progress reports...

#1 - Check it out... 277 words and I've only written the section titles followed by "Text to be written". And because so much of the discussion of gravity will revolve around Einstein and General Relativity, I can keep big chunks of the timeline, glossary, and reading-list from the last chapter I wrote! Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose!


#2 -Nearly 800 words of actual writing now, and I'm not even to the city yet! Of course the reason I'm not in the city yet is that I got on the wrong frucking train - a late local that was pulling into the station near the time that the express I wanted was scheduled. So here we are... stopping every 300 yards in New Jersey. Still, I'm quite happy with the way words are flowing into the chapter... good stuff. I'm leaving lots of gaps to fill in later, but it's fun just to spew words.

#3 - 1100 words at the station. If I do that again on the way home I'll be 1/4 done.

semi normality...

Today that is. I'm on the train, although it's an afternoon one, which always feels a little 'off'. I'm heading into the city for a meeting... science department stuff. The meeting is at 3:00... who knows how long it will last or whether people will want to grab dinner or drinks after, so... I have no idea when I'll be home.

This past weekend was just fucking tiring. Our babysitter for the postponed anniversary fell through (fairly serious family medical emergency) so we still haven't seen the Da Vinci Code. We spent all day cleaning instead. Yesterday... ugh... it was hot, hot, hot. We went out for the local Memorial Day parade (daughter was marching w/ the Brownie troop) which ended at the park... hung there for a while.... god... by the time I got home, I felt like my brain had been sitting in a bamboo rice steamer all day. Is there some way to "train" yourself to ENJOY being outside, so that 4 hours in the sun doesn't make you feel like a puddle of goo? I was wrecked for the rest of the day. The only productive thing I could muster up the strength to do was to drag all three window ACs up from the basement and install them. I hate to get into the AC habit when it's still May, because once they come on once, they come on every day, but... fuck it's just too humid and nasty this week.

Anyways, for this train trip I plan to begin outlining my next book chapter. It's on "Gravity" and the target length is 8000 words. Longer than the first one. And I have 2 weeks to write it. Fucking hell. So, I hope to get the structure and a few key paragraphs and transitions on the page today. I have some new music ripped from the library to keep me lucid (Michael Penn, Emmylou Harris, Keane, Lyle Lovett) so... we'll see how that goes.


My posts are getting spaced 3 or 4 days apart laterly... I feel like I should just go crazy with the blogging and write a giant entry today, but there's really not that much going on. I should just write a bunch of short entries and hold onto them and post them on days when I don't have time to think or to write. Or I should go back to my old 1999-2001 online journal and flag entries to repost here. Only one or two people would notice!

Ok. Off to write about gravity...

summer bloggin'...

(... happened so fast.)

It's that time of year again folks... summer vacation - when Dave's weblog entries get shorter and more infrequent. Unavoidable. It's the nature of the business. Summers are just different. And in a weird way - busier than the semesters. Housework and kids and trips and all that.

(I'm in a little ticky-tacky café in the suburbs, and I think the guy at the table over there is on the phone with his "bookie". Do people even have "bookies" anymore? Bizarre.)

Anyway, I'm glad to have today and a couple of days next week to get away. Today I plan to finish up the corrections on my Einstein textbook chapter. (And maybe outline the next one!) Next Tuesday I have to head to NYC for an afternoon meeting w/ the science people. And Thursday, I'm heading into the city again to catch a show at a small club near where i work. It's a little weird... I've never been to a club show in Manhattan. I don't know what to expect. I don't know what to wear. I worry I'll be unable to enjoy the music while fretting over being Not Hip Enough. Perhaps the alcohol will help with that.

In the past two days, my conference plans for the summer have gone from two conferences to NO conferences to maybe one conference to maybe two conferences again. Travel funding at this university is a mess. There are about a half dozen sources of funding, some of them top-secret, and none of them connected. It's just a nightmare. Anyway, I'm not paying $700 out of my own pocket to go to Syracuse and give an 8 minute talk at 10:00 at fucking night.

Anyway - it's 10:00 AM right now, time to get to the Einstein... it would be nice to be done by noon so I can go home and take a nap.

no longer am I limited to creeping out women in my own country...

