We are Devo

Nursing this shingles thing. Laid on couch and watched Turner Classic movies, Runway, Dr. Drew, and ESPN. I devolved very quickly.

Study Hacks

Study Hacks: Demystifying Student Success

This could be useful. Or more productivity porn.

Revision?

Posted at The Blog at GateTree: Revision? -

My latest story, “Alchemy”, is probably my best story, and is really my first at full short story length, right at 5000 words...So, do I go back and revise this story, as has been suggested by very qualified people? (more)

Disabled List

I contracted a mild case of the shingles this week. On my face!. It seems to have been slowed down, however. Hoping I won't go all Elephant Man.

Fringe Season One Marathon

Made it through episode ten - a great show.

Missing, but in Action

Once football started I basically limited myself to updating my facebook page daily and a weekly entry in my writing blog.

I've submitted several short stories and just had a one-sentence story published in the October 18th edition of the e-zine 50 to 1.

Two weeks of football left.

A lot of history (and econ) teaching still out there to get done.

A favorite cover.

(homemade video, not so much).

Charlie's Angel

In about 1977 a friend of mine had a Farrah Fawcett beanbag chair.

One of my favorite short stories.

Sredni Vashtar by Saki (Hector Hugh Munro)

Sredni Vashtar went forth,
His thoughts were red thoughts and his teeth were white.
His enemies called for peace, but he brought them death.
Sredni Vashtar the Beautiful.

Boston Butt Getting Close.

Alton as the Colonel

Mint Juleps begin at 6:59. "Do you heah me? I know that you do, I know that you do."

Less of me

24) Four times in my life I’ve lost over forty pounds. I plan on this time being the last time.

Writing blog

Please proceed to http://gatetree.com/blog

Priorities

23) I coached soccer for two years at Gulf Shores. I had no idea about the game, but I had good players and convinced them to stay generally sober, and I ran them every day ‘til they puked. We were Area Champs in 2001. I did have to let them out of practice early one day, because none of them could concentrate – the surf was up.

Sabermetrician no more.

22) For years I was obsessed with baseball stats. I played in all kinds of leagues: computer, simulation, and fantasy. I even have a pennant from winning an ESPN league. I’ve gone cold turkey and have been clean for a full season.

Geek Lit

21) A couple of summers ago I read the over 3000 pages of Neal Stephenson’s “Baroque Cycle”. It was the perfect blend for me of history, the Enlightenment, and fantastic fiction and it’s one of the best things I’ve ever read. Wikipedia, Review, Interview

Called it a mile away

Knew it would end with snipers. There was, in the end, no other way, they were pirates after all - Hostage captain rescued; Navy snipers kill 3 pirates

King of Meats

20) I love to cook meat. Ribs on a Weber. Steaks under a broiler. Wings in a pot of oil (and then in a bowl of hot sauce). I’m hungry right now.

hiding in plain sight

19) On my desk at school I have three cups – a Captain Kirk coffee mug, a Rules of Fight Club coffee mug, and a ‘beverage’ cup from the 1993 Alabama/Miami Sugar Bowl.

My Number One Game Obsession

18) I have been playing EASports College Football since Sega was the latest game system.

5ives

A fine 5ives list from Merlin Mann:
Five things that should be issued to every American on his or her 14th birthday

We had one of the first DVD players available.

17) We have nearly 1000 DVD’s of movies & TV series at our house.

I must have information

16) For many years I collected almanacs so I could have easy access to important, current information. So, of course, I love the internet, and Wikipedia in particular. (Oddly, the site’s creator’s younger brother lived in our dorm at Alabama).

Honorable Manhood

15) Two things get me choked up from Ken Burns “Civil War” – when George Pickett says, “Up men, and to your posts and remember that today you are from Old Virginia!” and sends them up Cemetery Ridge in Gettysburg to the beginning of the end. And Sullivan Ballou’s letter to his wife before Bull Run, which simply explains it all.

Ambition

14) My first year teaching, my only year at Hale County High, I completely rebuilt & reorganized the weight room and ran the weight program. Then I completely rebuilt, reformatted, reinstalled, and networked their computer lab. I was an ambitious jock/geek.

The middle of nowhere

I'm ready to mow and the annual mower reclamation project was going along fine. This year's replacement part is a pulley on the mower deck. No big deal. The John Deere dealer two miles away closed. The john Deer Dealer 10 miles away closed (I learned this morning looking into the forlorn empty office). So I get to drive to Athens, or Huntsville, or Cullman. Culman is almost all interstate, and I'm white, so I'm off. It's never simple around here.


View Larger Map

I am a geek, it's that simple.

13) I have read swords & sorcery fantasy novels for years, and in recent years I’ve been reading more science fiction, old and new, and listening to SF short stories & novels while I exercise.

they just don't matter to me

12) I have been the last owner or driver of ten different cars. Seven weren’t worth fixing and three were totaled.

