posted 2008/05/09 at 16:23
Steve Yzerman turns 43 today. Now that the Canadiens are out of the playoffs, I'm hoping that in a few weeks here we'll see Stevie Y. hoist his fourth cup, although it will be weird to see him do so in a suit and tie. Maybe he can slip on the number 19 again just before he gets down to ice level, who knows. On that note, let's play the friday5.org Friday Five.
1. When was the last time you had a needle stuck into you?
If we're counting pine needles, last January before Mom vacuumed up the remnants of the Christmas tree. If we're only talking about doctor's needles, then it was at my last physical, which was too long ago for me to feel comfortable mentioning here.
2. Who among your friends is the easiest target for needling?
Probably Jeff, but I rarely engage in that sort of stuff these days unless it's self-depreciating humour. I've gotten really sensitive and scared about these sorts of things, what can I say.
3. What’s something you can confidently do with a needle and thread?
Poke my fingertip. Actually, I used to cross-stitch back when I was in junior high, but I haven't done that in forever, and, well, video games have advanced a long ways since then.
4. About how many phonograph records do you have in your home, and when’s the last time you dropped a needle on one?
Were it not for the fire, we'd have several hundred here; as it is, I only have the three that were in my room at the time of the fire, an unopened copy of Tori Amos' Under the Pink on pink vinyl, and two copies of a picture-disc interview with the Sugarcubes, one of which has a clock mechanism jammed through it (it came that way). The last time I played an LP would have had to have been in the mid-80s, and I don't have any equipment to do so now.
5. Someone told us the other day about someone at a party using a flavor injector to spike a watermelon with vodka. Is this brilliant or is this stupid?
I'd say stupid, but then again I'm a teetotaler so that's kind of a given.
Labels: fridayfive
posted 2008/05/06 at 20:12
I had hoped that the NHL would schedule the start of the Red Wings-Stars series for tonight because it would give the Stars little time to recover from that grueling four-overtime game on Sunday. Now I'm wishing they'd scheduled any game for tonight so I wouldn't be stuck watching more primary coverage tonight. I know that I don't have to watch, but this is my normal news-listening time, and for the sake of being able to converse knowledgably with my students about this stuff, I still feel obliged to keep tabs on things. Still, this primary campaign got tiresome long ago, and as much as I'm not going to tell the Democrats how to run their campaigns (even if they tell we Greens to perform anatomical impossibilities in terms of us running for offices), on a personal level I wish we could just get this campaign over with.
I have to admit I'm starting to have doubts about where my vote will go, though. I had gotten behind Nader as soon as he entered the race, even when he decided not to pursue the Green Party nomination, in large part because I didn't feel comfortable voting for Cynthia McKinney. I've still got very strong reservations about McKinney, but the mailings I've been getting from Ralph Nader's campaign have been giving me cause for pause as well. I can't put my finger on it exactly, but there is something about the way the Nader campaign is conducting itself that is making me question my loyalty to it. I think that over my break I'm going to be taking a closer look at McKinney and how she's conducting her campaign, and reevaulate just who I want to support.
What may be bothering me the most about this is the impending sense that this is not going to end well. Not only am I concerned that the protracted Democratic primary campaign is going to give McCain an easy path to the White House, but between the Democrats opposing Green Party ballot access at every turn and the progressive vote already being split between Nader and McKinney, I feel like we're going to be in for another night like we had in 2004, where it's close but the Republicans win, the Green Party loses even more of the gains it got in 2000, and we'll be no closer to reinventing democracy than we were four years ago. I hate to be a pessimist about these things, but I can't help but be a realist, and it's hard enough to be an optimist and a realist at the same time about anything, let alone American politics.
Labels: greenparty, politics
posted 2008/05/04 at 19:29
About a half-hour ago I finished the last of my students' portfolios from this past semester; I'm waiting a little while here to allow some people who had problems submitting things to me to get some last papers e-mailed to me, but then tomorrow afternoon I'll be submitting their grades. Contrary to what I thought earlier, I actually do get a week off before the next semester starts, and I probably need that time off right now more than ever. In addition to catching up on reading and writing and cleaning and all sorts of other things, I'm going to need time to just relax, kick my feet up and do nothing at all.
As I expected, the end of this semester was more painful for me than it was in previous semesters, and I'm not referring to having to grade all those extra portfolios here. I take a very deep interest in my students, and I try to do all that I can to enable them to succeed, not just in my class and their other classes, but in life in general. I take care of my students, and earlier this year after Dad died, well, a lot of them took care of me. I know that students coming and going is an unavoidable aspect of my job, and I'm looking forward to having a new group of students to teach here a week from Monday, but after losing Dad a couple of months ago, moving on from this group of students is kind of hard for me.
