deja fuckin' vu...
So, my car wouldn't start this morning. Such a lovely way to start the day. It was practically an exact replay of the thing that happened a few weeks ago, with the same solution... unscrew the (+) terminal from the battery, spray it with some cleaner, scrape off the excess corrosion, put it back together, and... vroom. What the hell? Batteries are not supposed to do this. Do I just need a new battery? The thing is, the battery doesn't appear WEAK at all. Weird.
Anyway, I'm late this morning but not TOO late. I have to prep for class, though, since I have little or no idea what I'm doing, and I didn't bring the textbook home that I wanted to discuss today. I can hardly complain to the students about them not keeping up with the readings if I'm not doing it myself.
One thing to note this morning - the number of cars in the train station today? Depressingly small. If I didn't just get Yom Kippur off, I'd be bitching and moaning about having to teach today.
Sunday, October 8
OW! too hot in'da hot tub!!
We dropped another $2600 into our beloved contractor's pocket to have him build on to our existing tiny deck in order to make enough space for the hot tub that has been sitting at the end of the driveway for a year - a mocking reminder of the fact that we used to be rich and are now just the kind of white trash who keep an unplugged hot tub in their yard.
I spent most of this afternoon vacuuming, powerwashing, scrubbing, and re-vacuuming the year's worth of scum and dead-buggery out of the thing. What fun. It is currently filling with water.
The point is... there may be some steamy hot tub action in the near future. We may not be rich anymore, but dammit... we can still fuck in the hot tub whenever we want. That's worth something.
We dropped another $2600 into our beloved contractor's pocket to have him build on to our existing tiny deck in order to make enough space for the hot tub that has been sitting at the end of the driveway for a year - a mocking reminder of the fact that we used to be rich and are now just the kind of white trash who keep an unplugged hot tub in their yard.
I spent most of this afternoon vacuuming, powerwashing, scrubbing, and re-vacuuming the year's worth of scum and dead-buggery out of the thing. What fun. It is currently filling with water.
The point is... there may be some steamy hot tub action in the near future. We may not be rich anymore, but dammit... we can still fuck in the hot tub whenever we want. That's worth something.
computer accomplishments of the day...
1) Performed monthly full backup of the laptop hard drive.
2) Upgraded the OS from 10.4.5 to 10.4.8
3) Figured out how to get videos from the TiVo onto my Mac. It's an insanely complicated process that requires passing through a Windows PC for a conversion step. But I can do it, and that's all that matters.
1) Performed monthly full backup of the laptop hard drive.
2) Upgraded the OS from 10.4.5 to 10.4.8
3) Figured out how to get videos from the TiVo onto my Mac. It's an insanely complicated process that requires passing through a Windows PC for a conversion step. But I can do it, and that's all that matters.
Saturday, October 7
pant victory...
My month-long quest for a black fucking pair of dress pants that fit has come to an end. It seems like a simple thing... plain, black, flat front, 36|30 (**) pants... you'd be fucking amazed. I've searched for a month and found dark grey, or pleated, or fucking pinstripes, or 36|29... what the hell? 29? Anyway, I have pants, and I am happy.
(** 36!!!!)
My month-long quest for a black fucking pair of dress pants that fit has come to an end. It seems like a simple thing... plain, black, flat front, 36|30 (**) pants... you'd be fucking amazed. I've searched for a month and found dark grey, or pleated, or fucking pinstripes, or 36|29... what the hell? 29? Anyway, I have pants, and I am happy.
(** 36!!!!)
Thursday, October 5
busywork...
Spent the whole train commute reading administrative documents, answering emails, and cleaning out the inbox today, so... no big long T/Th blog post this time. The departmental and committee busywork is starting to kick in. It seems like there are a hundred draft-documents of one sort or another that need attention, and the committee meetings haven't even started yet. The Big Important Committee meets for the first time next week. I have to make a good impression there early on. Not having my laptop open would be a good start. Maybe I'll bring a serious-looking Levenger notebook and pretend to take notes.
I also have to revise the science major student handbook, a task which I foolishly agreed to be in charge of last year. Then I have to design the posters for the science department open house in November. This is a task which I am actually looking forward to, as any chance to exercise my "frustrated graphic artist" muscles is always a lot of fun. Apple's "Pages" software makes it insanely easy to create something that looks far too good to have been done by an amateur.
