Two Days In

School started on Thursday again for me. I had two classes that day and they are going to be my two hardest I believe. My Archeology Theory class is the history of the field and what social trends and changes in science caused things to evolve. There is a tremendous amount of reading required and we have to write 2-3 pages on each article we read. My History 702 class is on American history from 1789 to 1877 (Antebellum era), but is not a typical survey course where we go in depth about historical events and memorize times and names. Instead we will be focusing on labor, especially slavery and the economy, and discussing how the things we read fit into the historiography. This class also has a lot of reading but fewer papers.
Friday I had my History 720 course, which is a methods class where they teach us how to be historians and give us exposure to the various careers and interests. There is a bit of reading in the beginning and a few papers throughout, but for the most part it is a discussion course.
I still have yet to attend my American Architecture course, which will be on Wednesday. I am really looking forward to this course. There is going to be a bit of reading and memorizing styles, but this will be the most practical course for my degree.
All of my professors are extremely helpful, friendly, and informative. Only one of my professors is intimidating, and I think that stems not only from the fact that he is the only one I didn't have contact with in my undergrad degree, but also from the fact that he is known as a major player in the academic world for the history of slavery.
Right now I also have two jobs. I am working my assistantship at the State Parks doing historical research for new information kiosks at some of the parks. Later on I am also going to get to go on an archaeological dig (finally) and do some preservation work. I have also kept my internship doing GIS (mapmaking) at Richland County. This means I am working 34 hours and taking four grad courses. I am going to try this for at least a week to see if I can handle it. I am not so sure about it, but I won't know until I try. I can always leave my internship at GIS, and they have told me that they would be willing to take me back in the Spring if I was interested. So we will see how well I handle it, and if it fails I will at least be able to fix the problem and not hurt my grade because it will be early enough.

On another note... the lovely football players are already at it. USC is getting quite the reputation for having football players that are always in trouble. In the last two years they have had several arrests for fighting (at games and in public), vandalism (of their own office and vehicles), gun charges, drug charges, etc. Yesterday the quarterback and two others were suspended from the first game for not attending the summer courses they signed up for, which caused them to be put on academic probation. The new graduate students and I were talking about this today and I mentioned how it will be like this all year. Right after saying that I saw the news headlines and it turns out another player was arrested this morning for bringing a weapon on campus. It was unclear whether the firearm was unregistered or not, the press made it sound like it was.
Two days in and we already have four players suspended. I think that is a new record, but not one we should be proud of.

Fun day

Today we went to Charlotte to see the Body Worlds exhibit of artistically-preserved human bodies. We both found it fascinating, although one of our buddies had a severe case of the jibblies at first and we thought he was going to pass out. But he got through it and we had a good time.

Also, tonight we watched Hot Fuzz, which had better acting, writing, directing, and cinematography, a better story, and a much bigger budget than Shaun of the Dead, but wasn't as funny. Still a good watch.

The death of evolution

I recently read Fahrenheit 451, the classic novel of a dystopian future America. Most people think the book is about widespread censorship by a tyrannical government, but that's not exactly true. In the book, the American people have, on their own, rejected books and all other intellectual pursuits. This is encouraged by the government once it becomes obvious that they can use it to repress and control people, but the root cause is the public's growing obsession with television.

Bradbury's point, in more detail here, is that the real culprit, the real devastator of American society is television. Given that this book was written over 50 years ago, I would imagine that a modern take on the story would point the finger at other forms of media, in addition to television, but for now suffice it to say that the story is about the damaging effects of television addiction.

If you've not read it recently, Bradbury describes how the government uses this massive censorship to, among other things, keep the population under control and mentally dormant. Specifically, we are told by Fire Captain Beatty, that the most popular shows on television engage the audience by requiring so little brainpower to comprehend that even the tiniest amount of consciousness spent watching them can allow the audience to feel intelligent and accomplished.

For example, Beatty describes one of the most popular television shows as being a game show in which people are asked if they know the lyrics to various popular songs. Of course, most people do, so they are allowed to feel as though they have accomplished something worthwhile, even though song lyrics surely number among the least valuable things a person can commit to memory. In that way, television strokes the ego and flatters the viewer for what amounts to essentially nothing.

Guess what new game show I just heard about? From Wiki:

Combining karaoke singing with a spelling bee-style competition, this show will have contestants trying to remember the lyrics to popular songs. In each episode, six lucky contestants will be selected from the audience to play a series of games that test their knowledge of song lyrics.

This isn't just similar to Bradbury's dire warning. It's not merely close. It's exactly the same. And if that's not bad enough, a rival network has already ripped it off with another show that appears to be identical.

Also, I have been made aware of the existence of a nationally-televised Bingo game show.

I think that part of the reason that Bradbury's work has been misinterpreted is due to the idea that it's much easier to believe in a malevolent government body deciding what's best for us all. Perhaps it seems implausible that Americans would jointly decide that they don't need books when they have Tivos and network television and other shiny things and diversions. In a nation where this soul-murdering garbage is among the highest-rated of these diversions, a nation where the endless fact-free news cycle is so busy covering the DUI arrests of various worthless dregs of society, I don't have a hard time believing in Bradbury's vision of the future.

Pathetic.

Serious Post-Potter Depression

I finished HP7 today after staying up late both Friday and Saturday nights. It was amazing. I laughed. I cried. Now all I want is more. I read everything I could on Wikipedia and I watched several of the interviews JK gave after it was all done, and I still want more. I want to know what happens right after the final chapter until the epilogue. I want to know more about the battle. I just want more.
It seems odd to think that it is done and that I can never read a Harry Potter book for the first time again. I felt the same way with Lord of the Rings, but I must admit I got more involved in these books and the personal side of each character. Especially when it came to my favorite characters, Fred and George. My favorite scene about them is during end of the 5th book. (I am sure if you have read them you know what I am talking about.)
So now I have to go back to the Muggle world and go to work tomorrow. I really wish I could stay absorbed in the books instead.

New Record

Today we hit a new heat record at 105. With the heat index from the humidity, that comes to 112 degrees! At least the air was blowing today. It has been pretty hazy and stagnant for the last few days.

HOT

Today it was 101 degrees with a heat index of 105. (That is how hot they say it feels with the humidity added.) We have a whole week of this according to the weather man. As miserable as it is normally, I can usually avoid being outside for the most part but today we had to do a site visit for an hour at a historic home and we had to dress professionally. I am also supposed to go out on Thursday searching for missing cemeteries with GIS. I think I am going to beg to have that one rescheduled after the headache I came home with today from being out in the heat.
Now I understand why Amy comes home from Dubai during the summer.

How do you reason with someone like this

One of my friends mentioned online that her son has chicken pox. I thought that was odd given that they immunize for that, so I asked her if she didn't. She informed me, and the rest of our friends via the internet, that she had not immunized her son and the reason why. She "researched" about it and found that immunizations create autism and ADHD according to this group called Generation Rescue. And on a minor note, her family has reactions to Pertussis, which I can understand being that I also have a reaction to that particular immunization. My understanding is that she hasn't immunized for any of the major ones, because she stated that when he is two she will immunize him for the big ones like Polio.
I tried to keep an open mind and read the article she sent me to read. Their research consisted of a telephone survey of nine counties in Oregon in which they asked parents if they had immunized their children and if their kids had been diagnosed with ADHD or Autism. Their findings were that boys were 1.5 times more likely to have autism and ADHD if they were immunized and it got worse the older they got. I found several flaws with this, but the two biggest were that there is no official test for either of these "diseases" and the fact that correlation is not causation.
I also went to the website for this group who wrote the article and their entire purpose is to "educate" parents about the dangers of immunizations and other instances of toxic materials such as mercury. Sounds completely non-biased to me.
It strikes me though that most of the immunizations we receive have been around for a pretty decent amount of time and you would think that something so dangerous would have been discovered by the larger medical community by now. I would also think there are far more dangerous things to worry about with a child than the small, if any, chance he gets some disorder from an immunization.

