- Rode back from Birmingham with Paul.
Writing: grinding through 38 Fiction Mistakes by Jack Bickham.
Home Improvement: Closer in the Hall bedroom - pulled up more carpet, stored toys, and moved some shelves around. Also made the pink bathroom sink workable.
Exercising: 3/4 mile walk in the evening
- We added a new puppy dog, Ada, she's a lab/Australian sheepdog mix. Sweet as can be.
2.24.2008
Sunday
Saturday in Birmingham
- Got up and went with Paul to our friends in Birmingham for our RPG.
- Played, ate, watched some boring boxing. Slept on a couch, and ate quite well.
2.22.2008
Friday, again already
Tikka Masala: Tobermory, Paul & I went to the Sitar Indian Restaurant in Huntsville (inspired by last night's show with Gordon Ramsay fixing a curry shop). Food was great!
Teaching: More work on the Era of Good Feelings
Home Improvement: Ripped up carpet in the hall bedroom!
Exercising: 1 mile this morning
2.21.2008
Any excuse for a little Firefly
Teaching: Students using multiple books to cover from the Hartford Convention to the Monroe Doctrine
Home Improvement: More cleaning of the hallway bedroom
Movies: At "school" I had to sit with freshmen during the Sophomore Writing Assessment - so I showed then the pilot of Firefly and, to my surprise, it went over very well.
Internet: When Wikipedia Won't Cut It: 25 Online Sources for Reliable, Researched Facts
TV: This evening it was this week's Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmare
Exercising: 1/2 mile in the morning
2.20.2008
Tobermory a Manager!
Woot: Tobermory will be promoted to Pet Care Manager at the Petsmart! Very excited. We've always known she would be dangerous when loosed upon normal humans.
Teaching: Got my grades in. Prepared my students for the Writing Assessment they'll do tomorrow.
Writing: 50+ Open Courseware Writing Classes
Internet: 10 Emerging Technologies 2008
Exercising: 1/2 mile this morning
2.19.2008
Voice of the Black Bears
Teaching: Almost done with grading AP essays.
Home Improvement: Cleaned up some in P's old room
TV: Last Restaurant Standing was on while I graded
Announcing Coach Knox and I announced Austin's Northwest Regional basketball game against Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa on ESPN 1400 (we lost). One of their announcers was John Merrill. He was a great SGA politico (& President) when we were undergraduates at Alabama (when the earth was still cooling). He still has the dive-bomber handshake.
Exercising: 1/2 mile in morning + calisthenics, 1 mile in the evening
A day off?
Teaching:Presidents Day Holiday - Graded AP essays about the Articles of Confederation & the Constitution off & on all day
Internet/Writing:Spent some time trolling Amazon for writing books.
Home Improvement/TV: Watched Holmes on Homes and How clean is your house? during the day and the new Tony Bourdain's No Reservations about Jamaica last night
2.16.2008
The Weekend
Writing: Taking notes on The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes: (And How to Avoid Them)
Movies: Eastern Promises - great story & acting by Viggo & Naomi & Armin Mueller-Stahl,
3:10 to Yuma - slightly above average, Ben Foster had a great turn as the #2 bad guy: very intense,
Resident Evil: Extinction was a whole lot of fun and as usual Milla kicks butt.
Internet: Always interested in this sort of thing.Technological Challenges of the near future from the National Academy of Engineering and specifically Machines 'to match man by 2029' and I reorganized my bookmarks in Firefox
TV: Law & Order Criminal Intent on Sunday Night on USA
Exercising: 1/2 mile Sat AM and Sunday PM
Friday, at least
Internet: Historically inaccurate, but damn funny and a good list - The 5 Most Badass Presidents of All-Time
TV: Watched a little Gordon Ramsay in the afternoon and then Reno 911 and South Park in the late night.
Teaching: Tons of make-up tests early a.m. & gave test on Jefferson/Madison, graded & recorded.
