actual pop up window

"congratulations, you've been selected to take a survey"

I WON! I WON! YIPEEE!
what was the criteria - having javascript enabled?

went for a trail run - not very eventful - was a great workout - came home soaked - i think my wife thought i got caught in the rain - feel great now - god bless endorphins - knees took a bit of a banging - should ice them - first time with my camelbak, so had to figure out best way to wear it running - decided it worked better higher on the waist than i wear it for skating, which is kind of slung around the hips much like those jeans which are quite popular these days. confirmed my opinion that the woods smell great except when they smell terrible. there were also some lovely fungi.

almost collided with a mountain biker - ah, who's woods these are, i do not know, but they were oozing with machismo this fine day

every time i say i have not much to say, i always end up with about a bazillion posts, so drink up, kellyanne...

anyhow, i just saw a target commercial for todd oldham's clothes - don't get me wrong, i have nothing against target or todd oldham, but the tag line in the ad was something like "celebrate the individual". i found this perplexing and a bit disturbing,,,
a. do they mean that as individuals, we have the right to buy into consumerism through whichever large, multi-national corporate dept store we chose...
b. do they mean, since we are all individuals, be sure to buy these cool clothes so you can look just like all the other cool individuals out there
c. or is it just plain messed up and some madison avenue guys way of fattening profits...

my individuality, for better or worse, was not created by a designer nor bought in any store - even ones as fine as todd oldham and target...

seems like we have a love/hate thing going with individuality...individuality is to be celebrated as long as we dress, listen to, watch, read and eat the same things...step out of line and you're not an individual - you're some damned weirdo - unless of course, your rich or famous or something...

as i look thru my closet and think i only have 4 or so pairs of pants and perhaps a few more shirts suitable for teaching, i recall a high school teacher that a lot of students used to snicker about because he wore the same few outfits over and over (not me, i was a good kid). when i consider my budget and ponder if i can afford buying some new duds, i realize given what teachers were (and still are) paid, it's no wonder he didn't have a closet-full of armani - and it really doesn't seem all that funny anymore...

my next post, perhaps, will detail how i feel sorry for the principal in ferris bueller's day off now...

kathryn lively has suggested creating blog drinking games. while i don't read the blogs she includes (other than hers) - what a fab idea! to my knowledge, she is the first to suggest that...i promise to devote more thought to this - but the mind reels - a drink every time furnace mentions a band i've never heard of...(too lazy to do links - check rather cluttered link section). a drink everytime kellyanne posts a new photo, a drink every time pulpfriction makes me laugh (ooh, better watch the liver there!), a drink every time fluidpudding posts a gem of an entry, a drink every time stína posts in icelandic - wow!

any thoughts

hi folks, neither dead, nor lost in the woods...not even depressed or anything...not much to say...
working on a cool, side project for school - working w/engineering to develop some simple lab simulations in flash - kind of fun and i'm kind of really focusing

the presenter on bbc6 commented how it sounds great when jb "sings" the lyrics, but you'd slap someone if they said it to you as they are horrible to hear spoken: "get up, get on up. stay on the scene like a sex machine"

i am in my office - no classes today - doing misc. stuff - james brown's sex machine playing on bbc6

the question is "how loud can i play this without being reprimanded?"

"can i take 'em to the bridge?"
....
"hit it , now!"

interesting food combinations

one unexpected consequence of being a vegetarian is that it has made me more adventurous with my food choices. i mean, anything i eat now as a vegetarian, i "could" have eaten when i ate meat, but you know, eliminating meat from my diet has kind of forced me to try different foods and unusual combinations in order to keep my diet interesting. in this regard, i follow someone's formula (forget who) that if you take food and add food to it, you'll end up with food - so i go for it, have fun and try to invent new delicacies....

my latest invention is a snack consisting of crackers, peanut butter and cayenne pepper sauce. sounds disgusting on paper? perhaps. but i find it real tasty.

ok folks, vegetarians and flesh eaters - what are your "disgusting" food combinations that you love. elvis had his pb and banana sandwich, i'm sure everyone has a few - i am curious what yours are - please leave a comment...

got caught in the rain skating today for the first time ever. not sure why this hasn't happened before, god knows we have stretches where we get enough rain. i guess usually if i think it might rain, i don't skate. but today, i kinda didn't think about it. i'm feeling pretty good, but kind of have the racing, monkey mind - not in a bad way - but just need to chill, and my wife suggested a skate.anyhow, wasn't too bad until i pulled into my driveway - lucky me. have to balance two conflicting forces, like a yoga pose: while you want to skate fast to get home quickly. you know you can't skate too fast because your traction isn't as good. i once took a tumble when i hit just a bit of wetness on the street - leg just shot out...anyhow, safe and sound now - but kinda soaked...

