Always the Quest

Year of the Owl

2011-10-31T00:35:00.002-04:00

This time tomorrow it will be the Year of the Owl; a year of messages. It is within this year that you will Hear a Message that will alter your life and you will Give a Message that will alter the lives of another. As this is an 'Air Year', the messages will serve to liberate you or whomever hears your message of unneeded burdens in their lives. This change will allow them (and you) to cast off so...me of the burdens that have been weighing them down all these years. The problem with such messages is that they're never clean-cut - and rarely are they simple.

Messages like "I'm leaving," or "You're leaving" can liberate you (or the other person) and they will, eventually help in the casting off of burdens long-carried, but that is not to say that the process will be easy, quick or clean. Messages like these have Resonance (Yes, BIG R, Resonance). They affect not only the people that they're directed to but can (and often do) create ripples around them.

TAMO

2010-11-11T08:36:00.003-05:00

A weird discussion with a friend of mine on campus revealed yet another in a series of odd acronyms. This one is more of a bit of verbal short-hand in that it is used as a written code but also used to express a concept.

TAMO.

Then A Miracle Occurred.

The expression is used in high-end math when you can't work through a problem's process but you already know the outcome. The situation is usually described as working one's way from what is known backwards and then working it from the other end hoping that the two meet in the middle.

If it doesn't meet or doesn't meet exactly, the researcher can just type "TAMO" in the margin and it's considered 'complete'.

So...how many people out there would just like to be able to write TAMO on an electric bill or a rent check for when the goals don't meet the means?

-Me

"Like you always say..."

2009-12-03T19:44:00.002-05:00

..."Ancient Curse"

So this morning I was trying to get ready for my last day of classes. Low and behold when I pulled on the button to turn the shower on - the faucet snapped.

So there was much water pouring in all the wrong places. Much more cussing.

No time to fix it so I had a =very= cold shower before going to campus.

Good news: Tomorrow my grandfather is coming over to look at the problem and (slightly more importantly) I no longer have to deal with my criminology students.

Go me!

A solution

2009-12-03T17:26:00.001-05:00

While at work I received an email about the current fiscal crisis in the country.

The solution is so simple that it would never work.

The Fix

There recently was an article in the St. Petersburg Fl. Times. The Business Section asked readers for ideas on: "How Would You Fix the Economy?"

I think this guy nailed it!

_____

Dear Mr. President,

Please find below my suggestion for

fixing America's economy. Instead of giving billions of dollars to companies that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan. You can call it the "Patriotic Retirement Plan":

There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force. Pay them $1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the following stipulations:

1) They MUST retire. Forty million job openings - Unemployment fixed.

2) They MUST buy a new American CAR. Forty million cars ordered Auto Industry fixed.

3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage Housing Crisis fixed.

It can't get any easier than that!!

P. S. If more money is needed, have all members in Congress pay their taxes...

Mr. President, while you're at it, make Congress retire on Social Security and Medicare. I'll bet both programs would be fixed pronto!

New Look

2009-12-02T17:40:00.002-05:00

Well,

Something happened with the template on my old blog. I logged into it this morning and it was completely messed up. Apparently, some of the code that it was accessing (the graphic elements) had been deleted and the blog did not now how to process the information without the proper code in place.

So, after a quick search of the web for a new template, I decided to go with something green for the time being.

All my links are gone but I'll get them back up between now and the weekend.

C'est la vie virtual!
-T

Once more. I let them live

2009-11-22T23:24:00.004-05:00

From "That Student"

While in class and after I returned the research papers, "That Student" said that I should have warned them (the class) that Computers would be required for the research paper.

After trying to blame everyone on campus for her inability to complete a simple, five-page research paper, she tried to foist the responsibility on me for not alerting her to the need to be able to use computers. Now, we're not talking about using some advanced Statistics Program, just your average MS Word / Excel stuff.

Argh!

Oh well, only a few more classes to go and she'll no longer be my problem. :)

I couldn't make this stuff up

2009-11-18T08:40:00.001-05:00

Once more, an email from "That Student".

Can I take this test next week to give me more time to find out stuff or just take it tomorrow night?

I was left confused because she emailed me the notes and never put what chapters they are for.

What the HELL?

(more later)

GAH! Follow-up

2009-11-17T11:47:00.003-05:00

This was the last line in an email I just received from "That Student".

"Please pass me in both of your classes because I depend on college for my education and the money to make ends meet in life!"

My official response:

Ms. XXX,

Let me make this perfectly clear: I will not pass you or fail you. You will succeed or fail based on your performance in class and for no other reason.

-Tom.

STAB IT. BURN IT. BURY IT. KILL IT.

GAH!

2009-11-12T10:10:00.007-05:00

Although I am a firm believer that people should always attempt to educate themselves, I have must state that I am TIRED of ignorant people wasting my time.

It is one thing for someone to simply not be aware of a topic, and need some assistance to grasp the concept; that's what teachers are for.

Some people have difficulty grasping concepts and need additional help to make the connections that others seem to make more easily; that is what tutors are for.

It is another thing entirely for someone to:

A) Not know something,
B) Refuse to put forth the effort to learn it.
C) Fail to apply it.
D) Fabricate reasons why they don't / can't learn.
E) Expect you to pass them because "they're just not getting it".

I believe that this all stems from the idea "no child left behind". I understand that children should not be left behind and perpetually set back in grade until you're left with an eighteen year old adult with the reading skills of a fourth-grader. Once you remove the ramifications of not-studying, applying your knowledge, etc. (they can't fail me), why should the child put forth any effort at all?

One of my students, a non-traditional student who is apparently a grandmother, believes that college should be just like the school where her grand babies go. If she doesn't pass an exam, she wants to re-take it, over and over again, until she does. Apparently this is a common technique in the public school system (though I don't know what grade) where her grandchild attends. She, the non-trad student (AKA "THAT student"), assumes that all education systems are like this and that if she just continually walks around clueless that she'll get passed because people are tired of looking at her.

Here's the kicker, she's on something called "Financial Aid Probation". Essentially, she has failed so many times previously, that the University (or the State / Fed) is going to suspend her Financial Aid unless she can pull her grades up. I agree with the idea that people who aren't getting the grades shouldn't be able to pull down thousands and thousands of dollars (and most likely not paying them back) - potentially removing funding from those people who -are- making the grade. So this student is faced with a challenge, pass your classes or loose your money.

She is in both my Intro to Sociology and my Intro to Criminology course. It turns out that she was in my Intro to Psychology course last spring (and failed - but only by 5 points). This term she is failing again - not scoring higher than 50% on any of her exams and once she scored 34% OUT OF 100%.

Normally, I would have written her off as an Ashley and let her fail without a second thought. Since she is a non-trad (a category of students who usually out-perform my other students), I tried to give her a bit more attention hoping that she would be like my other non-trad students and really contribute to the class.

NOPE.

