Checking out fellow Newberry High School alumni on Myspace, I realized something: I went to high school with some pretty unattractive people. Is that conceited of me?

I'm so happy it's Friday, it's been a long week and today I can now indulge in an adult beverage. Today's been a long day as well and it's not over yet, but it's been generally a productive day as well, good for a Friday. So without further adieu, my list of the day:

1. I had a student in office hours today who had missed a class and wanted to catch up on what she missed. The amazing bit was she went through the book and compared it to the outlines I post to see what she could figure out for herself before asking me about the bits that were still missing. /amazed
2. I get to relax tonight
3. I got a blue dino egg, my collection is slowly getting more complete :)

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Today on my drive into work, I was thinking that for as long as I can remember I have been praying, "Please, God, give me a purpose. Please make me matter." Recently, my purpose has become clear to me, and now I have a new prayer, "Please, please let someone drop a big bag of money in my lap, big enough to make bruises to my legs, because I have to figure out how to do this without cash."

I have to write a book. It's no longer, "I should write a book," or "I'd like to write a book." I have to. I promised, a year ago this month. I should never have sent Leslie that envelope last year, but it seemed like an innocent enough thing to do. I sent a short letter, 3 or 4 of my poems, and some photographs.

( Playing the Texas State Lotto as a Career Plan )

Guilty pleasures week, day #5. This one goes out to my f'listers on the East Coast. A history lesson in less than five minutes. I actually had a goofy high school teacher that used this song to kick off the semester.
And yes, I hummed along...
You know, exposing all the crap I'm capable of listening to has made me want to hear yours. Should you so desire, feel free to post yours in the comments...or better yet, post a video of yours in your blog on Monday when this thing is over.
And on that note, I leave you. After I get home,I'm thinking of going to Tandoori Oven for a bit of take-out curry and then pick up an iTunes card for some plane tunes for tomorrow. OC here I come!

My grandmother sent me five dollars for my 11th birthday. The end result of my subsequent shopping trip was a second-hand copy of the first album I ever bought (on glorious scratchy vinyl, which I still have) :

( Why yes, my music taste HAS always been freakin' awesome )

I've since updated to the CD, of course, but I still dig the LP out of the back room every now and then and give it an airing. Considering I've owned it for nearly (*shudder*) 25 years, and it was second-hand when I bought it, it's in pretty good condition.

visited 15 states (30%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or determine the next president

Guilty listening day #4

Told ya it'd get worse. At least it isn't "Paradise by the Dashboard Light"...Again, I blame parental association. My mom LOVED this album (much like Scarlet's association with ELO yesterday). She'd left my biological dad, we'd just moved to CA and Ma, my sister and I were living in a tiny two bedroom apartment in Rancho Cucamonga (OK, I can't help but say that like Jimmy Durante). We didn't have much, but dammit, we had overblown, melodramatic tunes...

Stick with me...three more days left...

Guilty pleasure week day #3.
What is it about this damn song?? Maybe it's because it's one of my dad's favorites, so I remember him playing it while making Sunday breakfasts, but I think it's the intro...Rock on with your echo-y, white man 'fro wearin' self Mr. Lynne.

Oh folks, it's only gonna get worse from here...
How much worse...I dunno

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Today on my drive into work, I was thinking that most 3 year olds don't get sarcasm, and I need to rein mine in now that my son has reached an age where he takes me seriously. It was all well and fine when he was a newborn to tell him that I was taking him back to the hospital to trade him in for a baby that didn't cry so much, and that he was still under warranty so they would take him back, no questions asked. He didn't care when I said that. It was okay when he was 1 and I told him that I was going to sell him on eBay with no minimum bid and no reserve, especially if he kept biting his classmates in daycare. Then, he didn't know what "sell" or "eBay" meant. Now that he is 3 going on 4, he understands a lot more. Worse, he trusts me enough to believe what I tell him. In a decade or so, I will lose all credibility: Then, I will be "stupid" and "not understand anything" because "things are different now than when I was his age." For now, however, I am all knowing and omnipotent and I need to use these powers responsibly.

( Toddlers in Indentured Servitude )

      Got the shortest, choppiest  haircut I've ever had in my life. And I love it! The sweet little old lady that was under the dryer behind me was like "It's very pretty! Very artistic"  And the lady that cut it was like "Are you SURE you want it that short?" When I confirmed it, she sighed and said "Oooohkaaaay"  When she was finished, I reassured her that it was exactly what I had in mind and tipped her generously. I'm just happy it's off the back of my neck (a sensation I've come to loathe over the years).
       Other than that, going to do the nannying thing tonight, return Friday and head for Orange County on Saturday. Before that, though, I need to  throw in a load of  laundry and have some lunch, so I'm going to grab my book and get out of here. Hope your day treats you well!
     

