updates...
1) I am sick. Sick, sick, sick.
2) Saturday evening, the wife tried to blow up the house by leaving the gas burner on the stove turned on for 10 min without lighting it. We aired out the house, and called the gas company for advice. We figured it was no big deal, until the guy from the gas company heard what happened and his eyes bugged out of his head.
3) Saturday overnight someone broke into our (unlocked) cars. They stole $8 and change from my wife's van, and my old 10 gig iPod from my car. Which pisses me off, because I'm the one who ALWAYS locks my car. I'm scouting Craigslist and eBay for someone selling a 2nd gen iPod w/ a dead battery.
4) ACHOO! (sniffle)
5) Sunday's "Rock Star Karaoke" party was not nearly as shrill and unbearable as a party for 8 nine-year-old girls might have been.
6) Having tired of wholesome family-fun games for the Wii, I went to GameStop on Monday and bought "Hitman: Blood Money" for the PS2. In a twist on the 15 year olds who hide their rated-M games from their parents, I'm forced to play it in my bedroom, and hit pause whenever my kids walk into the room.
7) The cookies came in... 96 cases of them. Our living room looks like the government warehouse at the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark", only with Girl Scout logos.
8) Mmmm.... cookies.
9) I have not graded any papers.
10) On Tuesday, we drove to Connecticut for the Scholastic warehouse $1 clearance sale. We bought 57 kids' books for $42, none of which we really need.
11) I answered an ad on Craigslist by a guy looking for tennis partners. (I really need some regular exercise.) The guy is about the same age as me, lives nearby, and sounds about the same level. The only problem... his ad was not posted in the "activity partners" section, but rather the "men seeking men section". This could be a novice Craigslister mistake, or he could be looking for both tennis and butt-sex. There was no innuendo in the ad, but it still sounds like the setup for a classic farce, like an episode of Frasier or something.
12) Tomorrow is the circus. I can barely contain my excitement, as you can imagine.
13) Went to the dentist again. In order to avoid my needle-phobia and panic attack, the dentist suggested doing the fillings w/o anaesthesia, since they were shallow, and he was just drilling into pre-existing composite anyway. I agreed. It was awesome. And FAST!! And my front top teeth are movie-star perfect again. Ok... BRITISH movie star perfect.
14) Got "The Brave One" with Jodie Foster via Netflix, because "Michael Clayton" had a Very Long Wait. It kinda sucked. And Naveen Andrews isn't nearly as hot w/o the desert-island-stubble.
15) I seem to have talked the wife out of the idea of DRIVING to Florida for a Disney vacation this summer. (You have NO idea how rare it is for me to win one of these.) Instead we will probably vacation in Colonial Williamsburg/Busch Gardens and then DC/Smithsonian. Cheaper, closer, more educational... and we have friends we can stay with.
16) I have recently discovered the (Famous Guitar Hero) SHREDS videos by stsanders on YouTube. These may just be the funniest things ever. Maybe you have to be a guitar player to fully appreciate their awesomeness, but... they reduce me to tears. Absolutely brilliant.
Wednesday, March 12
almost last...
Today is the last I day teach before Spring Break. Morning class on nuclear fission, exam in the afternoon. I think I'm coming in to the city on Thursday also, but that's just for meetings and paperwork and screwing around with the computers in the lab.
I could use the break to catch up with course planning and stuff, but instead I'm sure it will all get taken up with grading. And home improvement projects. I was talking to one of my students yesterday... she's going to Puerto Rico for break. "Oh yeah? I'm probably going to be PAINTING THE BATHROOM."
Oh yeah, also... on Friday we're all going to the CIRCUS!!
Yay.
Once again... so glad to have these breaks to help me appreciate "working".
Today is the last I day teach before Spring Break. Morning class on nuclear fission, exam in the afternoon. I think I'm coming in to the city on Thursday also, but that's just for meetings and paperwork and screwing around with the computers in the lab.
