Just FYI

Quick Note

Just dropping by to leave a quick note to wish everyone a very pleasant Global Orgasm Day.

Boo!

In honor of the discovery of the title of the upcoming Harry Potter book (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), I, having myself nothing worthwhile to present, pass on a link to some fun drawings.

Enjoy.

Quiz Dump!

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
Philadelphia
The Northeast
The South
The Midland
North Central
The West
Boston
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

You paid attention during 97% of high school!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

Do you deserve your high school diploma?
Create a Quiz

- Grrr... I want to know which ones I missed >:(

What type of person do you attract? Your Result: You attract geeks! Your stunning intellect and love of sci-fi and video games allures the geeks like nothing else. Maybe it is the sparkle in your eye that makes them want to text you, who knows. Geeks make good partners, but tend to be arguementative. If you are a TRUE geek magnet, you will know if that was spelled correctly, and actually care. If it is a bad-boy/bad-girl you are seeking, you are barking up the wrong tree, unless they are just 'bad' behind a PS2 console.
You attract Yuppies!
You attract artsy people!
You attract models!
You attract unstable people!
You attract rednecks!
What type of person do you attract? Quizzes for MySpace

Link Dump

Oh, yeah, I forgot:

• Cool physics game - the dots are attracted to the balls, so get out there and move those balls! (and you can make up your own joke there, I can't be bothered)
• The return of You Don' t Know Jack! - Do you guys remember this? It was a really funny trivia game many moons ago, and now it's back. I tried a few and the new ones seem pretty funny
• Movie scenes made out of stationery! How many can you guess? I got 12/20. That's an F.

Also of note. I actually was social and went out for dinner last night! Woot! Yea me!

Time Cop-Out of the Year

Ok, Ok, I know I'm behind the news-cycle with this one, but as I'm sure everyone has seen by now, the Time Person of the Year is out, and it's 'You.'

Har har, clever clever.

I see what they mean - as a bulwark of the "old" media, a magazine is going to see the disturbance of the YouTubes and blogs and their aggressive watchdogging and raking of muck that is aimed not only at the standard targets of such things like politicians and movie folk and such, but at all media outlets as well. So, yeah, it would be silly to deny that there isn't a big shakeup going on. Bush's forged military records, Howard Dean's scream, panty-less coke-crazed attention whores - none of these would be what they are without the "new" media.

But I'm still not sold that impact is more important than, say Rumsfeld, Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong-il, or Hugo Chavez.

I'm not saying that their choice was unfounded. Hell, it's their magazine, they set the standards.

Feh, I guess it's a good thing I don't buy papers or magazines anymore. They're all online, don'tcha know?

Holiday Meme!

From Jayfish, Zerodoll, etc...

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate? Nog is nice, but Chocolate is the best. My only trouble is that I can't drink hot drinks unless the weather is actually cold. I'm a human furnace.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Are you kidding? Santa? Feh! I'm sure it's the elves that do all the real work.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Many colors, I think. Different kinds of lights too. I like the little bubbling ones.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nah, I'm not too big on parasitic harassment inducers :)

5. When do you put your decorations up? I put up my decorations, oh... never. Maybe when I have a real place of my own?

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? White trash moment here. I love the canned cranberry sauce. Ya know, the kind that keeps the shape of the can - hehe.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? The anitipation. Always the anticipation.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I'm with Zerodoll - I honestly don't know. I've always been a cynical guy, but I also am easily deluded. I can't remember. Maybe I blocked the memory?

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We used to do a little of both.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Don't have one :(

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? LOVE IT. It may be a function of living in snowless places for awhile, but snow is the best! Building forts, snowmen, caterpillars (for those to lazy to pick up the snowman pieces), it's just the bestest.

12. Can you ice skate? Never tried really.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Geek moment. Mom got my brother and me the Vic20 with a drawing pad. Soooo cool. We loved it so much we promised we would only use it for school - hehehe liars!

14. What's the most important thing about the holidays for you? Getting together with family.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? All of it?

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? hmm... we don't really have any set traditions... maybe we need to start some...

17. What tops your tree? A better tree? Hmmm I can't remember right now... Angel start-thingie?

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? You need 'em both, now dontcha?

19. What is your favorite Christmas song? I like some of the old crooners doing the classics

20. Candy canes? Striped. What? Was this the free-association question?

21. Favorite Christmas movie? Honestly, all the old ones are ok - Rudolph, Wonderful Life, etc... I'm not sure I really would go out of my way to watch any of them. They're just all on, you know? so I watch some... Oh, I'd be remiss not to mention A Christmas Story. Because, you, know, he's going to shoot his eye out.