I am going to catch that bad car fairy and give him a Rita Skeeter in a jar moment

Today has not been a stellar day, especially for cars that have been parked in our garage. First, T's car started having ABS problems last week and we were going to take it to the dealer tomorrow morning. In the meantime I dropped him off to work so we could use it the least possible since it still works, but with car problems you always want to be careful.
On my way to work there was a huge car accident and it took me 1 hour and 10 minutes to go to work. Normally it takes 20-30 minutes, which isn't great but what are you going to do. I should have been early to work though since I took T in.
After work I picked him up and we stopped for gas for my car. My car was very thirsty and I was commenting on that as I was trying to turn the key. But nothing happened. No clicking. No grinding. Nothing. Not even any lights on the dash. Strange. I was just using the car. I had noticed on the way to get T that the transmission seemed like it was hiccuping a little, but I didn't think much of it because it was only up hills. We tried to move the car out of the gas stall because many other people needed to use the pump, but my car wouldn't let me put it in neutral. We looked all over the manual and couldn't find anything that told us what to do. Then we checked the fuses and they were all fine. So I gave up and called a tow truck because I have free road side assistance. We sat in the car with the windows down in the hot and humid weather watching all the people stare at us until the tow truck came an hour later. He got it on the truck with no problem but he did have to give us a jump so that we could roll the power windows back up. It turns out that in order to shift my car into neutral you have to pull the cover off of a small hole and turn your key inside. I will say again that there was nothing in the manual about this.
After the tow truck took us to the dealer we had a friend drive us home. Hopefully my car will be pretty easy to fix, but luckily it is still under warranty. We think it is the alternator. It is a little early for it to fail but who knows what kind of pressure it has been under with the three years of heavy air conditioning usage. When all is said and done with my car, we can take the other car to the other dealer across town and get that one fixed.
And since things come in threes, the fairy also burned out the light bulb to the garage door opener so we can't see in there now when you pull in at night. I am going to catch that fairy and teach him to mess with me and my car.

I want one!

Yes, that is a 105 ft high rubber duckie. And it got loose. I want it.

Very inventive

I just saw this article about a contest they hold every year for the best duct tape prom couple outfits. They are amazing. I used to make bags and wallets in high school when I got bored. They put me to shame. Plus, if you win, you get a $9000 college scholarship! Here I am busting my butt getting good grades for a few a couple of hundreds. I should have done this instead.

Being a Preservationist is Cool

I started the last of my new jobs last week and I love it. I don't get to do any of the actual preservation, but I do get to hear about stuff that is going on. On my first day I also got the grand tour, which included the vaults. In these vaults are state documents like the original charter for the state of South Carolina from the Lords Proprietors, the original copy sent to the state of the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. They are in pretty sad shape since people don't always realize the importance of documents until much later. One even had a coffee mug type stain on it.
On another note, I finally put in my notice at my weekend job. My last day isn't till the 21st of this month, but at least there is an end. I was afraid to quit because they need the summer help and it is a valuable connection for me to have career wise. But I was dreading getting up on the weekends after working a full week and all I was doing is giving tours. I didn't have anything to do with actual interpretation or preservation. But I left in a professional way and so the bridge is still there if I need it in the future. Now I just have to actually plan something fun to do with my last three weekends before school starts.

Pizza

We went to the Mellow Mushroom last night for dinner. It was yummy. While we were there, two huge groups of Jehovah's Witnesses came in--one with 16 people, another with 13. Apparently there is some sort of crazy Jay-Dub convention in town or something. Ugh. Anyway, we knew they were Jay-Dubs because they had little name tags.

Anyway, when the first group came in, the hostess seemed a little concerned that they would be unable to fit them all (if you've been there, you know it's not a real big restaurant), but she dutifully went back to check and see if they could be accommodated. While they were waiting for her to return, the second group came in and I whispered something to the wife along the lines of "they can only serve 144,000 people here, so they might not be able to fit everybody."

I do, indeed, kill me. We got seated, and we went out for ice cream afterwards. Mmmm...with enough leftovers for dinner tonight, too.

Yep, I got a big new monitor Saturday! It is a 22" widescreen monitor. It's awesome! Now I've got lots of room on my desk--too much, in fact. When I took my old boat anchor off the desktop, all the papers and documents and stuff I'd stuck on it, or around it, or propped up against it, fell down, and I was forced to do something with them. I stuck them out of the way for a reason, of course.

We even watched "Heroes" on it while we ate dinner last night, and it looks fantastic. So I'm pleased. While I was at Big Box Electronics Store looking at it, I heard an old guy asking questions of one of the Sales Drones about a monitor he was looking to purchase. The old guy asked something to the effect of "does this monitor have all the software I need to install it," and the guy assured him that he'd be fine. So the old guy asks, "will this new monitor have all my icons on it, or do I need to transfer them?"

It made me feel a little pity for the Sales Drones of the world. No wonder they hassle everyone about buying their stupid extended warranties (they wanted a hundred bucks for the EW on this monitor!!) and asking for zip codes--they have to answer stupid questions like "will my new monitor have all my icons on it" all day.

No, I didn't buy the extended warranty. Also, no, you can't have my zip code. Not yours.

Computer (Stuff) Buying

Woo hoo! My stupid mouse is going out--it occasionally registers a single click as a double click, so selecting a file sometimes means opening a file instead. Or highlighting a window means maximizing the window. Anyway, we can't have that, so I get to buy a new mouse. It's okay; this one has served a long, happy life of clickery and, uh, cursor movery, so it's deserved its trip to the big recycle bin in the sky. But mice are boring.

That's why I guess I should be glad that my big ol' heavy monitor is also dying! I got this monitor--a bulky 21" CRT--from my old egomaniac boss at the job I had before I got a real one. He was always upgrading the equipment his poor subhuman employees had to work on, and I was around when he tossed these CRTs in favor of some big, shiny new LCDs, so I took this one off his hands for him. Yeah, it was a pretty nice gesture, but still, screw him.

Anyway, that was probably six years ago, so it, too, has lived a long, successful life even after it retired from engineering. It saw me through two engineering degrees and a 2200-mile cross-country move! And I suppose the cat will miss sitting atop its heat-emitting surfaces on cold days, but progress must march on.

But I digress. The monitor is doing this crazy epileptic seizure flicker move pretty regularly now, and it will, at random, turn itself off and, if I'm lucky, back on. All on its own! I suppose it may be a haunted monitor, but until it emits weird blue light, howling wind, and/or creepy moaning, or until it begins levitating, I'm going to go with the "it's wearing out" explanation.

When it started exhibiting this behavior, I was more annoyed than anything--I didn't want to go buy an expensive new monitor. They're hundreds of dollars, if not more, right!? And an LCD monitor this size will certainly break the bank, right? Right?!?

Well...not right. I began looking and was quickly amazed at how prices have come down and big ol' monitors have become very cheap! Now I started looking forward to getting an awesome new monitor. I have found two candidates for my dollars--a Dell 22" widescreen LCD and a Samsung 22" widescreen LCD. Both are pretty much the same price! How awesome?

I'm gonna see if I can find one in stock at one of the big box moron stores around here tomorrow, but if I can't, I'll order one online. Sweet!

And, yes, the thought has occurred to me to just buy a new computer, but I don't want to. I like my computer just fine, thank you.

