the permanent exhibits allow photography. Joy!

So, if you are inclined, take a browse of my flickr stream, and if you recognize the place, don't out me. Just reply smugly in the comments - You could also help out tagging :) I always forget to take notes, so, I get confused and forget who folks are. For those who know me, I put up full size versions of the photos on the other cooler-than-flickr website, so you can go there too if you like.

Oh, Taft. Taft, Taft...

I installed a 'How'd you get here?' thingamajig over on the side there and it says that someone found this place by searching for 'Taft.'

Oh, yeah. I think I'm going to turn this into an all Taft all the time channel. I think Clearchannel can get me the music for that, right?

Several With My Pseudonym on Them

Random bullets o' joy

• >2 grad students in any gathering outside campus = juicy gossip. Seriously, I mean, he did what? I can kind of see why she might be like that, but that person over there has no excuse. Oh, yeah, how did he get accepted? Lastly, it is a bit disillusional that she thinks we all agree with her. I don't think anyone does. Catty, catty, catty.
  
• This three day weekend is brought to you by the letter 'G.' G as in grading until my eyes pop out because I haven't been grading in daily steady chunks like I should have been.
• I took an incomplete on a paper in the fall, and I need to get it in in the next few weeks. It's not anywhere closer than it was at the beginning of winter break. Also, whatever enthusiasm I had for the topic is completely gone. That's a job for tomorrow-me.
  
• The marathon may be off. I tweaked my leg a little bit and am not able to put in the mileage I need to. I feel a bit disappointed, since I did buy the 'In Training' T-shirt, but I guess that's not a lie really. I am in training. I just might not run it.

Feh - that's all for now. Time to make the donuts. er.. Time to get back to grading.

Boar-ing

Just a quick note to wish one and all a happy year o' the pig. It's a golden pig, so it's supposed to be a great year for having babies, making money, just about anything. I know, I know, they say that for every year, but I'm sure this time they really mean it.

Just remember to change the year on your checks (does anyone use checks anymore?) - it's the year 4705, in case you hadn't been keeping track.

I've checked, and we oxen are supposed to have a great year - fortune, love and happiness and all that, and all I can say is that it's about time.

Check out your upcoming year here or here, I have no doubt that either site upholds the highest credibility that can be given to any astrology website.

It's also worthwhile to go and see a chubby new-year space baby handing flowers to the moon-rabbit with a panda in the background. He's here about halfway down the page.

Make Money At Home!

You guys know I'm always trying to help out, right? So I've got an invention that will make you billions of dollars. Because I'm a little busy at the moment, I'm giving it to you to develop and make your fortune. In return, I ask only for a ten percent from the gross.

Here's the idea:

So, if we can get a V-chip in the TV that is supposed to block out violence in tv shows, the next obvious step is to implant tags in programming - violence, sex, adult language, breaking news, information that may upset your worldview of the US at the center of the universe, etc... This way, your TV or TV or whatever could check these tags against a master list of user-defined no-fly list. For example, if I like the old new Star Trek, but dislike Wesley Crusher, even though my Tivo or Media Center knows to record it, I can tell my tv not to allow him on my screen.

The reason I think this would be a good idea, and the reason I would buy it, IS TO GET BRITTANY SPEARS AND ANNA NICOLE-SMITH OFF MY F(*&^ING NEWS. There is nothing even remotely newsworthy about the legal struggles of her newly shorn newly tattooed corpse.

Until this invention is put into wide practice, ummm... if Ted Turner, or the someone in charge of programming from CNN is watching this. Please, for the love of all that is good in this world, repeat you yourself, "it's a news channel, it's a news channel , it's a news channel."

At Least the Taft Coin Should Be Bigger

Ok, I really love the idea of a dollar coin. Heck, I'd even be for a two dollar coin, but I have to say I'm a bit disappointed in the way that the new dollars are being produced.

They're the exact same size, weight and shape of the Sacajawea dollars for a few years back. Wasn't the main problem with the blasted things that they felt too close to a quarter? So won't the new coins have the same trouble? Yes, yes, I know it'll make using old mechanisms in vending machines a little easier, but I don't see that as a viable reason if the thing dies out ina couple years anyway.

Why not change it up a little bit? ridges? larger size? thicker? The one pound note has a wonderful heft to it. Heck even the old half dollar coin felt very different. Where did those go, anyway?