Uh-oh... the baby on the train who has been giggling and making cute, happy gurgly noises for the past hour has finally started shrieking angrily. That's good, actually. Saves me the mental energy of hating the parents.
Spent the whole train commute reading administrative documents, answering emails, and cleaning out the inbox today, so... no big long T/Th blog post this time. The departmental and committee busywork is starting to kick in. It seems like there are a hundred draft-documents of one sort or another that need attention, and the committee meetings haven't even started yet. The Big Important Committee meets for the first time next week. I have to make a good impression there early on. Not having my laptop open would be a good start. Maybe I'll bring a serious-looking Levenger notebook and pretend to take notes.
I also have to revise the science major student handbook, a task which I foolishly agreed to be in charge of last year. Then I have to design the posters for the science department open house in November. This is a task which I am actually looking forward to, as any chance to exercise my "frustrated graphic artist" muscles is always a lot of fun. Apple's "Pages" software makes it insanely easy to create something that looks far too good to have been done by an amateur.
Uh-oh... the baby on the train who has been giggling and making cute, happy gurgly noises for the past hour has finally started shrieking angrily. That's good, actually. Saves me the mental energy of hating the parents.
Wednesday, October 4
passed over again...
First the MacArthur "Genius" Grants, now the Nobel... the indignities never cease.
Oh well, at least the physics prize went to someone I'd heard of for a subject I understand, for a change. In fact, I was actually present at the AIP meeting in Washington DC back when these results were first announced. (I was an undergrad.) And if nothing else, maybe the recent Nobel will make the topic of the cosmic microwave background more interesting to my astro students this year.
Speaking of research I didn't do, our science department is in the middle of drafting a document explaining to the administration why none of us does "real" research. This is necessary because the college is drafting new guidelines for professional scholarship, and we need to make sure that various administrators who are NOT scientists themselves understand clearly that you can't do science research without things like... oh... labs... equipment... computers... grad students... money...
We actually put together a list of schools that our school THINKS we are kind of the same as, and it tuns out that they all have science buildings! And observatories! And electron microscopes! And 5 physics professors instead of one! So it turns out we are not so very much like them at all. Meanwhile we're putting together a comprehensive list of the things we DO do that are not quite science research, but are EDUCATION research... and the things we publish that are not-quite-traditional publications. It's are a very delicate business... trying to justify what we do without sounding like we're making excuses. I mean... I'm a physicist who spent an entire year writing a PLAY... how the hell do you explain that to someone??
First the MacArthur "Genius" Grants, now the Nobel... the indignities never cease.
Oh well, at least the physics prize went to someone I'd heard of for a subject I understand, for a change. In fact, I was actually present at the AIP meeting in Washington DC back when these results were first announced. (I was an undergrad.) And if nothing else, maybe the recent Nobel will make the topic of the cosmic microwave background more interesting to my astro students this year.
Speaking of research I didn't do, our science department is in the middle of drafting a document explaining to the administration why none of us does "real" research. This is necessary because the college is drafting new guidelines for professional scholarship, and we need to make sure that various administrators who are NOT scientists themselves understand clearly that you can't do science research without things like... oh... labs... equipment... computers... grad students... money...
We actually put together a list of schools that our school THINKS we are kind of the same as, and it tuns out that they all have science buildings! And observatories! And electron microscopes! And 5 physics professors instead of one! So it turns out we are not so very much like them at all. Meanwhile we're putting together a comprehensive list of the things we DO do that are not quite science research, but are EDUCATION research... and the things we publish that are not-quite-traditional publications. It's are a very delicate business... trying to justify what we do without sounding like we're making excuses. I mean... I'm a physicist who spent an entire year writing a PLAY... how the hell do you explain that to someone??
Tuesday, October 3
don't i have some work to do...?
One of those mornings. Nothing big, just lots of little stuff. Overslept by more than a half hour... don't even remember reaching for the alarm, but somebody turned it off. Accidentally marked all my new bloglines feeds as "read" when I fired up my browser... then had to go try to reconstruct them based on what I kinda remembered showing up bold a second ago. One of the NPR stations that comes in strongest during my morning drive has switched to some sort of irritating "independent music" format in the mornings instead of news. My transit account credit card wouldn't work in the machine when I tried to buy my monthly ticket today. Like I said... little stuff...
