Red Zeppelin
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Weekend: July 12, 2009 - Welcome Back 12 of 12
I'm back and now with more 12 of 12s than ever!
8:10am: I had to retake this shot at 8:10 because I forgot it was a 12 of 12 until I sat down at my computer. This getting up early thing gives you like four extra hours in a day. Score!
9:00m: Making my weekly lesson plans after a delicious Starbucks run. Little did I know that my brilliant Monday plan would be destroyed when only two students showed up. Not coincidentally, it was the two who least-needed the work on today's material.
12:00pm: There were a meeting of the Hot Girl Alliance-Lowell Chapter at Panera. Both members showed up.
12:30pm: My bedroom "before" I unpacked my stuff and rearranged it.
1:30pm: "After"
2pm: Chompy at Tyler Park. There's a big sign that says NO DOGS but whatever. Chompy isn't a dog--she's an ass-kicking on four legs.
3pm: Chris and I drove up to Nashua so he could get the new iPhone and I could buy more random crap. This braced-umpire was on a fence outside the sporting goods store. I just liked that he had braces on.
3:30pm: Chris trading in his Pre to join the iPhone community. Welcome aboard!
4:00pm: All my trips to Best Buy are unsuccessful. I did get a TV for my bedroom but they had to order it. I managed to get a $200 coupon from Comcast so I somehow made money by going to Best Buy. Score.
7:30pm: Taking a break from work to check my fantasy stats. I was playing Steve this week and avenged my previous loss with a whomping. I've moved from last place into 3rd. Boom.
9:00pm: On my way to Chris' house to watch the Cubbies lose to the Cardinals. At least we got to see Sean Marshall play left field.
10:00pm: We weren't really watching the game so much as playing on our iPhones. There's Oreo with her head on my lap. She was so happy to see me she peed a little bit. I wish my students got that excited.
BONUS: I took this morning since I went to bed so early last night. See how nicely I clean up? [Comments: 4]· permalink ·
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Monday: July 13, 2009 - Twtball
After a 33% came-to-class attendance rate, I trotted over the gym to get myself huge. The gym was closed all last week for renovations and the racquetball courts were still "drying". I lifted weights for about 45 minutes (diligently tracking my progress with the iFit iPhone application) then undid all that good with some McDonalds before heading back to play Twtball with Chris. Because the regular racquetball courts were closed we decided to play on a squash court with tennis rules since we had no idea how to play squash. Tennis + Squash + Racquetball = Twtball and Chris handed me my "A" in our inaugural game if you know what I'm saying. Losing 16-14 after being up 12-3 is pretty humiliating but that's Twtball.
I spent the afternoon trying to figure out why promotioncode.org's rankings keep jumping for certain stores and even after four hours I was no closer to figuring out why. I also made some updates to the pet site for our new launch. Also on the nerd-front, I finally got control of pitchy.com after buying it a few weeks ago.
Ah, back to blogging. [Comments: 2]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: July 14, 2009 - Since 1996
Last night, for the 13th time in as many years, the National League lost the All-Star game. This means when the Cubs lose Game 7 in the World Series this year it'll be at Yankee Stadium instead of at Wrigley.
Many things have happened since 1996. Here's a personal list of things that have happened since then.
1) I no longer look like the dork in that picture. My dorkiness is much more internalized now. I can't believe I rooted for the White Sox that year. That was my pathetic attempt at teenage rebellion.
2) The domain google.com was registered in 1997 and has become...well, Google.
3) I've moved five different times.
4) Steve graduated elementary school, middle school, high school, college, grad school, and is almost ABD in Grad School Part II.
5) My weekly allowance has grown from $3 to $300.
6) There is only one thing in my current house that I've had since 1996 other than pictures--a t-shirt from some band conference.
7) There are babies who have parents that have never seen the National League win the All-Star game. Speaking of young parents, this is NOT, I repeat NOT safe for work but along the lines of failblog--WTFDYHAK.
8) The Cubs opening day starters have been: Jamie Navarro, Terry Mulholland, Kevin Tapani, Steve Trachsel, John Lieber (part I), Kerry Wood, Greg Maddux (part II), and Carlos Zambrano.
9) I've gained nearly 100 lb. Wow.
Yeah, 1996 was a long time ago. Not surprisingly, the closer on my fantasy baseball team, one of my two All-Stars, was the guy who gave up the winning run to the AL. Whatever, at least I don't have braces and weigh more than 100lb. [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: July 15, 2009 - My Hood
Yesterday the delivery man came to drop of my new TV while I was at the gym getting whomped again in Twtball. When he came back later last night he said he dropped it off he said that he had come by earlier and heard my dog barking at him. He said he didn't know what kind of dog it was but "judging on the neighbor I assumed it was big and mean".