Also, I think probably the only way they'd really catch on is if dollar bills were drastically reduced (or taken out of) circulation.

I still hope they work out ok, but yeesh.

(by the way - if you even become a comedian, Taft jokes always kill.)

To Err is Vista

No, this isn't the full rant, because I haven't gotten my head around all of the issues with Vista yet. Short version - just like everyone else is saying, don't upgrade until the first service pack. Unless you're buying a new computer, then go ahead and get the whole shebang all together.

I just wanted to provide you with my favorite of all the errors I've gotten go far:



I want to give it out to students.

Alphabet Meme

From The Scrivnitical Scrivener:

Memetical Alphabetical Meme.

As a side note, I'm listening to the God Delusion on audiobook, and he's pronouncing the word meem. I guess that makes sense phonetically, but I always thought it was mem. Sounds weird. meeeem. meeeeem.

A- Available or Single? Not only available and single, but also desperate!
B- Best Friend? I always thought it was kind of cruel to have one best friend (read: none)
C- Cake or Pie? Piecake
D- Drink of Choice? I go through all varieties of diet sodas in embarrassing quantities.
E- Essential Item? The internet tubes
F- Favorite Color? I like nice deep colors - usually greens
G- Gummi Bears or Worms? Gummi Bears - they're easier to stick on your forehead
H- Hometown? Yes.
I- Indulgence? Huh?
J- January or February? Not much difference really... I like where there is no weather, mind you.
K- Kids and names? Nope
L- Life is incomplete without...? Self-replicating DNA? Oh, personally? Let's be cliche and say growth.
M- Marriage Date? The future, I hope
N- Number of Siblings? One of each flavor.
O- Oranges or Apples? Both and more
P- Phobias/Fears? Just the standard ones, I guess. A little bit of heights and such...
Q- Favorite Quote? - "Why not?"
R - Reason to Smile? - I smile all the time. Nervous habit I guess. I also just happens that I'm generally a happy guy.
S- Season? I favor fall
T- Tag 3 people? You, you and you.
U- Unknown Fact About Me? Hmmm... I guess I'd need to know what you already know about me first...
V- Vegetable You Hate? I don't think there are any vegetables I hate really. I've never rushed to eat mushrooms, but they're not evil or anything. Pretty good on a pizza anyway.
W-Worst Habit? Procrastinating (blog-related?)
X- Xrays You've Had? dental ones a few times
Y- Your Favorite Foods? I'm a southern boy at heart I guess - fried foods, Mexican food, pizza - add in a dash of mild funkiness- Ethiopian, most Asian foods... hmm... Let's go ahead and say I like food.
Z- Zodiac? I get frustrated by people who buy into this for more than amusement's sake, but I find it funny. I'm a Leo Ox - said to be boring and stolid and reliable.

edited to fix a missing Q and R

I'm Sorry Dave. I Can't Do That.

Now, I was going to write a lot about the troubles of Vista, however I found a new toy that I want to play with first. Vista comes prepackaged with a voice recognition software, and naturally that’s geeky enough that I would want to play with it. So I’m writing this blog post solely using my voice. It’s actually a lot of fun especially telling my computer to open and close windows, to open and close programs, etc. I have to say I like being able to command my poor little desktop, ‘open firefox’ and have firefox open with a whoosh. Parenthetically, I had to teach my computer how to write firefox as one word and how to spell whoosh just now.

Granted, it still isn’t entirely natural. The corrections take quite a bit of time, and punctuation is a bitch, (it also didn’t want to understand “bitch”) but the documentation says that the software will slowly get to know my voice better and better. For example, when I taught the computer to say firefox as one word, it suggested that if firefox was a proper noun that the software would learn to work better if it had a recording of life away saying quote firefox quote. I’m leaving that quote firefox quote in there just because I’m having a hard time convincing it to print out a quotation mark.

So all in all the system is certainly not good enough yet to be used on a day to day basis. That is unless it learns very quickly. Anyway it’s fun to play I guess.

Yawn And Stretch and Try To Come To Life

I'm trying to get up early and take care of things so I'm not rushing out of door at the last minute with the toothbrush still in my mouth.

Today's my first real trial - so far so good. I got up early (~5:30), went through all my emails and rss stuff and finished a bit of reading I needed to get done before heading out for a 8 mile run (1:07'16").

