Uncooperative Crickets

Wow - the Vikings just got screeee-ewed. Down 24 to 7 in the third quarter, WIggins catches a pass, tucks, turns, and then takes two or three steps for a first down. The defender hits Wiggins, and he fumbles the ball out of bounds. The ruling on the field was a "catch." Then the officials (also Belichick) step in and decide that it was an incomplete pass. The Vikings challenge, and then lose the challenge. It was a crime.

Geez...they just called an illegal contact against a Vikings DB. These officials are awful. Joe Theismann agrees with me.

The Patriots are going to win, but this isn't fair.

posted by Dirk Awesome @ 11:01 PM 2 comments

Rest in peace, Red Auerbach. You will be missed.

posted by Dirk Awesome @ 11:01 PM 0 comments

I'm ending a 14 hour workday, but I am starting to get caught up. This is especially impressive, because my students have a midterm next week.

The WWB has been talking about Klosterman. This is my favorite post (Spoiler: where you see "Haim," you should read "Feldman").

I have nothing else to say right now. Seriously. Except that Corey Haim was much, much cuter than Corey Feldman. I felt very strongly about this at some time in my past.

posted by Dirk Awesome @ 9:50 PM 0 comments

I thrilled because my friend Yeti just got his Ph.D. Congratulations!

I'm neutral because I just got back from a condo association meeting. The developer wanted a one-time special assessment to raise some more money. This caused many of us to be suspicious of his accounting practices. He isn't very reliable; an example of this is that I closed on my condo two months later than I was supposed to. He just hadn't filled out all of the necessary paperwork with the city/state government.

Basically, I came away from the meeting with the developer thinking several things. First, I don't think that he is crooked. Second, I think that he is probably careless and sloppy with our money ("The budget of this condo association is $50,000 per year. I deal with $12 million per year total. This is nothing to me.") Third, he is terrific at misdirecting. We asked him a lot of questions, and he would just talk a lot and not really answer the question. This is frustrating, and makes me trust him even less. I don't think that he is intentionally trying to screw us, though.

Finally, I am not yet very good at running a course. My students loathe their homework. They have a midterm on Tuesday, and I am happy with what we have written. I think that it will be reasonable, although this is difficult to say until the students take the exam.

I'm going to bed.

posted by Dirk Awesome @ 10:18 PM 0 comments

Here is the music I have been listening to lately:

1. "An Honest Mistake" - The Bravery. Nope - Bill Simmons is not the last person to jump on this song's bandwagon.
2. The Daily Pravda. I think that this band is fantastic, although the lyrics are lacking.
3. The Say Anything album ...Is a Real Boy sounds like it might end up being decent.
4. Interpol. If you are walking home late at night, this is great to listen to at a slightly loud volume.

Skye and I went to Chicago this weekend to visit the new nephew. It was fun. I took a side trip to Kalamazoo to give a couple of lectures, and that went really well. So the weekend was great, but now I am cranky because I have a whole lot of work to do. Primarily, my students have a midterm in a week, and so I need to write one.

Congratulations to the Tigers for advancing to the World Series.

I'm looking forward to Studio 60 tonight. Lost has been okay, but not great.

posted by Dirk Awesome @ 9:17 PM 0 comments

I absolutely love Spades. This is a little bit of a problem because I am thinking about it when I should be thinking about other things. Let's enumerate:

1. I need to tell a story for the data from our study on textbook use.
2. I need to write two talks for the end of the week. I am giving a semi-general talk on a research paper, and I need to figure out how explain it to a semi-general audience. This will take some time. I will also need to write a talk on Inquiry Based Learning, but I think that I could pretty much wing this.
3. I need to grade some multiple choice tests.
4. I have my first indoor soccer game tonight in my local league. I probably have a game in my suburban league, too, but I think that I have basically quit there.
5. I am watching Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip with friends. I love Sorkin.

"Will this do a thing to change her? Am I leaving Dawn in danger? Is my Slayer too far gone to care?"
"What if Buffy can't defeat it?"
"Beady-eyes is right, we're needed!"

posted by Dirk Awesome @ 10:25 AM 0 comments

I'm beginning to see how professors get so arrogant. A handful of students questioned some things that I have done in the classroom - things that I chose to do because years of research has supported those actions. Basically, I am having the students explain their reasoning in writing on the homework (I give them fewer homework problems because of this, so the time it takes to do the homework should be roughly the same). Some students have come back with, "This is a math class, not an English class." I could see how if enough 18 year olds started telling me t what math is supposed to be, then I might eventually come back with something like: "Yeah? Which one of us holds the Ph.D. in mathematics?" That wouldn't be productive, though. Also, I am not that arrogant (yet).

Also, a student was needlessly inflexible with me yesterday. That frustrated me. Then I just countered with a reasonable compromise, and he accepted.

The Twins lost. There, I said it.

That's enough negative stuff. On the whole, my students are fantastic. We had a problem solving day in class yesterday, and a couple of students have emailed me about a problem that we didn't finish. They are very inquisitive, and I am enjoying that.

Skye and I am going to eat, and then we will probably watch some Scrubs. There was a minor push to get a Spades game together, but my friend didn't get the email. I have really been wanting to play Spades lately; I will soon.

Food now.

posted by Dirk Awesome @ 8:04 PM 0 comments

Twins win!

I am thrilled because the Twins won. They now play Oakland (instead of the Yankees), and Mauer won the batting title - the first catcher to do so in about 60 years. Santana won the pitching Triple Crown: wins, ERA, and strikeouts (although he only tied for the lead in wins). Life is good for Twins fans.

I went for a run yesterday, and it was sweet.

posted by Dirk Awesome @ 8:29 PM 1 comments

Twins win+Tigers loss = AL Central title for Twins

I'm getting stuff done. My 2nd mortgage is going well, and I am writing a lot of lesson plans and homework assignments.

"So, is Cheney going to heaven, or is the camel going through the needle?"

posted by Dirk Awesome @ 2:24 PM 0 comments