My Cool New Project

For my State Parks job I get to do historical research on an island. It has been inhabited since the time of Native Americans up until today. It is a fantastic barrier island with lots of wildlife, great newly re-sanded beach, and a 19th century lighthouse. Today I got to go to the island to see the site and see what archive resources they have. I will be working on this project over the summer on the side and then take it up again part time in the fall for my assistantship. This is just one of the research projects I will be doing this year that will eventually lead to new interpretation at the parks and new information plaques (which are called waysides in the industry.)
I took some pictures of the island and I thought I would share.






The Lighthouse














The view of the beach from lighthouse















View of stairway up. 176 steps.














The beach. The line is the erosion line.















The marshlands.














It was so hot even the squirrels were hot.















The resident alligator.

Farewell Mr Wizard

Mr Wizard died today at the ripe age of 90. It seems odd when someone from television dies. Obviously most of us never meet the people, but those we remember from childhood seemed like they would live forever. We forget about them for many years only thinking of them during conversations about stuff you remember from childhood. But even though you forgot about them, you always feel like somehow they will continue to live in some far off land with your imaginary friend from first grade.

Perspective

I am a design engineer. I use a particular software package in my work to create and manage the designs for the products I work on. This package is extremely complex and quite expensive, and there is a worldwide community of users who use this software. I also subscribe to an email-based discussion forum for issues related to this software; mostly I use it for tips on how to do something I'm having trouble with, that sort of thing.

Once in a while the community erupts with furious nerd anger over some Controversial Crisis or another. On Crisis days, I keep getting interrupted with new emails from these people adding their input to the conversation, which becomes increasingly meaningless throughout the day as the original point someone made becomes lost under a deluge of whining and incompetent ranting. Today was one of those days.

Without embroiling you in the lurid details, it seems that the new version of the software will not be compatible with the old version of the data-management software this company also provides, and upgrading will be necessary. This kind of thing, of course, happens all the time, but this one guy was really upset about it. He wrote a passionate, lengthy email to all of us about how unfair this is and how it's really just mean of the software publisher to not think of his feelings, personally, when making this decision. He urged all the members of the community to voice their opinion on this matter, which they did, with much emotion and hyperbole, to the rest of us, all day.

This is a fairly common occurrence, but it caused me to stop and think about what kind of wreck one's life must be in to cause someone to write such a polemic about the unfair, mean practices of a large, faceless software company. I mean, this was a long email, filled with examples of how this would screw this guy over personally. I'm sure his employer would be thrilled to know how much time this dude spent crafting this epic masterwork about how the mean ol' software writers are just trying to ruin his life.

Seriously, though, I can't imagine what kind of banal existence you'd have to live to get that wrapped up in something as ultimately meaningless as this. I'm sure this upgrade business will cause some headaches for this dude, but...so what? That's just job security for you, buddy; just roll with it. (Hint: there's a reason it's called "work.")

So, take that for what it's worth. If you think your life is boring, or if it seems empty at times, at least you're not losing sleep over all the computers onto which you're going to have to install some more software next year sometime when the new version comes out.

He's Back

I hadn't heard my woodpecker banging on the house each morning so I feared he had moved on, despite the fact that woodpeckers don't migrate. I was really sad because I thought he was the most interesting of all the birds that come to my bird garden. Well today I was looking out the window to look at the rain and low and behold, there was my woodpecker. He must have just stopped pecking at our house, which I wouldn't blame him since there are no bugs in it. I kind of wish he would keep pecking at the house though because it was the only way I knew he was going to be at the feeder.

HP7

Okay, in addition to Hagrid, I think the other "major character" to die will be Ginny Weasley. That's Hagrid and Ginny. Place your bets now, ladies and gentlemen.

Motivation

We watched the movie Coach Carter tonight, which is a movie about the coach who required his team to do better than the bare academic standard. He even went so far as to lock his team out of the gym when they were not succeeding academically. It was very good.
The other day we watched Akeelah and the Bee, which was also inspiring. Both movies quoted this poem by Marianne Williamson that I thought was thought provoking:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Four Jobs Now

I went today to fill out the necessary paperwork for my fourth job of the summer, which strangely will be my first job of the summer but second job overall. Confused? I thought so. Let me explain.
I still work for Historic Columbia doing weekend tours. Friday I start at State Parks doing research for them. Monday I start at Richland County doing GIS. The end of June I finish with State Parks and start at the State Historic Preservation Office doing GIS and Section 106 compliance. So starting Friday I will have two part time jobs at a time until the end of summer during the week, and two or three days a month on the weekends at Historic Columbia.
I wonder what all the other students about to enter into the Preservation Program are doing this summer. Probably having fun.

Memorial Day BBQ

We had a bunch of our friends over for a BBQ yesterday. For a couple of years we have wanted to have a big party like this, but we didn't think it was possible to fit 15 or so people in our house . That is until we had that many family members for graduation and it was apparent that we could.
It was great fun. We had everyone bring their own meat and I made salads, dips, brownies, etc. There was tons of food to begin with, and then people brought extra as well. I don't think I have to cook again all week except for more brats and hamburgers cause they are better fresh.
We had four kids here with the parents and we were kind of worried that they were going to be bored cause they were too young to play with the Wii. The parents had brought some toys with them that they enjoyed in the yard until they found the squeaking board in the patio. Then they just played with that for awhile. I filmed them so that all of you could see what I am talking about.

Oh The Laziness

I just read a story about Las Vegas tourists. It says that they are tired of all the walking, and so have turned to renting those scooters old people ride around in to get around in and around the casinos. When Tim and I were in Vegas on vacation (the time we got married) we walked up and down the strip one day. In thirteen hours we had made it from Stratosphere to MGM and back. We had walked in the casinos, seen the attractions, seen the decorations, seen the shops, etc. We took a couple of major breaks, and our feet hurt by the end of the day, but we did it. And it was in the 100s-110s when we were there too! I can't imagine using a scooter for disabled people to get around. I wonder how long it will be before people get into accidents in those after they have been gambling and drinking?

Return of Sanity

When my research project ended at the end of April I was very relieved since I had so much still coming up with finals, presentations, guests, etc looming not to far off. I was not idle any of that time, but after graduation, I had nothing to do. Well let me rephrase that, I did not have anything outside of the house to do. I had plenty of stuff that needed to be done around the house, but there are only so many hours you can take of staring into the same four walls before you go insane. I started looking for a job right before graduation, even had some interviews, but nothing solid. I was getting rather irritated with not having a job, and so was the husband. Like I said before, I kept busy at home, but it wasn't enough. It would be different if I had a kid, because there would be someone else here, plus I would be able to go place with the kid. But that isn't an option for me just yet, so instead I sit here by myself talking to the cat and the birds in the yard slowly going insane. (I would say not really, but I think talking to animals qualifies you as insane.)
Luckily yesterday and today I got two great phone calls offering my part time jobs. One is for the State Historic Preservation Office, doing Section 106 compliance review. (Preservation stuff which simply boils down to: if federal money is being used, they have to make sure the project does not interfere or harm a historic site, structure, or archaeological site.) The other job is for Richland County GIS office. I will be helping create maps for the county, including an awesome project that will allow emergency personnel here to know the best way to get to your house when you call. So both jobs are going to help me in my future career, and I am even getting school credit for one of them which will put me a full semester ahead of schedule! Neither job starts till June, but at least I know I will soon be out of the house on a regular basis. I can continue working on house stuff until then and manage to keep my sanity. And maybe teach the birds to talk back to me.

New Sandwich Shop

We went to a new sandwich shop that opened in the shopping center by our house. The sandwiches were my size and pretty tasty. We also got a milkshake that was pretty decent as well. The best part though was the name of the store. It is called Which Wich. How can you not love a play with a name like that?

