???
I'm about to leave without having graded anything. This is okay by me.
Here is an article on
funding the Iraq war. The quote of the article: "Bush said that once he vetoes the bill, he's ready to work with Democrats on a new version that provides funds without strings attached." How is this "working" with Democrats?
Sheesh.
PS - I'm sorry for offending my more sensitive readers with the "OM*G" comment.
Sports
OMFG! Golden state is up 3-1 against Dallas!
Add that to Steve Nash's 23 assist game (one short of the play-off record) and the NFL draft, and we had a quite a weekend. The only problem was that the Twins don't seem to be able to give Santana a chance to win. Sad.
I am thrilled with the Viking's selection of Adrian Peterson. When I saw him as a freshman, he reminded me of Bo Jackson in Tecmo Bowl. The knock against him is that he is injury prone, although I guess that we will see.
I'm also happy that the Patriots got Randy Moss. I think that it will be good for both parties; Belichick (and a winning team) will keep Moss in line, and Moss will give them a ridiculous receiver.
I now have 20 lesson plans and 20 summary papers to critique. I'm not looking forward to that.
I went running this morning, and it is probably the first time this year where I went "running" rather than "jogging." When I am actually working, it feels like there is a hand in the small of my back pushing me just a little faster than I care to go. This is what happened this morning. I ran my usual 6.5 mile loop about 10 minutes faster than I usually do. This, of course, ends up being 1.5 minutes/mile faster. I think that I am close to being in shape.
My latest time-killer: get my group-theorist self's dignity back and solve the Rubik's cube.
Banquets
Last night was the second of three consecutive work-related Thursday dinners. It was okay, but I normally wouldn't choose to spend three hours of my "free time" on it. It seems like we could have done the same thing in two hours, or maybe 1.5 hours.
Good luck to Torii Hunter, who received a fastball to the mouth yesterday.
Here.
I am writing to you from underneath a Twins cap. It makes me happy. Thanks,
Tsjaz!My students have an exam tonight, so I am using today to lazily get a bunch of little things done. This includes sleeping in until 8:30 am (it had to be done), cleaning the bedroom and kitchen, mailing in a membership form to
MER, canceling some identity-theft plan that my credit card gave me (more on this in a second), and starting up a new Roth IRA. Oh, I also scheduled dentist and doctor appointments.
It was only after all of that that I went into work at 11 am; I immediately went out to lunch. When I got back, I had a delightful conversation with my thesis student. I eventually prepared my lesson plan for tomorrow; I wouldn't normally do this until tomorrow morning, but I might have to sleep in (see next paragraph).
Of course, I have done some work today, but my primary reason for being so lazy is that I am going to need to grade a lot tonight. I'm saving myself.
When I called to cancel my identity-theft protection plan (which I only agreed to after I found out that I could get a free credit report if I signed up for a free 30 day ID-theft protection plan trial), the guy on the phone asked me, "Aren't you afraid someone is going to steal your social security number?" Geez, talk about alarmist. He said a couple of other things like that - subtle, but scary. I don't appreciate scare tactics being used against me like that.
I should also mention that I am wearing my Johan Santana shirt today, too. I feel a little silly wearing two Twins things, but I can deal with. Besides, Santana is starting today, and I think that I should be supportive.
Hat
I am getting my last birthday present in the mail tomorrow, and I am super-excited.
Tsjaz won't know this until he reads this, but he got me a
Twins cap for my birthday. Thanks, Tsjaz! I have been coveting this for about two months now. I thought that I would by one in Minnesota when I visit in June, but that is
two months away. I sometimes enjoy immediate gratification.
Skye and I watched
The Departed last night. It was really good, although not a movie that I really care if I see again. I think that this disqualifies it from any "best of all time" discussion, which wasn't probably going to happen in the first place.
My students have a midterm tomorrow, and the weather is nice in Boston.
Bush, Goodling, Robertson?
Did I mention that I just had a seven week stretch where I gave six different lectures to my colleagues? I think that that is rather impressive.
I just got caught up with all of my busywork (e.g. grading, preparing an exam, etc), and I am now looking forward to working on some research. That, and writing another chapter for the textbook.
Good for the Timberwolves for keeping their draft pick, although it seems like they were tanking pretty intentionally at the end. That isn't good.