I have goosebumps right now

11) I get goosebumps every time I see the scene near the end of The Last of the Mohicans” when Duncan gives himself up for Cora. That incredible music starts and he says to Nathaniel, “My compliments, sir. Take her and get out!” Duncan burns, Cora lives. Manliest redemption scene in movie history. I have goosebumps right now.

As if you didn't know.

10) I am a freethinker/skeptic/bright.

For Our Wordpress Blogs

Top 50 Wordpress Tutorials and The 13 Most Essential Plugins for WordPress

Solitude Standing

9) I haven’t thought about it in a long time, but Suzanne Vega’s song, “The Queen & The Soldier” (first song) had quite an effect on me when I was younger. Still gets to me.

Home - for a third of my life

8) Lived in a dorm of very smart guys at Alabama as a student and then as a director for 13 years between 1983 and 2000.

Gave up spying for profit - and got neither

7) When the Soviets ‘quit’ on me, I passed up further ‘government work’ to go to work for PepsiCo/Taco Bell – we planned to get rich selling burritos in St. Petersburg. It didn’t work out.

Just what I've Been Saying

Tobermory finds confirmation I'm not alone: Rorschach is the Hero.

Добрый день (Good day)

6) I was in Army Intelligence and studied Russian for a year in Monterey, California. I got out early because the Osgood-Schlatter’s and bone spurs in my knees finally made it too painful to run.

That 25 things thing - first 5.

The latest:

5) I have had over 30 jobs in my life – landscaper, lifeguard, clerk, coach, intel analyst, and American History guru are just a few.

Previous:
4) I’ve been married to my genius wife since April Fool’s Day, 1986.
3) After extensive research, Maker’s Mark is my preference.
2) I went to college in Tuscaloosa in 1983 and stayed.
1) I’ve spent nearly every fall since 1973 playing football & flag football or coaching & radio announcing high school football.

You never thought you'd see this one!

On a lark this afternoon I became an Ordained Minister in the Universal Life Church. Solely so that I can legally conduct weddings! So if you need one, let me know.

A Solid List

I've been watching the blog reasonWeekly recently and I like what I've been reading. I recommend Common Myths About Atheism, which does a nice job of simply answering the most common criticisms of atheism.

Monday

- Cut down on caffeine early in the day, low-grade headache most of the day.
- Book-keeping day with the students + Lewis & Clark documentary.
- Uploading files to gatetree.com to try and install wordpress software, must learn.

Update: I did it - http://gatetree.com/blog.

A Lucky Man

4)I’ve been married to my genius wife since April Fool’s Day, 1986.

Thr Brownest of the Brown

3) After extensive research, Maker’s Mark is my preference.

My Kind of Basketball

Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball, writes about Shane Battier and the Houston Rockets - a no-stats all-star and a team that analyzes the game's data in a new way.

Eternal Student

2) I went to college in Tuscaloosa in 1983 and stayed.

25 things

1) I’ve spent nearly every fall since 1973 playing football & flag football or coaching & radio announcing high school football.

The King of Meats

The beginnings a of collection of my methods of meat preparation.
Broiled Chicken
-first we flatten out the chicken:
- take a smallish fryer 2-3 lbs., place it breasts up on a cutting board, insert a chef's knife into the cavity and cut along both sides of the spine and remove it. (this may take a little work, and the extracted spine is pretty cool/gross)
- flip it over and slice along the bottom of the breastbone to split the connective tissue and then spread the chicken out flat and flip it back over
- lightly coat the chicken in olive oil
- cover the top skin in salt and pepper and whatever herb/spice you enjoy (I just used garlic salt and it tasted great - Herbs de Provence next time)
- Heated broiler (mine is high/low - I use high) and the rack just above middle
- Put the chicken on a broiler pan breasts up and into the oven for 15 minutes
- Flip her over and herb/spice up the inside/bottom and then back in for 10 more minutes under the broiler
- take it out, flip it over and rest it for 5 minutes
- put together your sides (I used brocolli & cheese and s small salad this time)
- dig in

King of Meats II

I shared my Thanksgiving Standing Rib Roast preparation method this year (Turkey is for festivus):
- leave the roast in the microwave for a bit to get it closer to room temperature
- preheat the oven to 500 degrees
- cover the roast in salt & pepper (use a lot)
- put the roast in (ribs down) for 10 minutes (until the fat on top begins to brown)
- pull the roast out and lower the oven to 250 degrees
- put the probe thermometer in the roast with a 120 degrees cutoff
(for very rare, of course - more if you want less)
- put the roast back in the oven once the oven temp drops
- pull the roast on the alarm and let it rest for about 10 min. to finish

Strange Audio from Tor.com

ERRATA
by Jeff VanderMeer
VanderMeer is a well known sci-fi editor/writer and Argosy Quarterly was a well-respected mag that went under recently.

I've found a lot of sci-fi subculture stuff searching for mp3's lately.