I don't think of my neighborhood as being especially bad. It's no Glover Park--three people got shot about a half-mile down the road a week ago--but I don't think of it as a ghetto. To liken it to DC, it's like living on 16th street where NW meets NE. It's no SE for sure. SE would be about a mile east of where I live--like where I dropped off the moving truck.
Comcast is coming today to give me real internets and cable TV. I haven't been able to do as much work as I'm used to since my connection boots me off after 30 seconds or so.
I'll take some pictures over the weekend and you can see my house and my hood because I know you want nothing more than to know what's going on in my life. [Comments: 2]· permalink ·
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Friday: July 17, 2009 - Lyrics Challenge!
On Monday we'll have the 3rd annual Lyrics Challenge game. Previous winners have included such masters of music as Dr. Kathy Biddick Smith and Anna "Destroyer of Game Worlds" Ahlbin. This year's selection will feature, *shock* *horror*, not just music from the realm of classic rock but rest easy young Americans, the majority will indeed come from that genre.
My house is slowly getting set up. Working against that, however, is the fact that NCAA2010 came out on Wednesday. I edged Chris the first couple of games but last night he destroyed me as Oklahoma. Apparently Sam Bradford is faster than Tim Tebow. I feel slightly guilty playing as Florida but Playstation 2 football is war so you have to do what you have to do.
Comcast installed cable and internet a couple days ago so I'm officially back to being able to do things online. I splurged and got the HDTV cable package for football season. It looks pretty darn good on my Best Buy outlet TV.
We have our first test on Monday and I feel pretty good for 66% of the class. It's possible that the two students who comprise the last 33% could surprise me but I'm not going to get my hopes up. If you can't even show up on time there's very little chance you're going to be able to sing le-fa-ra-sol-do. Ah, nerding out. [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Weekend: July 18, 2009 - 2009 Lyrics Challenge!!!
It's that time of year again. Time for the 2009 Lyrics Challenge (brought you by promotioncode.org). In case this is your first year playing, it works a little something like this. I take the first verse of a popular, well-known song (this is what separates it from the music challenges of the Urizone) and put them into Altavista's (now Yahoo) babelfish translator. The lyrics go from English to German to French back to English. It's your job to decipher the songs from this bastardization of language. As usual, the first example is a Jimi Hendrix song. When you're done, send me an email (mrcatania@gmail.com) with the artist and name of each song. Lurkers are especially encouraged to play.
1) The tower of the princes constantly held too the opinion all the women came and went, but huh the outside in the cold distance a wildcat of both passengers came and gone were approachin' and the wind started to howl.
2) I can't are him, me know that you the projected I'm placed him precisely, this Watergate I Can't Stand plate Rocking in here. Cause your ball ain't crystal; ; TSO crystal - freely thus, while you sat of return and why I'm astonish received those diablement spine in my side. Oh my god, it's an image of fraud. I'm tellin' y'all it's...
3) You represent in a boat on a river, with of oranges and the skies of jam. You, call you answer rather slowly, with a girl with eyes of kaleidoscope above. Plastics of yellow and an ecologist, one raise on your head high. Seek the girl with the sun in their eyes and after she's gone.
4) With the time of monkeys, stays a monkey with liquid fire in my veins and in outside Junkien cuts with Plastikaugäpfeln the color of jet which fixes the vegetables food of dog with that Pantyhose beefcake to kill you to them headlights and place it to you in the neutral person with a loser and the speed control of voyage baby in Reno with the vitamin Cd one some Layers, n' did not receive sleep on the seat love came in sayin in lunatic to balance marriage of gun of shot and of mark on my shirt the faith you all, you is breathed receives you a wound to park and a larva on your case, therefore you shave your face with darkness with of Savin Your temples of whole food products and burning to the bottom of a caravan.
5) Its nine o'donor of synchronization one Saturday regular masse with there interior. Is an old man who sat close to me the manufacture of the loves to his means of reinforcement and Gin to him, told the son, can play you to me a memory? I'm not really sour, like it me-me its Candy goes and sad and its however knew; it equips completely, when I carried young person, clothing.
6) Day we hit in streets off has them off the runaway American dream AT out sweat the we through mansions glory one highway 9 night, out in the jump machines commits suicide from cages wrinkles Chrome wheeled, for injected and stepping out over the line the baby this town rips bones from your to cook Its has death trap, its has blow commits suicide We gotta GET out Young were while less virtuous girls the like United States causes, baby we conceive were ton race.