She realizes that she's failing and she's continually panicking about it. I usually receive between three to four emails from her at a time; usually within the scope of 10 minutes. They all say about the same thing, usually with more and more panic in her tone each time. She has probably accessed every help desk, tutor and resource at the university to help her improve her grades, but the reality is that she just doesn't have the academic tools to be in college at this time.

It's no great failure to say that a person is not ready...yet. Usually it's a matter of intellectual focus rather than sheer brain power, but a University should not be used as an alternative form of Unemployment / Welfare. A university is a place of learning, a sanctuary for academic achievement (cue monastic chants in the background with a subtle mix of "Georgetown" from St. Elmo's Fire), and most importantly a means to change your life.

Not everyone is ready to change how they think about the world or their place in it. Until they are ready, they should not be at College.

Lawful Evil

2009-11-02T22:59:00.001-05:00

An interesting sight

2009-10-05T21:55:00.006-04:00

Sunday was one of those days that really reminded me that the seasons have changed from Summer to Fall.

There wasn't much scheduled for the day - I had the idea of doing some house work and such but then Josh wanted to head out to a Sorghum festival. It was a quick drive out to the county and over a rattling wooden bridge. There wasn't much there, but it was fun to get out of the house for a while and get away from some tests that I needed to post.

It was interesting to watch the old machines squeeze the juices out of the Sorghum cane and the huge cooking trough. I saw the very same set up when I had to give out information at a similar sorghum festival in Lawrence County (around Ironton) back when I worked for LCCAO. I assume that there are only so many ways to turn the cane juice into some form of potable sugars so once it was figured out the basic design / system was spread from county to county.

Afterward, we were driving up to the store and I saw a huge string of people along side the road. I'm not sure what was the occasion, but for some reason there was a huge campaign to announce that "Abortion Kills".

I wasn't aware of any national awareness campaign for that Sunday, but there were almost four blocks of people shouting to get people's attention as they drove by. I've never understood the concept of the 'string of people with signs' campaign. Does it draw any more attention to an issue? Are they hoping that someone will see the validity of their sign and say to themselves, "Ya know, they're right," and change their lives accordingly because four blocks of people held up signs?

All I can see as the aim to such a stunt is to get media attention. An image like this is perfect for a local newspaper. It gets the public's attention, granted, but does it do anything with it once they have it?

Kidney Woes

2009-09-29T09:05:00.004-04:00

Cranberry Juice Consumed: *twitch* *gack*
Antibiotics Consumed: God bless cipro
Time spent in a hot bath: 2.5 hours
Finally being able to move (or just lay there)
without wincing in pain?: Since 3 p.m. yesterday

Well, thanks to the gods of Cipro, I think I'm out of the woods. Yesterday afternoon I was pounding cranberry juice (*gack* *twitch*) and toasting a bag of rice in my microwave (to use as a heating pad) so often I was certain that it would somehow turn into popcorn - but the pain would not let up. The only way I was able to actually think was to sit in a scalding-hot bath. As soon as the heat hit the right side of my lower back - the pain would ease. It was fine so long as I laid in there and didn't move much.

But then I got a delivery of antibiotics, Cipro. The family keeps a stock of this stuff on hand and when word went out that I might have a stone, they were quick to hand it over. They were also quick to tell me how many of them had also passed stones in their lives and how it's sort of a "family" medical condition. So what do I have to look forward to in my life? Kidney Stones, Diabetes, Alzheimers, and possible some form of Cancer.

Joy.

After about twenty minutes of taking the Cipro, I was laying down on the couch since I had finally found a position that didn't hurt. Then I realized that I was getting more and more sleepy and eventually passed out. At some point, though I was not really awake for this, I got up and went to the bathroom and heard a weird 'clink'. I stared down into the bowl to find that a pebble about the size of a BB was in the bottom. Not saying that I have a high threshold for pain, but my first thought was that there was no way in hell that came out of me without me feeling it. Then again, I had taken about three kinds of pain-killers before I passed out so I was still a bit groggy.

The family doc said that I should collect it since if the pain returns there may be more stones and they would need to examine the last one to figure out what was causing them. One of the more curious questions that I had for the doc was how could this have happened. Most kidney stones are formed by deposits of calcium and I'm not really what you would call a milk-drinker. There is, however, some connection between drinking sodas like Mountain Dew.

Yeah - there was a moment of silence when I was on the phone with her.

So I guess I'm reduced to water, some juice and coffee for a while.

Ugh.

Just kill me now

2009-09-28T13:26:00.003-04:00

This morning at 6 am I woke up with a pain in my right side, in my back. At first I thought that it was s pulled muscle do I grabbed Josh's msgic back massager and tried to fix it. As soon as I started the machine I could tell that something was wrong. There was an odd sensation that radiated around from the small of my back and down to my groin. For about three hours I tried to sleep or find some comfortable spot but noting worked.

Josh got up around 9 and I asked him to take me down to the campus clinic to have them look at me. Yes, the pain was serious enough that I was willing to ask for help.

They confirmed the diagnosis that I probably have a kidney stone. The hospital would be able to confirm it with a batch of tests (about 5k from what we dug around to find out) but the treatment was basically to just flush it out.

So since Josh had to stay on campus for classes, I asked Will to take me home where I promptly threw up (again) as soon as we were in front of the house. I tried to put my mind out of the pain but that didn't work - I couldn't think straight for that.

That's when Josh and Will's idea set in. Taking a hot bath might help the muscle spasms. With Will on the couch and me yelling to him from the bathroom we continued the conversation for a few minutes and it was like someone threw a switch. The pain was gone. So long as the water was hot, there was no pain.

The main problem with kidney stones is that everyone wants to ask you if you've been pissing regularly. I had been, but not too often. I've been drinking water all day and I would get the urge to take a leek but nothing would happen. Pulling the old Boyscout Trick of standing in a hot shower or putting your hand in warm water, however, assisted things along so it's not that I'm blocked.

After sending up the flag to everyone I could think of - I got some of last night's chili on my stomach so that will hopefully help with the nausia. (My chili is mild so it's not like I'm eating fire. Will has headed off for a while and I've gotten some antibiotics in me to help with any future possibility of a kidney infection.

Otherwise, I'm typing with one hand, laying face down on the couch and trying to get my back to stop hurting.

ugh.

someone just kill me.

Garlic Poisoning

2009-09-26T22:21:00.004-04:00

Anyone who has ever known me for some length of time knows that I'm allergic to garlic to some degree.

Now I'm not sure how I'm able to eat some foods with garlic (Barbara's Magic Garlic) and be fine and then I can have a french fry with garlic-laden salt and I'm sick to the world for a day.

Last night I was sick to death because of garlic. I woke up around six a.m. with terrible stomach cramps. I couldn't roll over, could barely move and the pain was constant. After trying to rid myself of the pain in anyway I could think of (I'll spare you the details) I hit the net to see if there was anything that could have caused all of the upset.

Logging onto Arby's website, I found that their curly fries contain a heavy amount of garlic-flavoring in their salt. So this explained why I was hugging a bucket on the toilet for about an hour.