An Airing of Grievances

Over festivus I posted a rant on a column on the Daily Beast.
The column basically said that the Republicans lost because old white guys had to learn how to use computers to reach younger voters.

My response:
How does one write this column and comment on it and not mention Ron Paul? This is *exactly* what is wrong with the GOP. There was a massive internet-based movement of young people in the Republican Party that was completely ignored by the old men running the party (into the ground). Instead of even giving air to the ideas of limited government, the protection of individual rights, and a non-interventionist foreign policy - which should be the ideological basis of the Republican Party - they ignored this grassroots movement of several million largely young people who badly wanted to vote against the government expansion of both the Democrats and the mainstream Republicans. Simply put: the modern Republican Party has lost its way. True libertarian ideas are the only way to appeal to intelligent young Americans distinguish the Party from the government-expanding Democrats. Few young Americans favor the excesses of the Patriot Act, billions of dollars for a failed financial industry that does *not* operate in a free market on enlightened capitalist principles, nor do they favor torture and the Forever War. They will listen to reasonable arguments about the failure of the War on Drugs and the basic idea of Equal Rights and legal protections for everyone. The Democrats have gained a majority because the Republicans became the extreme caricature the opposition hung on them: religious extremist, war-mongering, fascists operating at the whim of big business and out of touch with the majority of Americans. The party got what they deserved. If the Republicans continue to cast aside libertarian principals and push intelligent people out of the party then they can try all the strategy and tactics they want but it won't do any good, we, the people they want, will already be gone.

I remain.

My recent posts at I'd Offer You Some:
- At least one of us is
- Zombies & Nazis: Too good to be true?
- That Darwin guy
- Super Volcano!
- Some Movies to Consider

A potential time sink

A nearly definitive list of webcomics

I love gadgets with a real purpose

12 Good Gadgets for Hard Times | Gadget Lab from Wired.com

Multi-tasking Sci-fi

The only way I can stay on an elliptical machine for more than just a few minutes is to be distracted by something that makes me concentrate. Music will work for a little bit, and the TV's on the wall are okay, but there is not much I want to watch for long that other people will want to see. So I've been listening to podcast/mp3's of science fiction. I posted some links over at my Speculative Fiction blog.

Cool, and unsettling future is now

- Mind-Reading Computer Takes Images
Straight out of Your Brain
- Multiple Kill Vehicle’s Hover Test

No complaints

My leg was too sore to run more than a couple of blocks this morning & my team lost the conference championship this evening. But the truth is I'm not really unhappy or particularly disappointed. I've been working out regularly since April and I'm in such better shape and feel better than I have in years. It was fun being out at the track team fundraiser/run with the Austin people and my friends. As for football, Alabama vastly overachieved, is way ahead of our rivals and doing things the way they should be done. Considering the alternatives - things are still going pretty well. No complaints.

Coach Saban on the State game.

"You wanna know how I feel about it?
That's how I feel about it!"

Phoenix Goes Dark

The Phoenix Lander was an outstanding success. It seems to have finally been overtaken by the Martian polar winter - BBC News .

Backyard nuclear power plants

I'm in.
This strikes me as very important:
"Nuclear power plants smaller than a garden shed and able to power 20,000 homes will be on sale within five years, say scientists at Los Alamos, the US government laboratory which developed the first atomic bomb." - in The Guardian

Chaos

Pat Forde is a college football writer after my own heart - BCS Chaos.

One at a time.

Checklist - step one - crush Tennessee - done.

Everybody take a breath.

- The insanity of my beloved Alabama being #2 in the country and people across the spectrum picking us to win the SEC and play for the national championship is making me crazy. I'm not all concerned that we are winning close, which is how a young thin team wins. I'm concerned that people, not just Alabama people, have lost their minds:
- We go to Knoxville to play Tennessee. They are playing for their lives. It could salvage everything (and everybody's job) to beat us. We are 1-5 in Knoxville in the last 6 there. Why is this a gimme?
- Okay, we'll crush Arkansas St. (who is QB'd by a Decatur High grad). This will give us 8 wins, the high end of our expectations.
- We play LSU, the defending National Champions, at Baton Rouge. They want to beat Saban worse than anything imaginable. With the jealous hatred of the jilted that cannot be expressed in words. This may actually be bigger to Miles needs this more than he needed the National Championship. We are 1-7 in our last 8 against LSU. 1-7. How are we the favorite?
- We host Mississippi St. They have beaten us the last two years. Has everyone forgotten this? Coach Croom really wanted the Bama job. Now he really wants to make us pay for not hiring him. And he has. Until we beat them, I assume nothing.
- We host Auburn. We all know guys. We've lost 6 in a row & 7 of the last 8. 1-7. How can anyone assume we are going to win? It's in Tuscaloosa, and it will save their season if they beat us.
- That anyone can assume that we are going to cruise through this is simply insane. They all hate us and it will make their each of their seasons if they beat us. A coin has only a 6.25% chance of landing on heads four times in a row. Should we really expect any more chance than that? Have you seen our quarterback?
- Even if we did win all five games. Then we get to play Florida or Georgia in the Championship. Did anyone see the Florida-LSU game? Oh my the gators are fast. And don't you think Georgia wants so badly to make up for the embarrassment we gave them when they were so beloved, just a month ago?
- We have a real coach and will have a real team as long as he stays, and a chance to hire a quality successor. We're in the discussion, which is all I want.
- But come on guys, everybody take a breath.