I could use the break to catch up with course planning and stuff, but instead I'm sure it will all get taken up with grading. And home improvement projects. I was talking to one of my students yesterday... she's going to Puerto Rico for break. "Oh yeah? I'm probably going to be PAINTING THE BATHROOM."
Oh yeah, also... on Friday we're all going to the CIRCUS!!
Yay.
Once again... so glad to have these breaks to help me appreciate "working".
Tuesday, March 11
battling the busy...
The number of little projects and tasks that are piling up right now is in serious danger of becoming overwhelming. In an attempt to head things off, I've started keeping a constantly-updated list in a little black Moleskin mini-notebook. (3x5" unlined) It's my own version of the "hipster PDA", I guess. Cheaper than an iPod Touch anyway. So, every day I add things to the list and cross them off, and when a page gets filled, I copy the un-completed items over to the next page and re-prioritize them. I keep it in the outside edge pocket of my messenger bag with a pen attached so I can pull it out to jot things down without opening any flaps or digging around.
The whole thing is very unlike me for two reasons.
1) It's organized
2) It's NOT done on the computer
As much as I love my Mac, I also love pen-and-paper and geeky-office-supply solutions to problems. So, maybe I'll try to make this new technique a habit. It would give me an excuse to buy more tiny, overpriced notebooks, anyway.
The number of little projects and tasks that are piling up right now is in serious danger of becoming overwhelming. In an attempt to head things off, I've started keeping a constantly-updated list in a little black Moleskin mini-notebook. (3x5" unlined) It's my own version of the "hipster PDA", I guess. Cheaper than an iPod Touch anyway. So, every day I add things to the list and cross them off, and when a page gets filled, I copy the un-completed items over to the next page and re-prioritize them. I keep it in the outside edge pocket of my messenger bag with a pen attached so I can pull it out to jot things down without opening any flaps or digging around.
The whole thing is very unlike me for two reasons.
1) It's organized
2) It's NOT done on the computer
As much as I love my Mac, I also love pen-and-paper and geeky-office-supply solutions to problems. So, maybe I'll try to make this new technique a habit. It would give me an excuse to buy more tiny, overpriced notebooks, anyway.
Friday, March 7
they really like me...
After all that bitching and moaning... guess who got nominated for the University Distiguished Teaching award? Now there is a phase where nominees have to submit a big portfolio of stuff. Eight copies!! I think it's like a store rebate. They know that half the people won't ever get around to doing it. But I'll do it, god dammit... I WANT THAT AWARD!!!
They want a "representative sample" of your teaching evaluations. I need to go track down the "Dr. Dave is a teaching GOD!" one.
After all that bitching and moaning... guess who got nominated for the University Distiguished Teaching award? Now there is a phase where nominees have to submit a big portfolio of stuff. Eight copies!! I think it's like a store rebate. They know that half the people won't ever get around to doing it. But I'll do it, god dammit... I WANT THAT AWARD!!!
They want a "representative sample" of your teaching evaluations. I need to go track down the "Dr. Dave is a teaching GOD!" one.
Thursday, March 6
un-un-plugged...
Fuck. I wrote a whole entry this morning and apparently never hit "Save" before my computer shut down. The Powerbook is having some serious fucking battery issues. It used to be I'd get to work with a good 39% to spare after 2 hours, but now... it hits 25% after 90 minutes and then, BOOM! Shuts down! NO warning!!
I ran a battery diagnostic program today and it informs me that my battery capacity is down almost 50% from when it was new. Which certainly seems to match the time I'm getting out of it. And given that it's gone through 700+ charge cycles, and that a fellow Mac Expert informs me that they typically start to go south after around 300... I don't think there is anything "wrong" with it in the sense of it being faulty in any way... I just think the 2 hour commute each way for 2 years has worn the fuck out of it.
A new battery will run me about $120, and it seems silly to spend that on a machine I hope to ditch in a few months. I'm plugged in to a hard-to-find train outlet right now. I'm seriously considering switching back to the "recalled" battery that I never sent back to Apple. If my laptop catches fire, I'll pay the $500 homeowner's insurance deductible and buy a new Macbook.