I'm becoming obsessed with Skype.... just randomly chatting with people all over the globe. I just totally got hit on by some chick from Mexico. (At least I think she was hitting on me... my Spanish is pretty rusty. Thank god for Google Translations.)

I'm disappointed that so few people seem to use the voice-chat features, though. I mean... what is the point of TEXT chatting with women in the UK?? I'm an accent-fetishit, dammit. I can't help it. And I'm not even talking about "dirty talk" (because God knows... I'm horrible at THAT!) I just like talking to people who say "rubbish" and "innit?". Is that so wrong?

because you can't celebrate without a babysitter...

Yesterday was mine and my wife's ninth wedding anniversary. We celebrated by agreeing to put off celebrating until Saturday. Who says having kids takes the romance out of marriage?

(PS> We also postponed The Sex because we were just too tired after staying up to watch the Lost finale on the TiVo. Imagine how exciting our 20th anniversary will be!!)

update...

wife got home at 9:00 last night. i finished the last of my grading and entered final grades at 11:15, with 45 minutes to spare before the deadline. i was too exhasuted to even rejoice in the accomplishment.

dave and mimi riff on the latest pop culture meme...

doctordave: Thanks for the preview of the evening wedding, btw. My brother is getting married at 7:00 PM on a Friday in a few weeks. I'll remember to bring snacks. (And the thing with Nora's commentary to accompany the ViewMaster...? LOVED that. The Viewmaster Deluxe Boxed Set - with "Making of" reel, deleted slides, and special commentary track!)

mimismartypants: BRING FOOD

mimismartypants: SPECIAL DINOSAUR-SHAPED FOOD THEY'VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE. NOVELTY ITEMS

doctordave: ooooooh. clever.

doctordave: I've never been to a wedding at a Fundamentalist Whackjob Church before... I wonder if there will be hollerin' and speaking in tongues? "Do you take this woman - OODAH maYAAADAH KAMANDAYA - to be your lawfully wedded wife? AMEN???"

mimismartypants: maybe snakes!

mimismartypants: Snakes at a Wedding!!!

doctordave: Someone call Samuel L. Jackson!

doctordave: "And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee! AMEN??"

mimismartypants: You may now kiss the bride!

"... and an A for YOU... next...?"

Well, it took until the last week of the semester, but a few students in my Modern Physics class figured out how to guarantee themselves an "A" on an assignment from Dr. Dave. One student opened her final paper on "Quantum Weirdness" with a quote from Carl Sagan. Another student... with a quote from Yoda!

Congrats, kids... you've cracked the code.

whole new ways to waste time...

I did grade a little today, but I also...

1) Spent an hour working on a science fiction short story that I intend to submit to a nerdy sci-fi magazine this summer.

2) Entered a contest to win a new iPod from some kind of "Stop Hunting Whales" organization. The contest involves composing a song using remixed-actual-whale-noises. (It didn't take long... I already had a Vangelis-like piece in GarageBand from last year that was just begging for some genuine whale sounds in the mix.)

I'm quite proud of both of these accomplishments, as they represent a whole new level of fuckoffery.

crisis #167 of the day...

My daughter is in this hysterical tantrum phase right now.... it's veeeeery pleasant. On days like this I feel lucky that all the loud rock music I used to play has attenuated my high-frequency sound perception, or I'd probably find her even MORE unbearable.

day #1.5...

The kids were pretty good last night, and actually played together fairly well, but that was only a HALF day for me, since they were both in school during the day. Today is the first FULL day of Dave's No Backup Weekend. It started off QUITE badly, with 3 all-out screaming tantrum fits before 8:00 AM. (Not counting mine.) But luckily I've gotten rid of one of them for the day. Thank god for neighbors with similar-aged playmates. I may take the boy out later to meet up with them at the park, but for now I'm letting the big glowing screen work its magic.

they call it "commencement" because it NEVER ENDS...

It really FEELS like a "graduation day" today... just perfectly sunny and springtimey. A beautiful day to put on a long black dress and sit in a stuffy auditorium and try not to fall asleep.

dave is a girl...

