The title says it all.
I'm tired, can't think straight, have a presentation to make in about 15 hours, have two classes to teach in the morning and have next to nothing to say at the moment. And this comes after a Thanksgiving weekend of being sick, not sleeping, and coughing up stuff better left unmentioned. I need a vacation from the vacation...
Can't wait for the semester to end.
I've resorted to my dusty tape of The Doors, which I made sometime in the late 80's. I forget how good they were. I'll resist the temptation to sing along. (Ok, I'll just sing through "Light My Fire", but after that, I'm done.)
Hate to say it, but I still think that 60's music really rocked. And some 80's. And some 90's. And some 00's tunes rock a little too. It's just most of the '70s that I could do without, in part from having lived through it.
Other things that I've recently (re)discovered that rock:
* The Police
* Tom Waits (in small doses)
* Cheesy Cold War movies. Life was so much simpler back then.
* DOS - It worked. I just don't need all that other stuff sometimes.
* The new movie "Happy Feet".
* XML/XSLT. I'm a geek. It's still cool every time it works.
That's my list du jour. Somehow feeling less fried now.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Friday, November 17, 2006
Friday!
I decided to ditch work today and help clean the house. We're having a bunch of other moms and kids over at the house, at least 10 in all expected, not counting us.
So I went to school to do work. The fact that I'm typing this goes to show how productive I've been, but I realized I haven't posted in a few days and feel some strange obligation to do so now. Or maybe it's just the procrastination.
Someone referred to me as "middle aged" yesterday. Goddammit, I think it's time to buy a red convertible and a leather jacket. Or maybe just a motorcycle.
What's left this semester?
1. a 30 page paper I should have turned in last May.
2. a couple of makeup papers for the ones I screwed up on my General Comps exam as a result of general sleep-deprived incoherence (more so than usual).
3. a 40 page paper I should turn in by December.
4. a 10 page paper I should turn in by December.
5. a 20 page paper due for the one real class I'm taking right now.
I think that's still 100 pages, plus whatever's in that rewrite. If I write just 3 pages a day for the next month or so...
But it's Friday. I have an appointment with a DVD player and a box of wine (one of the good black boxes, not one of the crappy white boxes) that's only half-finished.
So I went to school to do work. The fact that I'm typing this goes to show how productive I've been, but I realized I haven't posted in a few days and feel some strange obligation to do so now. Or maybe it's just the procrastination.
Someone referred to me as "middle aged" yesterday. Goddammit, I think it's time to buy a red convertible and a leather jacket. Or maybe just a motorcycle.
What's left this semester?
1. a 30 page paper I should have turned in last May.
2. a couple of makeup papers for the ones I screwed up on my General Comps exam as a result of general sleep-deprived incoherence (more so than usual).
3. a 40 page paper I should turn in by December.
4. a 10 page paper I should turn in by December.
5. a 20 page paper due for the one real class I'm taking right now.
I think that's still 100 pages, plus whatever's in that rewrite. If I write just 3 pages a day for the next month or so...
But it's Friday. I have an appointment with a DVD player and a box of wine (one of the good black boxes, not one of the crappy white boxes) that's only half-finished.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
It's another Saturday night at home
It's Saturday Night at home.
5 loads of laundry done today.
4 leaf bags filled from the yard.
3 journal articles read.
2 cans of Coors Light consumed.
1 empty bowl formerly of ice cream sitting on the table next to me.
0 pages written for a paper due a few days ago.
Time go to bed.
Really, I have a few pages from my research template already done, so I just need to fill in about 3-4 more pages, but mentally, I'm starting from zero.
We watched a French movie, "A Very Long Engagement" starring Audrey Tautou of "Amelie" fame. I picked it up because I liked Amelie, and was expecting a little more of the same. Not so. The movie was interesting, but not something to watch (and read subtitles) over the weekly sushi handroll dinner. It's a richly detailed movie, but it has an alternate reality perspective that seems like other French movies I remember, namely the aforementioned, and "Delicatessen", which was quite odd. There were a few others, but they don't come to mind.
