Big Mouth Bass, Without the Guitar

I think I mentioned a long time ago that we've got a Gruub Studies Colloquium. The way it works is that every week we invite a professor from a related field - sometimes only tangentially related - to come and present some state of the field stuff. We get to find out what the hot issues are in a whole lot of areas that ordinarily we would have to dig through a heap of 'other' people's journals to get to. So yea! All for the good.

So, I've got a bit of a problem. Those of you who know me already know about this. No, it's not that my hair sticks up all the time. That is a problem but it's not the one I'm thinking of right now. Keep on topic!

I've got a big mouth.

I love talk about all sorts of anything. Especially if it's something someone else is really passionate about. Especially if I know nothing about it. You can see how this colloquium works well for me. Even though I don't always finish all the readings, I'm almost always game to ask questions.

So, since we've got a new clutch of gradfolk this fall, we're trying to get them interested in the colloquium and the whole community that we're trying to nurture. Having a big blabbermouth at the table doesn't really help in getting them involved in the discussion, so last week I decided to sit away from the big table against the wall and force the newer folks to sit up at the adult's table.

I tried so hard to not talk as much, but... but... the topic was really cool! and there were serious problems. Problems that oooonly I could bring up (insert Underdog theme here). Well, obviously that isn't true, but the effect was as one might expect. I talked nearly as much as I always did, but I had to talk over the shoulder of one of the new folks.

Karma bit me in the tuckus, too because they assigned me to lead the discussion this week. Our visiting scholar just happens to be a certifiable gen-i-us (that's better than a regular genius). He's also very exacting. And he's from a field that I know even less than usual about.

I just finished reading all but a couple of pages of the reading.

I've got about maybe 20-30 minutes of questions.

I need to fill two hours.

Here's hoping for a rousing rowdy colloquium! (and a few more questions before we meet tomorrow)

When They Came For Coffee, I Did Nothing

Note to dude on the bus trying to be all sneaky in drinking his forbidden coffee by going all ninja and ducking under the back of the seat to sip:

Smooth. Very smooth. And hilarious too.

Handwriting, Wringing

Sorry if the size of those things break your browser. This might warrant a click over to flickr for a more readable size.


This was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Blogstyle writing doesn't seem to enjoy being put into script.

Cooking With A Little BAM!

You know what's appetizing? What's appetizing is when you are making a nice big mug o' smoothie goodness - ya know? With a nice vanilla yogurt base, and yummy farmer's market strawberries, blueberries, grapes and some pineapple for a bit of zing - Oh, it was going to be delicious.

Was going to be, see. 'Cause when I started the blending on with my little smoothie blender, everything was fine, but a couple of minutes into it, I tried to shake it around a bit to chop up that last clump of recalcitrant strawberry, something started to smell, well, electrical-y. And as my dear personal friend Alton Brown might say, that ain't good eats.

Zap pop! and a quick unpluging later, I had a partially smooth smoothie and a mildly aromatic mini-blender. I guess that's what I get for buying cheap, eh?

I have to admit though, it was still pretty yummy. The smoothie, not the blender.

Allez Distraction!

Is it endearing, or simply sad that I still think I can read a couple hundred pages while Iron Chef America plays in the background?

Why didn't I turn it off? It was Battle BEER. I mean seriously, I'm only human.

Ugly Silly and Antogonistic

I don't get the U-S-A chants at the McCain/Palin rallies. He was talking about Obama wanting to raise taxes, and the crowd started shouting U-S-A. What is that supposed to mean? Did they just get their wires crossed? Did someone accidentally light up the U-S-A sign instead of the 'Boo!' sign?

The real pity is that I really like McCain, or at least I liked Senator McCain. I really don't think I like Candidate McCain.

This is what I do when I should be working. I just wish there were a better channel to watch than CNN. Ugh.

Stamped

Post Office "Express" doesn't mean what I think they want it to mean.

The 'express' bit I mean.

Because it was slow.

And thus, not fast.

I sent off a rebate. Any bets as to when/if I see anything back?

I'm Relieved

to discover that I am Senator McCain's friend. It seems that we all are.

Gah-dvertising

I'm sorry, is Bud Light advertising it's 'Drinkability?'
Really? Are they saying that the other beers aren't drinkable, or, as I might suggest, there is confusion in the marketplace about whether or not Bud Light is drinkable?

Ok, googling for that clip, I discovered that many other people are puzzling over this campaign, so I guess there not anything more to say but maybe those really bad beer companies should save a bit of money by not hiring ad guys. They are obviously as bad as your beer.

So, have I played into their hands by talking about their ads?

Memo to dude in the main campus cafe bathroom:

I'm sure I could spend a long time trying to figure out why you were standing in the middle of the urinal area with you shirt off. I mean, ok, I could see that you were casually texting away, but, well, why? I guess that's my question.

To make this shorter than it could be, I'll simply add: WTF?

Sincerely,
Overread

As dictated, with full knowledge of the joyous juxtiposition, on my new Blackberry. With all my clothes on. As far as you know.

Abs Workout

Hiccups suck.

They suck so bad I want to spell it hiccough like back in the old-timey days.