I think Heather summed it up best when she talked about how hard this Spring is for her. I commented here a week ago about how the trees in our backyard are starting to bud leaves, and Heather pointed out that it's a sign that the cycle of nature, like life, goes on. For her, as it is for me a good part of the time, it's still hard to think of life going on without Dad physically here with us. As much as I know that I'm ready to move on with life after Dad's death, and as much as I know that I have to move on, a good part of me still doesn't want to move on quite yet. I want to hold on everything, from the good of my students' support to the bad of the painful grief, because I'm familiar with it. Moving on means moving towards the unknown, and I fear that I'm not strong enough to handle the unknown quite yet. I have to move on, though. Somehow I have to move on.
Labels: dad, personal, weather
posted 2008/05/02 at 20:29
... to say that on this day in 1972 J. Edgar Hoover passed away. A quick Google scan isn't helping me find out who it was who took to answering his phone "Fuck J. Edgar Hoover" in response to Hoover's efforts to weed out so-called radicals and subversives, but I have to say that I've given a great deal of thought to coopting that greeting in the wake of the PATRIOT Act. Unfortunately, no one ever calls me, so I'd never have a chance to use it anyway. On that note, let's play the friday5.org Friday Five!
1. How do you feel about spicy food?
I really love some spices (garlic and red pepper), but not others (Asian-based spices and spice blends). I love the heat of spices, as well as their ability to help clear out my sinuses.
2. What kinds of condiments do you add to food in order to spice things up a bit?
I've never been one for condiments except for catsup; the only time I ever put salt on anything is when I'm eating hash browns at IHOP, which is a once-a-year thing at best.
3. Not counting salt and pepper, what’s your favorite flavor enhancer when cooking?
Emeril's original Essence blend. Apart from things with a tomato base, it goes well with everything and adds just the right flavour and heat.
4. What’s the spiciest food you’ve ever eaten?
That I can remember, Morningstar Farms' vegetarian buffalo wings. I'm sure I had spicier stuff when I was a child, though; I just didn't get emotionally scarred by it.
5. In what way might some other aspect of your daily life be spiced up, and what’s keeping that from happening right now?
I don't have time for a boyfriend or a girlfriend right now, and it's not like I've ever had much luck finding them anyway. That's all I can safely say here.
Labels: fridayfive
posted 2008/04/27 at 20:36
This past weekend I've just taken some time for myself and tried to decompress. For the first time since Dad's death I didn't have anything that needed immediate attention from my students, although starting Wednesday I'll have some fifty or sixty portfolios to look at and get graded by the following Monday. I also start teaching Composition I at MCCC that Monday, so over the next couple of days I'll have to look at the required textbook for that class and try to figure out some kind of lesson plan. Yesterday and today, though, I kind of took some time for myself here to relax and unwind, play some video games, do some shopping, and watch a bit of television. (Unfortunately I was out shopping during the Red Wings' game Saturday and wound up missing Darren McCarty's first fight since rejoining the Wings, guh.) I'd wanted to do some cleaning in my room, but that didn't wind up happening and I'll probably have to get to it two weeks from now.
Leaves have begun to spring up on some of the trees in our backyard, and I can't help but think of how Dad's not here to see them now. As we've been going through his stuff recently, we've unearthed a lot of the sketches and paintings he used to do back before he started his own business; I had pretty much forgotten he'd ever done them, but once I saw them I remembered, "Oh yeah, I saw those when I was a kid." He had this way of drawing leaves on trees when he worked in pen-and-ink where we just made these curlicues all over the place, and somehow it worked; I remember trying to imitate that style when I was young and failing at it. (As always, stick a writing implement in my hand and all my manual dexterity goes to crap.) I'll probably put some of his work online here on the .org soon -- I've been meaning to do an online tribute to him, but time just hasn't been on my side for that -- but it's painful to realize that twenty years ago he just stopped doing that stuff because he got so wrapped up in running his business that he cut all his fun, all his social activities, out of his life. (In case you were wondering where I got that from ... yeah.)
As I see spring turn to summer here (although we may be getting some snow overnight after hitting 80 on Friday ...), I can't help but wonder if Dad was able to appreciate the changing of the seasons. We had that lunar eclipse a few days before his death, and I can remember him and Mom taking a look at it after I pointed it out to him, but a full lunar eclipse is one of those rare, irregular occasions you kind of make a point of observing. Even coming from a family of Wiccans, I don't think we do all that much to recognize when the seasons change and all the beauty that's out there waiting to be explored. If I were to pass away suddenly, I wouldn't want it said of me that I was too wrapped up in my work and my other pursuits to be able to enjoy the simple beauty of the first green leaves budding on trees in the spring. I think I'm overdue for a trip to Wildwood or the Toledo Botanical Garden. I'll do what I can to make that trip before I start getting weighed down with portfolios.