Celebrate Freedom Day

Today we went to the Celebrate Freedom Day event at Fort Jackson. Tim's company had a tent there and I made him volunteer to help answer people's questions about the guns. (Yes, they brought a few of the weapons to the event. All carefully checked, disarmed, and tied down to prevent theft.) We got there about an hour before he had to help out, so we walked around and saw a few of the other booths and watched a bit of the air show.
It was a nice free public event. What struck me and Tim was that it wasn't this propaganda machine for the war that we thought it would be since it was a military event and all. They had some of the weaponry from various time periods and some equipment like People Carriers and Aircraft, but there was no show of the force they create or the damage they can do. The war in Iraq and Afghanistan was only mentioned if they were thanking (or tell others to thank) the soldiers who are currently serving our country.
Being in the tent was pretty neat as well. Many of the military personnel came by to check out the weapons and they thanked the FN workers for the job they do, which was funny cause the FN workers were there to thank them. We had a drawing for posters and gun cases, and of course many people asked if they could have the guns instead.
We had a few kids cry because we were giving out globes attached to strings, like a yo-yo, and we ran out pretty quickly. Very sad to see kids cry like that.

Deafly 'Allows

You know what? I think Hagrid's going to be the one to die in the last Harry Potter book. Yep, Hagrid.

Graduation Weekend

The last of our guests left today so I can finally relax and reflect on this weekend. It was awesome to have everyone who could come to our house here. For four years almost, we have only had two sets of guests come. It was kind of strange to suddenly have 14 guests show up all on the same day and leave pretty close together.
On Thursday our guests trickled in as their flights arrived and they checked into their hotels. I cooked a pork tenderloin all day so that people could eat BBQ sandwiches and such as they arrived. We talked with people, and most were tired so they left early to go to bed.
Friday we took everyone in two groups through a factory tour of my husband's work. (The machine gun factory.) The first group took much longer than the second, but the hubby still finished before lunch. I made everyone chicken salad sandwiches and fruit for lunch. Then we went to my husband's graduation which took less than an hour and a half. I must say that USC knows what they are doing. (Which they should since they have been doing this for over 200 years!) To graduate over 1000 people in less than one hour and have the speech and formalities in less than 30 minutes is amazing. Then we went out to Sticky Fingers, which is a BBQ rib place here.
We had bought a Wii before everyone came out, and I am glad we were able to find one because it was a huge hit! People were playing it all day and night when they were here. In one day, despite having graduation, tours, etc, we logged over 6 hours of play. Even my mother-in-law and father played for a good long time.
Saturday, we went to my graduation. There was an amazing speaker, according to everyone else, but the sound was so bad that the graduates on the floor could not hear it. Afterwards, I took pictures with the Anthropology department and the Public History graduate students. It was neat to get congratulations from all the professors I had known through my years here. Then we went to Historic Columbia Foundation, where I work on the weekends, and ate a picnic lunch. I gave a tour of two of the houses I normally give tours on the weekends. Let me tell you that in the year I have worked there, I have never had a harder tour than my own family. Even taking 45 people through at once was easier than they were. It was still fun, but I lost my voice in the end trying to talk above all the sarcastic comments and chatter. I should have known better than to think our family would behave.
We went back to the house and spent the night playing games, chatting and playing more Wii. We made hamburgers, potato salad and cheesecakes. It was good food, but I still have leftovers despite careful planning not to make too much.
The next day some of our family members left for home in the early morning. We went with my brother-in-law and his family to the Sesquicentennial State Park, which is just down the street from our home and walked around the lake. It was a nice walk, despite the fact that my nephew was pretty tired and a tad cranky. (He's 12, go figure.) Then they left to go home.
In the afternoon my in-laws and my friend came over and we ate lunch and played more Wii. In the evening I made chicken fettuccine and a salad for Mother's Day dinner. We had given our mothers their present the day before since my mother had to leave. (I gave them a framed picture of us in our cap and gown.)
The next day we went to the State House and toured the inside and grounds. I have been around the grounds, but never inside, so it was great for me. We went to lunch at one of our favorite places downtown, The Mellow Mushroom. They serve hippie pizzas that are really delicious. We returned home so that my niece could take a nap, and then they left for the airport.
It seems oddly quite in our house now with everyone gone. It also seems strange that I don't have to go to work tomorrow (cause my project is done so other than my weekend job, I am unemployed for the moment) and I don't have to go to school. I plan on cleaning tomorrow and meeting with my professor, but other than that I don't have anything to do. I bet it will be a nice break, but after about a week I think I might go crazy.
Our cat is glad everyone is gone though. She was good for the most part, but she batted and hissed and my niece twice. She also hid in the bedroom most of the time. Now she is back to prancing around like she owns the place.
It was great fun to have everyone here and we miss everyone already. Some days it is hard to be so far away from everyone else.

The Waiting Game

Now that classes are over, I get to wait for grades. I hate this time. I wish they would tell us when grades are due. I also wish they would post them on one day, rather than have them trickle in one by one.
So far I have 2 A's, and I expect that I will have 2 more, but maybe not. I tried to get another 4.0 this semester, and it would be great if I actually accomplished that goal. It isn't the end of the world though if I don't. I just wish I knew now rather than me checking my grades a couple of times a day.

Sweet!!!

Now I can join in the celebration of being done with school. (Well for about three months at least.)

That's MASTER to you

All together now...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH

That's better! That's the sound of me finishing all the work I have to do to receive my Master's degree. Just, oh, five or so minutes ago I finished my test, scanned it in, and emailed it off to my professor. All that's left to do now is show up next week and walk.

Poor wife has to wait until lunchtime tomorrow to be done. But then she'll have her degrees and we will have a fun weekend! And my rabbit Wii game showed up today! So I think I'll go veg on the couch and play that now.

Learn to Procrastinate Tomorrow

I've got, oh, maybe two hours' worth of work left to complete my Master's degree. My last final is a take-home test, due Monday morning, and I'm about 60% done with it. I know how to complete the two problems I have left...but it's Thursday night, and the flesh just isn't willing.

I've gone through all my other bookmarks, looking for fresh, wonderful hilarity; while I've found some, I'm running out of bookmarks and will probably have to turn to Freecell or Snoodoku soon to escape my obligations. Sure, I could wait until the weekend is here and buckle down Saturday afternoon to finish this thing off...but I could just do it now and then be done!!! On the other hand...Saturday afternoon isn't right now.

I think I'm gonna go over to Cold Stone and get a big chocolate fudge ice cream brownie taste explosion thing when this is all done. Then I'm going to box up all the textbooks in this entire house, throw them into the attic, and never think of them again. Oh, another reason not to wait until Saturday to finish the exam is my new Wii game is supposed to arrive here that day--you know, the one with the crazy rabbits--and I will want to play it. (That's what I bought with your birthday gift certificate, by the way, Amy. Thanks! Too bad you won't be here next week to enjoy the hilarity.)

Maybe I'll at least finish this one problem tonight, then read my book for a little while. We were talking earlier about taking a little time this evening to finish up the jigsaw puzzle that's been sitting here, three-fourths completed, for about a month now, and watching Top Gear. We need to finish the puzzle because we need the table.

Oooh, I just thought of an email I have to write. Better do that right away before I forget.

Two More Days

Only two more days of work to go now. I have now finished one paper and one final. That still leaves two papers, one project, one presentation and one final. I have spent since last Thursday starring at a computer screen from dawn till dusk (or later) trying to get everything done. It has been one busy semester, and it was determined to stay that way until the very last moment.
Saturday is going to be such a nice day after I finish that last final. I will finally be able to relax a little and get the house ready for our many guests coming for graduation. I am very excited to have people visit us. It is going to be a houseful, but it should be lots of fun.
Oh, and on top of all that is going on, I got a flat tire today driving home from my final exam. I have never had one before, but luckily I have lots of automotive experience and knowledge which allowed me to change it pretty quickly. I was offered help by many gentleman, which was sweet and kind of an ego boost. (Since they always say that ugly women don't get assistance.) But I turned them all down. I felt like a strong woman after finishing that up.