Speaking of which, we got two new Macbooks in at work today. I spend most of this afternoon fucking with them and installing software on the "master" machine. Next, I'll clone that system over to the other 3 laptops using the Firewire "migration assistant". Geekwork!! Love it.
They are so nice and shiny and new. I really want to steal one.
Fuck. I wrote a whole entry this morning and apparently never hit "Save" before my computer shut down. The Powerbook is having some serious fucking battery issues. It used to be I'd get to work with a good 39% to spare after 2 hours, but now... it hits 25% after 90 minutes and then, BOOM! Shuts down! NO warning!!
I ran a battery diagnostic program today and it informs me that my battery capacity is down almost 50% from when it was new. Which certainly seems to match the time I'm getting out of it. And given that it's gone through 700+ charge cycles, and that a fellow Mac Expert informs me that they typically start to go south after around 300... I don't think there is anything "wrong" with it in the sense of it being faulty in any way... I just think the 2 hour commute each way for 2 years has worn the fuck out of it.
A new battery will run me about $120, and it seems silly to spend that on a machine I hope to ditch in a few months. I'm plugged in to a hard-to-find train outlet right now. I'm seriously considering switching back to the "recalled" battery that I never sent back to Apple. If my laptop catches fire, I'll pay the $500 homeowner's insurance deductible and buy a new Macbook.
Speaking of which, we got two new Macbooks in at work today. I spend most of this afternoon fucking with them and installing software on the "master" machine. Next, I'll clone that system over to the other 3 laptops using the Firewire "migration assistant". Geekwork!! Love it.
They are so nice and shiny and new. I really want to steal one.
Tuesday, March 4
work... computers... etc...
It's getting to be that time of the semester when teaching almost starts to feel like work. There are exams to write, study guides to prepare, assignments to grade, students begging to take their exams early or late for this or that reason... so I've decided to work today. I mean really work. Like a person with a job.
Yesterday, my day was taken up by a cranky Mac. The big iMac at work had a black screen when I got to the lab in the morning. Two attempts at a hard restart left it stuck at the grey-apple-spinning-doodad screen for ages. An attempt to boot off an install DVD and run Disk Utility left me with an error when I tried to repair the HD. (Invalid sibling link?) Yet another attempt to boot got me to a login screen, but the machine had forgotten its own password. Back to the installer disc to reset the administrator account. Finally I got the thing to boot... backed up all my semi-important stuff onto the external Tb drive and ran Disk Utility AGAIN. Same error. So.... looks like the plan for today may be to reformat the HD and install Leopard. The machine has been acting flaky in a bunch of ways lately anyway. Nothing like a full brain transplant to fix that sort of behavior.
I managed to get Leopard onto both of the Macbooks in the science lab while I was fighting with the iMac. I'm still afraid to put it on this crusty old G4. I think it's just to slow for all the flashy new OS gee-whizzery. Maybe I'll try to put it on an external and boot from it for a while... just to play with it.
I really must get a new laptop. The latest issue is the battery, which BARELY survives the 2 hour trip to work in the mornings. After the academic discount, $1289 will get me a spec'd up Macbook. The problem being that I don't happen to have $1289. I may have some consultant money coming my way at some point. I need to ask for an advance on that.
What else is going on besides that? Let's see... I just registered for my conference in April in San Francisco. (Any readers in the Bay Area want to do lunch?) I'm actually looking forward to that. The wife was trying to tag along for a while, but eventually decided that we couldn't afford the $500 plane ticket, even with the free hotel. And both my colleagues are bringing their husbands, which probably means I won't have to hang out with them all the time. Not that I was dreading it or anything... getting some one-on-one time with the Associate Dean is not a bad thing... but I like my "quiet time" when I go to a conference. I'm preparing a poster-session presentation about a project that I don't really feel like I've done enough on. Hopefully, the dazzling graphics will hide that fact.