7) This one to push crown my refrigerator. This a cold gives me showers. My assumption is right conclusion my eyes. Oh yeah. In order. One feels good. Towards the interior. Lighter impact on television to extort with of Jimmy. Something spouts out behind my back. The bottle must be gone ready.
8) When you were front here, you could in your eye. Not to look at. Re: precisely that an angel, forms your skin makes me cry you swims as a feather in beautiful people me wishes that I would be special you thus f*cking Special.
9) It's not was not like a beauty queen from a film panel me was said rather concerns, but what you mean me, it is that which dances you on the floor in circulation said that I am that which dances on the floor in circulation.
10) Song in the sun, aiming in the rain, moonshine and do not balance in the grain me do not have time, bags want to say to pack, my foot are within the door which is received a date, me incline are late, for the hope ball.
Tie-Breaker (non-rock, 2008): Before Westerner constantly to receive the electricity in its hand right impact wants you won't believe the sun in The Amazon if the tension runs by its skin which is above with nothing it is there going me to teach, like one swims.
Good luck! Entries due by Thursday at midnight. [Comments: 5]· permalink ·
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Monday: July 20, 2009 - Audacity of Hope
A couple days ago, whilst playing racquetball with Chris, I fell down and somehow hurt my knee. Not being a doctor, I took the liberty of diagnosing myself with a rare condition: angry cartilage. Chris still regularly whomps me in both racquetball and twtball but as I've gotten better I've become more inclined to go the extra mile (ok feet) for the point rather than just giving up. Unfortunately, this is how my body repays me for two hours of daily cardio. It's already getting better so I think my rediagnosis is now mildly irritated cartilage.
Last night we watched the Cubs lose to the Phillies in HD. It's even more pathetic watching Soriano drop fly balls when you can vividly see the terror in his eyes.
So far we only have one submission for the 2009 Lyrics Challenge(!!!) so figure out those last couple and send them to me. [Comments: 1]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: July 21, 2009 - Key of Five
Yesterday in class I did just about everything wrong. Incapable of putting together a coherent sentence or reading music, my crowing achievement of the day (by far) was asking if anyone had played anything "in the key of five". Not only did I manage to let this escape my mouth, when no one answered I asked it again. This was after I was unable to pull down the projector screen after a dozen attempts, misnotated a chord on the board (AND declared I was right when it was called into question), AND consistently borrowed major syllables while singing a minor example. Whatever, momma said there'd be days like this.
My knee feels better and I'm hoping to play racquetball again by the end of the week. FSU-Angela is in Boston so I'm going to drive down there tomorrow after class to catch up on the past six years. I know she's a famous composer who's living in Germany but I only gleaned that from Facebook. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Thursday: July 23, 2009 - 2009 Lyrics Challenge Winners
Congratulations to Evil Mike and Dr. Endrinal, the co-winners of this year's Lyrics Challenge. They both correctly answered all ten questions and the tie breaker. The answers were:
1. "All Along the Watchtower" - Jimi Hendrix
2. "Sabatoge" - The Beastie Boys
3. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" - The Beatles
4. "Loser" - Beck
5. "Piano Man" - Billy Joel
6. "Born to Run" - Bruce Springsteen
7. "Say It Ain't So" - Weezer
8. "Creep" - Radiohead
9. "Billie Jean" - Michael Jackson
10. "The Ocean" - Led Zeppelin
Tiebreaker: "Electric Feel" - MGMT
The final scores were:
1. Evil Mike (11)
2. T-Chris (11)
3. Tim (7.5)
4. Kathy (7)
5. P-Chris (5)
I guess P-Chris should probably be updated to be L-Chris at some point. Congratulations to all who played and shame on those who didn't.
[Comments: 2]· permalink ·
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Weekend: July 26, 2009 - Dexter
Even though I borrowed the first season from Brian ages ago, I didn't really give Dexter a fair shake. When the first season was on sale at Target for $8 (no tax; thanks NH) I figured I'd give it another shot. Two days and two seasons later I'm glad I did. The story is both interesting and hokey. It's interesting because Dexter (Michael Hall of Six Feet Under fame) is awesome and hokey because things work out because of "God" and not because of clever story writing. Whatever. I already pre-ordered Season 3.
Over the weekend I hit up the Lowell Folk Festival which was about what I expected. I didn't get to hear Joan Baez (she's what, like 300 years old now?) so maybe I did walk by but her voice was too weak to be heard.