I replaced a vinyl copy of an old Jabberjaws LP with a CD I found for only $3.99.
I was so moved by the Cuban-Swiss-Afro-Danish percussion rhythms, I quickly assumed a classic Yoga asana called "the upward facing dog pose," at which point my three cats became visibly threatened by my canine demeanor.
One of the grabbed and claw swatted at my beard, while the other started sharpening his claws on my Tibetan meditation pillow, and the old female casually sauntered over and urinated on one of my new inline skates.
Being a pacifist, I knew violent retaliation toward my pets was not an option, but since duct tape is like the yin and yang, with a dark side and a light side, I used some to help place the cats into some classic yoga positions of their own.
The older male was coaxed into a Warrior pose, the younger male into a Bridge pose, and the female into a Downward Facing Dog pose.
Because they were quite verbal in expressing their appreciation for this new form of cat exercise, I played the song, "Who Let the Dogs Out" very loudly, so they could time their ecstatic meows to the song's barking chorus, thereby opening their heart chakras to let the love between canine and feline flow in and out.
It is this type of oneness that exemplifies the benefits of Yoga.
Namaste~

today is my other long day....get thru this and i have a relatively easy rest of the week!

anyone ever see the sponge bob episode that is done like a training video for employees of the krusty krab?

classic!!!

perhaps pride goes before a fall, but i think i really nailed today's lecture - only a lab left then i can take it easy - already have all of wednesday's classes prepared...

kellyanne had a recent post about age. i never really thought about age until recently, now it's an obsession. two things changed it: my dad dying and turning 40. no other "milestone" birthdays bothered me much, but turning 40 did. i mean, it is a rare athlete that competes into his 40's. there is no way you can classify yourself "young" at 40; you are clearly middle-aged. in fact, at 42, it is likely i've lived over half my life already. think about that - i have started to wind down - even typing this, i shudder at the thought. not that it is a sure thing, but still. i also notice things like - making more spelling mistakes - confusing "their" and "there" for example. i NEVER did that. is my mind starting to slip, or am i just a bit more careless? i know in all probability i have a lot of good years left, but still, i am aware of the end in a way i never have been before. i always thought the woody allen movies where he whined about death were a bit pathetic and funny. i don't laugh as much about it anymore. as far as dying, it is not as though i feel the need to accomplish things before i die. i simply do not want to leave the ones i love.

hmmm - now what would be good for a sore throat. a cold beer, perhaps. miller time! (actually coors light time!)

last class is over - nothing particularly noteworthy - throat REALLY hurts and i am spent.

ttfn

well, have the customary first day sore throat! came out of intro class relatively unscathed. i think they might think i'm goofy - but that's ok, cause perhaps that will compel them to pay attention to see what i am going to do next...

one more class today - a fun one - gee, i'll sleep well tonight. teaching is HARD WORK, don't let anyone tell ya otherwise.

i've kind of intentionally front-loaded my schedule - M-W is fairly intense, Th-F, less so

actual dialog
me: (wrapping up review of syllabus, including mentioning the evils of copying and cheating (important plot detail))
me: any questions.
student: yeah, is there any reason why the syllabus shows everything on tuesdays and thursdays given this class meets on monday and wednesday
me: uh, yeah, um, er, i, um copied, uh and, um, adapted the um schedule from another instructor (crikey, i am sooo busted) since this is a core class, we instructors co-ordinate our schedules to insure we cover the same material (this is even TRUE, but probably sounded bogus!)

ok - ice was broken...went well - except didn't know password/projector in the classroom - fortunately was only a small part of my lecture..
actual dialog
me: (fiddling w/computer/projector - can't get it to work) i'll have to teach web development the way we did back before there were any computers
class: (total silence)

anyhow, next class is prob my hardest to teach. an intro class which attracts students of extremely wide range of computer expertise...

ok - 10 minutes. at least i looked at my notes...

ok - down to 20 minutes...and am i preparing - hah - i've been preparing for past 20 yrs - it's time to blog!

fall semester starts for me in about 1/2 hour...i will be probably posting blow-by-blow descriptions of my return to the classroom - might help me deal. i mentioned to my wife that really i don't know why i was getting so worked up; what could go wrong the first day. she proceeded to list a myriad of things that "could" go wrong - including, but not limited to, vomiting in front of the class - uh, thanks, hon...

if a blow-by-blow description of my day is not your cup of tea (the ultimate haircut blog), you might want to skip this site for a few days, until equilibrium is restored to my universe. i suggest tuning into fluidpudding or stína's or sharon's or kellyanne's. their blogs are among my favorites (along with others - see rather cluttered links section for a full list). try them and see why!

went for a fairly long skate. enormous lower back cramps. trying to think of things lance said about competing when in pain, as well as what they were saying in the olympics as well as some amusing advice i recall from outside magazine. they all helped to a point. i think i did not leave adequate recovery time between workouts - oh well, i have to work around my schedule. i have some "races" coming up - but keep in mind the word is being used loosely here. others "race" in the event. i participate. i'm not being self-denigrating here either. i simply have different goals and motivations. and while, i have to say, winning - even a third place, would be cool, it's doubtful it will happen - although sometimes it's a matter of who was in your age group. ironically, i'd have placed third last year were i in the 35-39 yr old age group (or something like that) - but was way behind in the 40-44 age group. the trick, perhaps, is to live long enough where no one else is IN your age group. anyhow, i digress, that's not the point of why i enter these races - still, i want to do my best and have fun - being in adequate shape to complete without intense pain is a pre-requisite for both. i used a gift certificate my sister gave me and got a camelbak "hydration system" - pretty cool.

might take the kids to see spy kids 2 today. if the previews are any indication, might bump the powerpuff girls movie off the top of my best movies of 2002 list. we all loved spy kids - found it odd that it was directed by robert rodriguez (or is it richard) who did el mariachi, desperado and i believe from dusk to dawn ( a twisted little flick, if i've ever seen one)

the anxiety countdown is on - tomorrow at 9am i start teaching fall classes. i am nervous, but also, as i have said beforem feel i will be a lot better once i actually get going, as opposed to preparing, thinking, fretting, etc,,, about it!

yikes!

rented AMELIE tonight. assuming i am not the last person on earth to see it, i heartily recommend it.