Labels: dad, personal, weather
posted 2008/04/25 at 18:14
Two things stand out on this day in history, both from 1792. On that day, not only did Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle pen "La Marseillaise," the French national anthem, but the first execution by guillotine, another French invention, was also carried out. As I remind my students on a regular basis, just because two things happen close to each other does not necessarily mean that one thing caused another to happen, but in a case like this you just never know. On that note, let's play the friday5.org Friday Five!
1. What’s something you love and is quite bad for you?
Given everything I've gone through the past two months, I have to answer fatty foods here. Seriously, don't even ask.
2. What’s something you hate and is quite good for you?
Vegetables. For a vegetarian, I sure don't eat as many of them as I should.
3. What’s something that’s about equally good and bad for you?
Going out and trying to meet new people, like I did last night after work. I need to expand my horizons here, but I'm still not sure that I'm mentally prepared for that at this point.
4. What’s something you’ve been told is bad for you but you suspect is not as bad as people say?
I'd say some people who are trying to get me to really ratchet down on the carbohydates I take in when I diet. There's no doubt that I should be getting more protein than I do, but I don't think carbs are quite the monsters that some people make them out to be.
5. What’s something most people consider ugly but you consider beautiful?
I refuse to answer this question on the grounds that my answer may serve to bring me grievous bodily harm.
Labels: fridayfive
posted 2008/04/23 at 21:03
As much as I used to follow computing news and trends back in the 1990s, the combination of leaving the Website design business, going back to college, and losing access to Tech TV after the fire caused me to kind of withdraw from that whole scene. Later, when I stopped working for Dad's business to focus on my studies, I lost access to the computing magazines he always subscribed to. I still knew enough to build my own computer (Yggdrasil Mark I) back in 2003, but then I got into grad school and I started teaching, and of course these past couple of months my life has been turned upside down. (I promise, once the current semester ends next week and I have one last weekend of reviewing student work, I will make a strong effort to return to blogging on a regular basis, not to mention other things that fell off of the radar after Dad died.) I have to stay up on Internet stuff just because of my job (in addition to teaching and researching online I also need to know the "Internet culture" of my students to be able to communicate effectively with them), but as far as the hardware stuff goes I kind of haven't paid attention to that for a long time.
I've mentioned here for a long time that I need to start making Yggdrasil Mark II soon. However, Mom says that she wants a computer so she can do Internet stuff, and as soon as she suggested that, she also suggested that I give her Yggdrasil Mark I and she'd buy me the components for my next computer. Well, unfortunately I'm beginning to have problems with Mark I -- I think she needs a new power supply and new fans -- and I don't want to have to perform major surgery on Mark I until it's time to get it cleaned up for Mom. At the very least it is now time to start pricing things out for Mark II, and yes, I'm building another PC, so Mac loyalists are advised to save their breath trying to get me to switch.
Unfortunately, my lack of knowledge of current tech trends is really coming back to bite me in the butt now. As I did with Mark I, I'm going to use an Asus motherboard at the heart of my system, and I'll probably get a current low-end Intel model. Unfortunately, PC architecture has changed so much that I find myself lost looking at the specs for motherboards. (Right now I'm looking at the P5N-E SLI, but I may get a higher-end model depending on how much money I can save up.) I look at the specs for the motherboard and what kind of RAM and hard drives it can support, and then I look at the RAM and hard drives that are on sale, and it seems like the components have all these additional variations that I can't match to the motherboard's listed specifications. I've tried to puzzle these things out on my own, but I'm having no luck, and it's getting to the point where I've given serious consideration to having a local computer store just build a computer for me, even though I'll probably spend at least an extra $250 just on price markups and labour costs.
I could use some guidance, if any of my readers have advice on components and stuff to get (apart from "Get a Mac"). Unlike my old computers which were mostly full of bargain-basement (but reliable) parts, I actually want something "nice" here because I'm past my "all I need to do is write papers in Word and look up plain text Websites" stage of my life; I plan on doing a lot of music and 3-D stuff with this new computer, so I'll want things to be nice but not go overboard buying bleeding-edge stuff. I don't want to overclock, and I don't need to burn Blu-ray discs (I already have a DVD burner from when I was going to put a new computer together for Dad), but I'd still like to know that I can run current-generation software quickly and be able to do a fair amount of multitasking. As I said before, an Asus mobo and Intel processor are givens (the one AMD computer I owned didn't work out too well for me), but otherwise I'm fairly open to suggestions.
copyright © 2008 Sean Shannon