"A person isn't who they are during the last conversation you had with them - they're who they've been throughout your whole relationship." ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

     It's been a lazy day, and it's been  a while since I've gotten all guitar-y with it, so I figured I'd goof around. Unfortunately YouTube is being a buttmunch, so I got GoogleVideo to upload it. The results are here. I hope you enjoy! And please be nice :-) 

Arctic Ocean Getting Warm; Seals Vanish and Icebergs Melt.

The Arctic ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot, according to a report to the Commerce Department yesterday from Consul Ifft, at Bergen, Norway.

Reports from fishermen, seal hunters and explorers, he declared, all point to a radical change in climate conditions and hitherto unheard-of temperatures in the Arctic zone.  Exploration expeditions report that scarcely any ice has been met with as far north as 81 degrees 29 minutes.  Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters showed the gulf stream still very warm.

Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones, the report continued, while at many points well known glaciers have entirely disappeared.  Very few seals and no white fish are found in the eastern Arctic, while vast shoals of herring and smelts, which have never before ventured so far north, are being encountered in the old seal fishing grounds.

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The above is from a Washington Post article dated November 2nd, 1922.  15 years before the invention of styrofoam, and 4 years before the first aerosol can was introduced.  I’m not implying that the problem doesn’t exist, I’m just saying that it may not exist for the reasons we’ve been led to believe.

  It's officially Tuesday...so it must be day #2 of Kai's guilty pleasure spotlight, and today we have a doozy.
  Mock if you must, but it doesn't change the fact that this song makes me all bouncy and ready to start a bit of a riot.
  And with that, I brush my teeth and go to bed. N'night!

    Today was great :-) It's 75 and breezy, so I took a walk around the city and a little spin through B&N to get the last Y: The Last Man, and picked up a couple other books as well: A Scanner Darkly (thanks to all who have rec'd it...I do love a good mind-bender) and the Heaney Beowulf, a huge gap in my reading repertoire. I have always heard in my department that the translation is wonderful. Yep, y'all it's true: Books are to me as shoes are to Carrie Bradshaw...fortunately, the new job allows me to support my vices for once.
     I also picked up some bath wash from the drug-store and what should I find but a big, beautiful box of 64 Crayolas with the sharpener buit-in...exactly what I want to get for Snotface (thanks samsausage). I also want to throw a set of fingerpaints (for outdoor use, of course) some washable markers and a couple of activity books in a gift bag. I might throw in some colored pencils, but I think he's a little young for them yet.
     And now, your humble narrator grabs a soda from the fridge, puts her feet up and pops Friends in the DVD player...

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Today on my drive into work, I was thinking about one person's success can him to have an identity crises with those around him that he may never even know he is having.

Take my friend Astro Joe, for example. He is South Texas born and raised, and he learned to speak Spanish before he learned English. He is also college educated and hopelessly middle class. According to the woman who used to work in our office with us, this somehow bleaches his light brown skin to something lighter.

It was one of those days when the two guys at the tech company, Joe and Matt, were both out, and the Cajun Queen, Angela the temp and I had the whole office to ourselves. This meant we could talk about what ever we wanted without fear of making our male coworkers blush. I don't even recall what Angela, born and reared on Houston's largely Latino east side, was talking about when she concluded it with the statement, "But, then, I'm the only one in this office who's not white."

"What about Joe?" I asked, thinking she had somehow forgotten that Joe, too, has a Spanish surname.

( Que? )

  OK, y'all...I told you that this week would be devoted to the worst of Kai's iPod. Good think YouTube comes with a button so you can subject your ears at will. But everyone has had a Jenny, no?
   My neck is SO not happy with me. A pretty severe insomnia attack, and when I finally did get to sleep and woke up, my neck was all wonky. Must take an Advil...
   After that, am going to hunt down the last Y: The Last Man volume (kencf0618, if you've already finished, do NOT tell me what happens, y'hear :-p That goes for the rest of you lot as well) After that, I'm going to do some paperwork-y student stuff. I am really, really wanting the semester to start...My brain is starting to turn to pudding...and there's over a month left before classes start...

    I'm home! Everything's cool in spite of a difficult day... *sigh* ...Sorry I've not been around the last several days. Just watching Tipping the Velvet on DVD and relaxing...I'm sorry, but for me the phrase "You exquisite little tart!" will always produce a giggle in me :-)
    I got further confirmation that I am on the right track with the lit thing. I was talking to one of the moms that my employer knows who also got her MA in English lit. We got book-y with it and chit-chatted, and she said "Wow, I feel like I have a brain again..." You guys, I don't EVER want to hear myself say that, and if any of you do hear me utter those words, please smack me upside the head and send me care packages that include the Seamus Heaney translation of Beowulf. Even if I do adopt a family (which I would dearly love to do someday) I don't ever want to feel like my intellect's suffered. And don't say it can't be done. I know freckled_angel uses her brains and training every day and will still be a great mom.
     Other than that, not a whole lot going on. blnkfrnk, I have something for you when you next come to San Jose!