I'm back from the run now and all I need to do is go over my class preps and I'll be off! And I've got about 3 hours to do that - plenty o' time. (knock wood)

The fun thing is that I'm covering another TA's section today as well as my two sections. I'm a bit nervous to have to deal with another teacher's class. It feels adulterous somehow.

Anywhoo- off to wash the sweat off and get ready for the day!

(on a much less chipper note, look for an upcoming rant about Vista issues - short story: I like Vista, but it wasn't completely ready, and I'm not sure it could have been)

El Corazón

The Countdown Meme That Never Ends.

From the Luckiest of Buzzes

10 Firsts

1. First best friend: Chris. He lived right over the fence from us. Well, that is, you had to go into our back yard and over the fence to get to his house. He, his brother, and me and mine pretty much grew up together. Oh, the stories of wounds and wonder. He's a respectable member of society now with a wife and child (one? maybe more). Ah, and I'm... I'm still in school. sigh...
2. First car: For about $500, I was the proud owner of a '78 or '79 Chevette. Ah, she was a beautiful thing. Just the right car for a first car. Great to learn standard gears on because it wasn't too much of a tragedy if the transmission fell out. Dings and dents didn't matter much. It had the hatchback where I could put just about anything. And later on I even got some nice speakers and a good radio to listen to my Rocky Horror Picture Show Tape - and Billy Joel. I think those were the two that got the most play. I was truly sad when it finally had to be put down, even though I was far away at the time.
3. First love: Let's go waaaaay back and not fret about the word 'love,' shall we? Maybe 1st or second grade? What was her name? Tracy something? I remember letting someone cut in line at the water fountain with the sole price being that he had to say that we made a good couple. She even kicked me under the lunch table. Ah, to be kicked...
4. First vacation: Absolutely no idea. I know we went to Washington state once. And one of the Disneys, but I don't remember any of it. The first one I remember vaguely was a trip into the woods where a relative had a cabin. There was motorcycle riding that I don't think I was a part of. There is also a picture of my brother who had fallen asleep in his scrambled eggs. Excellent.
5. First job: First real job was working at a non-big name pizza place. I was in high school, but everyone else there was was much older and with only a couple of exceptions, very down and out. Most were pretty bad potheads and worse. I didn't know how to deal with that whole scene. I still don't, really. Oh! I forgot! There was one before that at Sonic. Wow. Can't forget that one... yikes... Sonic... Great drinks and tater tots though.
6. First piercing: Still don't have #1. It'll probably stay that way barring some accident.
7. First concert: This horrible Christian rock band that came to school (no need for that pesky constitutional seperation where I grew up). It was horrible. To be honest, I don't think I've been to a rock concert since. Maybe I was horribly scarred.
8. First record/cd bought: hmmm... I don't know about the first one I purchased by myself. My dad had all kinds of music when we were growing up (we being my brother and sister and I, not my dad - he was pretty much grown up by then. Although that might be debatable). It's funny though I remember having a record player (red white and blue plastic) that my brother would play his records on - Candy Girl was the best. Maybe I didn't have any records of my own.
9. First real love: Ok, I tried to dodge this 'love' word in #3, but I guess I'm not getting away that easily. It was Vanessa. She was a gorgeous goddess in tight sweaters. She also strung me along like a master.
10. First screen name: Smelly Rat. Oh god, was it Stinky Rat? I forget. Hey, back in the single line dial up BBS world, it was cool I tells ya!

9 Latest

1. Latest alcoholic beverage: The snakebite - half cider and half lager. Yum, but dangerous
2. Latest car ride: Taxi ride back from the airport after the holidays.
3. Latest movie watched: My Super Ex-Girlfriend. Ok, ok, ok... Jayfish and Zerodoll already give me enough grief about my taste in movies, but I hope you understand that I thought this one was really awful. The sad truth is that I really thought I might like it. (geeeeeeeeek!)
4. Latest phone call made: Call to the pizza place last weekend. - Yeah, yeah, I have no friends.
5. Latest jacuzzi bath: Back at my old place at old university town with the ex-girlfriend. Many moons ago.
6. Latest played cd: I don't really play CDs anymore. ummm... I guess I had to re-rip a Best of Sinatra CD a few months ago- does that count?
7. Latest time you cried: breakup with ex-girlfriend.
8. Latest meal: I made some soft beef tacos tonight - ok, but not thrilling (I'm glad this didn't say "Last meal")
9. Latest curse: Curse like hex or curse like damn? Either way, it's been a while. Well, I don't think I've ever really hexed anyone. Unless you could D&D. Which you probably shouldn't. I say mild curses sometimes, but I don't usually go off on things like that.