Meanwhile, it's really nice to be starting a week on a Tuesday. It's a much easier day for me, mentally. I plan to work on some grading a little before my noon class. We'll see if that really happens.
Spent most of the day yesterday cleaning the house. Got the living room and the kitchen floors done. Well, ok... Roomba did most of the work, but we had to pick up first. It sure is handy having a robot slave. At least our carpets will be tidy until the machines rise up against us.
The woman sitting behind me on the train smells really good. I thought about telling her so, but... that's kinda creepy, isn't it...?
I'm making detailed plans for my birthday-day-out, which is actually the day AFTER my birthday, next Friday. I'm thinking Apple Store + MoMA + London Symphony/Beethoven. The Beethoven tickets I've had for a long time... Symphonies 1 & 7, which are actually my two favorites. (The London Symphony is performing all 9 next week at Lincoln Center.) And I'm thinking of hitting the MoMA beforehand, just because I can get in for free and I haven't been since it re-opened. And the Apple store to buy my new iPod. I could just order it, of course, but I think I want the experience of going to the store and buying it in person. Of course that means I have to carry it around all evening looking all shiny and new and muggable in its fancy Apple Store bag. Hmm... maybe I'll go to the Apple Store AFTER the symphony.
I'm facing a bit of a conundrum re: the iPod. I had been planning on buying one of the new 30 gig video iPods for $249, but it turns out Apple is clearing out last-generation 60 gig models (factory refurbished) for $229!! Am I willing to trade double the storage space for half the battery life? Probably not, but it's tempting. Anyway... if I buy from the Apple store I can also pick up some accessories and other Apple doodads and hope that my wife doesn't look too closely at the credit card staetment. "No, honey... the iPod was $250, plus a case, and... tax, and... stuff... that comes to about $500..."
I think I have a new favorite shirt. I bought this grey dress shirt last time I went shopping for pants (failed!) because it was really soft and... well... grey! The first time I wore it, the sleeves were sort of weirdly comically long, which was kind of disappointing, but after washing it, they seem to have shrinked-up to about the right length. The best thing, though... it came out of the laundry last night perfectly smooth and unwrinkled. This makes only 2 shirts in my wardrobe that unambiguously require no ironing. (Two more are judgement calls, the rest are wrinkly cotton or god forbid, linen and need to be ironed for HOURS.) Anyway, this makes me happy. I may need to go back to the store and buy it in some other colors.
In pushing-40 news, I plucked a hair out of my ear canal last night that was, I shit you not, 3/4" long. And I mean ear CANAL... not like the outside stick-outy parts of your ear... this thing started way up inside my fucking head. Seriously... what the hell?
I discovered the joy of YouTube this weekend. Not videos of cute kittens or teenagers aspiring to be the next "Johnny Dumbass"... but music and concert videos. It almost seems like the more obscure you musical tastes are, the GREATER chance you'll find something cool on there. I found a bunch of live performances by the Afghan Whigs and PJ Harvey... even a complete performance of Philip Glass's solo piano album by some stern-looking Eastern European woman. (I took great pleasure in spotting her mistakes and fumbles during "Wichita Vortex Sutra".) I also picked up a freeware program for the Mac that can snag YouTube videos and send them straight to your iPod. Could I possibly waste more time than this? Perhaps by blogging for an hour and a half??
POSTSCRIPT: One last minor inconvenience this morning... there was some kind of power outage on Amtrak, which caused the trains from Secaucus to Penn Station to go down, which cause about a million more people than usual to try to cram themselves into the PATH trains. It was a bit Tokyo-esque down there. Anyway... I made it to work, so... time to "work".
One of those mornings. Nothing big, just lots of little stuff. Overslept by more than a half hour... don't even remember reaching for the alarm, but somebody turned it off. Accidentally marked all my new bloglines feeds as "read" when I fired up my browser... then had to go try to reconstruct them based on what I kinda remembered showing up bold a second ago. One of the NPR stations that comes in strongest during my morning drive has switched to some sort of irritating "independent music" format in the mornings instead of news. My transit account credit card wouldn't work in the machine when I tried to buy my monthly ticket today. Like I said... little stuff...