The wife and I are very into Grey's Anatomy. It came along just in time to rescue us from the suckfest that ER has become. And it's following a very similar pattern to the early years of ER. We were very into ER in the early days - BC (Before Clooney left) - and I recall having a similar realization a couple of seasons in. Because, as a guy, they keep you distracted with all the medical drama and "GSWs" and guys with pieces of re-bar sticking out of their chest just enough so that it takes you two seasons to realize that - "Hey... wait a minute... I'm watching a fucking SOAP OPERA!!" Well, Grey's Anatomy doesn't even really try that hard to hide it, but still I've only recently realized that the target audience for this show is actually 19 year old girls. And yet, I'm into the show enough to feel the need to share my opinions of it on my blog. So... here we go...

1) Meredith is a whore. And Derek (McDreamy) is a dirtbag. No amount of good hair and manly stubble can make up for what an asshole he is. Two weeks ago when he caught Meredith with the vet and then got all pissy with her at work the next day and gave her the - "Not now, Meredith" cold shoulder, I was actually unable to control myself and yelled - "Fuck YOU!" - at the television.

2) I can't believe they fucked again in the season finale. Bleah. I hate them both.

3) If George fucks up this thing with Dr. Torres, and goes back to pining after Meredith Grey, I swear to God I will figure out some way to kick his fictional ass. I will write a fanfic if I have to. Because seriously... Sara Ramirez is about a hundred times hotter than that weepy, vague, squinty Grey.

4) I totally knew they were going to kill Denny... I had been warning my wife about it for weeks. And yet it still got me all misty-eyed, dammit. (Although I wasn't clutching a literal fistful of Kleenex by the end like a certain someone else in the house. This show has her number so bad, it's scary.) And the weird thing is, the last time I almost cried at a TV show was in the episode of Weeds where Mary Louise Parker has her first big night out and instead of hooking up with someone she goes home and sits on the bedroom floor and watches an old video of her and her dead husband having sex, and the look on her face... god, I love Mary Louise Parker. But, the weird thing is that her dead husband is played by the same actor that played Denny. (I think he plays someone dead on "Supernatural" too. He's got the Dead Guy market cornered.)

5) Are they really getting Alex and Izzy together again next season? Yuck. I hate him. I don't care if he did pick her up in the end all Prince-Chraming-like. He's still a dick.

OK, that's enough for now. I can feel what's left of my manhood slipping away as I type. I should talk about "Lost" instead. They are promising some "answers" in the finale. I'll believe it when I see it. I assume they'll reveal who the Others are... I'm assuming they are Dharma Initiative scientists dressed up in Robinson Crusoe Drag. And they are obviously testing Walt for some kind of psychic powers, but it's unclear what else they are up to... rounding up the "Good Ones" as Henry Gale put it. (I wonder if he was telling the truth about Locke?) I wonder if we'll get to see inside their hatch?

The other big mystery to me has nothing to do with the SHOW, per se... it's more "meta" than that. I can't help but wonder if the real reason that Anna Lucia and Libby got offed this season had anything to do with their recent DUI arrests in Hawaii. Don't drink and drive kids, or your TV writers will have you shot!

Shit, I'm supposed to be grading right now, not recapping TV season finales. I'd better get on that.

something of an accomplishment...

Exams...? DONE!!!

I still have a mountain of homeworks and papers to sift through, but I should have no problem hammering those out by next Monday. (There will be a lot of this... "check, check, check, yep, check, check...")

In other news, graduation is tomorrow. I have to wear a fucking suit, don't I? Or at least a tie? Damn.

if i double it, she still fails...

Ugh... I need to take a break from grading when somebody gets a 26% on the final. It takes the wind right out of my grading sails. I mean... at least it wasn't someone who was "trying". (Spotty attendance at best.) But even the C students have clearly learned SOMETHING. But to leave a final exam half blank? What a complete waste of a semester... it makes me angry.

urgh...

In a syllable pretty much sums up how I feel right now. A party in the middle of grading week is a very bad idea, and the vodka and cranberry juice I had with my graduation cake about an hour ago was an even worse idea. The chance of any grading getting done on this train is infinitesimal indeed...

It's been a very long day.

I'm gonna close my eyes briefly on the off chance that I'll wake up in 10 minutes feeling revived and refreshed and ready to grade physics finals.

one down...