Once I discovered that garlic was the culprit - at first I didn't think that it was since normally I'm sick within 30 minutes of eating it - I went to the kitchen and gobbled down some peanut butter sandwiches. Don't ask me why but for some reason, peanut butter kills the garlic poisoning within a half-hour at most.

So...

For the record: Garlic Poisoning Bad. Arby's fries taste good but are also Bad.

Grr.

Curse this mortal existence!

How I spent my Labor Day

2009-09-08T00:09:00.008-04:00

... A Pictorial Essay.

Notice that the man in the gray shirt was present in the last picture. He, my father, still lives.

And people say that I'm not filled with compassion.

I'm positively a font of human kindness.

This is where you belong...

2009-09-03T17:44:00.005-04:00

Good: Having someone that I went to High School tell me that I'm a good Professor.
Evil: McAngus Bacon Cheddar Burger.

Since the first day of classes, I was a bit uncomfortable about having someone in my class that I knew personally. This is something that is never encouraged due to all the issues of favoritism that could come up. However, since I hadn't spoken to that person in nearly seventeen years, I did not think it that much of a problem; at least professionally speaking.

My style of teaching is very much driven by interaction with the students. I want them to give me their feedback, their thoughts on a particular topic. I constantly ask them to tell me what they think on various issues that we're discussing hoping that they'll understand the topic more because it's relevant to their own lives. When it comes to someone that I've grown up with - this could be possibly a problem. It's easy for a student to say that they grew up with a person who has done "something" or knew of someone who had "something else" happen to them if they don't know the professor. They're a fairly anonymous face in the crowd as far as that goes. However, when you know that person for years, you know their family - know their history and could easily put two and two together to create a more complete picture of their own childhood.

It goes both ways. I continually use examples from my own childhood to illustrate points in class. Usually the students are nearly fifteen years younger than I am so there's no frame of reference for them. When there's someone in the class who knew me growing up - it's like revealing part of your life to them on a more personal basis. They -knew- what you were like growing up, or knew what kind of kid you were, etc.

Well, all of this was what had been crawling through my head for the past week or so with one student in particular.

Stella is a woman that I met in middle school, I believe. We grew up together having mutual friends but not mutual interests. In the broadest sense of how I felt about her - she was nice. This is a huge difference to the majority of the people I grew up with who I could classify as "will be destroyed when my army of evil robots arrive" or not-nice.

She found me after class last night and wanted to touch base since we've only briefly spoken a word or two within the context of the lecture. The first thing that she said blew me away.

"This is where you belong. You were -meant- to be a professor."

I couldn't stop grinning.

She had heard stories from her co-workers as to how I taught and what kind of professor I was, but she said that she couldn't imagine me as being "that Riley". After three weeks had passed, she was more than impressed.

I don't think my feet touched the ground all the way to the parking lot.

Even now as I type this, I'm grinning once more.

It's good to know that others feel the same way about your career choice. I'm glad that I'm no longer working for the City / Count / State any more. I think that if I had continued working with them I would continue to be an angry, unhealthy person. Here, I can use my skills for what they were meant for.

Notice, I did not say "Use my powers for good".

Change happens slowly.

Blue Paper

2009-09-01T18:07:00.007-04:00

Evil: Rippled Potato Chips & French Onion Dip
Good: Helping a student find a tutor for their writing skills

Today was the start of the second, full week of classes on campus. It's been long enough that many classes have had at least one grade recorded for some homework, assignment or the like. This is also when a lot of students decide to change their schedule based on those grades so they walk around campus with blue scheduling forms to get signatures.

So, while waiting for my Psychology class, I had two students come to get my signature to drop the class. Let me tell you a little about them.

Student #1: This student is in his mid-forties and had a bad educational history. He quit school at 15, came back to get his GED at 30 and now came back at 45 to get an actual degree in something. He had never written anything more than his name or the occasional list so when he was given my assignment - he freaked. "In two pages, tell me what you hope to learn in this class." This is a standard assignment I give to my students - it's a 'plot device' to help me grab their interest in some of the material to be covered in the class. I also use it to get a sense of who are going to be the serious students and who are the Sheeple. Student #1 didn't strike me as a Sheeple - but he just didn't have the skills that one needs to jump into college and run. In my opinion he would be an average student once he completed a 'pre-college' program; something to help him learn how to write, proof-read and construct professional papers. This student couldn't type without capitalizing every other word and ignoring all punctuation and rules of spelling. I could tell that he was sort of getting the material that we were covering, but he didn't have the skills to communicate them very well.

Unfortunately, student #1 decided to drop the course. I would not be surprised if he doesn't finish his first year without serious attention to his professional / academic skills.

Student #2 was a punk; at least that's what I originally thought. With more tattoos, piercings and successful attacks on the English language than I have notebooks - he seemed like he was just in school for the overage money. He didn't sit in class - he sprawled across two desks because he 'wasn't comfortable'. He would ask questions that had nothing to do with the topic being discussed - and then become argumentative if I didn't answer him immediately. The cap was when I noticed that he had nothing with him to write - or write on. so all the times he was asking questions, it seemed as though he had no intention of capturing the material in the lecture and that I was there for his amusement. If you can't tell - I was not amused.

Then, out of the blue (ok, bad joke - I own it), he came by my office today with a blue paper in his hand. He explained that he did not have anything to write on or write with in class because, get this, he -couldn't- write. I was confused and asked him if he just had problems taking notes, or couldn't focus his attention - etc. He explained that he was constantly passed up the grades through High School because no one wanted him in class - that they didn't want to help him learn. Being the paranoid, suspicious person that I am, I countered him and said that if he was going to be successful in college - he had to help himself. He had not written the paper or taken a single note yet in any of his classes because he didn't know how. So, I got a hold of some of the services we have on campus, even walked him down to the tutoring center so he could get signed up for help. They said that they could help him teach himself - something that he seemed to respond to quickly. Rather than waiting on someone else to help him - he would do it himself with a little help from others.

While he was filling out some paperwork for the Center, I went back to my office to grab one of my spare notebooks (yes, I carry an extra in my bag. You never know) and brought it back to him. I gave him a pen and notebook and told him that he doesn't have any other excuses. He has the help and now the materials to survive on Shawnee's campus. What he did from then on was on -his- shoulders. It was sort of a 'grow up or shut up' speech that I've given a few other students and considered the matter closed.

Psychology came and went and as I was closing up shop and answering some questions from straggling students, I saw him pausing in the wings. He still had the notebook and pen that I gave him and I saw him writing furiously in class. He put the notebook on the podium and wanted me to look through his notes. We talked about what he wrote (which was pretty good concerning the topic today was Abnormal Psychology) and he said that he was going to 'impress' me this term.

I was surprised but willing to give the guy some latitude. We'll see where this goes.

ATQ
-T

New Week

2009-08-31T09:30:00.005-04:00

Well, the pattern continues - ish.