8 Things You Wear

1. Jeans - way too often
2. Dr Martins - but only when it's cold enough (sorry wintry blogfriends, but it's too hot here for me to wear them now)
3. A whole slew of solid-colored button-up shirts
4. Nike something-or-other+ shoes with the cute iSweat hidey hole
5. not boxers, nor briefs, but boxer-briefs.
6. very rarely a Old University sweatshirt
7. even more rarely an Even Older University ballcap
8. Helmet (only when riding the bike though)

7 Have You Ever
1. Dated one of your best friends: Well, yeah
2. Been arrested: Nope - dragged into the police station for busting christmas lights from the tree in the park, but never arrested (curse you Nathan! - ooo there! I cursed someone!)
3. Fallen in love at first sight: No, not really
4. Been in a TV program: no, I am in the background of Powder though - even met Jeff Goldbloom too. He looks a lot like Jeff Goldbloom.
5. Had your heart broken: yuppers
6. Said you love someone without meaning it: I don't think so.
7. Made a prank phone call: Nah, I don't even like listening to others do it. They're usually pretty cruel, really.

6 Things You’ve Done Today
1. laundry (see my 365)
2. attended a lecture that I didn't need to, but am really glad I did
3. handled an hour-long office hour visit (which is cool - I don't like it when no one comes to office hours - this student was a good one, too. Looking for help but not helpless, more than willing to work, and just wanted some extra time with the material)
4. played video games for a little bit
5. cleaned out my email inbox - well almost entirely. I got it down to 6, which is a huge thing for me.
6. Made taco-stuff while watching TV (dirty jobs - not appetizing, but funny)

5 Favorite Things (good lord, does this meme end?)
1. My family
2. Gruub Studies
3. geek toys
4. hunting for new photos to take
5. When I say something that makes my advisor excited (yes I'm that emotionally needy)

4 People I Can Tell Anything
1. This will be exactly 3 people - sis, bro and mom. So to make 4, I'll add myself.

3 Choices
1. Black or white? Grey
2. Summer or winter? Winter
3. Chocolate or chips? Same thing - stupid question.

2 things to do Before You Die
1. GET MY FREAKING PHD! (and a job...) (kept verbatim from Luckybuzz)
2. find someone to live my life and have a family with

1 Thing You Regret
1. I'm never sure about regrets. I think things have worked out well the way they have, and even painful parts of my life have been incredibly useful and fruitful.

And luckybuzz's addition:
Something you could happily do an infinite number of times:
Well, keeping clear of the obvious mind-in-the-gutter answers, I'm not sure where I could go with this. I generally don't reread books or see movies more than once. Hmm... Let's say post strange blog-memes and leave it there.

Runs, iPods, and Bears - Oh My!

Full disclosure - there are no bears mentioned in this post. Except that one.

Well, first off, I haven't been publishing my runs recently because it got a little when there were more run posts than other kinds, but I am still running. The marathon is coming up, so I'm increasing my mileage a little bit. Today I made a big move and ran about 14 miles. I didn't even really think about it until I got home. That's more than a half marathon. Yea me!

See, the thing is that I should be working off of one of those charts that tell you how many miles you should be doing to hit you goal time when you do the marathon, but frankly, I'm just aiming at finishing safely. If I can do that, I'll be just fine, thanks. I am looking at the charts though, just to see by what kinds of increments it's safe to increase mileage, but that's about it.

Anyway, my legs hurt.

Beware - Here begins a huge rant and venting of steam.

