postapocalyptic housewifes...
I heard today on "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" that the next book to be featured on Oprah's Book Club will be "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. I have to say, that's a pretty fucking bleak, dystopian book to foist on the masses... especially considering the fraction of Oprah's audience that is no doubt on antidepressants.
Anyway, I think this is the firsty Oprah-endorsed book I've ever accidentally read. I feel ashamed somehow.
Saturday, March 31
fiscal year...
It just occurred to me that then end of the fiscal/academic year is approaching pretty quickly, and I've only spent half of my annual research budget for work. So today I got online and dropped $350 on a new Dell 20" monitor and a gig of RAM for the PowerBook. So, yay for new toys. I'll hold the last couple hundred in reserve in case Apple releases Leopard and iLife before the summer.
I'll post pictures of the new setup once the monitor arrives. I think Frankenmac will be coming home soon as well, once the big iMac arrives at work. Fun, fun, fun...
It just occurred to me that then end of the fiscal/academic year is approaching pretty quickly, and I've only spent half of my annual research budget for work. So today I got online and dropped $350 on a new Dell 20" monitor and a gig of RAM for the PowerBook. So, yay for new toys. I'll hold the last couple hundred in reserve in case Apple releases Leopard and iLife before the summer.
I'll post pictures of the new setup once the monitor arrives. I think Frankenmac will be coming home soon as well, once the big iMac arrives at work. Fun, fun, fun...
Friday, March 30
backed up...
I did a full drive backup last night from my laptop... 33Gb, 48,000 items. It's weird how when I finish that process... I feel this deep, deep sense of inner calm. As if there is some piece of my brain... a tiny clump of neurons that I don't even notice, but whose job it is to sit in the back of my head and worry about what would happen if my HD were to crash. And when I backup, they can take a month off.
In other computer news... my Macintosh Master Plan is moving forward nicely. Not only has the 24" iMac been ordered for the science lab, but we are buying two MacBooks for the lab as well. I wonder if anyone would notice if one of them occasionally came home with me to help me out with GarageBand and whatnot? For that matter, would anyone mind if the iMac spent the summers at my house?
I did a full drive backup last night from my laptop... 33Gb, 48,000 items. It's weird how when I finish that process... I feel this deep, deep sense of inner calm. As if there is some piece of my brain... a tiny clump of neurons that I don't even notice, but whose job it is to sit in the back of my head and worry about what would happen if my HD were to crash. And when I backup, they can take a month off.
In other computer news... my Macintosh Master Plan is moving forward nicely. Not only has the 24" iMac been ordered for the science lab, but we are buying two MacBooks for the lab as well. I wonder if anyone would notice if one of them occasionally came home with me to help me out with GarageBand and whatnot? For that matter, would anyone mind if the iMac spent the summers at my house?
Wednesday, March 28
swamped...
I realize I haven't been my usual every-day bloggy self of late. It's midterm, boys and girls, which means it's just about time for grading to start piling up and for class prep to start falling behind and for everything to just generally go to hell. Which it is. Has.
It's not just work... the personal side of things has gone to hell as well. You should see the house. It's fucking unbelievable. It's like a frat house. Actually, it's worse than a frat house. It's like a frat house with a preschool inside. It's like a frat-house preschool animal shelter.
Soon it will be April, and my book chapter is due May 1st. I have 700 out of 5000 words written. Fuck. This Friday I will write. Tomorrow I will tidy the house. When will I plan for Monday's classes? Monday morning, no doubt. See? Gone to hell, it has.
I realize I haven't been my usual every-day bloggy self of late. It's midterm, boys and girls, which means it's just about time for grading to start piling up and for class prep to start falling behind and for everything to just generally go to hell. Which it is. Has.
It's not just work... the personal side of things has gone to hell as well. You should see the house. It's fucking unbelievable. It's like a frat house. Actually, it's worse than a frat house. It's like a frat house with a preschool inside. It's like a frat-house preschool animal shelter.
Soon it will be April, and my book chapter is due May 1st. I have 700 out of 5000 words written. Fuck. This Friday I will write. Tomorrow I will tidy the house. When will I plan for Monday's classes? Monday morning, no doubt. See? Gone to hell, it has.
Monday, March 26
the spill...
The wife's laptop seems to have survived the seltzer water incident mostly unscathed. The only lingering effect is a bit of water between the layers of the LCD screen that shows up as a sort of discolored bubble. A similar thing happened to our TV when the cat flung a can of Diet Coke at it. It eventually evaporated.
So... we don't have to buy a new computer. Which is good, because by my count... I'M NEXT, DAMMIT!!!
The wife's laptop seems to have survived the seltzer water incident mostly unscathed. The only lingering effect is a bit of water between the layers of the LCD screen that shows up as a sort of discolored bubble. A similar thing happened to our TV when the cat flung a can of Diet Coke at it. It eventually evaporated.
So... we don't have to buy a new computer. Which is good, because by my count... I'M NEXT, DAMMIT!!!
Sunday, March 25
because what we really need is another $2000 expense...