I cheated my way to a victory in racquetball on Friday but now I'm taking at least a week off to give my knee a chance to heal for real. Having to stand on it for 90 minutes as the first thing I do after I wake up isn't really fair to it so compounding it with regular humiliating losses to Chris seems like the piece that needs to be temporarily removed.
It's almost August. [Comments: 10]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: July 28, 2009 - New Computer
I finally got a new computer after my reliable (but tiny) Dell ran out of hard drive space. It's a terrible reason to get rid of a computer but you have to understand that the super-small profile Dells don't have enough room to upgrade anything. I like to upgrade stuff every few months so to go two years without was aggravating. Finally, with 80G full I gave in and bought a new behemoth.
1.75Tb of hard drive space. 8GB of RAM. Quad 3Ghz processor. Mmmmm.
mmmmm.
mmm.
mm.
m. [Comments: 5]· permalink ·
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Thursday: July 30, 2009 - Cash Poker
Last night, with our teaching loads done for the week, Chris and I met up with my landlord and two of his friends for a cash game of poker. Even though I bashed rebuys before we played I wound up being the only person who had to buy back in after I went all-in about ten minutes into the game. All in all, I lost $28 dollars which, while horrible, could have been much worse.
After the game we went back to Chris' house, hung out, and watched some Planet Earth. Being old, we all called it a night around 12:30.
Early in the day I gave my students their mid-term to mixed results. By mixed I mean "terrible". Ah, the panic of new chords. I spent the afternoon on the phone with GoDaddy trying to get them to fix a bevy of problems with the promo code site.
At least my knee is feeling almost 100% again. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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I'm back and now with more 12 of 12s than ever!
8:10am: I had to retake this shot at 8:10 because I forgot it was a 12 of 12 until I sat down at my computer. This getting up early thing gives you like four extra hours in a day. Score!
9:00m: Making my weekly lesson plans after a delicious Starbucks run. Little did I know that my brilliant Monday plan would be destroyed when only two students showed up. Not coincidentally, it was the two who least-needed the work on today's material.
12:00pm: There were a meeting of the Hot Girl Alliance-Lowell Chapter at Panera. Both members showed up.
12:30pm: My bedroom "before" I unpacked my stuff and rearranged it.
1:30pm: "After"
2pm: Chompy at Tyler Park. There's a big sign that says NO DOGS but whatever. Chompy isn't a dog--she's an ass-kicking on four legs.
3pm: Chris and I drove up to Nashua so he could get the new iPhone and I could buy more random crap. This braced-umpire was on a fence outside the sporting goods store. I just liked that he had braces on.
3:30pm: Chris trading in his Pre to join the iPhone community. Welcome aboard!
4:00pm: All my trips to Best Buy are unsuccessful. I did get a TV for my bedroom but they had to order it. I managed to get a $200 coupon from Comcast so I somehow made money by going to Best Buy. Score.
7:30pm: Taking a break from work to check my fantasy stats. I was playing Steve this week and avenged my previous loss with a whomping. I've moved from last place into 3rd. Boom.
9:00pm: On my way to Chris' house to watch the Cubbies lose to the Cardinals. At least we got to see Sean Marshall play left field.
10:00pm: We weren't really watching the game so much as playing on our iPhones. There's Oreo with her head on my lap. She was so happy to see me she peed a little bit. I wish my students got that excited.
BONUS: I took this morning since I went to bed so early last night. See how nicely I clean up? [Comments: 4]· permalink ·
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Monday: July 13, 2009 - Twtball
After a 33% came-to-class attendance rate, I trotted over the gym to get myself huge. The gym was closed all last week for renovations and the racquetball courts were still "drying". I lifted weights for about 45 minutes (diligently tracking my progress with the iFit iPhone application) then undid all that good with some McDonalds before heading back to play Twtball with Chris. Because the regular racquetball courts were closed we decided to play on a squash court with tennis rules since we had no idea how to play squash. Tennis + Squash + Racquetball = Twtball and Chris handed me my "A" in our inaugural game if you know what I'm saying. Losing 16-14 after being up 12-3 is pretty humiliating but that's Twtball.
I spent the afternoon trying to figure out why promotioncode.org's rankings keep jumping for certain stores and even after four hours I was no closer to figuring out why. I also made some updates to the pet site for our new launch. Also on the nerd-front, I finally got control of pitchy.com after buying it a few weeks ago.
Ah, back to blogging. [Comments: 2]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: July 14, 2009 - Since 1996
Last night, for the 13th time in as many years, the National League lost the All-Star game. This means when the Cubs lose Game 7 in the World Series this year it'll be at Yankee Stadium instead of at Wrigley.
Many things have happened since 1996. Here's a personal list of things that have happened since then.