Wii have it now

After a few weeks of searching, calling, planning, etc we finally were able to get a Wii. It is awesome. All those years of trying not to move the control while your character jumped have finally been put aside as someone has come to the wisdom that it was a good thing to move. It came with one set of sport games, and we purchased another game that adds things like billiards and such, plus we picked up a Mario game. Oh, we also ordered another game with rabbits just for Maury. (Not really but I know she will find it adorable because of the rabbits.)
I think it will be entertaining for both the adults and Colt. (Although the younger kids may find it fun to watch what we are doing.)

Another Ice Cream Cone

I finished my last class as an undergraduate today. Small victories, but victories none the less.

Still feels good

I know I am not done yet, but tonight I did what will be my last homework as an undergraduate. It felt good. Really good. Since I have so much to do next week for papers and finals, this is my small victory for the week. (Like getting an ice cream cone as a reward.) I can't wait till next Saturday when I take my last final. I am going to do a little dance when I turn it in. If you don't believe me, you just wait and see.

How bad it was

I just downloaded all the pics on my memory card and realized that one of the ones I took while it was damaged was still on there. I thought I would post it so that if any of you have the same problem, you will know what to tell them. (CCD error.)

New Furniture

We bought a new entertainment center the other day, and it was delivered today.
This is our old one:
And this is our new one:

Isn't it lovely? I have to put the knick-knacks in the corner pieces to get some room on our bookshelves, and the hubby is going to set up all the equipment (cause I have homework, not cause I can't figure it out.) The best part is it doesn't creek like it is going to fall down when you walk by it, like the old one did. We still have the old one, it is moved upstairs so that we can refinish the dresser the other TV currently sits on.
I did have to do one thing to this entertainment center before we could use it. The hole in the back for the rear of the TV to stick out wasn't big enough for our model. So I had to cut with a Dremel tool one inch on the sides and bottom of the particle board to get it to fit. It took me awhile because the Dremel ran out of power half way through, but it is done. Now we can close the front of the entertainment center and hide the TV.

Radio Shack

Oh, man, this is just too funny. There's one of these stores near where I work and I ask myself this every time I see it.

The Onion!"

Very Impressed

I received my camera back from Canon today. It works perfectly and it was completely free to get repaired. It only took them a few days to get it back to me as well. I couldn't be happier with their customer service. Especially considering the lack of customer support for every other business I have ever dealt with.
Now I can take pictures of all the things I need to, like stuff for my restoration plan that I am presenting on Friday and graduation in a few weeks. I really didn't expect it done this soon, but I am very happy it is.

AIR

I can't see a way that any movie could be more awesome than this one looks like it is:

Air Guitar Nation

Hurry up and put it on DVD so I can Netflix it!

Spring time

I don't know what it is about this particular time of year, but it seems to me that this is always the really violent time of year. This is when all the big school shootings have happened. This is when many of the bigger attacks on corporate employees happens. Something about this time of year just brings out the psycho and cause them all to go on murderous rampages.
I have also noticed the school children in my neighborhood have been more tempted to try to fight. I have already broken up two fights (both between groups of girls) on my lawn this month. Both times I called the cops to have them come patrol the neighborhood, and it seems to calm things down for about a week.
I have a couple of theories about this:
First, I wonder if it has to do with the end of school, at least for those who go. I remember when I was in high school this was the time when most of the kids really starting getting antsy and trouble was always brewing.
Second, it may also have to do with the fact that the weather gets nice and people have been stuck indoors for so long that they are just restless.
Lastly, I think that people are also getting tired because you have all those breaks during the holiday season, and then suddenly you don't have another break until Memorial Day (unless you happen to get Good Friday off or a Spring Break.) Maybe they should come up with some other holiday that allows people a day off in between. They should call it Day off Day.

Tech-Nine

Okay, since everyone's been talking about Virginia Tech all day, I do have a thing or two to say about this. Actually, I also want to mention that a coworker of mine--a VT alumnus--was wearing his nice VT shirt at work yesterday, which caused me to lol'ed.

Anyway, the articles about foreign governments responding to this thing made me sick. Here's a particularly vile one. Oh, yes, Mr. Howard, tell us how you think our country should be run. Everybody knows that getting rid of guns prevents gun crime. Right? So...Australia is unfit to be lecturing us. Who else?

Ahh, the British press has decided to cry its own crocodile tears. Says Gerard Butler of The Times: "Why, we ask, do Americans continue to tolerate gun laws and a culture that seems to condemn thousands of innocents to death every year, when presumably, tougher restrictions, such as those in force in European countries, could at least reduce the number?"

You're right, Mr. Baker; eliminating gun ownership also eliminates gun crime, doesn't it? Yeah, that's the ticket. I didn't even mention England's hilarious knife amnesty program, introduced in response to the surge in knife-based violence in response to their gun ban.

Let's see...oh, then China chips in. The article points out that nobody in China is allowed to own guns. That probably explains why China is such a utopian paradise.

Then Italy comes aboard and chips in their two lire. Gun ownership is restricted in Italy, too, making it impossible to commit any acts of violence.

Clearly, these nations are leading the way in making the world a safer, better place. As I see it, there are two appropriate responses to all this schadenfreude:

1) There will always be crazed people who decide that the best way to deal with their situation is to kill a lot of people. It's unfortunate, and it's scary, but it's unavoidable. These kinds of attacks are the price of a free society. Until our government has the entire populace sedated, or under constant surveillance, there simply is no way to guarantee that this madness won't be repeated. I saw a headline crawl on CNN yesterday that said "ARE ANY OF OUR STUDENTS SAFE??" No joke. And, well, no; there isn't any way to assure that this kind of thing will not happen again. Really, none of us are safe from random acts of senseless violence. But is it sensible to panic and hide in the corner?

2) This simply isn't the time to point fingers and say "I told you so." Mr. Howard, Mr. Baker, et al., please just take your condolences and cram 'em. There will be an appropriate time and place to analyze this event and find ways to mitigate such risks in the future, but can we please wait until these kids and teachers are in the ground before you vultures of opportunity begin to circle?

There is one more point I wish to make, and I hope I don't belabor it too much...but consider what must have gone through this prick shooter kid's mind as he began to plan his attack. Once he secured his weaponry, loaded up all his extra magazines and found a way to secret them around his person, he had to choose a place to go where there would be a lot of people he could attack. He chose his school. One can assume that he wanted to choose a fairly high-profile target, so that he could get his name in the newspapers--the fact that he left a note backs up this assumption. So...why not a police station? Why not drive up to DC and storm any of a number of government targets?

I'd like to suggest that, among other reasons, it's because people in police stations are armed. Government buildings are protected by people who are armed. Carrying a weapon on Virginia Tech campus is illegal...yet imagine how this would have turned out had one or more of his victims had been packing.

Just saying.

Pirate Metal!

I happened to discover today that there exists a pirate-themed death metal band called SWASHBUCKLE. Yes, they perform in costume; the singer even has a stuffed parrot on his shoulder. They've got a Myspace page where you can go listen to some of their songs and read what their buddies have to say for themselves; like all Myspace pages, it's a wasteland of horrible design and eye-pummeling graphics. But, hey, I'll say it again: pirate-themed death metal. This is definitely an idea whose time has come. Maybe they can tour with a Viking-themed death metal band named after a Tolkein reference.

Ahh, I love it. We went out tonight and purchased some nice, expensive furniture to replace our cheap, crappy furniture. It'll be delivered eventually, but it's not here yet, so I am, of course, already impatient for it to be here.

Oh, and I broke my own personal speed record for the crossword I do every day at lunch. So, all in all, it's been a pretty good day. Think I'll go downstairs and eat some Hello Dolly Cookies now.