The wife just kicked a liter bottle of seltzer water over onto her laptop. It was quickly flipped, shut down, and dabbed off. We'll see tomorrow how it survived. (Everything online suggests 24 hours.) If it doesn't start up, she's getting one of those fucking $199 eMachines on sale at Best Buy.
The wife just kicked a liter bottle of seltzer water over onto her laptop. It was quickly flipped, shut down, and dabbed off. We'll see tomorrow how it survived. (Everything online suggests 24 hours.) If it doesn't start up, she's getting one of those fucking $199 eMachines on sale at Best Buy.
love... only love...
CURRENTLY LISTENING: Pearl Jam's cover of "Love, Reign O'er Me" by the Who. Instrumentally, it's a little disappointingly faithful to the original, but when Vedder belts out the chorus, it gives me goosebumples.
I think I've said this before, long long ago... but if I had a uterus, I would totally have Eddie Vedder's babies.
CURRENTLY LISTENING: Pearl Jam's cover of "Love, Reign O'er Me" by the Who. Instrumentally, it's a little disappointingly faithful to the original, but when Vedder belts out the chorus, it gives me goosebumples.
I think I've said this before, long long ago... but if I had a uterus, I would totally have Eddie Vedder's babies.
Friday, March 23
bleep... bloop...
Well, it took visits to FOUR STORES to find one in white, but my daughter is now the proud owner of a Nintendo DS Lite and a whole kennel full of Nintendogz virtual puppies. The only question is whether or not this will make her want a real dog more or less.
If you need me, I'll be down at the Used Game Store trying to find some vaguely educational titles to make me feel less guilty about this purchase.
Well, it took visits to FOUR STORES to find one in white, but my daughter is now the proud owner of a Nintendo DS Lite and a whole kennel full of Nintendogz virtual puppies. The only question is whether or not this will make her want a real dog more or less.
If you need me, I'll be down at the Used Game Store trying to find some vaguely educational titles to make me feel less guilty about this purchase.
Wednesday, March 21
first the weather...
Ok, so the spring equinox has come and gone, and it is still 16º, and we've had more snow in the past week than we have had all winter. I'm about to head down to the Unitarian Church and have a talk with the creepy Wiccans, because somebody is clearly not getting the fucking job done.
I was shoveling the driveway the other day and not one but two groups of Canada geese flew over my head, heading straight as an arrow DUE SOUTH. I believe this is the Canada geeses' way of saying - "Fuck this place." I agree with them.
Ok, so the spring equinox has come and gone, and it is still 16º, and we've had more snow in the past week than we have had all winter. I'm about to head down to the Unitarian Church and have a talk with the creepy Wiccans, because somebody is clearly not getting the fucking job done.
I was shoveling the driveway the other day and not one but two groups of Canada geese flew over my head, heading straight as an arrow DUE SOUTH. I believe this is the Canada geeses' way of saying - "Fuck this place." I agree with them.
wellness...
I am sick. It's not the flu, but it's a cold that feels almost like the flu. The very last thing I want to be doing right now is taking a train into the city to grade exams with my co-teacher. And yet... here I am.
The wife is sick with the exact same thing. I think it's the first time we've ever gotten sick at the exact same moment. Our symptoms are progressing in lock-step. It's kinda weird.
Anyway, it's ruining my fucking break. Not that I'm bedridden or anything, but I feel crappy enough that I don't want to DO anything.
Blah.
I am sick. It's not the flu, but it's a cold that feels almost like the flu. The very last thing I want to be doing right now is taking a train into the city to grade exams with my co-teacher. And yet... here I am.
The wife is sick with the exact same thing. I think it's the first time we've ever gotten sick at the exact same moment. Our symptoms are progressing in lock-step. It's kinda weird.
Anyway, it's ruining my fucking break. Not that I'm bedridden or anything, but I feel crappy enough that I don't want to DO anything.
Blah.
birthdays...
So the Girl had her 8th birthday party this past weekend. It went pretty well. The theme was "Nancy Drew" this year. (There is always a theme, people... ALWAYS!) MOst of the time was taken up with a store-bought Nancy Drew Mystery game where you plant clues around the house and stuff. It was cute. The girls really got into it. Eight is a good age... the kids are a little less "AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGHHHHH!!" than in previous years.
Between her grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts and uncles, and the party, the Girl has somehow accumulated almost $150 in money and gift cards. She's going to spend it on a Nintendo DS lite. This was mostly OUR idea. It seems to be THE toy for her age group, and we'd probably wind up buying her one for Xmas anyway. This way we can just buy her games. And what sorts of games? THE GAMES THAT I WANT TO PLAY!! In fact, we've already decided that it's a rule that she's not allowed to take it to school. The wife thinks the reason is that it would interfere with her schoolwork, but the real reason is so that I can play with it when she's not home.
(Now I just need to talk her out of the pink one so I won't look silly on the train.)
There are plenty of girly take-care-of-the-puppy games for the DS, but a lot of Chess and Boggle type games that are borderline educational as well. And Final Fantasy III!
Anyway, the wife is spending Thursday in the city and won't be home until late, so I'll probably take the kids to Target and the mall to buy it tomorrow. The only other option that was seriously tossed around for a "big-toy-purchase" was a basketball hoop for the driveway. And given the choice between an outside physical activity and an electronic couch potato gadget, which do you think the kids in my household are going to go for every time?