---
Our fish from the freezer has "jumped the shark" so to speak-- it became freezer burned since last weekend. It's Week #5 for that supply, and for some reason, the sashimi (i.e. sushi fish) always seems to fare well for no more than about 4 weeks. It was adequate to kill off my interest in eating it again for a while. I'm sure it would be no exaggeration to say that this has been the routine about every week for 12-13 years, so I can safely say I've had sushi about 600 times.
---
It makes me think of round numbers. I'd once read in the Science section of the NY Times that every species on earth has an average lifespan that corresponds to a billion of its heartbeats. Not to say that I'm going to die after hitting the giga-beat mark, but that's the round number, from mice to whales, for about every species on earth. (The smaller animals have much faster heartbeats.)
My other random, round numbers.
I do about 10 loads of laundry a week.
I do about 8 dishwasher cycles per week. (Usually 3 between Saturday and Sunday.)
I find that sashimi fish gets freezer burned after 4 weeks.
I should turn in about 100 more pages before the end of the semester. I think I have much of that (about half) written... somewhere.
This is my 5th semester in the PhD program. It feels like an eternity already.
It's 1 am. I really should go to bed now that this is starting to ramble...
5 loads of laundry done today.
4 leaf bags filled from the yard.
3 journal articles read.
2 cans of Coors Light consumed.
1 empty bowl formerly of ice cream sitting on the table next to me.
0 pages written for a paper due a few days ago.
Time go to bed.
Really, I have a few pages from my research template already done, so I just need to fill in about 3-4 more pages, but mentally, I'm starting from zero.
We watched a French movie, "A Very Long Engagement" starring Audrey Tautou of "Amelie" fame. I picked it up because I liked Amelie, and was expecting a little more of the same. Not so. The movie was interesting, but not something to watch (and read subtitles) over the weekly sushi handroll dinner. It's a richly detailed movie, but it has an alternate reality perspective that seems like other French movies I remember, namely the aforementioned, and "Delicatessen", which was quite odd. There were a few others, but they don't come to mind.
---
Our fish from the freezer has "jumped the shark" so to speak-- it became freezer burned since last weekend. It's Week #5 for that supply, and for some reason, the sashimi (i.e. sushi fish) always seems to fare well for no more than about 4 weeks. It was adequate to kill off my interest in eating it again for a while. I'm sure it would be no exaggeration to say that this has been the routine about every week for 12-13 years, so I can safely say I've had sushi about 600 times.
---
It makes me think of round numbers. I'd once read in the Science section of the NY Times that every species on earth has an average lifespan that corresponds to a billion of its heartbeats. Not to say that I'm going to die after hitting the giga-beat mark, but that's the round number, from mice to whales, for about every species on earth. (The smaller animals have much faster heartbeats.)
My other random, round numbers.
I do about 10 loads of laundry a week.
I do about 8 dishwasher cycles per week. (Usually 3 between Saturday and Sunday.)
I find that sashimi fish gets freezer burned after 4 weeks.
I should turn in about 100 more pages before the end of the semester. I think I have much of that (about half) written... somewhere.
This is my 5th semester in the PhD program. It feels like an eternity already.
It's 1 am. I really should go to bed now that this is starting to ramble...
Monday, November 06, 2006
Get your vote on
Tomorrow is Election Day. You have nothing better to do. Just do it.
I read this bit about members of congress hacking their own (and others') wikipedia entries and just had to laugh. At the very least, Wikipedia has hit the big time.
I remember a story my Dad told me about living in Albany in the 1950's. He went to vote when the polls opened-- 7 am, on his way to work. The county election worker told him that he had already voted. Yes, the good old days, when even the dead voted--twice.
So vote, before someone else votes for you!
I read this bit about members of congress hacking their own (and others') wikipedia entries and just had to laugh. At the very least, Wikipedia has hit the big time.
I remember a story my Dad told me about living in Albany in the 1950's. He went to vote when the polls opened-- 7 am, on his way to work. The county election worker told him that he had already voted. Yes, the good old days, when even the dead voted--twice.
So vote, before someone else votes for you!