Economic collapse? Not so sure.

- I bought gas yesterday for $2.79.
- Maybe few more brokerages and banks should collapse.
- (and maybe lower fuel costs will offset the inflation sure to follow the monopoly money supply the fed is spreading out there)

Get it over with.

- I am so ready for the election to be over. I am so sick of it I can't bear it much longer. How embarrassing. Is there no one here interested in limiting the size of the national government or who thinks that government is not the best way to solve problems? Anyone really concerned about the limitations of free speech & civil rights that come from both the overzealous rightwing and the PC left? Where did the reasonable people go?
- The best irony of the election is that many people want to punish the Republicans for being spendthrifts and too socialist, so they want to elect a Democratic senator who really is both.
- I think that Senator Obama will win the electoral in the low three hundreds, but will lose or nearly lose the popular vote. But then again, apparently I'm a kook.

Ah, Mr. Hitchens

America the Banana Republic in Vanity Fair
The ongoing financial meltdown is just the latest example of a disturbing trend that, to this adoptive American, threatens to put the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave on a par with Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and Equatorial Guinea.

How my day goes

From the facebook of one of my former AP History students:

And Now, A Day In Coach Ray's Class:
- Look, all I'm saying is at the end of the day the new 3 Star Wars movies suck.(him)
- What Did You Say Pace?(me)
- Those movies suck.
- Run that by me one more time.
- The Final 3 Star Wars films suck.
- You know, I thought you said that Star Wars sucked. And if that were the case, then I was going to fail you.
- Oh. Well I'm a die hard Star Wars fan, but I hate the Episodes 1-3.
- Guys! I love the enthusiasm but none of this will be on your test tomorrow. And even though the last three Star Wars moves were filmed like 20 years later, they are still okay movies...With that said, Jar-Jar Binx can die in hell.

It's not just us

Commentary By Jeffrey A. Miron Special to CNN:
Bankruptcy, not bailout, is the right answer
Story Highlights
- Government encouraged lenders to relax their standards
- Mortgages were given to people unqualified to repay them
- Rather than a bailout, government should let firms go bankrupt
- Talk of economic Armageddon is scare-mongering

Jeffrey A. Miron is senior lecturer in economics at Harvard University. A Libertarian, he was one of 166 academic economists who signed a letter to congressional leaders last week opposing the government bailout plan.

Private Space Success

SpaceX Did It -- Falcon 1 Made it to Space

"Go Teach the Bulldogs to Behave"

Alabama 41 Georgia 30 (and it was much worse than that)
ESPN
Alabama Papers
Tuscaloosa News

More of my List5 of recommended books

IV. I have recommended George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire to anyone who has somehow missed it, even if they don’t usually read fantasy. Well-drawn characters, harsh realities of life & death, political intrigue and multiple POV. A fun series.

V. I’ve convinced CRL and PC to read The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. It is a four-book sci-fi/fantasy series written in the early eighties, but that’s like saying The David is a sculpture. The series is simply overwhelming. The author is so obviously brilliant and the books are nearly hallucinogenic as you read them. A far future in which the protagonist passes through a world that has peaked and is in decline and he eventually fulfills his roll in determining the fate of the world. Both of my victims refer to this series when something simply weirds them out.

VI. Recently I have been reading (and listening to) newer sci-fi authors I wanted to recommend - Cory Doctorow (of boingboing) is an excellent author, especially of short stories that address a lot of tech and privacy issues within a wide variety of sci-fi styles.
Charles Stross is a new favorite as well, I enjoyed Halting State, about an MMORPG heist and so much more recently, and have read his multiple award-winning opus Accelerando about a singularity-enhanced future and Singularity Sky.
I’m also reading stuff by John Scalzi who won a Hugo this year (for his blog & reviews) has a very Heinlein-like future universe that many RAH fans will really enjoy - starts with Old Man’s War - just a lot of fun, finished the third one last weekend. (There are two side books I’m going to read as well.)

If you made it this far, thanks & I hope a thing or two is of interest. It’s funny, I always think I don’t read enough.

List5 Books Part 2

II. Books I have suggested recently and tried to get people to read, often unsuccessfully.
1. I have to second American Gods. Traditional ideas vs. the technological age. And Gaiman is just so cool. It would be cool and frightening to be working for a Norse god, and hang out with Egyptian Gods and long forgotten deities of various cultures. I got CRL, who prefers horror & mystery to read Gods and some Gaiman short stories, like “October in the Chair”. She loved it. It’s well worth it.