So the Girl had her 8th birthday party this past weekend. It went pretty well. The theme was "Nancy Drew" this year. (There is always a theme, people... ALWAYS!) MOst of the time was taken up with a store-bought Nancy Drew Mystery game where you plant clues around the house and stuff. It was cute. The girls really got into it. Eight is a good age... the kids are a little less "AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGHHHHH!!" than in previous years.
Between her grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts and uncles, and the party, the Girl has somehow accumulated almost $150 in money and gift cards. She's going to spend it on a Nintendo DS lite. This was mostly OUR idea. It seems to be THE toy for her age group, and we'd probably wind up buying her one for Xmas anyway. This way we can just buy her games. And what sorts of games? THE GAMES THAT I WANT TO PLAY!! In fact, we've already decided that it's a rule that she's not allowed to take it to school. The wife thinks the reason is that it would interfere with her schoolwork, but the real reason is so that I can play with it when she's not home.
(Now I just need to talk her out of the pink one so I won't look silly on the train.)
There are plenty of girly take-care-of-the-puppy games for the DS, but a lot of Chess and Boggle type games that are borderline educational as well. And Final Fantasy III!
Anyway, the wife is spending Thursday in the city and won't be home until late, so I'll probably take the kids to Target and the mall to buy it tomorrow. The only other option that was seriously tossed around for a "big-toy-purchase" was a basketball hoop for the driveway. And given the choice between an outside physical activity and an electronic couch potato gadget, which do you think the kids in my household are going to go for every time?
kindergarten...
We got a phone call from the district superintendent yesterday, informing us that our final appeal for getting the Boy admitted early (19 days!!) into kindergarten has been rejected. He claims there is "no allowance in their policy for exceptions." And the most frustrating thing about it is that it's pretty clear from talking to him that, as an educator, he agrees with us. But he's no longer an educator, he's a bureaucrat. So it's his job to tell us no. Which just fucking sucks.
So the upshot of all this is that we'll be paying $8000 to send the Boy to Snootytown Country Day School next year. And the fact that we don't really HAVE $8000 means that the summer teaching gig that I was going to do for 2 weeks and get paid $3000 for, I will probably now call the guy and offer to do it for all four weeks for $6000. So the money will be mostly covered. But fuck... I signed up for this thing to make some EXTRA money, not to piss it away on something that should be FREE.
And the money isn't even the worst of it. It's that his two best friends from preschool are going to kindergarten, and he can't go with them, and it's that once again, he's going to be yanked around to 3 different schools in 3 years.
Just... fuck.
We got a phone call from the district superintendent yesterday, informing us that our final appeal for getting the Boy admitted early (19 days!!) into kindergarten has been rejected. He claims there is "no allowance in their policy for exceptions." And the most frustrating thing about it is that it's pretty clear from talking to him that, as an educator, he agrees with us. But he's no longer an educator, he's a bureaucrat. So it's his job to tell us no. Which just fucking sucks.
So the upshot of all this is that we'll be paying $8000 to send the Boy to Snootytown Country Day School next year. And the fact that we don't really HAVE $8000 means that the summer teaching gig that I was going to do for 2 weeks and get paid $3000 for, I will probably now call the guy and offer to do it for all four weeks for $6000. So the money will be mostly covered. But fuck... I signed up for this thing to make some EXTRA money, not to piss it away on something that should be FREE.
And the money isn't even the worst of it. It's that his two best friends from preschool are going to kindergarten, and he can't go with them, and it's that once again, he's going to be yanked around to 3 different schools in 3 years.
Just... fuck.
Monday, March 19
birthday dinner conversation...
Last night at Outback...
Wife: Mmmm... steak.
Me: Mmmm... bacon.
Girl: (gasp!) Bacon?!
Me: No. You are NOT getting any bacon from my cheeseburger.
Girl: But I...
Me: No.
Girl: But, but... it's my birthday!
Me: Then you should have wished for bacon when you blew out your candles.
Boy: Yeah! I'm gonna wish for BACON when it's MY birthday!!
Last night at Outback...
Wife: Mmmm... steak.
Me: Mmmm... bacon.
Girl: (gasp!) Bacon?!
Me: No. You are NOT getting any bacon from my cheeseburger.
Girl: But I...
Me: No.
Girl: But, but... it's my birthday!
Me: Then you should have wished for bacon when you blew out your candles.
Boy: Yeah! I'm gonna wish for BACON when it's MY birthday!!
Saturday, March 17
when it rains it pours, and when it snows, it... ummm... FUCK!
As if the two birthday parties (one to attend, one to host) and all the cleaning and the foot and a half of fucking snow weren't enough to screw up the beginning of my so-called "Spring Break"... the Boy woke up with a fever this morning.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go find the snow shovel that the kids left in the middle of the yard so I can drive to the store, since I just used up the last teaspoon of children's Tylenol in the house.