1) I no longer look like the dork in that picture. My dorkiness is much more internalized now. I can't believe I rooted for the White Sox that year. That was my pathetic attempt at teenage rebellion.
2) The domain google.com was registered in 1997 and has become...well, Google.
3) I've moved five different times.
4) Steve graduated elementary school, middle school, high school, college, grad school, and is almost ABD in Grad School Part II.
5) My weekly allowance has grown from $3 to $300.
6) There is only one thing in my current house that I've had since 1996 other than pictures--a t-shirt from some band conference.
7) There are babies who have parents that have never seen the National League win the All-Star game. Speaking of young parents, this is NOT, I repeat NOT safe for work but along the lines of failblog--WTFDYHAK.
8) The Cubs opening day starters have been: Jamie Navarro, Terry Mulholland, Kevin Tapani, Steve Trachsel, John Lieber (part I), Kerry Wood, Greg Maddux (part II), and Carlos Zambrano.
9) I've gained nearly 100 lb. Wow.
Yeah, 1996 was a long time ago. Not surprisingly, the closer on my fantasy baseball team, one of my two All-Stars, was the guy who gave up the winning run to the AL. Whatever, at least I don't have braces and weigh more than 100lb. [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: July 15, 2009 - My Hood
Yesterday the delivery man came to drop of my new TV while I was at the gym getting whomped again in Twtball. When he came back later last night he said he dropped it off he said that he had come by earlier and heard my dog barking at him. He said he didn't know what kind of dog it was but "judging on the neighbor I assumed it was big and mean".
I don't think of my neighborhood as being especially bad. It's no Glover Park--three people got shot about a half-mile down the road a week ago--but I don't think of it as a ghetto. To liken it to DC, it's like living on 16th street where NW meets NE. It's no SE for sure. SE would be about a mile east of where I live--like where I dropped off the moving truck.
Comcast is coming today to give me real internets and cable TV. I haven't been able to do as much work as I'm used to since my connection boots me off after 30 seconds or so.
I'll take some pictures over the weekend and you can see my house and my hood because I know you want nothing more than to know what's going on in my life. [Comments: 2]· permalink ·
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Friday: July 17, 2009 - Lyrics Challenge!
On Monday we'll have the 3rd annual Lyrics Challenge game. Previous winners have included such masters of music as Dr. Kathy Biddick Smith and Anna "Destroyer of Game Worlds" Ahlbin. This year's selection will feature, *shock* *horror*, not just music from the realm of classic rock but rest easy young Americans, the majority will indeed come from that genre.
My house is slowly getting set up. Working against that, however, is the fact that NCAA2010 came out on Wednesday. I edged Chris the first couple of games but last night he destroyed me as Oklahoma. Apparently Sam Bradford is faster than Tim Tebow. I feel slightly guilty playing as Florida but Playstation 2 football is war so you have to do what you have to do.
Comcast installed cable and internet a couple days ago so I'm officially back to being able to do things online. I splurged and got the HDTV cable package for football season. It looks pretty darn good on my Best Buy outlet TV.
We have our first test on Monday and I feel pretty good for 66% of the class. It's possible that the two students who comprise the last 33% could surprise me but I'm not going to get my hopes up. If you can't even show up on time there's very little chance you're going to be able to sing le-fa-ra-sol-do. Ah, nerding out. [Comments: 3]· permalink ·
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Weekend: July 18, 2009 - 2009 Lyrics Challenge!!!
It's that time of year again. Time for the 2009 Lyrics Challenge (brought you by promotioncode.org). In case this is your first year playing, it works a little something like this. I take the first verse of a popular, well-known song (this is what separates it from the music challenges of the Urizone) and put them into Altavista's (now Yahoo) babelfish translator. The lyrics go from English to German to French back to English. It's your job to decipher the songs from this bastardization of language. As usual, the first example is a Jimi Hendrix song. When you're done, send me an email (mrcatania@gmail.com) with the artist and name of each song. Lurkers are especially encouraged to play.
1) The tower of the princes constantly held too the opinion all the women came and went, but huh the outside in the cold distance a wildcat of both passengers came and gone were approachin' and the wind started to howl.
2) I can't are him, me know that you the projected I'm placed him precisely, this Watergate I Can't Stand plate Rocking in here. Cause your ball ain't crystal; ; TSO crystal - freely thus, while you sat of return and why I'm astonish received those diablement spine in my side. Oh my god, it's an image of fraud. I'm tellin' y'all it's...
3) You represent in a boat on a river, with of oranges and the skies of jam. You, call you answer rather slowly, with a girl with eyes of kaleidoscope above. Plastics of yellow and an ecologist, one raise on your head high. Seek the girl with the sun in their eyes and after she's gone.