Astronomy exams graded. Good results... 3 A's at the top, 2 not-too-horrifying D's at the bottom, and a nice solid cluster of grades around 85%. Now I just need to sustain my momentum.

money griping...

I suppose the weekend was what one could call productive. I finished laying the wood-laminate floor in the guest bedroom downstairs. (It looks gorgeous... must post pictures.) I finished the tile ceilings in two closets and made significant progress on the third. Things are now clear for the trim guys to come back and do the moldings and doors. We're still hoping for an early June finish date for the basement. If we can find the money to pay for it all.

We found out that the original price quote for the basement did not include the doors and trim, so that's gonna cost us an extra $1200. (I think we're getting fucked, btw.) There's about 600 sq. ft. of carpet that needs to be installed, so... figure another $2000 there. We want to install a swingset in the backyard before summer gets too far gone, so... that's at least $600. We've decided to expand the deck in the back to the full width of the house to provide a space for the hot-tub that we dragged up here from Alabama and has been sitting like a big fucking white-trash lawn ornament at the end of our driveway for almost a year now. The quote for the deck was $2300. We want to put up a fence before summer is out... who the fuck knows how much that is going to cost. It's getting a little ridiculous on the home-imporvement front. I've been trying to advocate for a gradual, measured approach to getting it all done, but the wife wants it done NOW!!! Luckily she's got a lot of freelance work right now and is pulling in $4000 this month, and I've got the book deal, which will give me close to $3000 extra by the end of the summer. It kinda sucks to have it all spent before I even SEE it, though.

Anyway, now is no time for griping about money. I have grading to do. I'm going into the city today for student presentations of their senior projects, then a science department end-of-year party at a colleague's house in Brooklyn. I'll be getting home late as all hell. I can't count on being awake enough tonight to get much done, so I'd better get at least ONE stack of exams graded on the way in this morning. I'm not terribly stressed about grades... yet. I have a whole week to knock them out. But I do need to get something done every day this week if I'm going to make it.

So... off I go...

the nerd booklist...

By popular demand, this is the list of titles I am currently wading through in my science pile. I don't read these as linearly as fiction, so I tend to be in the middle of several at once...

"The Ancestor's Tale" - by Richard Dawkins: I'm down to the last 20 pages or so. This book was fucking awesome. If you have even the slightest interest in evolution, you should buy it.

"Genesis - The Scientific Quest for Life's Origin" - by Robert Hazen: I borrowed the PDF of this from a coworker and decided it was good enough to buy. (You can't really READ a whole book as a PDF.) Anyway, when I teach astronomy I often find myself wishing I knew more about origin of life research to help when we talk about life in space, and this seems like a good readable treatment of current research.

"Einstein" - Albrecht von Kantthinkzenofhisnamzen - A big, thick, definitive biography of Einstein by some guy with a big, thick German name. I hate bios as a rule... I'm only reading this as background for the book chapter I'm writing.

"Revolution in Science" - by I. Bernard Cohen: An important work in the historiography of science that I'm reading for my "What is Science?" class in the fall. It examines and challenges the idea that so-called "revolutions" actually occur.

"The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" - by Thomas Kuhn: Regarded by many scientists as THE definitive explanation of scientific progress. It was Kuhn who coined the terms "paradigm" and "paradigm shift".

"Reading the Book of Nature" - by Peter Kosso: I generally despise philosophy, and cringe at any talk of "epistemology", but I kinda have to teach the shit next semester and this seems as good an introduction as any.

"Science and Religion" - A book of essays about...well... duh. The subtitle is "are they compatible?" and the conclusion of every essay I've read so far is... "Ummm... NO!!"

"Making Modern Science" - by by Peter J. Bowler and Iwan Rhys Morus: An overview of the history of science that is in-depth and fairly scholarly, but still pretty readable. I'll probably use this as a textbook in the Fall.

Anyway, it's pretty clear what topic I feel the need to brush up on this summer, isn't it?

new books! new books! new books! new books! new books!

(Sorry. The phrase "new books" always puts me in the mind of Paul Schaeffer c. 1990)

So the wife and I drove to Connecticut today for the "Scholastic Warehouse Boooksale"... a whole fucking warehouse scattered with 50% off books. We spent $105. That's a crapload of books.