As if the two birthday parties (one to attend, one to host) and all the cleaning and the foot and a half of fucking snow weren't enough to screw up the beginning of my so-called "Spring Break"... the Boy woke up with a fever this morning.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go find the snow shovel that the kids left in the middle of the yard so I can drive to the store, since I just used up the last teaspoon of children's Tylenol in the house.
Thursday, March 15
mac goodness...
Last week at work, I cleared the lab bench of an old PC that nobody uses and replaced it with my $40 Craigslist FrankenMac G3. I had installed Linux on it, just to see if I could, but I got bored with that and put OSX and OS9 back on it. It's sloooooow with OSX, but lightning fast with OS9, so I have it running simulations with some old physics software I still have lying around. Gravitational systems with 50 bodies and stuff like that... things that take an overnight render that I can leave running all the time. I made a sign for the screen that says "Simulation in Progress - DO NOT DISTURB". It makes me very happy, because no science lab is complete without an outdated computer chugging along in a corner day and night with some obscure purpose.
I spent a good deal of time one day last week tracking down and installing a Pascal compiler for OS9. I know C pretty well, but Pascal was my first programming language, and I've always found the syntax to me more natural and elegant. So I have it both on my laptop and on the old G3 now and it runs great. Best of all, it's a discontinued product, (Symantec Think Pascal 4.5) so it was FREE!!
Now, all I need is a project... something to program that involves serious number crunching and will run for hours and hours. If only I was doing... you know... research?
Meanwhiles, there is even bigger Mac news on the horizon. It seems I've finally convinced my science department colleagues that we could really use a highish-end Mac in the science lab for doing video editing and media stuff, so they've authorized $2500+ for a 24" iMac with FinalCut Express. Mwah-ha-haa...
It's not going to be as decked out as I would like it to be, but... it's gonna have a sweet gigantic screen. My only worry is that if I get used to working on it, my 12" laptop is going to become unbearable to work on really fast.
Anyway, once again, what this means is that I need to find some media projects of my own, and some students to work on them with me. I have one student working on a documentary film project, but its HER project, not MY project. I need to start advertising MY projects better. I really don't want to spend $2500 on a Mac that never gets used. I worry that they'd stop buying me toys.
POSTSCRIPT: Well, fuck me. I opened up FrankenG3 this morning to test an old HD in it, and now the thing won't boot up. I mean nothing... no power light, no "ping"... NOTHING!! I'm pissed. It makes no sense. Did the power supply just up and die? Just now? FUCK!!
EDIT: Well, I got it to boot up. I had to poke at one of those tiny mysterious red button doohickers on the logic board. I picked the one that had the words "power on" printed somewhere nearby. It's just a guess, but I think I manually reset the logic board's "Power management unit". Whatever. It works. Gotta love that computer-voodoo!
Last week at work, I cleared the lab bench of an old PC that nobody uses and replaced it with my $40 Craigslist FrankenMac G3. I had installed Linux on it, just to see if I could, but I got bored with that and put OSX and OS9 back on it. It's sloooooow with OSX, but lightning fast with OS9, so I have it running simulations with some old physics software I still have lying around. Gravitational systems with 50 bodies and stuff like that... things that take an overnight render that I can leave running all the time. I made a sign for the screen that says "Simulation in Progress - DO NOT DISTURB". It makes me very happy, because no science lab is complete without an outdated computer chugging along in a corner day and night with some obscure purpose.
I spent a good deal of time one day last week tracking down and installing a Pascal compiler for OS9. I know C pretty well, but Pascal was my first programming language, and I've always found the syntax to me more natural and elegant. So I have it both on my laptop and on the old G3 now and it runs great. Best of all, it's a discontinued product, (Symantec Think Pascal 4.5) so it was FREE!!
Now, all I need is a project... something to program that involves serious number crunching and will run for hours and hours. If only I was doing... you know... research?
Meanwhiles, there is even bigger Mac news on the horizon. It seems I've finally convinced my science department colleagues that we could really use a highish-end Mac in the science lab for doing video editing and media stuff, so they've authorized $2500+ for a 24" iMac with FinalCut Express. Mwah-ha-haa...
It's not going to be as decked out as I would like it to be, but... it's gonna have a sweet gigantic screen. My only worry is that if I get used to working on it, my 12" laptop is going to become unbearable to work on really fast.
Anyway, once again, what this means is that I need to find some media projects of my own, and some students to work on them with me. I have one student working on a documentary film project, but its HER project, not MY project. I need to start advertising MY projects better. I really don't want to spend $2500 on a Mac that never gets used. I worry that they'd stop buying me toys.
POSTSCRIPT: Well, fuck me. I opened up FrankenG3 this morning to test an old HD in it, and now the thing won't boot up. I mean nothing... no power light, no "ping"... NOTHING!! I'm pissed. It makes no sense. Did the power supply just up and die? Just now? FUCK!!
EDIT: Well, I got it to boot up. I had to poke at one of those tiny mysterious red button doohickers on the logic board. I picked the one that had the words "power on" printed somewhere nearby. It's just a guess, but I think I manually reset the logic board's "Power management unit". Whatever. It works. Gotta love that computer-voodoo!
Wednesday, March 14
getting my quantum on...