Announcing: Sub-Regional(?) basketball game - Austin defeated Buckhorn by 25+. We didn't get on 'til almost half because our "engineer" forgot to show up. Bruce Hamilton, my partner from last year, announced with me. He's got great basketball knowledge & he's funny as hell.
Exercising: 1/2 mile in the morning
2.14.2008
Contrived Holiday Day
Took Tobermory to Panera Bread and had a fine time. I've enjoyed getting an executive summary of The Closing of the Western Mind
Teaching: Africans in America and A Midwife's Tale
Internet: My kind of list - Top 50 Dystopian Movies
TV: The new Gordon Ramsay.
A little more sick today. Got some faux Nyquil tablets and I'm about done in. More tomorrow.
2.13.2008
Three Times is a Habit.
Favorite link today: 50 Tricks to Get Things Done Faster, Better, and More Easily
Teaching: Showed PBS's A Midwife's Tale to my AP and A&E's Lewis & Clark bio to my Honors classes.
Home Improvement: Shuffling the deckchairs in my desk area
Writing: Great post on short story writing at Write to Done
Internet: Fooled around a good bit and I managed to set up a feed of my delicious bookmarks (over & down) and I checked out a place to possibly have my students make a wiki - wetpaint.com and also made the feed from this blog show up on twitter. Gotta stay on top of geek stuff.
TV: Watched Tony Bourdain's latest No Reservations on DVR. How did we ever watch anything before?
Exercising:1/2 mile this morning (damn cold) + 1/2 mile this evening (even colder)
2.12.2008
Tuesday
In between coughs, I roared this one today:
"There is no democracy in Art!"
Teaching: Students working on their own. I graded & put in grades (in the computer), but am still putting off the AP essays. Must grade them soon, I have no choice. (Of course, there is the down-the-steps method).
Home Improvement: A pretty successful pre-dawn Garbage Day operation. I took down the spider habitat/storm windows on the kitchen windows and now you can see out of them. (I also "accidentally" shattered a big piece of trash glass - woo hoo!)
Internet: I like reading SciFi.com Weekly News, essentially a sci-fi tv & movie info overdose.
TV: a little Gordon and tried to watch Last Restaurant Standing on BBCA, but got snoozy.
Exercising: Stretched my back + a 1/2 mile this morning
2.11.2008
Not a bad Monday
Macbeth's last words: "Lay on, Macduff; And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!'"
Teaching: My students did classwork on Jefferson & Madison's Presidencies and my AP guys took their objective test on Washington & Adams and I've got it down to just AP essays left to grade.
TV: Just a little Gordon Ramsay - Moore's Place.
Internet: Found another list of most popular webpages right now - purrl.net.
Reading: Before sleep last night I read "October in the Chair" by Neil Gaiman. It's a short story in the Locus collection I've been in - outstanding, melacholy and very Bradburyesque.
Cooking: Made garlic/cheese toast to go with frozen "lasagna" and corn - really not half bad for slop.
Exercising: 1/2 mile walk & light calisthenics this morning.
Announcing: We broadcast Austin's Basketball game on 1400AM, beat archrival Sparkman and will play at home on Friday. That one will be on 1490am.
2.10.2008
Week in Review pt. VII - Travel/Shopping
- We actually went somewhere this week! We drove up to Nashville Saturday & spent time with Paul & Ferlie and Veronica (and an aunt & cousin). They are a lot of fun and we had a great time - very relaxed.
- Ate at an amazing international buffet, where we were definitely minorities. Had some octopus, chicken claw, & a few other oddities and your regular Chinese food buffet.
- Went to Aquatic Critter - it was packed and is an outstanding non-chain fish & reptile pet store. Tobermory started off Veronica on pets with a Betta (in the old days they were Siamese Fighting Fish, a much cooler name).
- Paul took us to McKay's a used book store that was more like a library. Very impressive, I think it's in an old Service Merchandise and has an arcane system almost as weird as that old chain. Nonetheless, a great used book & DVD place. I picked up a Sci-Fi Hall of Fame novella anthology from the 70's and Altered Carbon, which has been on my list for a while. Picked up some more Perry Mason for Tobermory.