Meanwhile, it's really nice to be starting a week on a Tuesday. It's a much easier day for me, mentally. I plan to work on some grading a little before my noon class. We'll see if that really happens.
Spent most of the day yesterday cleaning the house. Got the living room and the kitchen floors done. Well, ok... Roomba did most of the work, but we had to pick up first. It sure is handy having a robot slave. At least our carpets will be tidy until the machines rise up against us.
The woman sitting behind me on the train smells really good. I thought about telling her so, but... that's kinda creepy, isn't it...?
I'm making detailed plans for my birthday-day-out, which is actually the day AFTER my birthday, next Friday. I'm thinking Apple Store + MoMA + London Symphony/Beethoven. The Beethoven tickets I've had for a long time... Symphonies 1 & 7, which are actually my two favorites. (The London Symphony is performing all 9 next week at Lincoln Center.) And I'm thinking of hitting the MoMA beforehand, just because I can get in for free and I haven't been since it re-opened. And the Apple store to buy my new iPod. I could just order it, of course, but I think I want the experience of going to the store and buying it in person. Of course that means I have to carry it around all evening looking all shiny and new and muggable in its fancy Apple Store bag. Hmm... maybe I'll go to the Apple Store AFTER the symphony.
I'm facing a bit of a conundrum re: the iPod. I had been planning on buying one of the new 30 gig video iPods for $249, but it turns out Apple is clearing out last-generation 60 gig models (factory refurbished) for $229!! Am I willing to trade double the storage space for half the battery life? Probably not, but it's tempting. Anyway... if I buy from the Apple store I can also pick up some accessories and other Apple doodads and hope that my wife doesn't look too closely at the credit card staetment. "No, honey... the iPod was $250, plus a case, and... tax, and... stuff... that comes to about $500..."
I think I have a new favorite shirt. I bought this grey dress shirt last time I went shopping for pants (failed!) because it was really soft and... well... grey! The first time I wore it, the sleeves were sort of weirdly comically long, which was kind of disappointing, but after washing it, they seem to have shrinked-up to about the right length. The best thing, though... it came out of the laundry last night perfectly smooth and unwrinkled. This makes only 2 shirts in my wardrobe that unambiguously require no ironing. (Two more are judgement calls, the rest are wrinkly cotton or god forbid, linen and need to be ironed for HOURS.) Anyway, this makes me happy. I may need to go back to the store and buy it in some other colors.
In pushing-40 news, I plucked a hair out of my ear canal last night that was, I shit you not, 3/4" long. And I mean ear CANAL... not like the outside stick-outy parts of your ear... this thing started way up inside my fucking head. Seriously... what the hell?
I discovered the joy of YouTube this weekend. Not videos of cute kittens or teenagers aspiring to be the next "Johnny Dumbass"... but music and concert videos. It almost seems like the more obscure you musical tastes are, the GREATER chance you'll find something cool on there. I found a bunch of live performances by the Afghan Whigs and PJ Harvey... even a complete performance of Philip Glass's solo piano album by some stern-looking Eastern European woman. (I took great pleasure in spotting her mistakes and fumbles during "Wichita Vortex Sutra".) I also picked up a freeware program for the Mac that can snag YouTube videos and send them straight to your iPod. Could I possibly waste more time than this? Perhaps by blogging for an hour and a half??
POSTSCRIPT: One last minor inconvenience this morning... there was some kind of power outage on Amtrak, which caused the trains from Secaucus to Penn Station to go down, which cause about a million more people than usual to try to cram themselves into the PATH trains. It was a bit Tokyo-esque down there. Anyway... I made it to work, so... time to "work".
Monday, October 2
Sunday, October 1
weekend update...
Community yardsale haul - $200
Hauls back and forth to community yard sale - 5
Children with fever - 1
Children driving me crazy - 2
Shelves installed in basement closet - 2
Atempts to cut shelves to proper length - 3
Change in width of closet from front to back of shelf - 3/4"
Candy bars eaten - (innumerable)
Weight gain - none (for now)
Community yardsale haul - $200
Hauls back and forth to community yard sale - 5
Children with fever - 1
Children driving me crazy - 2
Shelves installed in basement closet - 2
Atempts to cut shelves to proper length - 3
Change in width of closet from front to back of shelf - 3/4"
Candy bars eaten - (innumerable)
Weight gain - none (for now)
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