I meant to blog something, even a few lines, each day. That obviously didn't happen. It wasn't for lack of effort - just lack of material. it seemed pointless to blog about the simple comings and goings of people on campus and the first week of classes on an individual basis. However, just like in other areas of my life - consistency is sometimes more important than content. So, here's hoping to the start of a new week of blogs.

Today I'm starting the week off right: coffee, my digital and analog notebooks and the front porch. The weather is fairly chilly this morning - only a few degrees above sixty I think. Josh is heading off here in a bit to go get his car back. Back from where you ask? Let me tell you a story...

This past Saturday morning, I awoke to the sound of the foghorn that is our front door bell. It was barely nine o'clock and anyone that would know me would know that I would still be asleep. So I groggily (is that a word?) stumbled through the house and swung open the front door to kill whatever might be disturbing my slumber. It is interesting to note that the first word out of my mouth when the door opened were probably incoherent, uncaffinated babble. I am mostly appreciative of this because the police officer who stood on the other side of the screen door probably would not want to be yanked into a hellish dimension by the clawing talons of a hundred screaming cat-headed demons. Mmm... cat-headed demons.

Anyway...

The cop told me that they were towing Josh's car for expired tags. I know it took me a second or two to react because he repeated that it was for Josh's car and not mine. So I excused myself and bellowed through the house for Josh to wake up. He, being confused, half-fell out of his bed and stumbled to throw on some sandals as he went outside to talk to the guy. Mmm... cat-headed demons.

No. Focus. Focus.

This is the first year that Josh was registering his car in Ohio. Usually he had it in Kentucky since he used his parent's house as a semi-permanent address. This year he decided to change it to Ohio, but didn't pay something in time and it expired. So, thirty-days after his birthday they came to tow it away. Now here's the rub: you can't get the car back until you pay the fine. You can't pay the fine until the Court House is open. They towed the car on a Saturday morning and the Court House doesn't open until this morning. In this arrangement, any car towed on Saturday must spend at least forty-eight hours on the towing company's lot; an expense that the city "has no control over". Can you smell a scam?

So Josh and his mom or dad are heading down to settle it around his class today. Aside from a few loads of laundry and work on lectures, that's about the most eventful thing that's scheduled.

Mmm...
coffee good. Bet you though that I was going to say cat-headed demons, didn't ya?

Well, both are good and both have their places.

Yesterday's small gathering of the Shire was fun. It wasn't much like we had when the Shire was in full tilt, but it was a start. You didn't see folks in armor and shields, but rather in shorts carrying Shini (sp) since it was easier and less dangerous to beat people about the body with them than with full staves of rattan. As you would imagine, there was plenty of gamer-talk, plenty of what-if's and the occasional querry about history, heraldry or the actual SCA. Given time I think that it could become the group that I helped create so many years ago. They certainly have the desire to do -something-, but it is unclear whether they will be a fully-functioning shire or whether they will be a 'Park-Shire' where only a few members go to events.

In truth, I think that the Park-Shire would be the best bet for them - at least for a while. Help people enjoy going to the park, get them excited about showing up to meetings and socializing before the politics start showing up.

I think that this just might work.

ATQ
-T

P.S. Shadow TomCat saiz:

A pattern

2009-08-22T19:05:00.003-04:00

Well, I'm trying to start one at least.

with the Aspire, it's really easy to carry it where ever I end up so that I can work on things for class or post to the blog.

Today I'm out on the front porch while I've got some laundry in the dryer. This is the first Saturday after the start of classes. There's not much going on for me right now, save for looking at last year's lectures and verifying my notes against the new version of the textbook that we're using. Yeah - life is somewhat dull.

I'm sure that will change as we get into the first full week of classes and the students are forced to deal with the reality that the Summer -is- over. As for me - I'm taking care of some issues that have bugged me since last Spring; an unresolved conflict that should not be allowed to fester any longer than it already has.

On a lighter note, it seems that my old shire of Drakelaw (there is no link here because the website hasn't been updated in years and what information there is available is inaccurate.) may be starting up again. To keep a long-story short (too late), the Shire claimed almost all of Eastern Kentucky and errupted into a virtual civil war about five years ago. At the time it was decided that the shire would move down to Pikeville Kentucky and operate there; abandoning the home that had been created in Ashland. When the split happened, I stepped back from the shire and let it do as it pleased.

About six months ago, the remains of the shire down in Pikeville stopped reporting to the Kingdom; essentially falling off the face of the Known World. Some old friends, who had moved back to Ashland in recent years, decided that they wanted to reclaim the old Shire and see if it were possible to resurrect what had been destroyed.

I'm not sure where this might go but there has been some movement on the local level. It would seem to be the first stone that falls that -could- start the avalanche; or it could be a rock thrown in a pond. Either way it might be fun to get out of the house and head up to Ashland once or twice a month.

ATQ.
-T

Day Two

2009-08-21T10:33:00.003-04:00

The day is young, the coffee is hot and I don't have classes today.

Yes, I love my Digital Notebook.

Digital...Notebook

2009-08-20T15:44:00.005-04:00

Well, it's finally happened.

I have a real, digital notebook. Not just a laptop, but a computer that is only slightly bigger than the notebook I usually carry. It's called an Aspire One, produced by Acer. Ever since my friend Bryian gave me an NEC mini-laptop a few years ago, the idea popped into my head that a company should come out with a -real- laptop computer; not just a portable desktop.

After getting all the updates for windows set up, the updated anti-virus definitions, pullling off all of the games that came with it, I'm finally able to use it. So here I am, taking a moment to blog on a laptop that's only 1.5 inches (just measured) smaller on both sides than the old, beaten-up, leather notebook cover that I made at Bryian's kitchen table almost fifteen years ago.

It's small enough and light enough that that I can put it in my bag and carry it with me anywhere. Yes, I still carry my analog notebook with me as well, but the digital notebook is there for when I get a minute and can work on a project, look something up or just play with the webcam (as shown above).

If it wasn't so danged bright outside, I'd be on the President's Porch and blogging from there.

Oh well, maybe another day.

Classes are in session, they started yesterday. I only teach three days a week this term - Tuesday through Thursday with Thursday being my long-day. After I give my Criminology students their introduction, syllabi and assignment, I can head for home. Who knows - maybe I will start walking to school now that I can haul the Aspire with me more easily.

I'm still playing around with how I can connect it to my desktop at work or at home - one idea was an ether-net jumper. I just forget how to make one system talk to another.

More later I'm sure.

Digital Notebook - it took fifteen years - but I have it. Muhahahah.

-Me

A dose of weird

2009-08-04T16:44:00.008-04:00

"Seven Queens wear Seven Rings as the Seven Stars in Heaven."

This is a rhyme that popped into my head last summer. Originally, the rhyme was:

"Seven Rings... Seven Kings... Seven Stars under Heaven."

It was a fragment. Just like trying to remember an old song or something that you heard once and could only pick out some of the information.

I wrote it in my journal and basically forgot about it.

Until today.