For M when she has to work

This is for Maury the next time she has to work and is bored:

Go to maps.google.com
Click on Get Directions at top
Type in New York, New York to Paris, France
Read line 23.
Enjoy.

So close now

31 days and 12 hours.

I can hardly wait!

Where did the cold come from?

On our flight home, which was only a little over 3 hours, the pilot announced that the weather in Charlotte was currently 35 degrees. It was warm when we left South Carolina, but not when we returned. This weekend we set new records for lows on both days. It has been kind of nice though because I got to wear the brand new jacket Amy gave me this morning to class. Hopefully it will also kill off the rest of the pollen from the pine trees and give us some relief. It is supposed to rain tomorrow, which could be interesting since it hasn't really rained in over a month. If only I had a working camera to take pictures of the yellow rivers.

Why now?

I went to take a picture today of the glorious yellow river we had to show you all how awful it had gotten with the pollen. When I turned on my camera something wasn't right. It was showing things in double images, with weird blurs, and lines running through it. I did everything I could think of to fix it. Finally I turned to the Internet and after much searching I found out that this is a common problem with my camera. But it turns out that Canon will repair it for free, including shipping and handling. Some people have said they were even given loaners or upgrades for pennies on the dollars. I desperately need my camera the next few weeks too, so it couldn't have come at a worse time with a wedding, the graduations, a huge presentation on my theater, and a trip to the Hunley sub all looming.
It was funny though that this happened just as I was saying that I wish I could get a new camera with a better zoom and pixel rating. But I really don't want to buy a new camera if I can help it, and I certainly didn't want to if it still worked. I promise I didn't do anything to it though!

Wednesday was Cancelled?

Apparently Wednesday of this week has been cancelled. Strange, I don't think I read that anywhere. However, it appears to be the case. I saw this in the five-day forecast on Weather Underground:

More media nonsense

The latest stinking heap of lies and nonsense spewed out by the media to catch my ire is right here. It's a typically overblown, self-congratulatory article written with a strong pro-RIAA/MPAA (or, as I like to call them, the Music And Film Industry Associations of America, or MAFIAA) stance.

The gist of the article is that this clown-shoes moron Florida Representative, who should fail to win reelection for proposing such a scandalously stupid waste of taxpayer money as this, has proposed a law by which universities would be required to take funds provided to them by the government for, y'know, teaching students, and instead use them to track down and punish students who download music and movies illegally. (Run-on sentence!)

Yes. He thinks the money that universities use now to pay for insignificant things like professors, computer labs, and dorms should instead be used to track down broke 19-year-olds downloading Jay-Z albums. This is easily the most powerfully, profoundly stupid thing I've heard in recent memory...but it's not just stupid. The article contains some contradictory statements, raising this to the level of -- dare I say it? -- propaganda. Let's take a look.

Representative Tardface says: "It's just plain wrong to steal billions of dollars in intellectual property from hardworking people whose jobs hang in the balance."

Okay, billions of dollars. Never mind that what he's proposing would also take billions of dollars away from hardworking people whose jobs hang in the balance. Oh, but what's this, from further down in the article?

The problem of campus piracy is a serious one, costing the motion picture and record industries more than $20 million a year. The Motion Picture Assn. of America (MPAA), the lobbying arm of the major Hollywood studios, estimates that campus piracy accounts for 44 percent of the problem in the U.S.

...Wha? So the MAFIAA loses $20M a year to piracy on college campuses, and that total is 44 percent of the total piracy problem in the US? Let's do a little math...that means they lose, oh, approximately $45 million in the US every year to piracy. Okay. Not sure how they come up with that, since elsewhere, I've seen the RIAA claim that they are entitled to $150,000 damages for each song someone downloads, but that's another post. So $45M a year between the music and movie industries. BUT WAIT! I thought Rep. Idiot McMoron claimed that college campuses are responsible for billions of dollars of damages! He wouldn't be resorting to hyperbole just to make the problem sound worse than it is, would he? Would the MAFIAA really endorse such flagrant lies?

And let's take a look at what, exactly, this law proposes for fighting on-campus piracy: "Under Keller's legislation universities could tap the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) Program under the Department of Education to fund 'innovative on-campus, anti-piracy pilot programs designed to reduce digital piracy.'"

Hmmm, so instead of using this important funding to help people improve themselves through education, it would instead be used to fund further propaganda. I must have missed the day on which all universities everywhere decided that their mission was no longer to educate people, and that it was in fact to become enforcement agencies for large, heartless corporate entitities.

I'm sure that these "anti-piracy pilot programs" will be worth every single penny. Indeed, from my recollections of college life, if there's one thing you can count on college students to do, it's to respect the teachings and recommendations of their government, who, I'm sure, only have the students' best interests in mind! That's a group of people who just loves authority, and submitting to whatever rules they come up with!

Well done, Representative Stupid Turdbag! Anyone with such a short-sighted, callous ability to have his or her opinions so utterly skewed should be kept away from the rest of us. Vote against this idiot in '08, Florida.

BOOM!!!

A couple of hours ago we were watching TV when we heard this loud boom. We looked all around the house and couldn't figure out what happened. We weren't the only ones though, since all the neighbors turned on their lights and were looking around too. Well it turns out the Army fort down the road, which has been firing rounds all week, sent off a large explosive as part of their training. Good thing they did it at 8:30 so people were home to panic. The only reason we know what happened was because it made the news.

You aren't kidding!

Media bias

Ooh, a blogger writing about media bias! That's original. Well, I'm not a "blogger," so shut up. A buddy of mine sent me this article at work today. In case you're too lazy to read it, it's about a tradition that is arising in some circles in America in which dads throw their teenaged daughters "Purity Balls" to celebrate the fact that they have agreed to remain virgins until they get married. This seems harmless enough to me.

But read the article closely, and you'll easily see a very strong bias in the reporter's tone. Note that this is not a phenomenon occurring among Christian groups, it's a "movement," and they're "conservative Christians." Oh, wait, strike that, it's not a "movement," it's a "so-called" movement. Creepy. This "so-called movement" is, of course, flawed, because other details of sexual health are left out of the celebration. The article never indicates whether or not such subjects as birth control, STDs, etc. are covered at other times by the parents, because it's too busy pointing out that these purity pledges never work, and asking your daughter to take one is tantamount to selling her to a Thai brothel.

The tone here, the message the article wants you to take away, is "look how odd and weird these people are." Note the emphasis on the similarities to marriage ceremonies, only they (GASP!) take place between fathers and their daughters! Eww, that's just one step away from incest, right? Right??

And it gets more pointed and dismissive the further you read. Look at this sentence:

The popularity of the balls in the United States, especially among evangelical Christians, mirrors the Bush administration's support of abstinence education in US schools.

I'm not even going to point out how funny it is that a phrase like "the popularity of the balls" appears in an article about chastity. I am, however, going to point out that it's absolutely pointless to mention Bush in this story. Yes, it's Bush's fault that people are Christian! Horrors! This isn't some kind of fly-by-night tabloid-style MoveOn.org or WorldNetDaily crap, either, this is the Associated Frickin' Press.

Give me a break. There are lots of legitimate reasons to criticize extreme right-wing types, and Bush, but this isn't one of them. This is a harmless tradition, if a somewhat ostentatious public display of something I would imagine should be kept private, but, oh well. Really, it's hard to imagine getting outraged over dads who don't want their daughters to become strumpets.

Media, get bent.

Pretty painless

The cable guys called me at a quarter to one and said they were ten minutes away. When they got here they were very polite and went straight to work. They found that our modem was old and busted, which we had also thought, so they replaced it. They also noticed though that our Internet wasn't as fast as it should be. After looking around the house they found that our lines were old and had been spliced to accommodate upstairs and downstairs. According to the cable guy they should each have their own line to the box outside, so they are coming on Thursday to give us a dedicated line to the upstairs. So now my Internet will not only be up and running, it will be faster. Can't argue with that.