But I'm pretty set for the summer now as far as summer-fiction-reading goes. I always try to put aside the science-geekery for a little bit during the summer and read some fiction and/or littra-chaw, and this is what I have lined up so far...

"jPod" - by Douglas Coupland, which comes out next week and I'm REALLY excited about because it's over 400 pages and sometimes his books can be really short and I wait for 3 years for them and then read them in an afternoon.

"Dharma Bums" - by Jack Kerouac, because this summer it'll be exactly 10 years since I read "On The Road" for the first time. I was alone in Switzerland for a week and I found it really depressing.

"Dune" - by Frank Herbert, because I have an embarrassing Dune-hole in my geek cred.

"The Subtle Knife" - by Philip Pullman, because I read the first book in the series and it didn't suck, and when that happens I feel compelled to read the whole series until they DO start to suck, and sometimes even that doesn't stop me. (See Rice, Anne)

"The Historian" - by Elizabeth Kostova, because I heard a story about it on NPR a year ago, and NPR can make anything sound good. I don't even remember what it's about, except that it sounded kinda like the Da Vinci Code... only with Dracula.

We'll see how much I actually get read. I could list the NON-fiction titles I have piled on my nightstand as well, but... that would be a much longer and much more boring list!

in which dave's good mood is broken by a sudden revelation...

This is it. Last day of classes... one more exam and...

Oh shit. I haven't even started writing the exam I'm giving at noon today!

I guess the relaxed and chatty blog post will have to wait for the ride home.

better than looking like a physicist...

A tall, not-unattractive chick in military surplus pants just sat across from me on the train, and almost immediately out of nowhere asked me if butterflies were vertebrates. I don't know if I look like a biologist, or if she saw my copy of "Revolution in Science", or if someone with this sort of laptop just looks like he would know the answer to that question, but she seemed to accept my answer of no, and then offered no further explanation or engaged me in any further conversation. I was too stunned and befuddled to inquire any further regarding her seemingly urgent need for this piece of information.



At the next stop, some people got off and she moved to a less crowded row...



I guess I'll never know the whole story of the Butterfly Girl. I think she may have been stoned.

not the BEST way to start the morning...

I overslept a bit this morning, (if my daughter hadn't wet the bed, I'd probly still be asleep) so I had to rush out the door without performing my usual morning ritual of checking my email and preloading my RSS blog feeds to read on the train. So I have nothing to read on the train. Which is fine, I guess, given that I have two exams to write. No worries, though... the sample questions are written, and I only change about half of them for the actual exam.

Two exams today. One tomorrow. Two graduations next week. (One for my sub-college, one for the University.) Another semester wrapped up. Well, except for the grading and the two students who are requesting incompletes, and...


Anyway... at work now. Exams done, but for some diagrams. it's getting closer.

and a cheap t-shirt at that...

I hate to sound like a techno-snob or anything, but really... it's a simple fact of life that if you are walking around Manhattan listening to a Rio or an iRiver or a Lyra or some kind of Sony portable radio thingy, you might as well be walking around wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the phrase "TOO POOR TO AFFORD AN IPOD"

Sad, but true.

evidence...

... that it's the last day of classes, and Dr. Dave just doesn't care anymore...

i'm sure the crickets will enjoy the talk...

I got my acceptance letter from AAPT today for the conference at the end of July. According to the letter my talk is scheduled for 10:10... PM!!!! I'm hoping it's a mistake. It really seems like a waste to drive all the way to Syracuse to give an 8 minute talk in the middle of the fucking night.

sweet holy mother of fuck...

... but my legs hurt today. This weekend's Big Project was the installation of the Ikea laminate-hardwood floor in the guest bedroom downstairs. Which pretty much amounts to two 8-hour days of squats and deep-knee-bends, interrupted by brief interludes of swearing at the table saw. It looks nice, though.

My wife and I broke from the home improvement long enough to go out on a date on Saturday. MI:3... eh. Not too bad. That fat guy from Capote is creepy as all fuck. Although not as creepy as Tom Cruise. I don't think I can watch him on screen anymore after all his recent Scientology-Kool-Aid-fueled crazyness. I can't see him as any kind of "character" other than Crazy Fucking Tom Cruise. Not that he's ever really played a character, I guess. Anyway, we also went to dinner, which was awesome.