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Good Parenting
Today was cleaning day, work on random stuff day, or whatever you want to call it. I didn't get out of bed until about 10 am, then went through the dishes, laundry, floors, let the kids play with the computer for an hour, and did some reading for my next paper. My daughter noted that we're down to 14 boxes of cereal on top of the kitchen cabinets-- but she doesn't realize that that's just the overflow from the pantry. Well, it was 19 before.
Yesterday, I spent the better part of the day (11 am - 4 pm) doing yard work, and was pretty tired-- filling about 15 leaf bags, including two bags worth of varying stuff that's fallen between our double layer of fences. And I'm getting old.
The prior owners felt the need to install a stockade fence inside the existent chain link fence, with about a foot between them, with half of it underneath a giant maple tree. Needless to say, that's a lot of fun to try to clear out. But between three separate rakes and a leaf blower, it only took about an hour or so to get out about two bags worth of stuff in varying phases of decomposition.
But the kids decided to help out along the way, though I quickly discovered that meant my son playing with the extention chord plug in the outlet before I promptly redirected him to play on the swing. That of course meant both kids swinging on the swings-- with rakes. Then of course, they were promptly stopped a few seconds before one would have lost an eye.
When we'd raked all we could, and the curb held as many leaf bags as it could without them blowing over into the road, we thought about just going out to dinner. As much as I'd like to find a locally owned place, we're finding that we like the Macaroni Grill a lot more lately. When I mentioned that possibility to the kids, my son promptly replied, "Because Mommy and Daddy likes to drink free wine there?"
"It's $1.99 a glass, but that ended in October," I replied, as if that made it any better.
We decided instead to have what's left of our supply of frozen sashimi to make Tamaki for dinner instead, and the kids had a little of their fish, too. I got to put in an hour or so on one of my papers this week before dinner. (Something I should be doing right now too.)
Tonight we decided to go out for dinner instead-- to Chili's on Wolf Road. When we got there, we had a few minutes to wait for a table, since I don't like sitting the kids near the bar. Naturally, my son pointed to a sign and said, loudly, "We're going to the B-A-R for dinner?"
From some grandmotherly-looking person, I got the same look I recalled many years ago, the first time I bought a bottle of wine while carrying my infant daughter in a Baby Bjorn front carrier. Yes, I got a few of those looks in the checkout line, in fact. It's not like I was going to drink the whole bottle on the way home or anything... we were expecting another couple over for dinner! But try telling anyone that as they see a young-looking guy with an infant in a smelly diaper buying alcohol.
Dammit.
Yesterday, I spent the better part of the day (11 am - 4 pm) doing yard work, and was pretty tired-- filling about 15 leaf bags, including two bags worth of varying stuff that's fallen between our double layer of fences. And I'm getting old.
The prior owners felt the need to install a stockade fence inside the existent chain link fence, with about a foot between them, with half of it underneath a giant maple tree. Needless to say, that's a lot of fun to try to clear out. But between three separate rakes and a leaf blower, it only took about an hour or so to get out about two bags worth of stuff in varying phases of decomposition.
But the kids decided to help out along the way, though I quickly discovered that meant my son playing with the extention chord plug in the outlet before I promptly redirected him to play on the swing. That of course meant both kids swinging on the swings-- with rakes. Then of course, they were promptly stopped a few seconds before one would have lost an eye.
When we'd raked all we could, and the curb held as many leaf bags as it could without them blowing over into the road, we thought about just going out to dinner. As much as I'd like to find a locally owned place, we're finding that we like the Macaroni Grill a lot more lately. When I mentioned that possibility to the kids, my son promptly replied, "Because Mommy and Daddy likes to drink free wine there?"
"It's $1.99 a glass, but that ended in October," I replied, as if that made it any better.
We decided instead to have what's left of our supply of frozen sashimi to make Tamaki for dinner instead, and the kids had a little of their fish, too. I got to put in an hour or so on one of my papers this week before dinner. (Something I should be doing right now too.)