Around a quarter to Tuesday

Our Internet has been on the fritz the last few days. I am lucky that I can even get on at this moment to type this. We think the modem is dying. We called our Internet provider and they said they would send out a tech on Monday to come look at it. Guess what time range they gave us to wait by the phone?


Sometime between 8am and 8pm. They couldn't seem to close in that gap anymore than my entire waking hours almost. What do you want to bet he will either be late or won't come till the next day?

Beaufort

If you ever want to see the quintessential Southern town, go to Beaufort, South Carolina. I went on Thursday and Friday for a preservation conference, and spent a good majority of the time walking around the city enjoying the scenery. It has the Spanish moss on the oaks, the old antebellum homes, and a beautiful view of the rivers that lead to the sea. (It also has sand gnats, which are worse than mosquitoes, and the most unpleasant part of my trip and last few days.)
Here are just a few of the 100 pictures I took of places I saw:

Well that ruined my feeling of maturity

On Friday I was in Charleston for class. We meet with local preservationists, experts, etc and we have to introduce ourselves. Well now that I have been officially accepted into the program, my professor says I have to introduce myself as a graduate student, which is fine with me.
Well my feeling of maturity was dashed the very next day when we went to a friend's 50th birthday party. Various parents and their teenagers were invited that lived near our friend. While I was playing Win Lose or Draw, one of the adults said I wouldn't know the clue because it was way before my time. I asked him how old he thought I was and he said 14!!! (Because I have braces like some of the other teens there who were playing with us.) Half my life gone. I have mistaken for younger than I am many many times, but the lowest before this was 19-20. My only solace in this is that if I keep this trend up I will be looking great at 60.

Birthday Whine Update

My mother did indeed finally send me some gifts. Thanks, Mom.

Homework

Yes, I did have a nice birthday

Thanks for asking. Wife made me a nice breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast w/ jam, and a fruit salad. Oh, and juice. She got me nice presents and made me a nice dinner (seafood fettucine) and a chocolate peppermint cheesecake for dessert. And now, I'm sitting here writing this while she is cleaning up the kitchen for me and doing dishes. Not having to do dishes has probably been the nicest part of the day, actually--I don't mind doing them, but it's nice to not have to.

And then we'll watch a 24 and that'll be that. Yes, my wife took care of me today; too bad my own mother forgot about me. No presents from her, not even a phone call (yet)! Boo-hoo.

You Want What?

Last night I got a call and right off the bat it sounded like a solicitor, which makes me already doubly mad since I only have a cell phone and that is illegal. The girl on the phone pretend to care how I was doing and then said she was from my college, so I didn't immediately hang up on her. Then it came, "We are calling all seniors to see how much they want to donate to the senior gift."
You're calling me to see how much I want to give? Seems like I would have given already if I wanted after all the mailings you have sent to my house in the last month and emails I get over thevarious listserves. I told her that I wasn't going to give the school anymore money until I finished paying them what I owe now and hung up.
I know it is stupid and pointless to get all upset about this, but it does irk me that they are calling me, emailing me, and mailing me trying to get me to donate to this project. Their big marketing ploy is that you can get your name in one of the bricks, at the price of several hundred dollars. As if college students really have hundreds of dollars just burning a whole in their pockets, much less on some project that won't be completed until well after they leave. It also bothers me that this was picked as our senior project. As many probably already know, I have a big problem with academically approved sports and the unfair treatment. (Yeah, I know. Unoriginal.) But at my campus, in this region where football and sports are god, they already get plenty of money from the school for their brand new stadiums and athlete only gyms. On the other hand, two of the buildings where my classes are taught still have lead in the pipes. It may not be glamorous, but it would be great if we could get a few of the older buildings restored on the outside and renovated on the inside. Or we could build another pedestrian bridge to ease traffic at Hampton and Greene. I bet everyone would be happy with those results. (There are daily traffic accidents and pedestrian accidents at that corner.) Or build another parking garage since campus parking is extremely out of hand this year. (Did I mention they took a parking lot away for the soccer field and athlete gym?) Or buy buses for the shuttles that don't billow out black smoke and have doors that actually open.
It doesn't have to be something practical even. There are also lots of areas on campus that are neglected horticultural wise, which is a shame when you see the rest of the campus which is green and well taken care of. Or they could build that campus wide wi-fi they have been trying to get funded for two years now.
Or even better, we could do something off of campus that actually had a community, state, or world impact. I can't tell you how many times we have been told in a speech, "You are the future generation. You will be the ones to change the world." Well why not get started now? Students are always protesting about something, why not donate to a cause that people believe in, or pay for a group of students to go do the service work.
My point is, there are just so many better things we could do with our time, money and energy than make another baseball stadium. Or at the very least, don't call me looking for money if that is what you decide to do.

Putting the Fear into Small Children

For awhile now we have had this problem with the neighborhood children throwing the rocks in our driveway. Well it got to the point where I would wait for them to come home from school and as soon as they picked up some rocks I would throw open the window and tell them to stop. I did it a few times before I got really tired of it all and about two weeks ago I rationalized with the kids. I told them that the neighborhood association was about to start charging their parents and the cops may be getting involved. Well that seems to have worked. And not only did it get them to stop, but I saw the kids kicking the rocks BACK into our driveway on their way home. I should ditch preservation and go into child psychology or hostage negotiation.

Flight of Fancy

For Christmas the hubby gave me a bird bath to accompany my bird feeder. It has been a huge hit with the birds since I have to fill it with water about every other day right now. Well today I put some old peanuts I had out on the patio as another treat. We had birds from all over come to the house. It was a non-stop bird fest. We even got two blue jays and two different woodpeckers come. I was able to cross off about four new types of birds off my bird book from today alone. The woodpecker was my favorite though because I have heard him for a long time in a nearby tree and wondered how to get him to come to my backyard.
The downside to all of this is that I want more feeders, baths and bushes now to make my yard even better for the birds. (I could also use a faster digital camera to take pictures of all the cool birds.) Our backyard is fenced off such that no cats or prey can get in, so anything I can do to attract them won't be creating a trap. I will say though that I refuse to set up feeding trays with bugs on them. They can get those from my yard in exchange for the other food and water. They have to earn it somehow. I hope this will also make it pretty mosquito free this summer so we can enjoy the patio furniture and bird watching outside.

The dumbening

Last Christmas, my brother introduced me to a brand new show on television that, at the time, marked the nadir of the intelligence-insulting trend on network television--a game show called Deal Or No Deal. He showed me this mind-sucking waste of time because it really is something you have to see to understand just how stupid it is. It's got all the drama of watching a group of old ladies play Bingo, but with more shiny things and pretty girls.

Sadly, this show has inexplicably become a huge hit, and now other networks feel a need to compete with it. Last night, I read about a new show on Fox that just might challenge Deal Or No Deal's moron crown: it's called Are You Smarter Than a Fifth-Grader? Really, the title of the show says it all, doesn't it? It's a game show where they ask people questions from various fifth-grade textbooks and see if they can answer them. Jeff Foxworthy is the host; this is probably a good choice, given that he is roughly as intelligent as a fifth-grader.

The really sad part is that, merely by asking the question, you know that the answer will be "no" more often than not. I guess people will have to watch this until Ow! My Balls!is created.

