Imagine the Germans Falling Out Of Trees

Whoops. I forgot to tell Ianqui the answer to the joke.

1: So, how to you get an elephant through the front doors of a Safeway?

2: I dunno.

1: You take the 'f' out of 'safe' and the 'f' out of 'way.'

2: Uhmmm, but there's no 'f' in way.

1: Exactly.

Greenery

Pilgrim/Heretic is planting a fig.

Such a wonderful thing reminds me of one of the coolest things that I ever heard about a particular part of my family. My aunt and hubby live in the boonies down in the South. Before they moved to where they are now, they had a trailer and a plot of land. They lived there for years and years. It was a nice comfy casual place.

They were forced out of their comfy causal place by the local government in a very sketchy eminent domain case - there entire neighborhood was leveled to build something neither necesary nor, in my opinion worthwhile. The wonderfulness of the whole little plot of land, and the sadness of its loss came out when my aunt talked about what made it hardest to leave. The trees. For the entire time they had lived there, they never gave each other gifts for birthdays and such. They gave each other trees. I don't even remember how many trees or years there had been, but you could see them in a row, each on taller than the next, showing the slow accumulation of love and years.

All this went under the bulldozer.

The place where they live now is better in every possible way. Uncle has designed and built a gorgeous huge house and the most incredible workshop/barn for themselves, all from the ground up and basically by himself. They have a little creek and some greenery. They've got trees, too.

Going even further back, we had a series of huge evergreens at the earlier home I remember. My sibs told me they were Christmas trees that we planted once Santa didn't need them anymore. What a wonderful idea.

Right now, I don't even have a fern.

So, good luck to you and your friendly fig Pilgrim/Heretic. You both made me smile this morning.

A Saturday Morning Clearing of the Tabs

I keep tabs open with very bizarre pages on them thinking that maybe I'll send the links to friends, or keep look at the pages again, but I rarely do, so I post them here for me to have them for later, and of course, for your edification.

1. The New Trailer for The Golden Compass. Interested? I am. Jayfish told me I needed to read those books and he was right. Fun funfun! Please don't be a bad movie!
2. One of my favorite comics has some of the best tshirts evar. I mean, seriously, look at the library science one. How could you not just giggle uncontrollably all day long if you wore that? The "everything is ruined forever" one is also mucho awesome.
3. I saw some scary things when I was in Japan. Things that damaged my very being at a metaphysical level. Now you can too!

There are a couple more tabs, but those are the entertaining ones. Have a loverly Saturday. (Does 'loverly' show up as correct in your spellcheck too? That's awesome.)

There's Also This

High quality editing. It won't be long until there is no practical way to tell the difference between what people really say and what a video editor wants them to say.

If They Cared, They Wouldn't Turn The Stuff In

In the 'talk to the new TAs' session thingie, one of the other TAs mentioned that it was her policy to work 8-5 and not bring any work home. Does anyone do that? Is that possible? It sound like a wonderful idea.

Today I was going to bring home a pile of grading to take care of and considered if I should or not. It would be very good of me to finish it all and hand it back to the students by tomorrow. It would certainly beat all of my previous records for returning homework. Some students might even look over the homework and end up doing better on the quiz coming up on Monday.

Then again, I would love to just come home and read a book, or play a video game or just zone out and try to make a dent in my netflix queue. That's to say nothing of the work I need to do on my research stuff.

I brought the grading home. Will I grade it?

Not Like Mick Jagger Big, But Still...

I've got a big mouth. It's a bit of a problem, seeing as how I don't like people that much. I guess it's just one of those 'likes to hear his own voice' kinda things.

What brought this to the front of my mind was when I was asked to join a panel of 'experienced TA's' to answer questions to the newer TA folk. The lesson learned is that when you give Overread an audience and tell people to ask him questions, he'll go on for. ever. I mean the others on the panel talked too, but I was quite the chatterer. Hopefully I didn't embarrass myself too badly.

PS - joke from a student:

Q: How do you get an elephant through the front door of a Safeway?
A: You take the 'f' out of 'safe' and the 'f' out of 'way' (think about this one out loud)

PPS - Oh, there is draaaaaama in gradland.

No Cheese with this Whine

I've been told that I need to get off my tush and write more here. Well, not in so many words, but there it is. Frankly I wan't too sure I had any readers left but if you are there still... umm... Hi there! Thanks for keeping me in your reader. I shall endeavor to write more.

Unfortunately today's happenings aren't the stuff of much joy or entertainment.

I did get to go to meet up with the nieces (how is it that I still have trouble spelling that word?) and their hangers-on (that's sis and bro-in-law along with a couple of other tykes and parentals). And I know I've said this before, but it is simply undeniable that these are the two most wonderful children that ever there were. I'd go into detail, but I'm sure you would gag with the fawning and such.

Also, it turns out that my sister and her hubby did a real good job deciding to be parents. They happen to be very good at it.