Also, why isn't my oed subscription letting me sign in so I can see if there are any other cool spellings of hiccup?

That is all.

Famer in the Dell

You simply have no idea how delicious these taste. Sorry to tease you about that, but it's true. I've started doing a lot of blended fruit drinks, and today it was time to hit the farmer's market to get all sorts of yummy stuff. So far the biggest winners have been the peaches and the pineapple. I've got high hope for the berries and grapes I got today though.

Also, the bed got delivered tonight. It's big and beautiful. I nearly feel like an adult.

Don't Give It To The Bradys

Been playing around a little bit with carving, and here's the result so far:



Let me tell ya, symmetry is just evil.

Should I Go With The Princess and the Pea Reference, or the Bedbugs Biting One?

Just a quick note to say that I really hate mattress salesfolk. They're pretty much of the same ilk as car salesfolk.

But even more of my ire is reserved for the mattress retailers on a larger scale. Why? Well, I didn't know, until I really looked into buying a nice mattress, that there is a different name for each mattress at each mattress store. How evil is that?

Grr... No real reason for it but to make it harder for me to comparison shop. And the sad thing is that it's not that I didn't comparison shop, it just made me angry at the people selling the product.

I seriously considered building a chart to make sense of the equivalent mattresses because I couldn't really find one online.

Oh, I'm going the latex one. It sounds weird, right? a latex bed? But it's not the kind of latex that you see on those websites you visit at night (I know you go there, don't claim you don't). It's more of a foam thing. Weird, I know, but it's supposed to breathe well and not be as warm, and it certainly seemed comfy enough.

Only time will tell.

Your Early Morning Recommendation

I was wandering around the campus bookstore, looking at the required reading for classes that I wish I could take, and I ran across this:

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

It's a graphic novel about a young Iranian girl coming of age during the revolution. She was old enough to start in a French school before the crackdown began, so she tries to figure out who she is right as others begin enforcing the religious laws.

Anyway, it's just wonderful. I ended up buying it and reading it last night (and the second volume, which is just as good).

There is supposed to be a movie out too, and it looks pretty wonderful. I think that's going to go on the old netflix queue

Thanks Tivo, Thivo

Alright, So I got a Tivo not so long ago, and let me just say that yes, I love it. Yes, it's wonderful, and yes, I don't think I'll ever had a TV without one. Right? Right. Ok. Now then.

What is the hell are all these ads doing all over my Tivo? Most of them are just menu items like the stupid Land Rover one that's been there on my main menu forever (If Tivo knows so much about me that it can record things I like, it should not that there's no way in the world I'd buy a Land Rover even if I could afford one).

Then there's the 'would you like to participate in marketing surveys for our commercial partners' one. Well, no. no, I wouldn't.

But those, as awful as they are, are pretty ignorable. Nothing too egregious. This morning, I wake up and look through to see if any of the AFI top 100 movies were added overnight (very cool service that), and the little antanaed black box decided that I needed to watch an infomercial. I thought for sure it was a mistake. Maybe I accidently hit the record button before I went to bed. Nope, there was even a title to the infomercial saying that this infomercial was specially prepared for Tivo watchers.

Thanks Tivo, Thivo. (You really need to watch that clip, and perhaps many more from the "Look Around You" series, like I did, wasting an entire morning.)

Tivo forums info

All I Want For Christmas

So here we go with an attempt at stream of consciousness blogging. Only got a few minutes before I need to be on the bike headed to campus though, so let's all gather together and let our bars low.

I did finally get the last bit of my dental maintenance work yesterday. I discovered that since I am actually in town over the summer and I do actually have insurance (The guy in the commercial has it right - it's not really insurance, it's more like a coupon for X% off - and my X was pretty low. Can someone explain why we still don't have a national health plan again?), and since I actually do have enough cash to pay for it, I might as well go in to the dentist and get things taken care of. A root canal, two crowns and a replacement of all my old fillings later, I'm a new man. Or at least an old man with some new teeth.

I'm pretty happy with the results really. I think I prefer my fake teeth. I'm not sure what the benefits are to real live teeth. Why not get them all knocked out and get new ones put in? Anyway, I no longer have those metal fillings, so my teeth are actually a kind of uniform shade of yellow. Hooray for modern science. Also, I never understood that dental work really is supposed to be without pain. My new dentist actually made sure I didn't feel any of the work. wow, eh?

hmm... dental work. Not a very thrilling post, but a post is a post, and hopefully I'm back on my way to being a functioning blogger.

I Am Here

I hear everyone asking whether I'm still around. I am, I am, I'm trying to put together some posts.

I need to get back in the habit, so I'm going to try to just post some random garbage here (you are saying the earlier stuff wasn't garbage?) until the words start flowing again.

I don't have anything right now, so I'll give you a freakishly realistic spider that will walk around your browser page.

Press space to feed him insects.

Cinematic

Can you guess all these movies from just these letters?

gah - I only got fifteen

Long Live the Fuwa!

Man oh man do I loves me some Olympics.

Regardless of what you think of the Chinese government or the rise of nationalism among Chinese youth, or any number of other disturbing trends, I can't imagine many would say that that wasn't an incredible opening ceremony.

No content here, just a hooray for the games!