At home, I've spent every free minute trying to dig out from the squalor. I cleaned the basement while the wife was out the other day and tossed out three bags of trash. Some of it was stuff that she would have quibbled over had she been home. Don't throw that away, donate it, save it for the garage sale. No. Some things are just TRASH. I refuse to inflict my trash on others... even if they DO think they want it. And whatever money we would have gotten for it is worth less to me than the joy that throwing it away brings.
The kids' rooms need to be hit next. Hard. Lots of neglected toys, lots of "baby" stuff... Fisher Price crap... big wooden puzzles... that has ALL got to go.
The wife is also itching to tackle some home-improvementy projects... painting the bathrooms and stuff. I can't say I disagree, although it means work for me. Spackling and sanding. But, it's time. We've been in this house 3 years, and everything except the two kids' rooms is still the off-white builder's paint. (Actually, it may even be just primer!) There are also some furniture finishing things that could be done... a building project in the basement. I think if we plan just ONE of them for Spring Break, it will get us into the habit, and we'll be more likely to continue.
Same thing probably goes for exercise. I'm getting disgusted enough with my life that I'm about ready to do something about it in that regard. I'm not sure what. I'm actually tossing around the idea of running, as much as the thought kind of sickens me. But when I read these "couch-to-10-k" plans, and they seem so reasonable. All the steps seems so small. I dunno, I can't see myself sticking with it. Maybe biking. I do have a bike. I think it's been ridden twice. Maybe just walking more and not eating a diet inspired by Will Ferrell in "Elf" ("Candy... candy CANES... candy CORNS... and SYRUP!"). I dunno. I want to get down to 190 and go back to yoga class. And mostly it's a question of TIME.
Speaking of "Elf"... I read in Spin that Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward did an album together. Wonder what that's like? He's always seemed like he might be interesting, but I've never heard more than a couple of songs. I can't say I'm on the lookout for new music right now, though. I've got almost more than I can listen to... some of it bought, some of it bit-torrented. I should probably post some mini-reviews soon.
Hey! Remember when I said I was going to work today? That was like... 1200 words ago!!
It's getting to be that time of the semester when teaching almost starts to feel like work. There are exams to write, study guides to prepare, assignments to grade, students begging to take their exams early or late for this or that reason... so I've decided to work today. I mean really work. Like a person with a job.
Yesterday, my day was taken up by a cranky Mac. The big iMac at work had a black screen when I got to the lab in the morning. Two attempts at a hard restart left it stuck at the grey-apple-spinning-doodad screen for ages. An attempt to boot off an install DVD and run Disk Utility left me with an error when I tried to repair the HD. (Invalid sibling link?) Yet another attempt to boot got me to a login screen, but the machine had forgotten its own password. Back to the installer disc to reset the administrator account. Finally I got the thing to boot... backed up all my semi-important stuff onto the external Tb drive and ran Disk Utility AGAIN. Same error. So.... looks like the plan for today may be to reformat the HD and install Leopard. The machine has been acting flaky in a bunch of ways lately anyway. Nothing like a full brain transplant to fix that sort of behavior.
I managed to get Leopard onto both of the Macbooks in the science lab while I was fighting with the iMac. I'm still afraid to put it on this crusty old G4. I think it's just to slow for all the flashy new OS gee-whizzery. Maybe I'll try to put it on an external and boot from it for a while... just to play with it.
I really must get a new laptop. The latest issue is the battery, which BARELY survives the 2 hour trip to work in the mornings. After the academic discount, $1289 will get me a spec'd up Macbook. The problem being that I don't happen to have $1289. I may have some consultant money coming my way at some point. I need to ask for an advance on that.
What else is going on besides that? Let's see... I just registered for my conference in April in San Francisco. (Any readers in the Bay Area want to do lunch?) I'm actually looking forward to that. The wife was trying to tag along for a while, but eventually decided that we couldn't afford the $500 plane ticket, even with the free hotel. And both my colleagues are bringing their husbands, which probably means I won't have to hang out with them all the time. Not that I was dreading it or anything... getting some one-on-one time with the Associate Dean is not a bad thing... but I like my "quiet time" when I go to a conference. I'm preparing a poster-session presentation about a project that I don't really feel like I've done enough on. Hopefully, the dazzling graphics will hide that fact.