Of course it could be all different when I'm not around :)

Anyway, the frustration of the post is that I'm sick. It's a cold/flu thing, and I blame Bro-in-law. Actually, he got it from his friend who got it from his wife, so maybe I should blame them. Anyway, the upshot is that I've got a departmental reception (snacks and food and schmoozing) and a dinner (food and booze and schmoozing) invite from a prof that I'm not going to be able to go to because I'm just snotting the place up and nobody needs to see that. (seriously, you guys don't know how close you are to seeing my wadded up kleenex on my 365 photo page)

That wouldn't be so bad, but I'm just awful at being social anyway that I bet nobody even knows I'm in the department. Ick. And my advisor is there. If he remembers me, he'll probably think I'm ducking him. Gah.

Sniff.

I want soup.

Hi There! You Still There?

Well, I don't have any excuse for not posting, except for the fact that I've been exhausted lately. I've been getting up at around 5:30 and going to bed about 11 or 12. And I'm a guy who needs a full night's sleep. So, I'm tired and cranky, but I still feel the need to at least put up a placeholder here.

So, I'll do the traditional thing and present bullets of crankiness.

• The higher ups said that due to horrible budget cuts we must do the very unpopular and horribly unfortunate x, y, and z, and I'm the point of contact between the screwer and the screwee. Ok, I suck it up and try to put the best face on the situation. I explain firmly that x, y, and z are going to happen no matter what, and while we are all very sympathetic, there is nothing we can do. X, Y, and Z happen. The screwees were very unhappy. Then the higher ups suddenly find a way to un-do X and Y. But really it's kind of too late because everyone we wanted to participate has already gone elsewhere. And I'm the guy who now has no credibility and a horde of unhappy screwees.
• running is really hard to fit into this term's schedule.
• My PDA, which runs a program vital for my academic life (really!) made an appointment with Dr. Kervorkian, and I can't seem to convince it that there is so much to live for.
• Unwritten papers...
• Money. Money. Money.
  

Ugh. The funny thing is that I'm such a freakish optimist that I feel I need to balance things out:

• Big Sis (and I mean BIG sis :) ) and fam, including the two bestest nieces in the whole wide world are coming near enough to me that I can hang out with them this weekend. Woot!
• The class I'm teaching is difficult, but very fun and rewarding.
• PDA shopping could be fun :)
  

More o' the Same

OK, I realize that all I seem to do anymore is post links, but well, yeah. That's what I'm going to do again. Things are starting to get crazy over in academic land, but for now it's all link-o-riffic.

First, have you guys seen the Amazon MP3 download store? I really dig it. No digital rights management (although it does have a non-personal watermark), pretty high quality (256 kbps) and, since it's an MP3, you can do whatever you want with it. iPod? no problem! any other MP3 player? no problem! burn onto a CD? sure! copy it to your laptop? why not! Very cool. They still need to get more artists signed up. They do make you use a downloader, but it'll file the new music into your iTunes or your WMP. Coolness.

Ok, other strange and beguiling links:

1. Funny little lego-looking illustrations. Can you recognize them? hover your cursor over the image to get the answers. I did very very badly :)
2. Simpsons scenes and the movie scenes they reference.
   
3. Wacky conspiracy theories - aren't they all?
4. A really strange game from the 'Got Milk' people. Who funds this?
5. Allow the magic of the internets to choose your presidential candidate for you! (some of the questions are a wee bit leading - do you favor torture?)
   

Need Humility? Try this quiz! :)

So, first ya gotta go take this geography quiz.

Then you gotta watch this cartoon. (seriously, I don't think there is a way that I could possibly love this clip better than I do.)


Then take the quiz again.

I still really stunk.

Bookworms

Image from Shorpy


also:

Scrivener-ish book art

For Crying Out Loud

OJ SIMPSON IS NOT NEWS.


Arrrr....

Who Knew?

I live at a university-run apartment complex for graduate students, and last year they occasionally tried to get us all together and forcibly socialize the poor little gradfolk.

It seems that that was last year, this is this year. Today, there was a 'fair' set up for us. Really nice deal. There were about 30 booths out there each with their own branded swag. I got a water bottle, two bags (one from Whole Foods with a box of macaroni and cheese, 2 funky health drinks and some nice coupons, oh, and a tube of coconut 'foot cream.' - eh?). I got cookies and muffins and apples and starbursts.

Oh yeah, the transportation folks gave me a bus map and a combination compass/led light/emergency whistle. Odd.

But still, as Jack Handy or perhaps Brightstar might say, free dummy.

Need Strange Videos? Of Course You Do.

You remember these guys? They would make the perfect librarians.


Beware of flume rides.


If you survive the flume ride, maybe you could go on this game show. Japan makes me laugh.


Funky music video with old revival video


And a link to a table I want. You know, eventually, when I actually have a place to put it.


Added bonus:
Ah, for days gone by in the Oklahoman schoolhouse: fingernail inspection. Optional caption: "You're soaking in it."

I wish this map of all humanity were bigger so I could try to find out where I live.

And finally, the true argument against Star Wars and for Star Trek: despots vs. populists.

