spacemonk

vacation plans
by this time, next week, i should have all my finals given, graded and the semester grades calculated - which means I'LL BE ON VACATION!!! here is a small list of what i plan to do for the 3-4 weeks between terms (besides of course, the usual personal responsibilities that comes to folks at this point of their lives)

• plan for next term - want to try a couple new things, in the name of continuous improvement


• see where i am with a flash side project i haven't done much with lately - i may actually be done!


• see if i can meet w/the folks at nasa re:another summer gig there


• try skiing or snowboarding


• in general EXERCISE!


• wrap up (no pun intended) christmas shopping - i'm mostly there


• rest, read, channel surf - you know business as usual

any suggestions?

it's ironic that after all week wishing i could have some plain old down time, now that i actually do, i'm crawling the walls.

i am hopeless

if you put my cat's brain in a bird, it'd fly backwards...

has anyone read a new kind of science by stephen wolfram?
discover magazine states the book "proposes that the complexity and chaos emcompassing the universe and the web of life can be understood and modeled using simple computer algorithms."
sounds interesting, but doesn't it sound like it might have come from some of loki and my exchanges in my comments section?

blog masala®

was outbid on the bonnie blair autograph - argh! on the up side - i may be getting a chris witty autograph for free! and now i have money to perhaps waste in other ways, such as this, which i saw at the sporting goods store

in what is a christmas tradition for me since i was a kid, while out christmas shopping for my family, i got myself something (oh c'mon, i can't be the only one who does this). somehow, while looking for the tony bennet/kd lang cd for my mother in law, i found the stone roses second record second coming on first listen, i like it as much as their more celebrated debut record. less poppy, more guitar jammish, but probably closer in line with my normal musical sensibilities. the first record really grew on me w/repeated listenings - wonder if this one will as well

felt obligated in enlightening the guy at the record store who golden earring was. someone called and the guy was clueless. kids!

stopped post christmas shopping for a courvoisier (um, strictly for medicinal purposes) and a coffee. really feel the holiday spirit.

it is perhaps telling of these times that grandma got run over by a reindeer is a standard of sorts. i heard it for the first time this season today. what is funny to me is that, imho, if you read between the lines it seems like it was indeed grandpa that ran over grandma - or am i just twisted???

i am closing in on my first competitive winning bid on e-bay¹. when i first saw the item, the bid was way down and i kind of got caught up in the competition. still it is cool and i haven't bid too high (i won't beat any counter-bid, though) and the proceeds does go to a good cause.

¹i did buy shenmue ii off of e-bay - if memory serves - but it wasn't a competitive bid situation - he was just selling a bunch of copies and if you agreed to his price, you could buy it - i think they called it a dutch auction or something like that (hope this isn't some kind of ethnic slur) - anyhow - no thrill of the competition, like this time. i have bid on some snow blades last year when i was out of work, but got outbid (didn't really have any spare $$$ (must have been delirious) and we didn't have much snow last year (this year they'd come in handy, though))

liz kershaw on bbc6 was talking about akron bands - mentioning devo and the pretenders. i emailed to remind of tin huey and the waitresses (anyone remember these) and also, a few miles up i77, cleveland bands - the dead boys and pere ubu

must have waited 20 min to get my morning cup of coffee and bagel while i waited for the poor clerk to make numerous hazelnut-carmel-cafe-mocha-latte-achinos - or some such nonsense - with whipped cream of course

really ought to have separate lines for those wanting coffee and those wanting dessert

i am enrolled in a master's degree in education program for educational technology. because i worked as a software developer for close to 20 years, i petitioned to waive the course in computer programming (seems fair, doesn't it). the university, in their wisdom, approved my petition, BUT reminded me that i still need to meet the credit hour requirement (i guess they need to get their tuition bucks one way or another.). so, if i'm understanding it correctly, i don't have to take the programming class (which would have been a blow off class, that i'd have aced with virtually no effort!), but am not getting credit for it, which means i have to substitute another class for it (one which might require me to work). i bet whoever came up with this decision is still giggling about it's diabolical nature.

correction: 99%!

i really like cheese!

per bbc news report: humans and mice share 90% of their genes

i like cheese

a bbc contest question about what a capon is¹ reminded me of chicken man (he's everywhere! he's everywhere!), that crime fighting capon!

anyone else remember him?

¹a rooster who has been - uh - never mind...

it's cold - about 12F this AM in N Ohio - except for at the bus, where it is about -25F (or at least it feels that way)
i'm sick and i can't even eat chicken soup. woe is me.

got a spam for a contest to win a free disney cruise...

ah, no thanx, been sick enough as it is...

finally able to publish the entries i entered this AM!

sheesh - doesn't it figure. finally feel like posting and i can't - blogger (like me) is apparently under the weather. of course, all i am posting is that i, essentially, have nothing to say...

hope blogger, at least has a scraper for it's windows. i must have lost mine (or traded it in with my car - perhaps that's why they gave me some money for it). of course, it took the first big snow of the year for me to realize i didn't have one. i swear i took it out and put it in the garage. prob will find it in the summer. god bless 4wd though...

i don't feel like writing about anything real, so perhaps i will start making stuff up...

predictions for the sopranos finale...
tony will eat a lot, including, but not limited to capicola...
a.j. will walk around looking annoyed
meadow will storm off to her room
sil and paulie will try in vain to out mug each other
someone will be brutally beaten/killed
storylines will be unresolved

all seriousness aside - my real predicition...
carm is pregnant...

the song "united states of whatever" by liam lynch (sp?) really rocks...

This blog needs a new entry! Too bad i have nothing to say. How about this? New Zealand has banned knitting in parliament. Apparently the woman in charge of parliament would pull out her yarn and needles while the statesmen would debate whatever issue was on the floor. Quotes a retired lawmaker in her autobiography that knitting the 32 garments she completed in her 9 years in parliament was the only productive thing she had accomplished in the debating chamber.

Discuss...