At home, I've spent every free minute trying to dig out from the squalor. I cleaned the basement while the wife was out the other day and tossed out three bags of trash. Some of it was stuff that she would have quibbled over had she been home. Don't throw that away, donate it, save it for the garage sale. No. Some things are just TRASH. I refuse to inflict my trash on others... even if they DO think they want it. And whatever money we would have gotten for it is worth less to me than the joy that throwing it away brings.
The kids' rooms need to be hit next. Hard. Lots of neglected toys, lots of "baby" stuff... Fisher Price crap... big wooden puzzles... that has ALL got to go.
The wife is also itching to tackle some home-improvementy projects... painting the bathrooms and stuff. I can't say I disagree, although it means work for me. Spackling and sanding. But, it's time. We've been in this house 3 years, and everything except the two kids' rooms is still the off-white builder's paint. (Actually, it may even be just primer!) There are also some furniture finishing things that could be done... a building project in the basement. I think if we plan just ONE of them for Spring Break, it will get us into the habit, and we'll be more likely to continue.
Same thing probably goes for exercise. I'm getting disgusted enough with my life that I'm about ready to do something about it in that regard. I'm not sure what. I'm actually tossing around the idea of running, as much as the thought kind of sickens me. But when I read these "couch-to-10-k" plans, and they seem so reasonable. All the steps seems so small. I dunno, I can't see myself sticking with it. Maybe biking. I do have a bike. I think it's been ridden twice. Maybe just walking more and not eating a diet inspired by Will Ferrell in "Elf" ("Candy... candy CANES... candy CORNS... and SYRUP!"). I dunno. I want to get down to 190 and go back to yoga class. And mostly it's a question of TIME.
Speaking of "Elf"... I read in Spin that Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward did an album together. Wonder what that's like? He's always seemed like he might be interesting, but I've never heard more than a couple of songs. I can't say I'm on the lookout for new music right now, though. I've got almost more than I can listen to... some of it bought, some of it bit-torrented. I should probably post some mini-reviews soon.
Hey! Remember when I said I was going to work today? That was like... 1200 words ago!!
Sunday, March 2
Oprah's big eg- oops, i mean... "give"...
The wife is watching tear-jerky Oprah tv, which seems to be designed to make us feel guilty for being horrible, self-centered people. And yet, it seems to me that this whole "contest" would be moot if Oprah would just go ahead and give a million dollars to ALL these people. I mean... what's a million dollars to OPRAH? It's like me giving a dollar to a homeless guy.
I'm not exaggerating either. According to the Internets, her net worth seems to be between $1 and 2.5 billion. Therefore a million dollars would be 1/1000th of her cash. Given my account balance, one dollar is MORE THAN 1/1000th of my cash. (My "net worth" is probably actually negative!) Hence.... that day last week when i gave $5 to a hobo? Makes me WAY more generous than fucking Oprah. But you don't see me running around calling it "DAVE'S BIG GIVE" now, do you?
The wife is watching tear-jerky Oprah tv, which seems to be designed to make us feel guilty for being horrible, self-centered people. And yet, it seems to me that this whole "contest" would be moot if Oprah would just go ahead and give a million dollars to ALL these people. I mean... what's a million dollars to OPRAH? It's like me giving a dollar to a homeless guy.
I'm not exaggerating either. According to the Internets, her net worth seems to be between $1 and 2.5 billion. Therefore a million dollars would be 1/1000th of her cash. Given my account balance, one dollar is MORE THAN 1/1000th of my cash. (My "net worth" is probably actually negative!) Hence.... that day last week when i gave $5 to a hobo? Makes me WAY more generous than fucking Oprah. But you don't see me running around calling it "DAVE'S BIG GIVE" now, do you?
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