4) With the time of monkeys, stays a monkey with liquid fire in my veins and in outside Junkien cuts with Plastikaugäpfeln the color of jet which fixes the vegetables food of dog with that Pantyhose beefcake to kill you to them headlights and place it to you in the neutral person with a loser and the speed control of voyage baby in Reno with the vitamin Cd one some Layers, n' did not receive sleep on the seat love came in sayin in lunatic to balance marriage of gun of shot and of mark on my shirt the faith you all, you is breathed receives you a wound to park and a larva on your case, therefore you shave your face with darkness with of Savin Your temples of whole food products and burning to the bottom of a caravan.
5) Its nine o'donor of synchronization one Saturday regular masse with there interior. Is an old man who sat close to me the manufacture of the loves to his means of reinforcement and Gin to him, told the son, can play you to me a memory? I'm not really sour, like it me-me its Candy goes and sad and its however knew; it equips completely, when I carried young person, clothing.
6) Day we hit in streets off has them off the runaway American dream AT out sweat the we through mansions glory one highway 9 night, out in the jump machines commits suicide from cages wrinkles Chrome wheeled, for injected and stepping out over the line the baby this town rips bones from your to cook Its has death trap, its has blow commits suicide We gotta GET out Young were while less virtuous girls the like United States causes, baby we conceive were ton race.
7) This one to push crown my refrigerator. This a cold gives me showers. My assumption is right conclusion my eyes. Oh yeah. In order. One feels good. Towards the interior. Lighter impact on television to extort with of Jimmy. Something spouts out behind my back. The bottle must be gone ready.
8) When you were front here, you could in your eye. Not to look at. Re: precisely that an angel, forms your skin makes me cry you swims as a feather in beautiful people me wishes that I would be special you thus f*cking Special.
9) It's not was not like a beauty queen from a film panel me was said rather concerns, but what you mean me, it is that which dances you on the floor in circulation said that I am that which dances on the floor in circulation.
10) Song in the sun, aiming in the rain, moonshine and do not balance in the grain me do not have time, bags want to say to pack, my foot are within the door which is received a date, me incline are late, for the hope ball.
Tie-Breaker (non-rock, 2008): Before Westerner constantly to receive the electricity in its hand right impact wants you won't believe the sun in The Amazon if the tension runs by its skin which is above with nothing it is there going me to teach, like one swims.
Good luck! Entries due by Thursday at midnight. [Comments: 5]· permalink ·
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Monday: July 20, 2009 - Audacity of Hope
A couple days ago, whilst playing racquetball with Chris, I fell down and somehow hurt my knee. Not being a doctor, I took the liberty of diagnosing myself with a rare condition: angry cartilage. Chris still regularly whomps me in both racquetball and twtball but as I've gotten better I've become more inclined to go the extra mile (ok feet) for the point rather than just giving up. Unfortunately, this is how my body repays me for two hours of daily cardio. It's already getting better so I think my rediagnosis is now mildly irritated cartilage.
Last night we watched the Cubs lose to the Phillies in HD. It's even more pathetic watching Soriano drop fly balls when you can vividly see the terror in his eyes.
So far we only have one submission for the 2009 Lyrics Challenge(!!!) so figure out those last couple and send them to me. [Comments: 1]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: July 21, 2009 - Key of Five
Yesterday in class I did just about everything wrong. Incapable of putting together a coherent sentence or reading music, my crowing achievement of the day (by far) was asking if anyone had played anything "in the key of five". Not only did I manage to let this escape my mouth, when no one answered I asked it again. This was after I was unable to pull down the projector screen after a dozen attempts, misnotated a chord on the board (AND declared I was right when it was called into question), AND consistently borrowed major syllables while singing a minor example. Whatever, momma said there'd be days like this.
My knee feels better and I'm hoping to play racquetball again by the end of the week. FSU-Angela is in Boston so I'm going to drive down there tomorrow after class to catch up on the past six years. I know she's a famous composer who's living in Germany but I only gleaned that from Facebook. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Thursday: July 23, 2009 - 2009 Lyrics Challenge Winners
Congratulations to Evil Mike and Dr. Endrinal, the co-winners of this year's Lyrics Challenge. They both correctly answered all ten questions and the tie breaker. The answers were:
1. "All Along the Watchtower" - Jimi Hendrix
2. "Sabatoge" - The Beastie Boys
3. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" - The Beatles
4. "Loser" - Beck
5. "Piano Man" - Billy Joel
6. "Born to Run" - Bruce Springsteen
7. "Say It Ain't So" - Weezer
8. "Creep" - Radiohead
9. "Billie Jean" - Michael Jackson
10. "The Ocean" - Led Zeppelin
Tiebreaker: "Electric Feel" - MGMT
The final scores were:
1. Evil Mike (11)
2. T-Chris (11)
3. Tim (7.5)
4. Kathy (7)
5. P-Chris (5)
I guess P-Chris should probably be updated to be L-Chris at some point. Congratulations to all who played and shame on those who didn't.