Edited to fix Zerodoll's link

Another Brick in the Mall

Yeesh. It's been a long time since I've been at the mall. random comments:

• Lots of creepy people hanging around at the back of the video store looking at Japanese cartoons
• The video store - weird. I guess it's been even longer since I've been in a video or movies store. Haven't they already been eaten up by iTunes and Borders yet?
  
• mannequins... um... what the hell is up with their boobs? I realize that surprise at the sexualization and commercialization of children is pasee, but holy crap! If the store is selling clothes to pre-teens, I don't what to see nipples, thanks.
• Do people really buy all those cell phone cases and accessories? By the look of the dude next to the little cart there, I can't imagine business is brisk.
• There was a Wii set up at the games store. It actually looks like a lot of fun.

Outstanding.

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.

from The Little Professor

Fascinating....

Is there anything more fascinating then the internets when there is work to be done? As in work that needs to be done tomorrow? Stumbleupon is an evil evil creation. It just sits there on the toolbar begging to be clicked. What will it bring? Pretty pictures? Funny stories? Outrage of the day? Wacky Japanese porn? There's no telling! Big money, big money, big money.... STOP!

Also - new record. My first grade complaint within hours of the grades being posted. USU students seem to be quite focused on the numbers. Sigh...

Sooooo tired.

Link Dump

• Rules for the table. Don't you dare talk to Rocheal (this seems to only apply to Becka - she's the weak one, I guess)
• More proof of my ignorance. I got a 48. I have no hope to get anything in Africa.
• More proof of my geekitude. Peanuts and Marvel Superheroes mashup.
• Excerpts from They Call Me Naughty Lola. My favorite?
  
• "To some, I am a world of temptation. To others, I'm just another cross-dressing pharmacist. Male, 41."

Sunday Haiku

Weekend? What is that?
Eternal grading. My paper?
a binary dream.

The Perils of Love

A Switch in Time

There's a minor ick at USU (Urban Sprawl University - You like?).

We're planning out the next course in the series that I'm TAing, and we had all the times and dates down, so I let my students know which classes I'll be TAing so that they can avoid me next time or (god help 'em) choose to take the class with me. Anywhoo, it turns out that now I'm going to have to switch class times with another TA due to the other TA having a seminar that must be taken. The seminar time was TBA, but now it's been A'ed, and it conflicted, and I'm the only other TA that can cover the class that X is going to have to give up. In return, X is going to take one of my classes.

So, no real trouble except a minor inconvenience, right? Well, not so much. Naturally, all the students had to lock in their class choices early, and many chose based on the times I told them. See, I know I'm being less than kind here, but even though I like the other TA a lot, I'm finding it hard to answer my students when they say, "So how X as a TA?" 'Cause the thing is, well, I'm not sure I would want to take a class from X. Some of this impression of X as a TA is subjective, but some of it is fairly well-founded.

I tell them that X is a great person, but I haven't sat in on X's classes, so I don't know what they're like. That's all true, but it's a bit disingenuous.

The material for the classes will all be basically the same, but we're given a lot of leeway and have a huge impact on the class, and I'm sure part of this is overstating my own abilities and blindness toward my own faults, but I'm worried about my students.

On the other hand, there isn't much I can do but try to steer them toward other TAs if the can switch, and if they can't switch, well... Harumph...

10.16mi - 1:17'15"

New route today. Actually kinda nice run once I got to the grassy part. Sadly, to get the grassy part, you have to run through about a mile and a half of sidewalks and crosswalks with balky crosswalk buttons. hmm... Still it was an out and back run that I could take longer, and it was pretty flat, so I'm sure I'll find use for it.

More Random Video-age

A couple of Benny Hinn Classics to get you chuckling on a Saturday night/Monday morning:

Another Fine Mess You've Gotten Us Into

See? I went out for a short run, but I just kept running.

8.57mi - 1:02'41"

New PR for that route.

Thanks blog!

Edited to add: Thanks Profgrrrrrl! :)

Feeling Very Lazy

The main reason I'm posting this is to say that I'm going to go running. That way I will face shame and derision if I don't. 'Cause I don't wanna. I want to nap. I want to read non-required books. I want to watch TV. I want to eat. Anything but work or something that resembles work. But, alas, I oughtta (one t or two?).

So, much like Profgrrrrrl posting lost items so that they might find their way home, I post because I have to create my own peer pressure.

Maybe I'll just do a shorter run.

8.64mi - 1:03'02"

'Nother run. I felt a little tight in the beginning, but eventually started to want to stride out a bit. Ended up with a slight quickening of my personal best for this particular route.

I think it's summed up nicely by the immortal words of George from the Blackadder (WWI) series:

Up diddly up, down diddly down, whoops, poop, twiddly dee - decent scrap with the fiendish Red Baron - bit of a jolly old crash landing behind enemy lines - capture, torture, escape, and then back home in time for tea and medals.

Chuckle Chuckle