While watching a NatGeo program on the Nebra Sky Disk, I saw something that got my attention (aside from the fact that it's a as-yet unexplained artifact); a seven-dot cluster that was used to help identify the other markings on the disk. The seven-dot cluster was used in the ancient world to identify the Pleiades star cluster.

I leaned up from my computer chair and tried to rattle off the rhyme as I remember it. However, this time I said "Seven Queens" rather than "Seven Kings." I knew that it was one of the two and reached up to find the journal entry. In the program, an astronomer commented that Pleiades was also called the "Seven Sisters" and the whole thing seemed to fall into place.

The Pleiades cluster actually has thousands of stars in it, but we can usually only see seven of them.

When I looked up the cluster to read more about it, I saw the cluster of stars and immediately saw a pattern in the arrangement of the brightest of the stars; a crook.

I have associated the Crook as a symbol representing a quest or the search for knowledge. The crook (as either the crook and flail or the crozier) is also seen everyday as a modern question mark. When I saw the arrangement of the stars as a crook, my curiosity was aroused a bit more.

Unfortunately, the discovery of a possible connection between my interest in symbology, ancient astronomy and a rhyme from last summer has left me with even more questions.

FOLLOW UP:

I cross-referenced the cultural identity of the Seven Sisters cluster against Mayan Astronomy. Since the Maya were one of the most well-documented Astronomers (Mayan Astonomy, 2012, etc.) The Maya watched Tianquizli (Pleiades) closely to ensure that the world wouldn't end. They watched for the signs of the apocalypse and that demons of darkness would descend to the earth and devour the world of man.

Have you Seen this?

2009-07-24T23:55:00.002-04:00

I was watching a program on Discovery channel and saw an add for one of their series called: "The Colony".

From the site:

The Colony is a controlled experiment to see exactly what it would take to survive and rebuild under these circumstances. For 10 weeks, a group of 10 volunteers, whose backgrounds and expertise represent a cross-section of modern society, are isolated in an urban environment outside Los Angeles and tasked with creating a livable society.

With no electricity from the grid, no running water and no communication with the outside world, all the volunteers have to work with are their skills and whatever tools and supplies they can scavenge from their surroundings.

Experts from the fields of homeland security, engineering and psychology have helped design the world of The Colony to reflect elements from both real-life disasters and models of what the future could look like after a global viral outbreak.

Over the course of the 10-week experiment, the Colonists must work together to build the necessities of survival, such as a water-filtration system, a battery bank that powered their electricity, a solar cooker, a shower system and a greenhouse – and even some niceties (a coffee maker!).

Watch some of the episodes here.

OMG

2009-06-22T22:36:00.002-04:00

Thundercats - the movie?

Yeah, it's a fake trailer - but wow.

Look here:

The Wedding

2009-06-20T09:45:00.004-04:00

This past weekend, June 13th, marked the wedding of June's son Adam to his girlfriend of many years, Anna.

For as long as I have known June and Adam, there was no doubt that he and Anna were going to get married at some point in the future. They were equivalently High School sweethearts who, now in college, decided to get married over the summer so that they could finish out their degrees.

When I showed up to the Amphitheater at Greenbo Lake, I saw the usual spread of chairs out in the green lawn and picked up that it was an outdoor wedding. True to Adam's style, I also noticed that the groomsmen, bridesmaids and others in the wedding party were in garb. Here you can see a picture of Anna being escorted to the altar by her father in a kilt.

The wedding march itself was a piece of bag pipe music that I only know as Scotland the Brave. It was a very cool service. Adam's younger sister was there to shoot the place with her camera - a budding photographer. I've seen her work and the girl has a very good idea for capturing the shot.
It was a small ceremony - perhaps attended by no more than fifty to sixty people - but no less enjoyable. It should be a lesson for the times and perhaps a good theme for their marriage:

"Keep things simple".

One Word

2009-06-09T15:26:00.001-04:00

CHEEZECAKE

Tseo says Hi

2009-06-02T17:44:00.002-04:00

Two posts in one day...

Amazing.

Once I got home from the lake, I decided to fire up the outdoor kitchen again and cook something for lunch. When I was finished and putting things away, I saw something gray walk down from the hillside and into the back yard. Originally I thought that it was one of the stray cats in the neighborhood coming down to eat at the bowl of food I put out for strays.

Well, I was half right.

Someone's been busy...

2009-06-02T17:20:00.006-04:00

Today, like other Tuesdays, is a day that Josh and I get out of the house for a while and try and do something adventuresome. It does not always work since we're trying to keep it cheap so we're usually just traveling to local parks, lakes and the like.

Today we went out to Turkey Creek Lake on the west side of Portsmouth and went creek-walking.

As soon as we showed up to the park, there was something that was different about the place. Large stones that had been part of the hillside since I was a kid had slid down and altered the landscape and the creek had altered its course. As my eyes followed up the length of the creek I was surprised to find that someone had been busy.

Stacked stone sculptures and monuments are as ancient as any human civilization. A rock might point out a boundary or barrier between one area and another. Circles of stones (some as large as those creating the stone circle of Stone Henge) are ancient symbols dividing the ground within the circle and the ground outside the circle as separate; perhaps as simple as the difference between the mundane world and the spiritual world.

Stacked stone monuments, such as the structure above, were commonly found across the European landscape as markers for everything from trails, burials, environmental dangers, etc. They require only time and patience to build since there is no mortar and creek stones are fairly plentiful if you just hunt around for them.

The thing that I find most disturbing about the discover and construction of this stone monument is that =I= didn't do it.

Given the time and inclination, this would have been something that I could have and probably would have built. I didn't think that there were people in this quaint corner of Ohio who would even contemplate the idea of creating a stacked-stone monument. Anyone can stack stones to create a small dam in a creek but it takes patience to collect the stone and stack them so that the shape is maintained.

Near the monument was yet another piece of construction - something that I found rather curious.
A few feet from the monument, someone had stacked and piled stone, sticks and leaves in what I can only best describe as a spiral. This picture doesn't quite capture the design that well, but if you look below there is a close up of the various layers of the form.

The dead sticks are piled at the center of the spiral and then, as it expands, the channel is filled with leaves that are only slightly wilted. I would surmise that this structure (or at least the leaves) were harvested and piled over the weekend since they haven't completely wilted.

So then I thought:

Who would have created two ancient symbols of stone; the monument and the spiral?

I have my own theories as to who -could- make such things but not necessarily if they would or not.

Again,

Someone's been busy.

A strange thing on the way to the campus

2009-05-20T00:48:00.002-04:00

Today was one of those days that everything was just... odd.

Josh and I walked down to campus today so I could check on a student's grade. The student claimed that she didn't receive a final grade in one of my classes and I knew that she was there and I remembered grading her paper. So all I could assume was that there was a typo somewhere in the steps to post her grade.

Out of 184 students it's bound to happen and it's easily fixed.

So while on Offnere, a main north-south artery in Portsmouth, we were walking by a building that we have passed several times when I happened to read the billboard outside. Much to my shock, Josh claims that the sign had this message on it for some time now and that I've just missed it. Truth be told, I can't remember ever actually looking at the sign before today more than a casual glance and I am fairly confident that I would have picked up on the word 'Murder' sometime before now.