I Feel Like Bart Simpson Without His Soul

I am rowing with only one paddle.
I was cruising through this project. I was making contacts, getting promised info, etc for the last several weeks and then suddenly nothing. Not one person has sent me what they promised and now emails are not being returned. I have also had a couple of cancelled appointments that potentially would have been helpful to my project. Only two of the newspapers have run the ad/article that they promised, and they are the two smallest here in Columbia. I have two months to complete this project as so far I have lots of ideas and concepts, and nothing concrete other than a historical framework and an "idea" of what the balcony and main theater looked like. No idea what the original ticket booth or lobby looked like. I can't even get a straight answer on whether African-Americans were allowed into the balcony area or not. Both of the previous histories done on the theater (or theaters in the area) didn't list their sources and after contacting the authors I was told that neither bothered to EVER make one. Bad historians! (And English professor!) They should know better.
Very frustrating. It also doesn't help that the owners keep going into the theater and tearing stuff done at their fancy without calling me to document it. (Plus I think they are doing some damage while doing it without the proper tools.)
I did, however, get into the main theater for a good look around for the first time. There is lots of original material still there it appears. I just need to get into the basement to see if the marquee is down there. (That is the neighborhood rumor.) I also spoke with the current tenants and managed to create a professional relationship, which was mine and the owners hardest battle to getting into the main theater. So at least I have access to the entire building (except the basement which is blocked by stuff in storage.)

School

Okay, here we are, smack in the middle of week 6 of this semester. After this Thursday, I'll be 40% of the way through the semester (for those of you keeping score at home, that's 15 weeks). Yes, I've reached that magical point in the semester where I've been in class long enough to be tired of it but not long enough to be able to see light at the end of the tunnel. This condition is made worse by the fact that it's the last semester of this particular degree.

Yeah, yeah, whine, I know. But it's an unpleasant feeling and I'm ready for a change now.

Fire!!!

A house a few blocks away is on fire. How do I know this? About five fire trucks just drove past the house and turned right at the corner. Also, it smells like smoke in here, and my eyes are becoming irritated and unhappy from it.

People, please, if you can't afford to pay your heating bill, find ways to lower it. DO NOT resort to setting the house on fire; that never works.

Oh Salesman, My Favorite

I had to go into a jewelry store today. I wasn't there to get anything of monetary value, I wanted to talk to the owner who had run the store since the 60's which is next door to the theater. I was hoping that he might have some information on the theater since he previously had mentioned to me in a phone call that he used to make his son go there when he was working.
Well I asked him if I could ask him some questions and he said, "Well you better hurry cause today isn't a good day." I said I could come back on another day if it would suit him better, since it was V-day, but he said to just hurry instead. (This was despite the fact that they had 10 sales people just standing around cause not one customer was in the store.) So I hurried and asked him a few questions, which he was rude and short about, and then... then he asks me, "While you are here, have you gotten a gift for your boyfriend yet?" I told him that my husband would be pretty offended if I got him one, which went right over this guys head. I just couldn't believe that this old man had the nerve to ask me to buy something after being so rude to me. (Plus he knew I was a student, which should give him the impression of a poor starving college student.)

The bunny rabbit (see below)

The bunny rabbit from yesterday's update is back on the lawn again. He's been out there for at least 20 minutes or so, nibbling grass and hopping around. I wonder why he likes our house so much? Also I've seen Kittenface a couple of times today, hanging out down the street. Wife tried to approach him and see if he would let her pet him, but to no avail. Her mutant cat-attraction powers must have been dulled today for some reason.

I wonder how easy it is to remove .22LR bullets from rabbit...

An unexpected guest

Just a short one today--it's been a long week at work, and I'm excited to just sit here and read the second Harry Potter book for a while. But I did want to mention that when I got home tonight, I scooped the cat's litter box and took it (the poo) outside to the trash. On the way out there, I happened to notice something unusual sitting on our lawn just a few feet away.

It was a small bunny rabbit, sitting motionless, looking at me. I tried to take a picture of him with my cameraphone, but those things are crap and it didn't even show up. Anyway, a neighbor drove by and scared the bunny away a few minutes later. I don't know where he went after that; it's too bad, too, because I sure could go for some hasenpfeffer.

The Tale of the Cats

Our neighborhood, like most neighborhoods in America, has its share of stray animals that spend most of their time here. For the last several months, we've known about two stray cats that live in the area--I named them Kittenface and Meowdude. We can sometimes see them slinking into the drainage culvert across the street or dashing down the gutters in the darkness. My wife, of course, has a soft spot in her heart for cats, and there have been many occasions in which we've spotted one or both of these cats, out there in the cold, and she's asked me if we could please bring them in and take care of them. (I think she's maybe 30% joking.) No, I don't think she asked our cat what she would think about a couple of friends, either.

Of course we don't do that--feral cats wouldn't even let either of us get close enough to them to pet them, let alone bring them inside, or adopt them. Not to mention what our cat would think of this. But she just can't stand to see poor animals be alone and miserable outside, and I can handle that.

Anyway, the last few nights we've heard cats fighting outside, and last night we heard them right outside the den. We decided to break them up, so Wife got the flashlight and ran around the side of the house to chase them off. When she got around to the side of the house, I saw a small cat run from her, and of course the fighting stopped. But I watched as Wife pointed the flashlight toward the side of the house, and I saw a funny look on her face.

Turns out the cats have managed to dislodge one of the little vent covers that keeps animals out of the crawl-space. That's right, the cats were fighting over who got to spend the night in the relative warmth underneath our house. Wife said she saw the other cat tucked away down there, and I suggested that perhaps she'd gone under there to give birth or something, but we saw no kittens (or evidence thereof).

This is, of course, unacceptable, kittens or no kittens. We can't have feral cats coming around and fighting over who gets to live underneath the house; nor can we have other critters finding that opening and setting up shop down there. So today we found the vent cover (they'd pushed it inward and it fell inside) and put it back--but it wouldn't stay without sticking a small twig into the opening to jam it shut.

So, Wife sort of got her wish to give Kittenface and Meowdude a nice warm place to stay, for at least one night, anyway. I'd better not hear 'em fighting over anything tonight...

As Promised, Pictures of Snow in Carolina

Not that most of you who are quite sick of snow and cold will care, but for those of you who don't see it this time of year regularly, here are some pictures of snow in Carolina last week.

How Rude and Life Imitating Art

I had to go to the grocery store today, I will get to why later, to pick up two small items. I was on my way to the register, mere feet from the belt when this woman and her cart jumped right in front of me. Her cart was filled with items, and I only had two. Would it have killed her to let me go ahead of her? It didn't help that I have been reading Talk To The Hand, which is about how society has lost its manners. While I was waiting on this woman, I thought of some clever prose that could be used in the book.

*******

Now on to why I had to go to the grocery store. Ever see that Seinfeld where Jerry drops the toothbrush into the empty toilet? Yeah, I did that. Straight into the can and off to the store.

Amazing research finds

I am back to researching through microfilm, which means lots of funny ads from the olden days. This time I found an ad for something that must be simply salt, but they say it is concentrated and that will make you thin (by removing water and bloating.) The ad focused on three captions. The first showed a fat woman with her super skinny friend, and she was complaining about being overweight. The friend tells her about this great product, yada yada yada. (A few weeks later...) Lastly you see this absolutely toothpick of a woman with her spouse/boyfriend who is praising her to the moon for being so slim and attractive and how it saved their relationship. One of the captions underneath said, " Unsightly fat melts away - the charm only a the slender person has, returns."
While I was reading this I was thinking, "Gee people were so gullible back then." And then it dawned on me that we aren't any better off today. Look at all the stupid supplements, diet pills, herbal junk that will fix "everything." Missing a limb, take some root of gahugafluga. Have erectile dysfunction, take what ever the Smiley Dude takes. (Or at least that is what I think they are trying to imply.) They aren't FDA approved, but they must work cause that guy Kevin Trudeau says so. (I had to look his name up just to get it right.)
Ah, humanity. Will you ever learn? Advertisers don't care about you. They just want your money.