On a related note, iTunes and iPod are getting on my last nerves. The only reason I caved and picked up the iPod was so I could use the Nike+ system (which is actually getting better - they just added route mapping - yea!). I immediately was unhappy with the way that iTunes wanted to control my library and not let me listen to my music like I actually owned it. I bought a couple of tracks from iTunes, but then realized how restricted the usage rules were. I mean, yeah, I could strip the DRM if I wanted to, but I'd like to be at least mostly legal. The iTunes selections were ok, as long as you only listen to music in English or Spanish. And so long as you don't want to listen to the Beatles (although that too is changing I hear). Oh, yeah - and the playlist system seems to be completely broken - I tried to put a couple of podcasts together on a playlist for today's long run. Cool, until it just repeated the first podcast and wouldn't let me skip forward. And of course you can't actually choose your music during a run - only playlists or shuffle all. And don't even get me started on how every month or so I have to reset to factory settings because the silly thing just decides to not turn off any more, or the fact that I have to politely ask iTunes to eject it before unplugging it, lest the poor little iPod brain completely frazzles (in fairness, these last too problems may be related). And finally, it seems a little disingenuous for them to say that iTunes doesn't work well with Vista. They had plenty of time to work out the bugs - heck I was using Vista months ago. It just seems like they don't care. They know you're hooked in. It's like they want you to believe that it's Vista's problem - just another example of how Vista doesn't work. And while I'll admit that Vista has plenty of problems (including the DRM system in question), the fact that iTunes doesn't play iTunes purchased music looks to be mainly the fault of iTunes.

On the other hand, I really liked the podcast support in general, which I hadn't used with my last MP3 player. And it is a really gorgeous piece of hardware, too. I look back at that last paragraph and perhaps I've been a bit too venomous. It has actually done mostly what I wanted it to, and with a little research, I probably could have found out about all the problems before I bought it. I just really wanted it to be as wonderful as everyone else seemed to think it was.

As a side note, I'd been using the Yahoo Unlimited Service to stream music based on my tastes, but because of iPod's moats and battlements, I couldn't move the subscription music to it and listen to new music on the road. Now Yahoo is falling apart too, so I guess I'm heading over to Pandora until I can find something better.

Wow. That turned into a lot more of a rant than I thought it would. I guess I was repressing all of that. Or maybe it's the testosterone rush post-run and pre-Super Bowl. Hm.

Huge long boring post, but here's the upshot - The rumor mill says that Nike is going to push out a new watch that'll let you bypass the iPod altogether. I'll buy that. Then I'll get a MP3 player that doesn't shackle me to a player. Heck, even the Microsoft Plays For Sure would be better than this because they license it out. That way you get options in hardware and in software. There are no options with the iPod. Except color.

Don't worry though, I'm not buying a Zune. I may be frustrated, but I'm not crazy.

A Great Loss

I hadn't read her articles is a long while. They always seems hard to get to online, but she was one of the funniest and bravest political writers there was. Never could someone be so angry and yet so full of happiness at the fact.

She will be missed.

Molly Ivins
Her latest columns

Her old home, the Texas Observer
Her Syndicate's Obit
NY Times obit
Best of from the Texas Observer

January in Photos

From my Photo365 blog:



Billie did this over at the Parts-n-Pieces' Project 365 blog and I really liked the idea, so I stole it.

I'm afraid my analysis will be less clear and insightful though. I have found it difficult to keep shooting, even when, or especially when, I'm not feeling inspired. I think it has helped me though. I am looking with photographer's eyes more often during the day and I like that a lot (and I promise I'll give them back eventually).

The thing is, I was never sure if this was going to be a photo journal of my daily meanderings, or a photo project to push myself to look for new pictures in familiar places. I think it's becoming both, even though I think it might be more rewarding if I focused on one or the other.

As for the photos themselves, it seems clear that I like patterns and graffiti. I'm trying to find new angles and perspectives, but many fall short. In particular, I'm disappointed in the candle shot. I really thought it would me more interesting. I'm a sucker for a cheap laugh and use food as comfort.

hmm... Maybe that should be my personal ad.

Little Boy Blue

Funny, I haven't taken a bluebook exam in a really long time. Those bluebooks are a lot more expensive than I remember. I'm not that old am I? Seriously, I thought they were about a dime or something. Shows what I know.

The text was particularly nerve-wracking. It was an undergrad course outside of my department, so it was kind of strange - like I was an undergrad all over again. Except I'm old. And there are a handful students that are in the class and the class I'm TAing. Awkward.

Like all tests however, it passed. As generally is the case, it was neither as fearsome as expected, nor was I as prepared as I should have been, but such is the human condition.

Rinse, wash, repeat.

And He Prepared Hecatombs...

Thank Ye oh, generous spirits of the interwebs. The dongle is returned once again to its rightful place and all is well.

'cept it's too late to run now. Thanks anyway 'tubes.

By the Pricking of My Thumbs

I call forth the powers that flow through the tubes that serve as the foundation of these, our internets.

Where'd my iSweat dongle go?