Tonight we decided to go out for dinner instead-- to Chili's on Wolf Road. When we got there, we had a few minutes to wait for a table, since I don't like sitting the kids near the bar. Naturally, my son pointed to a sign and said, loudly, "We're going to the B-A-R for dinner?"
From some grandmotherly-looking person, I got the same look I recalled many years ago, the first time I bought a bottle of wine while carrying my infant daughter in a Baby Bjorn front carrier. Yes, I got a few of those looks in the checkout line, in fact. It's not like I was going to drink the whole bottle on the way home or anything... we were expecting another couple over for dinner! But try telling anyone that as they see a young-looking guy with an infant in a smelly diaper buying alcohol.
Dammit.
Friday, November 03, 2006
My Google Wishlist
So far, I like Google, despite it's Microsoft-like domination over its market. I don't dislike Microsoft either, and I don't care if that makes me a target for the hip Open Source crowd. I just don't like monopolies in general. I'll always root for the little guy, the startup.
But I do like my standards.
I was wondering why Google doesn't have a to-do list. I've also thought it would be cool to see online groups (Yahoo groups, Google groups, etc.) have a wiki. Now, Google just bought Jot.com, which is a free online wiki. They're going to tie it into their Google Groups, just like they did with Writely, the online word processor, that now supports formats like MS-Word and OpenOffice Word. Jot and Google both had a web-based spreadsheet tool too. And a few other things I haven't quite stayed on top of.
I still want my to-do list, though a spreadsheet linked with a wiki might work too. (I'm also in desperate need for more coffee and/or an hour nap, but that's pretty much a given.) I'd just like to see a bunch of API's defined, so that I can build or borrow whatever tools I want.
Yes, Google, do your Word, Wiki, Spreadsheet, Transit, Calendar, or whatever else you want. Just give us an API for others to make nice and useful things out of it.
But I do like my standards.
I was wondering why Google doesn't have a to-do list. I've also thought it would be cool to see online groups (Yahoo groups, Google groups, etc.) have a wiki. Now, Google just bought Jot.com, which is a free online wiki. They're going to tie it into their Google Groups, just like they did with Writely, the online word processor, that now supports formats like MS-Word and OpenOffice Word. Jot and Google both had a web-based spreadsheet tool too. And a few other things I haven't quite stayed on top of.
I still want my to-do list, though a spreadsheet linked with a wiki might work too. (I'm also in desperate need for more coffee and/or an hour nap, but that's pretty much a given.) I'd just like to see a bunch of API's defined, so that I can build or borrow whatever tools I want.
Yes, Google, do your Word, Wiki, Spreadsheet, Transit, Calendar, or whatever else you want. Just give us an API for others to make nice and useful things out of it.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Testing the candy, like any good parent
I've decided to go the extra mile for the kids.
Since I'm up late grading anyway, I thought the best thing I could do is to test my kids' candy. So, I've decided to take random samples and eat them in front of Jay Leno as I'm grading homeworks, test makeups, labs, etc.
But with a pile of wrappers in front of me, I've decided that the candies are probably safe. Even so, we could just swap them all out with the candy we actually bought, for the Trick-or-treaters who never came. (Of course, we didn't get home until nearly 8 pm, so we probably missed the rush.)
But with one ad after another for various movies and TV shows, I'm getting a feeling of deja vu (sorry, no accents) that I've seen this before, a plot about time warps or, yes, deja vu.
But it's time to throw the wrappers out, wrap up the grading, and just go to bed.
Since I'm up late grading anyway, I thought the best thing I could do is to test my kids' candy. So, I've decided to take random samples and eat them in front of Jay Leno as I'm grading homeworks, test makeups, labs, etc.
But with a pile of wrappers in front of me, I've decided that the candies are probably safe. Even so, we could just swap them all out with the candy we actually bought, for the Trick-or-treaters who never came. (Of course, we didn't get home until nearly 8 pm, so we probably missed the rush.)
But with one ad after another for various movies and TV shows, I'm getting a feeling of deja vu (sorry, no accents) that I've seen this before, a plot about time warps or, yes, deja vu.
But it's time to throw the wrappers out, wrap up the grading, and just go to bed.
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