Week in Review pt. VI - Home Improvement
Home Improvement:
- Replaced the showerhead in the black bathroom with a steampunk concoction of an on/off lever (to stop a drip) and a cool silver articulated arm with can head like an old watering pail. Picture soon.
- Unstopped the slow-draining sink in the pink bathroom.
- Replaced the water line to the tank of the toilet in the pink bathroom (no more leak) & replaced the float contraption in teh tank - it doesn't run anymore!
- A decent week for plumbing - however, the floor beckons.
Week in Review pt. V - Reading
Reading: I'm still cranking through the The Locus Awards: Thirty Years of the Best in Science Fiction and Fantasy - here are the contents.
An amazing lesson in great science fiction. (Getting freaked out by Gene Wolfe is one of my favorite things to do.)
I skipped the longer pieces and haven't gotten to the last couple of stories - looking forward to the Gaiman. I read a couple while in the car (parked, at least) while I ran errands on my Friday "sick day".
Week in Review pt. IV - Internet
Internet:
- Daily I check Drudge, FARK, and BoingBoing for what's going on in the world.
- I check for the newest stuff at popurls.
- Lately I've added the science fiction blog from Gawker - io9. It's pop sci-fi with a lot of lists and links, but usually worth the time.
- lifehack.org is my favorite productivity blog, with lifehacker.com alongside. I probably need to compile a list of these to check weekly.
- I like the goal of The Art of Manliness - we'll see if it's any good.
Week in Review pt. III - Movies
Movies: We watched Sunshine by Danny Boyle this week. It is one of the best science fiction movies I've seen. I think a lot critics and movie people missed the boat. Science and Reason vs. sentimentality and superstition, plus trying to save the world. What's not to like?
Guilty Pleasure - I watched Layer Cake again this week, while making out my test. It's probably my favorite English gangster movie.
Week in Review pt. II - TV
TV: Gordon Ramsay and Tony Bourdain, as usual.
Tony's episode about New Orleans struck just the right chord and was outstanding.
I watched a couple of episodes of Scrubs for the first time...slightly above mediocre.
Week in Review pt. I - Teaching
Teaching: The Washington & Adams Administrations.
A big focus, especially for AP, has been the Jefferson vs. Hamilton ongoing conflict over the nature of the New Republic's government.
2.09.2007
Blogging at "I'd offer you some..."
I'm blogging over at "I'd offer you some, but they mine" and I'm slowly building GateTree.com.
1.02.2007
12.29.2006
12.28.2006
"Let the 'End-of-the-Year' Lists Proliferate"
12.24.2006
Sam Harris spells it out for us.
10 myths and 10 truths about atheism in the LATimes just in time for Festivus. Sam Harris is the author of "The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason" and "Letter to a Christian Nation."
12.21.2006
12.17.2006
Which one is the lesser evil anymore?
We've been on this for a while and now the big guns have come out - Liberaltarians by Brink Lindsey at Cato and in The New Republic.
12.14.2006
Chess master...Terrorist!?!
Now is not soon enough for Putin and the old KGB (and the old CIA for that matter) to be gone - Garry Kasparov: 'We will march!'. More.
12.12.2006
12.08.2006
Ugly Duckling
I'm working on new CSS for the blog from scratch. I went to 456 Berea Street and worked through a how-to. The colors are intentionally awful & I'm still working through some other stuff. It's been pretty fun & much easier than I expected.
12.04.2006
I'm not alone
Somehow I picked up on this stripping down & redoing meme out of the ether - SimpleBits.
12.01.2006
Ben Cook at Lindys with a great take on the coach search thing
A handbook on how to play "Coach Search": "Sit back and wait and see just who eventually winds up behind the podium being introduced at a press conference ... and hope your man doesn't look scared to death when he's up there.That could be a sign that you will be playing the game again in three or four years."