Sunday we went to the mall so my daughter could get her ears pierced. My wife felt compelled to either say "no" or make some kind of big deal about it, until she realized that she really didn't care, so we went ahead and did it. Although the Boy's announcement of "I'm going to get MY ears pierced when I'm seven too!" didn't go over as well. I suppose I get some of the blame for that one.

I got my one stack of term papers graded on Friday. The tip of a very, very large iceberg. The next two weeks are NOT going to be fun.

Speaking of... I should really get to work. I have two "sample exams" to write today. Which really wind up being 75% the same as the actual exam. You'd think that would help, wouldn't you?

mixed blessings of connectivity...

I came to my coffee-house place today to grade and the owner informed me that he had wireless internet access available now. Which of course completely defeats the purpose of my patronizing this place to get some work done. But the call of the wireless is irresistible, so when I got my tea and sat down at a table, I fired up the laptop and tried to find the network. It showed up in my menu, but every time I tried to connect I would get an error. Which of course totally pissed me off, even though I didn't want to be fucking around online anyway.

Never, never happy...

(PS> Oh, hey look... it works now!)

the latest from ratemyprofessor.com...

"Looooovvee him. Such a great teacher."

Yeah, yeah... they luuuuuurve me. Still no "chili peppers", though.

Hrmf.

teaching stuff...

Today is the last day of new material in any class. I really have no idea what I'm doing. I suppose that's a fitting way to end the term.

I'm meeting with my one "Senior Project" student to discuss her writing style and suggest some edits for the final draft. I am absolutely the worst research mentor ever. My philosophy is - do the work and come talk to me if you have any problems... otherwise I'm not going to bother you. Which means I've met with this student like... TWICE the whole semester. In retrospect... more should have been done.

I was talking about this with someone yesterday via email. There are things that students need to figure out... "process" related things, that I really have no patience for teaching. I know they don't know how to write papers as well as they should... I know they need help with learning how to do research and how to write drafts and do revisions, but... urgh. HATE IT!! I have a colleague who is one of those people that lets students just submit draft after draft after draft of a paper... Jesus Christ, I can barely find the time to grade my student's papers ONCE.

I actually spent a good chunk of time last night browsing back issues of a publication called "The Teaching Professor", which on the surface looks like a very helpful little magazine full of practical teaching tips. And yet every time I saw an article with a title that sounded interesting - something about assessment or group work or classroom strategies - I would read the article and my reaction would be - "Phblpbplt!" I should start my own academic newsletter. I'll call it - "The Apathetic Traditionalist".

But quite honestly, I really worry about this course I'm teaching next semester on the history and philosophy of science. It really can't work as a lecture course, and I am SO bad at running discussions. I have no patience for "open-endedness". I don't have any faith in any of the tools of "circle time" or really any sense of what do do when things are going poorly. I have a whole toolbox full of lecture techniques and so always I tend to fall back on lecturing whenever the cricket-sounds kick in. I know I should broaden my repertoire of teaching strategies. Maybe I need to find some books or something.

I'm having quite a few minor crises of teaching philosophy lately. One of the issues that nags at me the most is the question of where to set "the bar" when it comes to the demands I place on students. I feel like all of my courses are lacking in rigor compared to my colleagues. Some of this is by necessity, and by design. I teach at a liberal arts college, and one with no traditional science majors. So I'm not called upon to teach Physics 101... with all the vectors and trigonometry and problem solving. Instead I teach this historical-survey courses, which I think are interesting to teach, and interesting for the students, but every one of them seems like a course for freshman. The problem solving we do is minimal and seems tangential. The homework questions and papers I require are mostly "factual" with little or no synthesis or analysis. And every semester I think I'm going to do more, and when I do it always winds up being something of a disaster.

I dunno... I'm rambling now. It's the end of the semester so I'm feeling "reflective". I've designed a little process for myself where I write up a one-page "post mortem" for every class at the end of the semester, while it's all still fresh in my brain... ideas for what needs to be changed, what worked and what didn't. I haven't actually been doing it long enough to USE the reflections the next time I teach the class, so... we'll see in a year or so if the process does any good. Mostly it's something to put in my professional portfolio to prove to the higher ups at contract-review time that I actually think about process and pedagogy.