Ok, my tabs are clear.

Happiness is...

When I left for Japan, what, like three months ago, I put a bag of dark chocolate M&Ms behind the bottle of pasta sauce.

Tonight I found it.

Joy.

TV Branding

Ah, yes. I forgot. I'm sure you've seen this before, but it gives me great joy:

It's Got Bionics, That's Got To Be Good, Right?

You can watch to first episode of the Bionic Woman and a couple other NBC shows on Amazon Unbox for free. I guess that's NBC trying to dig themselves out of the whole they fell in when they pulled out of their iTunes deal. Anyway, it's pretty hard to imagine a show that I should like more. Geeky, gorgeous woman, tech stuff and nostalgia. Ah, should be great.

It's not.

Just like all the other nostalgia porn out there (Fantastic Four, Transformers, etc...), there's some good in it. I actually do like the main actress a bit. She is pretty, and she also seems to be able to act a little bit, even if she does have a bit of the Keanu Reeves disease (blank, stupified, but easy on the eyes). Hopefully that's just because most of the role in this episode called for it.

The other actress worthy of note is the 'other' women (you'll see what I mean if you bother to watch). She's just awful. I though maybe she was trying to go the cold heartless route, but no, I really think she's just an awful actress.

There is some good geek stuff in there, although I think the 'through the bionic eye cam' looked a little too reminiscent of the Terminator, but hey, maybe that's just me. There was also a nice bit when she's waking up from the surgery that was properly panicky and fairly well-done. This probably had a bit to do with the fact that there wasn't much dialogue there.

The biggest problem is the writing, of course. The things that those poor people were forced to say, the clichés, oh it was just embarrassing. Of course, there's a father-thing plot element. Of course there's a giant government related black-ops organization that's gone wrong with a past experiment on the loose. I'm going to go out on the limb and say that the leader of the group is of -gasp- ambiguous morals and loyalty! Of course, there's a insanely young looks-like-he-belongs-on-the-cover-of-Teen-Beat-Magazine doctor. Why wouldn't our heroine be a down on her luck bartender who just happens to have a genius IQ and knockout looks. Ugh, I could go on and on.

Still, I watched the whole episode. I probably won't watch any more, but it'll probably do ok. After all, this is what passes for female empowerment these days.*

* There was a really strained push for this in the show, too. Bionic Woman is running through the woods next to a road and a little girl in the back seat of an SUV sees her and tells mommy - a stern businesswoman cutout with a bluetooth headset. Mommy says something like, "what did I tell you about making things up." and the little (little little) girl says, "I just thought it was cool that a girl could do that." ugh.

Back at Black Rock

I've been having an odd summer academically. See, I ran off and did something only mildly related to my real studies (but required to get my PhD) all summer long. I wasn't really in a good position to keep going on my own stuff (that's my story and I'm sticking to it). So now I'm back and trying desperately to get back into the groove. I've got a couple of projects on my plate, and I would love to get a little bit of progress, but the inertia of the summer is soooo hard to overcome.

So, long story short, I'm in the library today getting really excited about one of my topics, but realizing that I'm wanting to look in a different direction than I had in the past. I guess it's just because I've been away from it for a little while, but I guess I've gotten a new perspective on the topic. I did want to look into topic A, but now I'm thinking it might be better to look into topics B-F and how they orbit topic A. That seems so much better and even perhaps a little (buzzword alert) interdisciplinary of me. 'Course it also means more work, too. harumph.

In any case, it's time to go home, heat up some frozen pizza and watch some football.

Enter The Roommate

I just got a phone call from my new roommate.* Since I'm still in the university-owned apartment, it's all been handled by the housing department. He's moving in on the 15th, coming from the Great White North. Well, close to the great white north anyway, but still in the US. Anyway, should be interesting. He's a musician, maybe trumpet? Very cool really, but I'm wondering if he'll be practicing in the apartment.

See? It is all about me.

Also, I asked if he was going to need any help moving in. He said that he was going to just be flying in with a couple of bags. I didn't ask specifically, but it seems he's not bringing anything else. Cool to travel light and all, but um... you're going to be here for a while, yaknow? Then he asked if the apartment was furnished. Hehe. Furnished. Funny guy.

* Very fun information. I killed my contract with AT&T and switched over to their Gophone pay-as-you-go plan. So far it's quite cool. I went from ~$40/month to nada. 'Cause, well I don't have any friends who might call me. I just bought a $30 card and all is good (although the card expires in 3 months, which is patently evil, but evil on a scale I'm prepared to accept from a cell phone company). Anyway, I discovered when he called that incoming calls are free. I mean, they should be and all, but still. Bonus cool.

Lonk-o-rama

• Blogging for dollars!
• How is it possible that I never read Twain's version of Eve's Diary? This is wonderful! (also bonus cool points to the Gutenberg Project for including the illustrations)
• Non-link. DVDs are way too expensive. No wonder people pirate.
  
• Completely random, but I love old photos. I could spend hours here, and perhaps only a little less time here.