Today, for some reason, it finally registered and I was a bit surprised to say the least. Not only has some woman lost her husband but she's also offering a reward to the capture of whoever killed him. This is not something that I would find uncommon - but the fact that she's advertising that she's investigating her husband's murder, may suggest that she's either unsatisfied with the work of the local police department or feels that she can find more information than they can detect by throwing out the promise of some reward. There's also the more curious alternative that she is advertising her own interest in her husband's murder to possibly remove the air of guilt or complicity from around her shoulders. I would love to hear about something so dramatic as that, but I doubt anyone in this town could try and throw up any kind of plausible deniability such as this.

I have no idea who the man was who was murdered, how he died or even what the case file might reveal as to a possible motive, but I'm curious.

Strange. Very strange.

Projects:

Chalkboard: 95% (just need to attach the supports and mount it to the wall.

Wallpaper: 50% (no movement)

Driveway: 6% (Thought about it again today)

Mother Nature... WTF?

2009-05-19T09:48:00.003-04:00

Ok,

So I'm all about a crisp spring morning but FORTY-FIVE DEGREES!?!?!

This morning I got out of bed to the smell of brewing coffee (roommates are so handy and since this one is a *twitch* morning person, he has become the in-house Barrista) and stumbled through the house. When I spied the thermometer / clock thing in Josh's room I saw that it was only 45 degrees outside.

WTF?

I know that classes ended a wee bit early this year, but the last I checked we shouldn't be having March-like mornings in MAY.

Someone needs to check Mother Nature's Adderall prescription.

Brr.

-Tom

Week 1, down

2009-05-18T17:49:00.003-04:00

... Fourteen to go.

Project Updates:

Chalkboard: 90% complete
Wallpaper: 60% complete
Driveway: 5% (ok, so I've -thought- about doing it a few times)
Painting Car Port: 5% (yup, you guessed it.)

The chalkboard that I've been working on with Josh is almost complete. This past Friday I got the board and we primed it with two coats and then put on two of the black, chalkboard paint. Today was the application of the cork board border. I know me and I will definitely have a few dozen things posted up on the edge of reminders and designs or projects that I'm progressing. The wallpaper has all but been removed from the walls of the middle, or "living" room. I have to continue to scrape and sand the wall here and there to remove any loose bits of paper that refuse to be scraped free. This is, essentially, the easy part. Once all of that is complete then I can start the arduous task of -FINDING- a replacement wallpaper. Putting it up is fairly easy.

As for beating the driveway into submission or painting the carport - well, both of those have suffered this first week of my summer vacation.

I'll post some pictures of the two projects that have gotten any kind of attention as soon as I figure how to yank them down from my new phone.

Until then -

Go see Star Trek.

-Tom

Freedom

2009-05-13T02:17:00.003-04:00

Well, it's that time again.

As of 5 p.m. this afternoon, I have posted the last of my exam grades, handled the last of the emails sent to me by students hoping / pleading for "understanding" or "assistance" with their grade.

It may be yet another constant in the universe, but whenever I assign extra-credit for my classes, the only students who actually complete it are the ones who don't need the extra points. All those who blow it off are those who could have really used the help by the end of the year?

What does this mean? Well, it means that I can usually shut down any of the begging, pleading, and general childishness that I get from some students by simply asking, "Did you do the extra-credit?" When they reply, "Well, no, but I had a good reason." I usually end the conversation. Life is too short to hear yet another excuse for poor preparation or performance.

Now that I'm on my summer break (aka, being unemployed), I can work on my house projects. Last summer started off with fixing a bathroom sink. This year it's been ripping down wallpaper in my living room. The old wallpaper was put up some time ago and needed to be replaced. It shouldn't cost too much to repaper the old walls, but more on that later.

As for now it's late and I need to get some sleep. Tomorrow I plan on attacking my driveway with a sledgehammer.

See ya.

-Tom

A Tree Grows in Ohio

2009-03-27T15:29:00.003-04:00

Today was one of the first not-rainy days of this spring break and after three years of planning, I finally got a tree planted in my front yard.

In years previous, there was always some combination of forces (lack of money, weather, time) that conspired against me planting a tree in my front yard that would hopefully provide some kind of shade in years to come.

I would have liked to have put an oak tree out there but they were hard to come by (in a large enough form that would make it easy to transplant) so I settled on a Silver Maple.

So out into the weather and just before a large mass of "green" (rain) came my way, Josh and I pulled out the post-holler and shovel and got to work. It didn't take a lot of work since the ground was already semi-muddy from the previous two days of rain. I hadn't handled a shovel in a while since I'm just now recovering from winter and the ensuing plagues so it wore me out a bit but it felt good.

This spring break was fairly uneventful - nothing really was accomplished except for the tree - but very restful; and that was needed even more so. With only five or six weeks left in the term, it's going to be a mad dash through April and into May to finish out the school year.

And then who knows what I'll get into.

-T

Home Remedies

2009-03-12T22:19:00.002-04:00

I'm sick again.

Sometime on Monday night I started to feel a bit below the weather and by Tuesday morning I was sporting a massive cold.

So I canceled classes on Tuesday and slept. Then Wednesday I woke up hoping that it was just a twenty-four hour bug.

Nope.

So then I canceled my class on Wednesday and continued the sleeping process.

So this morning I was hoping to grab yet another shower and see if that would help solve the cold. I got down to campus after a quick stop for more tissues and meds. My criminology class is supposed to last for 1.5 hours but I was out of there in 40 minutes. I couldn't keep talking, blow my nose or sniff in any combination to keep the conversation going.

On the way home I grabbed more supplies with grim determination to finally kick this cold and be done with it.

Soup, more meds, tissues, and sanitizer.

After sucking down more tomato soup than a Twilight Fan on a weekend bender, I realized that the one thing I'm really wanting is Egg Drop soup from "Uptown Chinese" in Athens.

I'm not sure if the restaurant is still there or not, but whenever I got sick while I was going for my BA - that soup would fix me in a day.

Unfortunately the only approximation for the soup down here is not exactly the same thing. It's more like egg-glaze because it's been left to sit in a warming tray for days on end.

I'll have to see if I can find a way to make something close to egg-drop down here. It won't be the same but I'll see if I can get some hints from my friend the chef.

Photography after the storm

2009-02-02T18:03:00.003-05:00

This past weekend, once the storm had passed, I decided to go on a walk over to the local cemetery and see if I could snap a few photos.

The photo to the left is part of the monument of "The Lady", a well-known statue within Greenlawn Cemetery. I saw the snow on the top of the cross and thought that it was an interesting image. Once I processed the photo and cropped it to size, I decided to do something with it. I still can't decide on whether it should be sepia or black and white.

Once I found that shot, I continued to walk around the place for a bit and found another shot that I think is one of my best. The cemetery is a great place to take pictures.