If I had my shit together today, I'd be doing a spectroscopy lab in my physics class. Of course, as usual, I do NOT have my shit together, and I'm running late this morning, so there is no way to get the lab set up in time for class. Which means I'm scrambling this morning to do some syllabus-shuffling and trying to figure out what the hell I'm going to teach in 2 hours.
I'm introducing quantum mechanics, and it's something I still haven't quite figured out how to do in these "physics for poets" classes. The inspiration for quantization comes from so many different angles... Bohr's hydrogen atom, Einstein's photoelectric effect, Planck's blackbody radiation... do you do them all at once? In parallel? If not, which do you do first? Conceptually, it's easiest to tackle atomic energy levels first, then the photoelectric effect, then blackbody radiation, but that order is exactly backwards historically! Then there is the question of how to present the puzzles and their solutions. Do you talk about how each problem as it was solved? Or do you introduce ALL of the problems first, then the solutions?
I think I've just made the decision to introduce the problems in the simplest conceptual order, then the solutions in the correct historical order. So on Monday we did the classical model of the atom, and talked about why it was insufficient, then we looked at atomic spectra. Today I'll talk about the photoelectric effect and blackbody radiation, and the failed classical approaches to these phenomena. Then after spring break we will look at how quantization of the interaction between light and matter solves the blackbody problem, the photoelectric effect, and the question of atomic energy levels. Then we'll connect the Bohr atom to deBroglie waves, and we'll be off to Heisenberg and Schrödinger...
And of course once I get this all figured out, I'll rearrange it all over again next year.
If I had my shit together today, I'd be doing a spectroscopy lab in my physics class. Of course, as usual, I do NOT have my shit together, and I'm running late this morning, so there is no way to get the lab set up in time for class. Which means I'm scrambling this morning to do some syllabus-shuffling and trying to figure out what the hell I'm going to teach in 2 hours.
I'm introducing quantum mechanics, and it's something I still haven't quite figured out how to do in these "physics for poets" classes. The inspiration for quantization comes from so many different angles... Bohr's hydrogen atom, Einstein's photoelectric effect, Planck's blackbody radiation... do you do them all at once? In parallel? If not, which do you do first? Conceptually, it's easiest to tackle atomic energy levels first, then the photoelectric effect, then blackbody radiation, but that order is exactly backwards historically! Then there is the question of how to present the puzzles and their solutions. Do you talk about how each problem as it was solved? Or do you introduce ALL of the problems first, then the solutions?
I think I've just made the decision to introduce the problems in the simplest conceptual order, then the solutions in the correct historical order. So on Monday we did the classical model of the atom, and talked about why it was insufficient, then we looked at atomic spectra. Today I'll talk about the photoelectric effect and blackbody radiation, and the failed classical approaches to these phenomena. Then after spring break we will look at how quantization of the interaction between light and matter solves the blackbody problem, the photoelectric effect, and the question of atomic energy levels. Then we'll connect the Bohr atom to deBroglie waves, and we'll be off to Heisenberg and Schrödinger...
And of course once I get this all figured out, I'll rearrange it all over again next year.
Tuesday, March 13
two-fer tuesday...
Today, in a strange twist of gender-dysphoric fate, I managed to see both the most attractive (Christopher Street) and most UN-attractive (Hoboken terminal) transvestites I have had the pleasure and/or misfortune of encountering in my travels through the city. On the same day! What are the odds?
The first one was actually kind of funny. I was walking up the street, and passed a gorgeous, tall, dark haired Latina... wearing something black, and quite low cut and revealing a good deal of pretty buoyant cleavage. And as she walked by and I failed to suppress a little barely-audible reaction of "whoa"... a little part in the back of my brain that was working just a little slower than the "whoa" part piped up with... "Umm Dave... I'm pretty sure she was probably born with a penis."
Oops. Still. Wow.
(The other sighting incident was just... *yeeech*. It is better not to speak of it.)
Today, in a strange twist of gender-dysphoric fate, I managed to see both the most attractive (Christopher Street) and most UN-attractive (Hoboken terminal) transvestites I have had the pleasure and/or misfortune of encountering in my travels through the city. On the same day! What are the odds?
The first one was actually kind of funny. I was walking up the street, and passed a gorgeous, tall, dark haired Latina... wearing something black, and quite low cut and revealing a good deal of pretty buoyant cleavage. And as she walked by and I failed to suppress a little barely-audible reaction of "whoa"... a little part in the back of my brain that was working just a little slower than the "whoa" part piped up with... "Umm Dave... I'm pretty sure she was probably born with a penis."
Oops. Still. Wow.
(The other sighting incident was just... *yeeech*. It is better not to speak of it.)
Monday, March 12
Saturday, March 10
nooooo time is a gooood time for good byyyyyes...
We have a fancy Casio digital piano that the kids use for playing piano and I use for a MIDI controller for GarageBand. (Not one of those $200 jobs... a nice one with 88 keys and graded hammer action and whatnot.) Since I don't use any of the cheesy built-in features and sounds of the Casio, my daughter actually knows how to use the thing better than I do. She somehow figured how to use the play-along-sing-along karaoke features that play built-in songs for you to follow along with while the lyrics scroll by on the little LCD screen.