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Weekend: July 26, 2009 - Dexter
Even though I borrowed the first season from Brian ages ago, I didn't really give Dexter a fair shake. When the first season was on sale at Target for $8 (no tax; thanks NH) I figured I'd give it another shot. Two days and two seasons later I'm glad I did. The story is both interesting and hokey. It's interesting because Dexter (Michael Hall of Six Feet Under fame) is awesome and hokey because things work out because of "God" and not because of clever story writing. Whatever. I already pre-ordered Season 3.
Over the weekend I hit up the Lowell Folk Festival which was about what I expected. I didn't get to hear Joan Baez (she's what, like 300 years old now?) so maybe I did walk by but her voice was too weak to be heard.
I cheated my way to a victory in racquetball on Friday but now I'm taking at least a week off to give my knee a chance to heal for real. Having to stand on it for 90 minutes as the first thing I do after I wake up isn't really fair to it so compounding it with regular humiliating losses to Chris seems like the piece that needs to be temporarily removed.
It's almost August. [Comments: 10]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: July 28, 2009 - New Computer
I finally got a new computer after my reliable (but tiny) Dell ran out of hard drive space. It's a terrible reason to get rid of a computer but you have to understand that the super-small profile Dells don't have enough room to upgrade anything. I like to upgrade stuff every few months so to go two years without was aggravating. Finally, with 80G full I gave in and bought a new behemoth.
1.75Tb of hard drive space. 8GB of RAM. Quad 3Ghz processor. Mmmmm.
mmmmm.
mmm.
mm.
m. [Comments: 5]· permalink ·
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Thursday: July 30, 2009 - Cash Poker
Last night, with our teaching loads done for the week, Chris and I met up with my landlord and two of his friends for a cash game of poker. Even though I bashed rebuys before we played I wound up being the only person who had to buy back in after I went all-in about ten minutes into the game. All in all, I lost $28 dollars which, while horrible, could have been much worse.
After the game we went back to Chris' house, hung out, and watched some Planet Earth. Being old, we all called it a night around 12:30.
Early in the day I gave my students their mid-term to mixed results. By mixed I mean "terrible". Ah, the panic of new chords. I spent the afternoon on the phone with GoDaddy trying to get them to fix a bevy of problems with the promo code site.
At least my knee is feeling almost 100% again. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Good Things Take Time...
-2 days until FSU Football (2010)
Random Picture...
Jamie's mom and I had a camera-off taking a picture of this smokestack. Hers won by a landslide even though we have the same Canon but hers is the next model up from mine.
Jamie's mom and I had a camera-off taking a picture of this smokestack. Hers won by a landslide even though we have the same Canon but hers is the next model up from mine.
Time Machine:
09-07-2009
· 09-07-2008
· 09-07-2007
· 09-07-2006
09-07-2009: I'll start with the good news: my death from the swine flu is no longer imminent. Now, onto the bad news.
WHERE THE HELL WAS FSU'S DEFENSE?! *I* could have been playing cornerback last night. I can easily ignore receivers as the blow past me or trip on my own two feet as a RUNNING BACK shoots past me for a catch in the end zone. Uggggggggh. On the bright side, the offense looked pretty good--at least Christian Ponder and the vaunted offensive line. The running game looked anemic when Jermaine was in there but his backup looked like a punisher. The fact our receivers c(w)ouldn't catch the ball made life rough. Fortson looked like the only guy who actually was willing to take one for the team and try to catch it, although Richard Goodman's catch on the two-point conversion ended with him getting blasted.
Anyway, where was the bloodthirsty FSU defense? Who were these cowards playing constant zone coverage? It doesn't take a PS2 NCAA Football expert very long to realize there's a time and a place for zone but if you want to win you need to MAN UP. Granted, the man coverage, when "utilized", made the secondary look absolutely stupid, with their coverage at least five yards behind the Miami receivers.