2. Neal Stephenson, in particular the Baroque Cycle: Quicksilver, the Confusion, and The System of the World.. I like books that make me go to the dictionary and Wikipedia to make sure I know what’s going on. The Cycle is about the Enlightenment and the growth of a monetary system in Europe, and is as much fun as that sounds boring. Issac Newton & Leibniz and the later Stuart Kings (I did my graduate History work on this period) and the Glorious Revolution and Barbary Pirates and…it’s just incredible, and they were all bestsellers. But I have trouble convincing those I hold near and dear to read it. It’s just 3,000 pages or so. C’mon. I think sometimes it was written for me and I should just accept that. But if you’ll just start with Quicksilver, I swear you’ll love it, just like I do…
It would be easier to read Snow Crash, which is incredible near-future neo-libertarian cyberpunk, or The Diamond Age, about neo-Victorians and nanotech, or Cryptonomicom, which is about cryptography, the nature of money, modern data havens,World War II and the Enigma machine. These are all by Stephenson, and great so I usually let people negotiate me down into suggesting these, which are all incredibly brain-expanding, (and not 3,000 pages.)

List5 - Books Part I

My friend Roach has a great site in which he asks friends to make lists of five things that answer his prompt - List5.

I respond there a good bit and will post some of that here. His latest is very appealing to me, but I must grade papers. So I'll post what I've written so far.
Works of literature you suggest others read is the latest.
I. Great Topic. (This is in my wheelhouse.)
It also made me quickly realize that I am an evangelist for science fiction & fantasy. Not just from a geek point-of-view, which I clearly have, but because it deals with big ideas, things I euphemistically call “manly ideas”, like justice, loyalty, & responsibility that can seem pedantic or contrived in non-speculative fiction, but seem to make such good sense in science fiction. (I read a book reviewer recently who suggested that this is because mainstream novels have become more small & personal in recent years.) I recently read The Road and I’ve decided this is why Cormac McCarthy is so popular. He writes about manly themes and has used the western as a framework for putting those ideas in the mainstream in the past. I thought The Road was good but not great, but he took very traditional, almost trite, sci-fi ideas about an apocalypse and then used them to study a man struggling to make a better life for his son, while barely hanging on to his own humanity and life. And people love it because it is a “manly” story, but by using the science fiction framework, it was more acceptable than a straight-forward, modern story. But I digress… and I could be full of it.

Friday Ennui pt.1

I'm supposed to be grading papers, while my students work on definitions about the formation of the New England and Middle Colonies. I hate grading papers. I've almost got 'a thing' about it as we say at our house. I'll get it all done, but I won't like it. Homecoming last week and state testing this week, so I haven't really been able to teach for two weeks and it makes me uneasy. I need to teach.

Friday Ennui pt.2 - libertarians everywhere

Students asked me about presidential politics the other day, when we were hung up with testing, so I slipped into stealth libertarian mode and asked a few leading questions about: whether people should have a right to decide what to do inside their own body, the Bill of Rights, prohibition, separation of church and state. Of course it inevitably turns out that nearly everyone in the conversation largely agreed with libertarian principles. How is it that when we actually think about it people are libertarian, but we never get candidates that are?

I think I have finally despaired of politics. Like John Adams heading to the Continental Congress feared there were not men up to the task. He was wrong, but i fear I'm right. Either we get big government social conservatives or big government free spenders who think government can actually solve problems. Ack.

Friday Ennui pt.3 - first up against the wall

Ever since we moved into the (paid off) house up here we have been inundated with mortgage offers. We've already learned our economic lessons and we always turned them down, seeing that it was all a scam, like debt consolidation, cellphone contracts and gym memberships. It is so frustrating that our entire economic system of the last 15 years seems to have been based on this ephemera - Money that didn't really exist.

The whole cavalcade of people that you may have heard me rail about: bankers, insurance men, stock brokers, oil, the federal reserve, and Congress have made and spent tons of money and then when the bill comes due - houses are foreclosed on people who were given loans they shouldn't have been, but the corporations that invested in bad loans and ephemeral derivatives and sketchy bonds get my tax dollars as a bailout because it will 'hurt the economy' if they fail. That is just more BS. If they don't want regulation on how they loan and invest then they shouldn't get my money when they turn out to be stupid and greedy.

I've had enough of taking up for business that pays lip service to libertarian deregulation, until they screw up and want me to pay for it. i am no longer going to apologize for businesses. They are simply using my principles when it suits them and abandoning them when things get tough. Rugged individualism and enlightened capitalism are long gone. I want them all collecting the unemployment checks they so richly deserve. Economic conservatives, classical liberals, like us, have been taken to the cleaners. Use our rhetoric to make more money and then go to the government when you blow it and get my taxes. It is criminal.