Usually she can be found singing "Danny Boy" or "Camptown Races" or "Oh Susannah", but for some reason she's currently in the other room singing "Sara" by Starship.
So, so wrong.
We have a fancy Casio digital piano that the kids use for playing piano and I use for a MIDI controller for GarageBand. (Not one of those $200 jobs... a nice one with 88 keys and graded hammer action and whatnot.) Since I don't use any of the cheesy built-in features and sounds of the Casio, my daughter actually knows how to use the thing better than I do. She somehow figured how to use the play-along-sing-along karaoke features that play built-in songs for you to follow along with while the lyrics scroll by on the little LCD screen.
Usually she can be found singing "Danny Boy" or "Camptown Races" or "Oh Susannah", but for some reason she's currently in the other room singing "Sara" by Starship.
So, so wrong.
"trick hoopz and alley oopz..."
The bulk of today will be occupied in some way by The Harlem Wizards, which as far is I can tell, is some sort of cut-rate Harlem Globtrotter-esque troupe that you can hire to come to your school for a fundraiser and they will humiliate your kids' teachers and principal, and bounce basketballs off their ass, and whatnot. Fun for the whole family, no doubt.
My wife somehow wound up in charge of ticket sales, so she is gone already... leaving me to round up the kids (and various neighborhood kids) and get them to the school by noon. I plan to be very tired this afternoon.
And I haven't thought about this in years... but I think I saw the actual Harlem Globetrotters live when I was a kid. And not some lame-ass modern lineup.... I'm talking about the Meadowlark Lemon / Curly Neal / Harlem-Globetrotters-Meet-Scooby-Do heyday era. But I could just be imagining that. I'll have to call Mom.
Friday, March 9
great new way to get the same bad movies...
Amazon "Unbox" (horrible name) has teamed up with TiVo to allow you to buy on-demand rentals from Amazon for $3.99-ish and have them download straight to your TiVo box in a couple of hours. It's a pretty cool idea, and it works great, and they are offering a $15 credit for early signer-uppers.
Unfortunately, the selection of rentals is fairly meager so far, and the innovative delivery approach did nothing to improve the quality of "The Lake House", which my wife and I thought might have an interesting enough plot to overcome the wet-noodle duo of Bullock/Reeves (...whoa...) in the starring roles, but really... not. The plot was an awful, awful mess. Oh well. It was free. And we never had to leave the sofa!!
Amazon "Unbox" (horrible name) has teamed up with TiVo to allow you to buy on-demand rentals from Amazon for $3.99-ish and have them download straight to your TiVo box in a couple of hours. It's a pretty cool idea, and it works great, and they are offering a $15 credit for early signer-uppers.
Unfortunately, the selection of rentals is fairly meager so far, and the innovative delivery approach did nothing to improve the quality of "The Lake House", which my wife and I thought might have an interesting enough plot to overcome the wet-noodle duo of Bullock/Reeves (...whoa...) in the starring roles, but really... not. The plot was an awful, awful mess. Oh well. It was free. And we never had to leave the sofa!!
Thursday, March 8
i plan to learn all the songs on guitar too...
If you haven't already, head over to DylanHearsAWho.com and download the full zip archive of all the songs. The vocals are so-so, but the arrangements are brilliant.
If you haven't already, head over to DylanHearsAWho.com and download the full zip archive of all the songs. The vocals are so-so, but the arrangements are brilliant.
Tuesday, March 6
more of the usual rambling and self-loathing...
I got a "recall notice" from the NYU library the other day, meaning somebody wants one of the books I've had checked out for two years and I have to take it back before the 17th. I figured today would be a good day to head down there, given that it's a Tuesday and I don't have any classes or meetings or anything. So naturally it's 4º with 30 mph winds.
Somehow I've found myself in a little stretch of the semester where I have to THINK about what I'm going to teach every day, which sucks. My lecture on the history of the atom yesterday was pretty horrible, and managed to be both meandering and too short by 15 minutes. I'm talking about nuclear physics and radioactivity tomorrow, and I would like to avoid sucking two days in a row, so I have some planning that needs to be done today.
One of the stops I pass on the way in on the train is called "Salisbury Mills". It just occurred to me that not once in two years have I heard that stop announced over the PA and then started singing "Solsbury Hill" by Peter Gabriel. Which if you know me, is pretty remarkable.
God, my blog writing is a disjointed mess lately. I need some themes or some stories or some questionnaires or... something.
(Fuck if "questionnaires" isn't a hard word to spell.)
I need to dig out that "Nobody Cares What You Had For Lunch" book again.
(Or in this case - "Nobody Cares How Cold It Is Or How Many Papers You Have To Grade")
I spent a good bit of the weekend cross referencing my Amazon Wishlist with the catalog of the county library system, and now I have seven items or so on the way via "interlibrary loan". Among them - two complete Beethoven Symphony collections (one conducted by Leonard Bernstein and one recording on period-instruments by the Academy of Ancient Music) one of those Teaching Company great courses on DVD, and a bunch of books that I've bookmarked in the past but probably don't really need to OWN. Amongst them - "Once Upon a Time in Italy: The Westerns of Sergio Leone" and "Responses to 101 Questions on God and Evolution".