11.29.2006
11.27.2006
11.26.2006
Sam Harris vs. Dennis Prager
Sam Harris, the author of the 'End of Faith',
puts the wood to a talk show host -
Why Are Atheists So Angry? A Debate with Dennis Prager :: Sam Harris
See also: Richard Dawkins
11.24.2006
11.23.2006
11.22.2006
11.21.2006
11.19.2006
The Hole that Mike Shula's made.
Saturday I tried to fill the hole that Mike Shula's made in my stomach with Key Lime Pie and Swiss Cake Rolls (and Ribs and Steak). The empty feeling I get when I think about our football team that was never there before, even in 1984 or 1998. It comes partially from the guilt I feel for wanting him gone, and the rest from the obvious fact that he's just not very good. Cecil Hurt has the same feeling - CECIL HURT: Does Alabama have the best coach it could have? | TideSports.com
11.16.2006
11.14.2006
Oddly enough.
I watched about 30 minutes of this guy the other day & thought, "He's charismatic but not really funny," and turned it off - now CNN's caught up with me - Is Dane Cook the funniest man in America? - CNN.com.
11.10.2006
11.04.2006
Hard to pass up a list like this.
THE 100 SCARIEST MOVIE SCENES at
retroCRUSH: The World's Greatest Pop Culture Site
11.03.2006
Reading Daniel Dennett makes me happy.
Edge: THANK GOODNESS! by Daniel C Dennett - Yes, I did have an epiphany. I saw with greater clarity than ever before in my life that when I say "Thank goodness!" this is not merely a euphemism for "Thank God!" (We atheists don't believe that there is any God to thank.) I really do mean thank goodness! There is a lot of goodness in this world, and more goodness every day, and this fantastic human-made fabric of excellence is genuinely responsible for the fact that I am alive today.
10.31.2006
10.29.2006
Add George Will to the list.
I guess the pundits have had enough too. Will: Cheney Still Doesn't Get It on Iraq - Newsweek George F. Will - MSNBC.com
10.23.2006
10.21.2006
10.19.2006
10.17.2006
Doesn't sound very socialist to me
George Bernard Shaw at The Quotations Page:
"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.
George Bernard Shaw, 'Mrs. Warren's Profession' (1893) act II
Irish dramatist & socialist (1856 - 1950)
10.16.2006
10.15.2006
The God Delusion
One of our favorites - Evolutionary Biologist and Humanist Richard Dawkins interviewed on Salon - The flying spaghetti monster | Salon Books
For my friends who have procreated
Inchworm Shoes Online - Inchworm shoes grow in half size increments. Just push the button on the side, and pull the toe of the shoe to adjust into the next size.
10.09.2006
10.05.2006
Victor Davis Hanson has a way of cutting to the heart of the matter
And what have we learned in the last five years from its boutique socialism, utopian pacifism, moral equivalence, and cultural relativism? That it was logical that Europe most readily would abandon the artist and give up the renegade in fear of religious extremists.
from - VDH's Private Papers::Traitors to the Enlightenment by way of Chronicles of Tobermory
10.02.2006
9.20.2006
Q: When is a military coup a good thing?
When the democratically-elected government is thoroughly corrupt? The army commander who seized Thailand's government in a quick, bloodless coup pledged Wednesday to hold elections by October 2007, and received a ringing endorsement from the country's revered king. I'm still not so sure.
9.18.2006
My job situation has been improved immeasurably.
At school I've used Wikipedia as a quick reference for nearly everything, particularly student questions about something of which I'm not sure. I didn't realize my addiction until it was blocked by the school (by mistake/poor decision-making). I complained enough that it has finally been unblocked. Thank the Law of Averages!
9.12.2006
I told P.C. about this story a while back
One scifi-writer/boingboing-blogger Cory Docotorow's best stories - "0wnz0red" in Salon
Drink up
The Ririan Project™: 10 Reasons To Drink More Water - article is well-done & the blog is pretty good, although it's derivative.
9.07.2006
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