Friday Ennui pt.4 - presidential blah blah blah

So we have a charismatic traditional Democratic Senator and a nearly senile Republican Senator who has always been a corporate tool (see the Keating Five) and a darling of the media. In fact, both these guys are media darlings, which in itself makes them suspect. I think that the V.P.'s are meaningless in any real effect on the next 4 years, a Senate hack and a small-time politico from Alaska. Reason help us if either one of them become president. Supreme Court nominees and military policy are probably the only things that even the presidents can effect. McCain could nominate someone I don't agree with, but so could Obama - both are likely to appoint a statist of one stripe or another. McCain would likely use the military more, and it definitely needs a break, but Obama is more likely to make high-minded but naive Carter-like moves like Iran & the Panama Canal or bribing Egypt & Israel to remain peaceful. Neither one is the least bit appealing to me.

I'm not even really happy with the guy I'll vote for Bob Barr, because he spent years propping up the War on drugs, helped compose the Patriot Act, and ran Clinton's impeachment - which used up what was left of the momentum of the 1994 turnover. Now he's born-again libertarian, but I still find him suspect. He's wasting effort on the Texas ballot, instead of putting out a small govt. message that will appeal to disaffected libertarian former Republicans like many of us. Sigh...

We've been telling them this for years

Oxford University scientists have discovered that going vegetarian could be bad for your brain - with those on a meat-free diet six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage. (article)

Sometimes I really want to coach football

Can't help myself when it comes to this.
These people are my tribe after all.

Fresh blood for the vampire

Camille Paglia is easily my favorite libertarian, atheist lesbian. So, of course, in a perfectly sane twist of reason - She likes Sarah Palin.

Potential for Alabama Football

As you all know by now, Alabama pounded Clemson in the opener. Clemson was clearly overrated, but the way we played - hard-nosed, old-style football, was comforting to me. More comforting are quotes from the Coach after the game, and the knowledge that he means it:

"I'm happy for our team. But we got to learn how to play with consistency."

"I would say our team played well for an opening game," Saban said.

"Nobody can be satisfied with a one-game performance," Saban said. "This will be a challenge for our team and it'll be interesting to see how they respond."

“This is just one game,” Saban said. “We’ve still got to find an identity. We’ve just made a ‘B’ on a midterm. Do we slack off and make a ‘D’ on the next one and have a ‘C’ average? Or do we try to make an ‘A’?”

Between the focus on 'process', the way the freshman phenom flipped the ball to the ref after scoring instead of acting a fool, that celebrations during the game were muted, and the Coach immediately reminding the team that this butt-kicking of the number 9 team is a step in the process, not an end, I am encouraged. It feels the way I want it to feel. (Cecil Hurt Column)

The Onion at its Best

6-Year-Old Stares Down Bottomless Abyss Of Formal Schooling

My other blogs

At SpecFic: from Popular Mechanics The 10 Most Prophetic Sci-Fi Movies Ever

At "I'd offer you some...": The son of illegal immigrants, American wrestler hoists his (the American) flag with pride - link.

Sports Agnostic

Since February I have just about given up on sports. During most of my life I have been a sports fanatic, following just about anything.
About the time the Michael Vick atrocities hit I became irritated. Irritated with him, and with the way it became a national case. Irritated that he was so stupid and that it was somehow a national tragedy that he was going to jail.
Then the constant bashing of the patriots over the camera thing drove me nuts. If anyone thinks that almost every other team is not trying to steal signals, they are blissfully unaware of reality. I coached on a high school team that used four coaches to send in plays. Other teams had coaches whose job it was to decipher our signals, so we would vary the signals. The whining and attempts to denigrate the Patriots by people jealous of their success made me further frustrated.
When Dana Jacobsen got suspended from ESPN for ripping on Notre Dame and Jesus (off the air) at the Mike & Mike roast and there was outrage I took a break from ESPN. When Itried to turn the radio or TV back on it was all-Roger-Clemens all-the-time and it had nothing to do with actual pitching.
Which brings us to this baseball and steroids. I just don't care if anyone took steroids. I just don't. If baseball didn't want people to take steroids, they should have tested for it. That's what football has been doing for years. Give them a suspension and then put them back to work if they fail. Hell we test high school players. Instead it was a continuation of the flagellation of excellence - beating on Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire with no actual proof just innuendo and questionable sources. And again, I don't care if they did. Thanks for trying hard to be successful and entertain me guys. Then came the unmerciful hounding of Roger Clemens until all his dirty laundry was in public. He didn't do enough to deserve that harassment, and now a great player, probably the best pitcher of the last 40 years (since Gibson & Koufax) is needlessly embarrassed and tainted.
I didn't push to form a fantasy baseball league and I have not watched one baseball game this season. I'm not sure who is in first place. Is it the Devil Rays? The world has turned upside down.
The Celtics won in Basketball and I have been a fan of them since about 1973. I'm glad for Kevin Garnett, who appears to be a genuine hard worker and leader. I didn't watch a minute of it, and truthfully I had to rack my brain just now to remember who won. Just not that excited about it.
I have not watched a minute of the Olympics live. I watched the relay team anchor man hawk down the frenchman on internet video and got very excited. I watched a replay of the final two gymnastic performances by the US gold & silver winners. Blah. I'm glad for them, but floor exercise is a ridiculous sporting event. Why do the two big women's events, summer & winter, have to be judged? Making them necessarily subjective. I'm just not happy with the Olympics being in China. It validates their oppressive Maoist-captitalist regime. It's bad enough I can't actually live without having to by Chinese goods anymore, I don't have to support this. I want the US to do well, and I'm fired up about Michael Phelps (a little), but it all makes me uneasy.
Maybe football will draw me back this year, but if ESPN and reporters spend all their time "Outside the Lines" and focusing on non-game stories I will be hard-pressed not to give it the boot.
Then there is Alabama football. Maybe my uneasiness actually began when we hired Saban and he and we were unmercifully destroyed in the press. I mean I enjoyed PTI and Wilbon (and have actually watched it twice this week) but he pounds on Saban. I have kept up steadily with team developments and a college friend is the lead writer for a new bama website, and I will try to enjoy it. But the last ten years of controversy and embarrassment and incompetence have even put my enthusiasm to the test. I have a great deal of respect for the process that Saban has installed and I think he knows exactly what should be done to make us successful. An egotistical controlling jerk is probably exactly what we needed, as long as he knows what he's doing, which I think he does. So maybe Alabama football will allow me to enjoy sports again.
Either way it has been a very different experience, sort of being less-informed, which is not my style, and spending less time thinking about it. Not fretting over a doomed fantasy team (except for the great 2004 League Champions, led by Barry Bonds, of course) and not living and dying by the bridesmaid Braves who, I gather, have finally collapsed. I suspect I will return to form during football, but my level of devotion to all things sport, at this midway-point in my expected lifespan, is a sea-change that I think I can live with. Carry on (and roll tide anyway). -mr