The "God and Evolution" book is research for the possibly-upcoming course on Science and Religion. I run into the guy who I will probably teach it with almost every day in the copy room and we talk excitedly about some idea for the course. It would be a shame to not do it after all this excited thinking. He's a smart guy, and kind of hyper-energetic. I think he's a good teacher too. (I did some spying over at ratemyprofessor.com!) This could be a pretty amazing fucking class between the two of us. (I mean... I KNOW how good *I* am!) Hopefully we can sustain the interest and the energy for a whole year and a half.
Speaking of which... it's midterm next week, and that means it's officially time for Dave to start getting distracted by thoughts of next semester. It's going to be a doozy, I think. One totally new course, one old course being retooled as an online course, and one old stale course that could really use some updating. And with the summer filling up with west-coast weddings, conferences, and summer-teaching gigs... I'm going to quickly run out of time to THINK. So I should probably do some of that now.
Except that I'm supposed to be writing a book chapter that I haven't started yet.
Fuck.
My work habits need some serious... well... WORK. I'm not doing any of the things I said I would do. I'm not writing every day, I'm not doing yoga. I only teach two fucking days a week, and somehow all this time is getting pissed away. Most of the time all I want to do is eat or sleep. Maybe I'm depressed. Do they have medication for that nowadays?
I got a "recall notice" from the NYU library the other day, meaning somebody wants one of the books I've had checked out for two years and I have to take it back before the 17th. I figured today would be a good day to head down there, given that it's a Tuesday and I don't have any classes or meetings or anything. So naturally it's 4º with 30 mph winds.
Somehow I've found myself in a little stretch of the semester where I have to THINK about what I'm going to teach every day, which sucks. My lecture on the history of the atom yesterday was pretty horrible, and managed to be both meandering and too short by 15 minutes. I'm talking about nuclear physics and radioactivity tomorrow, and I would like to avoid sucking two days in a row, so I have some planning that needs to be done today.
One of the stops I pass on the way in on the train is called "Salisbury Mills". It just occurred to me that not once in two years have I heard that stop announced over the PA and then started singing "Solsbury Hill" by Peter Gabriel. Which if you know me, is pretty remarkable.
God, my blog writing is a disjointed mess lately. I need some themes or some stories or some questionnaires or... something.
(Fuck if "questionnaires" isn't a hard word to spell.)
I need to dig out that "Nobody Cares What You Had For Lunch" book again.
(Or in this case - "Nobody Cares How Cold It Is Or How Many Papers You Have To Grade")
I spent a good bit of the weekend cross referencing my Amazon Wishlist with the catalog of the county library system, and now I have seven items or so on the way via "interlibrary loan". Among them - two complete Beethoven Symphony collections (one conducted by Leonard Bernstein and one recording on period-instruments by the Academy of Ancient Music) one of those Teaching Company great courses on DVD, and a bunch of books that I've bookmarked in the past but probably don't really need to OWN. Amongst them - "Once Upon a Time in Italy: The Westerns of Sergio Leone" and "Responses to 101 Questions on God and Evolution".
The "God and Evolution" book is research for the possibly-upcoming course on Science and Religion. I run into the guy who I will probably teach it with almost every day in the copy room and we talk excitedly about some idea for the course. It would be a shame to not do it after all this excited thinking. He's a smart guy, and kind of hyper-energetic. I think he's a good teacher too. (I did some spying over at ratemyprofessor.com!) This could be a pretty amazing fucking class between the two of us. (I mean... I KNOW how good *I* am!) Hopefully we can sustain the interest and the energy for a whole year and a half.
Speaking of which... it's midterm next week, and that means it's officially time for Dave to start getting distracted by thoughts of next semester. It's going to be a doozy, I think. One totally new course, one old course being retooled as an online course, and one old stale course that could really use some updating. And with the summer filling up with west-coast weddings, conferences, and summer-teaching gigs... I'm going to quickly run out of time to THINK. So I should probably do some of that now.
Except that I'm supposed to be writing a book chapter that I haven't started yet.
Fuck.
My work habits need some serious... well... WORK. I'm not doing any of the things I said I would do. I'm not writing every day, I'm not doing yoga. I only teach two fucking days a week, and somehow all this time is getting pissed away. Most of the time all I want to do is eat or sleep. Maybe I'm depressed. Do they have medication for that nowadays?
missing the point...?
From the Dr. Dave mailbox...
Ok. Now... correct me if I'm wrong, but... isn't a "walk-out" usually held to specifically protest the thing you are walking out OF? Like, if teachers are protesting their crappy benefits, they will have a walk-out where they stop teaching classes. Or if factory workers aren't being paid overtime, they will have a walk-out that brings the factory to a halt. But explain to me how a bunch of college students not going to class is a protest of the War on Terror? Last I checked, when a bunch of students don't go to class it's called, EVERY FUCKING DAY IN MY CLASS. Now if the soldiers who are FIGHTING the war decided to stage a protest... THAT would be a "walk-out".
So, hey kids... have a rally. Protest the war. That's fine. But do it on Saturday, you lazy bunch of punk-ass spoiled brats.