This photo definitely suggested to be made into a black and white image. The barren tree stands directly center in the image with each branch covered in a sheath of ice. The shadows of the tomb stones and the conifers around it just kind of made it stand out that much more.

Day 2: The Ice Commeth

2009-01-28T09:29:00.005-05:00

Well, we're closed for another day down here at Shawnee State, and it's all because of the wonderful freezing rain that's been falling since about 5 p.m. yesterday evening.

When I woke up this morning I immediately grabbed my camera and ventured outside to see what I could capture for my blog.

The power and cable lines are drooping because of the added weight of about a quarter-inch of ice encasing them. I've already heard that several homes out in the county are without power because of trees that have become too heavy with the ice and fallen through the lines. My uncle David, my mother's brother, has already lost power this morning because he lives -way- out in the county with lots of ice-coated trees between him and any main road.

I tried to focus in on a seed pod on a bush in the back yard to show just how thickly encased things were in the grip of the freezing rain. I think the plant is milk-weed but I couldn't swear to it. It looked so interesting with ice caught within the remains of the pod as well as coating all of the branches and vines that I had to try and snap a picture of it.

What really surprised me was some old scrub plants on the hill behind the house. Each branch and twig is coated with the ice and together they create quite a cool effect.Sometimes it's hard to see where the branch ends and the ice ends - as though the whole structure were somehow converted to a crystalline-based plant.

Wintery Blankets

2009-01-27T09:32:00.003-05:00

Normally when it snows, I grab a picture of Tseo the Raccoon to show how bad the weather has gotten. Today when I went out into the backyard I realized that there was actually some measurable accumulation.

This morning he sort of looked like a raccoon ninja - hidden by the wintry blanket.

Shawnee has already closed classes for the day - originally only canceling classes until noon but then expanding it. So, it's a Tuesday and I have little to do.

Blood Stains in Carpeting

2009-01-25T00:35:00.003-05:00

Sometimes I get some very weird phone calls; usually the more weird come from my friends. Tonight was no exception when a buddy of mine called up with a tone to his voice suggesting that he was somewhat upset.

"How do you get blood stains out of carpeting so that there's no trace?" was the question asked of me.

Before I could even ask, "Now why would I know something like that?" I ended up splurting out an answer.

"Soak a rag in peroxide and then dab / rub the blood and it should come up. If there's a bad place or it's turned brown already, coat it with a mixture of salt and water."

I have no idea where I'd heard that before but I knew that it would work.

Sure enough, my friend tried it while on the phone with me and the peroxide did the trick.

It turns out that his girlfriend had gotten bit by their dog and she bled... a lot.

So... in the spirit of "Friends help you move, Real Friends help you move Bodies"... I add this.

"Friends tell you things. Real friends tell you how to clean up blood stains without asking why."

Bones in Portsmouth?

2009-01-25T00:31:00.001-05:00

From WSAZ:

PORTSMOUTH, OH (WSAZ) -- Police have found three bones in the backyard of a house in Portsmouth, but they are not those of a human, like they orginially thought.

This after Portsmouth Police and the Portsmouth Daily Times got identical letters that were very specific about the location of the bones. The anonymous lletter referred to a body being buried in late 1964.

Investigators found the bones Friday night at a house in the 2200 block of Vinton Avenue in Portsmouth.

After the discovery Portsmouth Police called forensic investigators from Cincinnati to take a closer look.

Investigators say at this point the case is closed, unless they get more information from the person who wrote those letters.

"The information contained in the letter indicated the person knew exactly what they were talking about," Portsmouth Police Detective James Charles said.

BSG the musical

2009-01-20T11:47:00.003-05:00

After watching about ten hours of BSG this past Friday to catch up with the series, I listened to one of the characters singing a lament.

The character was one of the side-line characters who had been there since the series started. Lt. Gaeta was sort of the guy that everyone over-looked until he wasn't there; a backbone of the CIC who would leave a big gap in their operations if he was gone.

Through the course of the series, Gaeta ends up getting shot in the leg and they have to amputate it below the knee. While recouperating in sick bay, he is half-drugged on pain killers but can occasionally feel the twitches of his missing limb. The doctor told him to sing whenever he felt it to help get his mind off the sensation. It's an interesting idea considering that they can't just keep pumping him full of morph - they're not making it anymore.

It reminded me of the scene in Return of the King where one of the Hobbits sung some depressing dirge while a force of men charged in on a suicide run to retake the ruins of Osgiliath.

Well, I had wondered if they had borrowed the song from another source (like they did with the song that gathered four of the last five cylons together) or if it was original. So I started digging and finally found the words to the song and that it was originally composed.

To give you some idea of how the song was used in the show I've put a link to the Youtube video here.

An Original

2009-01-12T23:36:00.005-05:00

With the end of BSG coming soon, I returned to the beginning. Thanks to youtube, I was able to find the introduction to the original series.

"Life here...began out there"

Powerful. Simple. Thought-provoking.

See ya.

Click here

Classes

2009-01-12T11:55:00.003-05:00

Well, it's that time again.

Classes are starting.

Today I'm in my office and it's a few minutes before my first course of the term; Sociology 1101.

There's not much to do in an intro course on the first day but I like to basically discuss how I run my class. It's easier to lay out the ground rules for how things work right off from the start so that if the students don't like it they can find another class.

In three years of teaching, I haven't had a student complain or argue any point for the first lecture but I've had several plead that they "forgot" when it comes time to make up a test or the like.

Oh well, after my one and only class today I'm hitting the gym to get back into some sense of a workout schedule.

It's too easy to be lazy when it's cold.

Ugh.

See ya later.

-Tom

Past 24 Hours

2008-12-28T10:03:00.003-05:00

No shit there I was:

I'm heading up to Huntington to see if I can get some help from Best Buy with the Iphone my mom got me for Christmas. Since it's my mother, it's not a new Iphone but nearly that. It's one of the original models that a friend of the family had purchased a while back and then replaced. Since they weren't using it - it seemed a logical gift for me since my old cellphone kept dying.

Well... that's how things started.

I'm still trying to get the PHONE part of the Iphone to work (all of the other features work fine), but for now it's not wanting to connect to AT&T's network; unless you're standing inside an AT&T wireless store.

So when I show up to talk to the people, the problem of it connecting to the network is gone and I'm proven to be just another one of the brainless, techno-boobs who don't know how to use the technology in their possessions. When I walk away from the store, however, it losses signal and eventually drops the connection all together.

Annoying.

Later that day I found out that my Josh's dad, Frank, was in a motorcycle accident and was life-flighted from South Shore, KY to Huntington. He's now suffering from STML (no, not a new form of web code, that's "Short Term Memory Loss" to those who have never taken my Psych class) but nothing was broken.

So while up in Huntington, I offered to swing by the Hospital and help drive people - like Josh - back home because I'm sure that everyone piled in whatever car was available and drove up to be with Frank. However, before I left Chris "The Paladin" Ramey's apartment, his dog decided to take a hunk out of my left calf. At first it was thought that I stepped on the dog's tail and he had bit me to get me off of him. And then it turns out that I may have just scared him so badly that he turned and attacked.