Office Space

I watched Office Space tonight, for about the 5th time. It is approaching Groundhog Day status for me. It has become iconic in its own pop subculture, especially for the red stapler and the flair. And the 'O' face. I like the movie. When Peter meets with the Bobs and they want to make him upper management because he no longer gives a damn, when he unscrews his cubicle wall and let's it fall to create a nice view, and when they smash the printer. All classic. It loses its way in the middle when Peter loses his enlightened state when he finds out his friends will be fired and they scheme to steal the money. The money angle was necessary so Peter could take responsibility for his actions and decide to take the fall, and also to allow Milton to end up complaining at a resort - but it ruined the great feeling you got when Peter was practically walking on air, not giving a damn. Nonetheless it is a movie that makes me feel better after I've watched it. To me it says that we don't have to live lives of quiet desperation. We don't have to take it. We can change what we are doing and find something that does not suck out our will to live, and we can enjoy life if we can be with someone who makes us happy. It moves up the list a bit with this latest viewing. -mr

Web Stuff I'm working on:

coachray.info for posting info for my classes
blackbearfootball.com
- for my school's football team in support of our football broadcast
Speculative Fiction - a blog for my sci-fi stuff

Pants! What are they good for?

Monday evening coming down

Teaching: Prepared AP Handouts, slid out of the optional breakfast and survived the mandatory one in the afternoon.
Internet: gmail chatted with my good friend Joe A. this evening.
Animal Kingdom: All three inside dogs got a fancy, complimentary, flea treatment this afternoon and Ada and I had a fun bath with her fancy shampoo in the kiddy pool and a 1/2 mile walk to dry off, and then everybody (except me) slept.
Exercising: Lifted with R.S. after school, he's a great workout partner.

Jobs.

In my classes I sometimes talk about job experiences I've had to help explain some topic or another. I've had a lot of jobs. So I've been meaning to make the list for months, and today - I just did it:

cooked hamburgers (Wendy's), landscaper, house painter, delivered newspapers, quality control in a foundry, lifeguard, convenience store cashier, bank teller, cashier again, tutored college football players, book rush in a textbook store (seasonally), History grad assistant (Western Civ.), cook in a chicken wing restaurant, US Army Intelligence Analyst and Russian Linguist, chicken wing cook (again), (Turned down the CIA to go to Russia with Pepsi), Restaurant manager (Pepsico/Taco Bell), (Turned down State Dept. interview, same reason, but my group didn't get the Ruskie job...), Honors Dorm Director, campus convenience store manager, taught University P.E. classes, high school football grad assistant (6A state champs 1997), Tour Guide at State Park, sporting goods store for xmas, weekend cashier - campus convenience store, computer teacher/coach in Moundville,AL, history teacher/coach in Gulf Shores,AL, history teacher/coach in Decatur, AL, radio announcer for high school sports

I had several of these simultaneously - i.e. Dorm Director, PE Classes, football coach, cashier. It does seem like an awful lot, but it was from 1981 until now.