I'm looking forward to the NBA playoffs, which have some tremendous first round match-ups. I am hoping to see some of the Suns-Lakers game on Sunday.
I am also really enjoying keeping up with the Twins. My favorite player right now is Michael Cuddyer. I am also looking forward to wearing my new Johan Santana shirt soon.
Bill Maher's closing rant to his show last week was absolutely fantastic. It was about
Monica Goodling who ended up as the third-in-command President Bush's Department of Justice before she resigned last week over the US Attorney scandal that has been in the news.
Now, there are only 93 US Attorneys. That means that this is a more exclusive club than the US Senate. Goodling was in charge of overseeing the job performance of these 93 attorneys. She is 33 years old, and has never been a prosecutor. On the plus side, she got her BA from Messiah College, and her law degree from Regent University.
In fact, there are 150 graduates of Regent Law School work in the Bush administration. This might seem odd, since this law school is a Tier IV law school, as rated by
US News and World Reports. Tier IV is the lowest possible ranking.
Why are so many people from this low profile law school ending up with so much power in the Bush administration? Because
Pat Robertson is the chancellor. Pat Robertson is best known for his religious television show
The 700 Club, but I feel that it would be a disservice to the man if I did not mention that he was once a
faith healer and currently claims to be able to
leg press 2700 pounds. I believe this, though, because he was drinking an "Age-Defying energy shake" that he sold to the public.
With his proteges running the country, it is amazing that Iraq (and Katrina, and Guantanamo, and Abu Ghraib,
etc. isn't going more smoothly.
Old 97s
I'm back from Austin, which was a whole lot of fun. The conference was good (much, MUCH better than last year, when people were more concerned about honoring the people rather than talking about education), I hung out with good people, and I went to a concert (more on that below). The only drawback was that I did not make time to see the
bat bridge, which sounds really cool.
The concert I saw was the
Old 97s. Rhett Miller is one of the best frontmen in the business. He has a ton of energy, and looks better rocking out on an acoustic guitar than anyone since...anyone. I've been listening to them on my iPod more now, and I really like a lot of their stuff.
Like
Chad, I have been quiet about Imus and the VT shootings. This is because I don't have a lot to say about either. I don't quite see why people are making such a big deal about this particular thing that Imus said, although I have no problem with them firing him for saying it. It just seems like worse things have been said with little or no penalty.
Al Franken made a good point that Glen Beck should really be fired for a lot of what he says.
So I didn't get bent out of shape about Imus (perhaps because I have been de-sensitized, and it wasn't about me), but I think that firing him is completely appropriate.
As far as the Virginia Tech shootings, it was clearly horrible and I offer my condolences to everyone involved. Also, people like
Nathaniel Blake should be fired for suggesting that the victims should be ashamed of themselves.
From Austin
I'm in Austin for a conference. It is really nice down here, weather-wise. I am speaking twice here, but one of those times was yesterday.
I've had several brushes with fame recently. One of my friends (I suppose "friend's wives" is more accurate, since I have only really met her once) called
Car Talk last weekend. Her car mysteriously accepted more gasoline (14 gallons) than the talk held (11 gallons) once last summer. Click and Clack have a solution that made sense, though.
Another of my friends has now earned the title "pilot of the stars." He has been flying some famous actress around in a Learjet.
Tonight: I'm seeing
The Old 97s tonight. When in Texas, you should see a Texas band.
Jesus Camp
Skye and I watched
Jesus Camp yesterday to celebrate Easter, and it freaked me out. I would go so far as to call it "brainwashing" (which is okay, because the director of the camp said herself in the movie that I could call it that). If I were to start a cult, I would do exactly what they would do at that camp. Specifically, I would belittle them and do my best to lower their self-esteem ("you are a sinner if you read
Harry Potter").
I am not entirely anti-Christian. Evidence pointing toward this fact is that I consider myself to be Lutheran. However, these people are a different breed of Christian entirely.
These types of camps make me think that people like me (you should read this as "reasonable") should start camps to start "indoctrinating" kids to, you know, believe in science and stuff. Of course, that would make me no better than them, since I think that we should lay off the kids (I'm talking to
you, McDonald's!). Also, the only kids that would come to a "let's believe in science" camp would be kids that already believed in science.