From the Dr. Dave mailbox...
Dear University Faculty,
The university chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, in
association with several other campus organizations, has organized a
walk-out on March 12th in opposition to the escalation of the War on
Terror. Participating students will walk out of their scheduled classes at
10:30 am to rally at the 5th avenue building and will remain absent for the rest
of the day. We ask that you, as conscientious members of the
faculty with full knowledge of the University’s activist history, respect
students rights to protest and do not hold these absences of conscience
against them or their academic record. We also fully encourage faculty and
staff to participate in the walk-out.
Ok. Now... correct me if I'm wrong, but... isn't a "walk-out" usually held to specifically protest the thing you are walking out OF? Like, if teachers are protesting their crappy benefits, they will have a walk-out where they stop teaching classes. Or if factory workers aren't being paid overtime, they will have a walk-out that brings the factory to a halt. But explain to me how a bunch of college students not going to class is a protest of the War on Terror? Last I checked, when a bunch of students don't go to class it's called, EVERY FUCKING DAY IN MY CLASS. Now if the soldiers who are FIGHTING the war decided to stage a protest... THAT would be a "walk-out".
So, hey kids... have a rally. Protest the war. That's fine. But do it on Saturday, you lazy bunch of punk-ass spoiled brats.
Monday, March 5
weekend...
The weekend certainly FEELS busy while it's happening, but when I look back on it I can't quite pinpoint exactly what it is that I accomplished. I did grade some exams, I guess... and I rewrote an old Powerpoint on the history of atomic theory... and I swept the kitchen floor, and watched the Boy all say Saturday and fed and clothed and bathed children countless times over the course of three days. I took a fair number of naps, did a good deal of chatting online, read a few hundred blogs. I wrote an exam with my co-teacher and dealt with a small pile of nagging emails. I read some.
Anyway. Monday always rolls around, and it seems like I should either have felt relaxed during the weekend, or I should have something to show for it. I seldom feel either.
The weekend certainly FEELS busy while it's happening, but when I look back on it I can't quite pinpoint exactly what it is that I accomplished. I did grade some exams, I guess... and I rewrote an old Powerpoint on the history of atomic theory... and I swept the kitchen floor, and watched the Boy all say Saturday and fed and clothed and bathed children countless times over the course of three days. I took a fair number of naps, did a good deal of chatting online, read a few hundred blogs. I wrote an exam with my co-teacher and dealt with a small pile of nagging emails. I read some.
Anyway. Monday always rolls around, and it seems like I should either have felt relaxed during the weekend, or I should have something to show for it. I seldom feel either.
Thursday, March 1
library...
I took the Boy to the library today, so my "parenting" quota is officially met. I can spend the rest of the day fucking around online and ripping the big stack of CDs I checked out. Amongst them...
Johnny Cash - Live at Folsom Prison and American Recordings V
Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris - All the Roadrunning
Cold Mountain - Music from the Motion Picture
and Arturo Toscanini conducts Beethoven Symphonies 1,2,3 & 4.
It wasn't until I got home that I realized 4/5 of the music I snagged could be described as "country" music. Yeech. Luckily any perceived redneckery was cancelled out by the choice of reading material... "The Audacity of Hope" by Barack Obama.
I took the Boy to the library today, so my "parenting" quota is officially met. I can spend the rest of the day fucking around online and ripping the big stack of CDs I checked out. Amongst them...
Johnny Cash - Live at Folsom Prison and American Recordings V
Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris - All the Roadrunning
Cold Mountain - Music from the Motion Picture
and Arturo Toscanini conducts Beethoven Symphonies 1,2,3 & 4.
It wasn't until I got home that I realized 4/5 of the music I snagged could be described as "country" music. Yeech. Luckily any perceived redneckery was cancelled out by the choice of reading material... "The Audacity of Hope" by Barack Obama.
in the news...
There are news reports floating around that physicist Stephen Hawking is planning on taking a zero-gravity flight in one of these "vomit-comet" type parabolic aircraft.
This raises all sorts of questions.
First of all... given the nature of his disease, how much sensation does he have? Is ALS purely motor, not sensory? Will he even "feel" the weightlessness?
But the more pressing issue is... isn't it pretty fucking dangerous to have a 200 pound wheelchair hurtling around the cabin of a freefalling aircraft? Or are they going to take him OUT of the wheelchair? In which case... isn't it pretty fucking dangerous to have a 100 pound cripple flopping around the cabin of a freefalling aircraft??
The whole thing seems ill-advised.
There are news reports floating around that physicist Stephen Hawking is planning on taking a zero-gravity flight in one of these "vomit-comet" type parabolic aircraft.
This raises all sorts of questions.
First of all... given the nature of his disease, how much sensation does he have? Is ALS purely motor, not sensory? Will he even "feel" the weightlessness?
But the more pressing issue is... isn't it pretty fucking dangerous to have a 200 pound wheelchair hurtling around the cabin of a freefalling aircraft? Or are they going to take him OUT of the wheelchair? In which case... isn't it pretty fucking dangerous to have a 100 pound cripple flopping around the cabin of a freefalling aircraft??
The whole thing seems ill-advised.
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