Dark Indeed

-We saw Dark Knight last night at the Monaco. The movie was excellent. It moved beyond comicbook movie to a serious consideration of themes concerning vigilantism, terrorism, civic duty, the ends justifying the means, and heroism. The late Heath Ledger definitely finished strong. His performance was mesmerizing. In a way the movie is about the story arc of DA Harvey Dent, portrayed by a seething Aaron Eckhart. I understand that temper just beneath the positive public exterior very well.
-The Monaco is a stylish theater that certainly let's you forget you're in Alabama. The place is beautifully designed, even if the staff is a little weak in some spots. Having a Stella Artois while watching a first-run movie was exactly what I had hoped for. It also reminds me of the dates I had with Tobermory at the Pitcher Show in Tuscaloosa, to see Cotton Club and No Way Out.

TabMixPlus

The add-on TabMixPlus makes Firefox a much better browser. It's not been updated and the with the new version of Firefox and it has been driving me crazy. While cruising a scifi editor's site, http://www.johnjosephadams.com/ I saw where he had overcome the problem, asked for an explanation and got a quick response. Life is indeed good.

A sci-fi fix

io9 has turned out to be a good source, mostly of movie and tv stuff.
tor.com just arrived - a lot of great book and short story oriented stuff (they are a publisher, after all).

Our Starbucks are not closing

The List

Saturday Already?

- I met with N.W., and AP History expert and tried to glean what i could. I've spent time yesterday & today sorting .docs & .pdfs hoping to bring order to chaos and find tweh things that can help my students the most.
- Took Ada to the vet Thursday and Friday & finally got her spayed. She was up, but stoned out of her gourd, all night. In a week & a half she'll go outside in her own doggy hotel.
- I've worked out consistently, but have fallen behind in walking the dogs, what with everyone going to the vet & working out evening - must improve.
- We had a Christopher Guest double feature a few days back, watching Best in Show and For Your Consideration.
- Finally watched the end of Last Restaurant Standing. The jerky Royal Marine cook and his weepy wife won, but it seems that they didn't last very long once they opened the real restaurant.

Wednesday

- "The Plan" is growing, I've got topics & videos, and now I'm adding specific lessons I liek to do and will start vocab lists. AP Essays and documents are next.

Exercise

38 minutes on the elliptical today. A mile with Ada and Thisbe this evening. Got that (heavy) dog pen today. We'll see how it works out.

We finally watched the end of Last Restaurant Standing. The best cook (the royal marine) won, but not the best people (the twins). The winners apparently left the restaurant they got to open after only a few months.

A New Dog

Tobermory and I took in a Rat Terrier from the Pet Rescue guy who comes to PetSmart. He's a boy, Pyramus, to go along with Thisbe. Ada, who has gotten quite big, will become an outside dog. She spent yesterday evening in the pen in back. However she was persistent in slipping through the gap by the gate. When I finally shackled the gate tight (about 11pm), she went over the top (about 1am). We'll be looking at a new dog fence/kennel today.

A Fine Friday

- Walked both dogs tonight - a mile.
- Lifted yesterday - R.S. is working out in the evenings for now.
- New Barnes & Noble at Bridge Street is standard issue, but does have DVD's - found a quality alternate route to get there from Madison.
- Added a Pixie Frog to the menagerie. He loves to eat.
- Washed almost all of Tobermory's clothes yesterday. I'm a good house husband (for 3 more weeks).
- Jason's Deli, the food bar. I approve.
- A ton of things left to do.

Back to the Salt Mine (by choice this time)

- A little elliptical and strength training this morning.
- A few chores around the house.
- Returned to my room at school after a week away from it.
- Lunch with Tobermory in the Starbucks/Target Cafe.
- Worked in my room til 6pm.
- Target household shopping
- Computer digital cleanup
- A little SimCity Classic.
- A few chores & then bed.

Update: I took Ada and Thisbe (our dogs) for a mile walk 'round midnight. I love summer vacation.

New Day Rising

Had a great week with Clyde Frog visiting - and Bromide visited Sat. & Sun. Got the turtle table done, got the front room interior walls covered in canvas, got all the grass mowed at least once. Made a dent in the clothes washing. There was an awful lot of Law & Order Criminal Intent and Special Victims Unit. Worked out Thursday, but missed the weekend walk - back to the gym 7:30am Monday.

I'd offer you some: Jefferson Bible, and a great Abtruse Goose comic.

Vacation

- Summer School ended Friday. I think the last time I was that happy to end a job was the day in the summer of 1985 when I walked out of the Columbus Foundry for the last time.
- Clyde Frog is visiting and we've been working to get things done.
-- Turtle table constructed.
-- The pasture is finally mowed.
- Coach S. & I have been working out consistently. My muscles seem to be recovering from being long dormant and, most importantly, I hit 34 minutes on the evil elliptical machine today.

- The Sam Adams quote below kicks ass.

Brewer, Patriot

"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains set lightly upon you and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen. "
-Samuel Adams