I'm freaked out. Maybe there is a culture war going on. It's all so very ridiculous.
Students
I was thinking about what
Skye wrote about liking students, and I am starting to realize that I am getting spoiled. I really do like all of my students to some degree, and dislike none of them. I think that this probably was not true all of the time at my old school, but I think that I have liked all of my students at the new school. My main problem is that I think I don't pay enough attention to all of them all of the time.
I am speaking today in a seminar, and I spent a good portion of yesterday practicing (also this morning). It isn't great, and it will end early. On the other hand, it is decent, and people rarely complain about ending early. I think that I will be fine.
It is cold here. I opted to shoot baskets instead of run this morning due to to the freezing weather.
I feel bad because I think that I might be losing my sense of humor. I re-watched
Jesus is Magic, which I originally saw in the theater with
Tsjaz. I remember liking it with him, but I thought it was so-so when I saw it this week.
Additionally, I get the RiffTrax for the pilot episode of
Lost, and I was not very impressed. There were two or three great lines, but this is not a high rate of return. Of course, part of the problem was that I was completely unable to keep the audio synced. I think that this is because I am just not very good at stuff.
I feel bad about not liking RiffTrax, because I want to be able to hang with the
MOAB kids. Alas, this may not be possible. I will say that Bad Z has had some absolutely terrific
Lost posts in the past month.
6 Mile
I ran again today, which means that I think that I have successfully jumpstarted my exercise program, which had been floundering for the previous 2-3 weeks. It feels good, and it only takes me 70 minutes from the time I leave my office until the time I get back; that time should also decrease as I get in shape and start running faster.
I am teaching four classes today. This is twice as many as I normally teach, although three is the norm for Wednesdays. I am heavily leaning toward keeping my schedule as clear as possible, which means that I might try to limit my teaching to two classes unless it is a class that I am particularly interested in teaching, which basically means "I get a chance to test out my textbook."
I think that I am going to yet another conference at the end of May, and a one-day conference in town in April. This pushes the total to six for the calendar year, which is a lot. This is one of the reasons why I am planning on teaching less.
I am now really looking forward to April 15th, because I will be done traveling and presenting for a month and a half. I need to prepare and practice another presentation for Friday (in town), and then prepare and practice another presentation for next Thursday. This takes up quite a bit of time. As does hiring undergraduates, which I am doing for two different positions now. I should see roughly 120 undergraduates in the next month for these positions.
Wednesdays are great, because they are the days when I get
Real Time and
The McLaughlin Group. I can't wait to listen.
Done.
I just got my IRS refund back, and I used part of it to pay off my second mortgage. It feels really good knowing that I am not going to have to pay 10+% interest on that loan ever again.
McKlosterlin
I went on a run this morning, and I thought about what I was going to write. I decided to write about a couple of things. First, I was going to give you a review of my podcasts. The winners, so far, are
Real Time with Bill Maher and
The McLaughlin Group. They are consistently good, but they also generate a lot of excited from me - I can't wait to listen.
In the next tier is
This American Life and
Wait, Wait. These are also good, but just generate less excitement.
In the middle of the pack is
This Week,
To the Best of Our Knowledge,
Says You!and
Car Talk. These are entertaining, but not nearly as good as the top four.
Trailing in the rear is
Fresh Air and
Whad'ya Know?. I am still pretty unfamiliar with the first, and I have kind of given up on the second. This is in part because it is two hours long, and it is tough to devote that time to a single podcast.
That is what I was planning to write. Now, imagine my surprise when Klosterman writes
this. Chuck likes the McLaughlin Group, too! He specifically refers to Tony Blankley and Elearnor Clift! If Klosterman were female (and if I didn't have a girlfriend), I just might stalk him.
I also wanted to mention that the NCAA championship game is on tonight at 9:21 eastern. Most of the talk surrounding it is about Florida possibly become the first team since the '91-'92 Dook team to repeat, or because it is a rematch of the football national championship. Here is what I want to know: is it a coincidence that these just happen to be the two states that may or may not have stolen the election for George W. Bush in his two elections? Why aren't more people talking about this? I think that there is a tit-for-tat thing going on, with Karl Rove pulling the strings behind the NCAA basketball and football organizations.