Whatever, we'll be good next year.09-07-2008: It looks like my vice-like grip over NCAA Pick 'Em is officially over. After tweaking "the algorithm" I still finished near the bottom of the picks because I clearly overweighed the section dedicated to "do they like to get upset?". The numbers correctly picked the ECU upset of WV but unfortunately they also picked three more upsets and, knowing that no more than three teams ever get upset in a week, I released WV out of a personal affinity towards the school. I also, until the game started, thought USM was in fact Mississippi State which they are clearly not. Oops.
I went out to Virginia to watch the FSU game with Kathy & Co. The bar had a lot of FSU fans but none that were particularly into the game. It didn't help that there was over two hours in combined rain delays. FSU looked good but I think anyone would look good against Western Carolina. They're not East Carolina, that's for sure. Catamounts, for the record, are mountain lions. They are not horses despite containing the word "mount". We'll know for sure how good FSU is when vaunted Chattanooga rolls into town next week. I took the day off blogging but only because I was thinking of you.09-07-2006: Although not as gratifying as some wins in the past, I was able to fend off tchris and jamie in a little three-way poker last night. At different points in the night we all had huge chip leads and somehow blew them. We're all big bettors so it was a lot of fun despite the low number of people.
I really need a new computer. Mine shuts off after about five minutes of use due to overheating and I still have not been able to find the right replacement fan. I'm hoping by the week after my birthday to have enough money to buy the new one from Dell, even though they won't let me get it without the video card. I talked to their retarded sales/tech guy and asked them simply if they could not charge/install a video card. They do not have dual-monitor options and I wasn't ordering any monitors so I didn't need the card. He replied that they could not and I was out of luck. I replied by asking him if the computers were really built by hand like they say in the commercials. He said yes. I then asked if they guy installing it could just "leave out" the video card (I'd be throwing it out the day I got it) and have the person hand-writing my bill leave off the cost of it. He said no. Oh well.
WHERE THE HELL WAS FSU'S DEFENSE?! *I* could have been playing cornerback last night. I can easily ignore receivers as the blow past me or trip on my own two feet as a RUNNING BACK shoots past me for a catch in the end zone. Uggggggggh. On the bright side, the offense looked pretty good--at least Christian Ponder and the vaunted offensive line. The running game looked anemic when Jermaine was in there but his backup looked like a punisher. The fact our receivers c(w)ouldn't catch the ball made life rough. Fortson looked like the only guy who actually was willing to take one for the team and try to catch it, although Richard Goodman's catch on the two-point conversion ended with him getting blasted.
Anyway, where was the bloodthirsty FSU defense? Who were these cowards playing constant zone coverage? It doesn't take a PS2 NCAA Football expert very long to realize there's a time and a place for zone but if you want to win you need to MAN UP. Granted, the man coverage, when "utilized", made the secondary look absolutely stupid, with their coverage at least five yards behind the Miami receivers.
Whatever, we'll be good next year.09-07-2008: It looks like my vice-like grip over NCAA Pick 'Em is officially over. After tweaking "the algorithm" I still finished near the bottom of the picks because I clearly overweighed the section dedicated to "do they like to get upset?". The numbers correctly picked the ECU upset of WV but unfortunately they also picked three more upsets and, knowing that no more than three teams ever get upset in a week, I released WV out of a personal affinity towards the school. I also, until the game started, thought USM was in fact Mississippi State which they are clearly not. Oops.
I went out to Virginia to watch the FSU game with Kathy & Co. The bar had a lot of FSU fans but none that were particularly into the game. It didn't help that there was over two hours in combined rain delays. FSU looked good but I think anyone would look good against Western Carolina. They're not East Carolina, that's for sure. Catamounts, for the record, are mountain lions. They are not horses despite containing the word "mount". We'll know for sure how good FSU is when vaunted Chattanooga rolls into town next week. I took the day off blogging but only because I was thinking of you.09-07-2006: Although not as gratifying as some wins in the past, I was able to fend off tchris and jamie in a little three-way poker last night. At different points in the night we all had huge chip leads and somehow blew them. We're all big bettors so it was a lot of fun despite the low number of people.
I really need a new computer. Mine shuts off after about five minutes of use due to overheating and I still have not been able to find the right replacement fan. I'm hoping by the week after my birthday to have enough money to buy the new one from Dell, even though they won't let me get it without the video card. I talked to their retarded sales/tech guy and asked them simply if they could not charge/install a video card. They do not have dual-monitor options and I wasn't ordering any monitors so I didn't need the card. He replied that they could not and I was out of luck. I replied by asking him if the computers were really built by hand like they say in the commercials. He said yes. I then asked if they guy installing it could just "leave out" the video card (I'd be throwing it out the day I got it) and have the person hand-writing my bill leave off the cost of it. He said no. Oh well.