I may not DO anything about it, but I do THINK about it.

i'm begging you...

Everyone... please stop using the phrase "begs the question". I'm really getting tired of hearing it abused. Because NOBODY uses it properly, and it's too fucking complicated to explain to people HOW to use it correctly, so the safest thing is for just everyone to STOP saying it.

Same goes for nuclear. Let's all just start saying "atomic" again, like in the 1950s. It's less accurate, but at least everyone can pronounce it.

hey all you crack-heads and smack-heads...

... be sure to get over to Dave's sidebar and click on them Google ads to earn me some revenue.

You know who you are!

finishing the day...

Everything went according to plan, mostly. I got my CDs from Best Buy and a book from B&N as well. I'm ripping the discs to listen to on the train, and I think I'll work on the writing project while I listen... get these fucking corrections out of my hair before finals week starts.

(Reaction to the fist 60 seconds of the new "Tool" album... Holy FUCK... this shit is all over the place... pick a time signature guys... you're making my head hurt. I'm not sure I can write about relativity with this stuff pounding in my ears.)

Anyway... the ET-life lecture was disorganized but generally effective, I think. And I think I may have left enough un-talked about to have a little but to discuss on Thursday... then maybe show a little bit of a video. I dunno. The semester is over... they couldn't possibly care any more than I do.

i love starting the day with a plan...

1) oversleep on purpose. take the late train
2) attend the team-taught class. pay half-attention to the student presentations.
3) teach about extraterrestrial life in astronomy.
4) blow off office hours.
5) walk up to Best Buy to pick up the new Tool and Pearl Jam albums.
6) have lunch at the surprisingly-good thai food place in the Hoboken terminal
7) listen to new albums on the train whilst grading or writing or... something.

This will be a very nice day if nothing comes along to fuck it up.

all along the watchtower...

Had my first train-platform Jehovah's Witness encounter this morning. I politely took their little magazine and stuffed it in my bag. Stay tuned for a future commute in which I get bored on the train, pull it out to read, and devote an entry to mocking it.

suspicious characters...

The other night I was watching tv and the doorbell rang at like 10:00 PM. I opened the door and there was a woman smoking a cigarette... attractive yet somewhat haggard looking ("Lost" fans can picture Rousseau) with an indefinable eastern-Europeany accent. She claimed her car broke down and that she needed money for gas and to make a phone call. She asked for $2. I asked her if she wanted to use our phone, she said no... she was going to use a calling card.

Um. Gas is $3 a gallon, and you're going to buy gas AND a calling card for two dollars? Something about this story is not adding up.

Anyway, we gave her $4 and she promised she'd pay us back. My wife said not to worry about it, but she said - "Oh no, you will see me again, I promise."

Uh, yeah... no, really... don't, cuz you're kinda starting to creep me out.

discuss amongst yourselves...

Today I had my students split into groups of three and read and discuss papers on neurology and musical cognition. I really need to remember to do more of this groupwork crap. It frees me up to make tea and check my email. Those touchy-feely profs really have some racket going. You know the ones... I typicaly refer to their seminar classes as "circle time". I always have to rearrange the furniture after them. I need to take a page from their book next semester. More discussions - preferably ones that don't involve me. Really cuts down on the prep-time. Also... group problem-solving sessions. Anything that lets me sit back and do nothing.

Cuz really... I'm getting tired of talking to these people.


This is really the last week of class, though, so it'll all be over soon. One or two more days of proper lectures in each class, then a review session, then the final, then done. Ok, then the grading panic and frustration, THEN done. Still. It's close. And as nice as it would be to think that the summer is going to involve a "break" of some sort, it's really quickly getting filled with stuff... conferences and family trips and family visits and concerts and festivals and writing projects and faculty retreats and gardening... who knows what else. And grated, some of them are "fun" things, but really... none of them are as fun as just fucking sleeping for 24 hours would be right about now. Already every weekend in June is "booked". It's crazy.

So, while the next couple of weeks will see the last complaining about school for a while, you can look forward to a post in mid-August titled - "HOLY FUCK, CLASSES START IN TWO WEEKS!!!"