Yes. Dog realizes that a six-foot, Bastet-ish Book-lover, has somehow shadow-stepped behind him for the kill and decided to attack first.

So with bleeding dog-bite marks I head over to the Hospital to pick up Josh and say hi to the family for a bit.

The first thing that Frank says when he sees me is "Vas est loss" (or some eqivalent in German). Considering that he couldn't remember why he was in the hosptial for longer than a minute or two - or why all of his family was hovering around him - it was a display of long-term recall to pull off a German phrase. He knew what he asked, that I would understand him, and my response. He just didn't know how he knew.

Gotta love STML.

So I drove Josh home and realized that my Iphone was still not working and will probably either have to replace it with a new, Iphone 3G, or see if the local AT&T store can do something. I wasn't able to take all the time I needed up in the Huntington Mall because Chris was with me and he doesn't like crowds.

Yeah, I'll never figure that one out.

But anyway. I wanted to update this thing since I'm now on winter break for the next two weeks.

Blah

Weekends.

-Tom

Tseo says...

2008-12-16T09:49:00.003-05:00

Tseo says:

"This time, I think she's serious."

It is only fitting that the first day of finals, the finals that I am giving, would be met with two inches of snow.

I have already received, before ten o'clock this morning, three emails from students stating that they can not make it in for the final tonight. Yes, tonight. The final is not scheduled until six o'clock this evening.

I'm sure that several students are simply treating this final exam much like they did High School. Generally speaking there are only a few times in the year where the University is serious about sticking to a deadline; finals week is one of them. Students, however, feel that if there is a reason, any reason, that they should not attend class - they won't.

Snowflake in the air? Cancel.
Relatives coming (the next day) for a Holiday meal? Cancel
Rain might (might) make the roads slick for driving? Cancel

The students are ready for this term to be done. Perhaps that's just how fall terms go. Since so many students are still trying to fight the reality that this is no longer their high school, they will take any chance for the proverbial "Five more Minutes."

So, since the snow fell in earnest last night, I took this time to shovel my sidewalk and throw down some rock salt which I kept by the front door. You would think that an old, oatmeal tube full of rock salt would have been the least interesting thing in my house. But simply by placing it near my front door there was some level of curiosity aroused.

"Why do you have salt next to your front door?" A friend asked this past fall.

"Because that's where it's needed." I responded.

No need for magical intervention or supernatural explanations for this one. Keep salt by your front door (especially in a house like mine that doesn't see a lot of front-door traffic) so that when it snows or is icy you don't have to hunt down the bag from last year. I know that there's a bag of salt =somewhere= in my basement and I'll eventually dig it out, but it's quite handy to have just enough to hit the sidewalk whenever needed.

It may be magical in some circles, but it's practical in mine.

-T

New Movie: WOW

2008-11-18T12:27:00.004-05:00

Click on the Picture to view the trailer.

UNDERWORLD 3:
The third film in the $200 million UNDERWORLD franchise delves into the origins of the centuries-old blood feud between the aristocratic vampires, known as Death Dealers, and the barbaric Lycans (werewolves). A young Lycan, Lucian (Michael Sheen), emerges as a powerful leader who rallies the werewolves to rise up against Viktor (Bill Nighy), the cruel vampire king who has persecuted them for hundreds of years. Lucian is joined by his secret lover, the beautiful vampire Sonja (Rhona Mitra), in his battle to free the Lycans from their brutal enslavement.

Watch the Trailer.

ANGELS AND DEMONS

The team behind the global phenomenon The Da Vinci Code returns for the highly anticipated Angels & Demons, based upon the bestselling novel by Dan Brown. Tom Hanks reprises his role as Harvard religious expert Robert Langdon, who once again finds that forces with ancient roots are willing to stop at nothing, even murder, to advance their goals. Ron Howard again directs the film, which is produced by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, and John Calley. The screenplay is by Akiva Goldsman and David Koepp. When Langdon discovers evidence of the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati - the most powerful underground organization in history - he also faces a deadly threat to the existence of the secret organization’s most despised enemy: the Catholic Church. When Langdon learns that the clock is ticking on an unstoppable Illuminati time bomb, he jets to Rome, where he joins forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and enigmatic Italian scientist. Embarking on a nonstop, action-packed hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and even to the heart of the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra will follow a 400-year-old trail of ancient symbols that mark the Vatican’s only hope for survival.

Watch the Trailer.

Field Book

2008-11-11T20:26:00.010-05:00

A friend of mine wanted to know how I was taught to layout a field book. It's a simple process by which you can use almost any notebook for most forms of field research. I learned this technique when I was in Archaeological Field School at Ohio University almost a decade ago. You could use this format for:

Journaling
Writing (character /scene development)
Class Notes
Field Research

All you'll need is a lined notebook (or graph), some colored pencils and a ruler.

I always stuck the ruler in the back of the notebook because I had to lay out a grid in the notebook in case we found something on the site.

1. Lay the ruler against the outside edge of the notebook and draw a red line down page. For sake of ease, I would just draw the line the width of the ruler since it was usually plenty of space for what I needed in the margins.

2. In the margin that you've created, you can record whatever headings you need to outline the entry. When I was doing archeology, we had to record the date, what plot we were on, what level, etc. If you were using it for class notes or story ideas, then you can change the headings as you see fit.

3. Alternate the colors of pencil you use for the various functions in the layout. I usually used a blue pencil to divide one entry from the next as it was a good visual cue. The body of the text was written however you wanted it to be and along the margin I would list any buzzwords that I knew were important from the entry. This could be anything from a "buzzword" in a conversation, a vocab word from a class' lecture, or something that you would need to easily reference.

I would circle the buzzword in the margin and point to the entry that spoke of it. Usually this was done in green.

4. Anything that was a follow-up to what you were writing about, a to-do, was added and marked with a yellow pencil.

Since it was troublesome to carry a lot of colored pencils with me in the notebook and a bit too complicated to use them while entering the data in the field they were usually used when I got home as a follow-up.

I would usually mark out the margins of a few pages in advance of where I was in the notebook so that I had plenty of room to write. Inside the book itself I would stash a green pencil since that was the color I used to mark anything important on the page.

You could easily substitute the use of colored pencils for high-liters if that's what you like

Have you ever wondered?

2008-11-11T13:17:00.002-05:00

Have you ever wondered what your teacher does while you're sweating away on a test? Well,if you were in my Criminology class, you would have an idea.

I'm actually doing this to see if the keyboard still works. I haven't had the opportunity to use it that often since I got it back from you, but since it's with me I can toss it into my gymbag and write up lecturees, emails and such when I have a few minutes.

Not all of us have the cool, new IPhone so we have to make due with technology that is ... Eight years old?

God, I'm starving. My sinus gick finally decided to drain away about an hour before class tonight so now I need to put something on my stomach and quickly.

I wonder if that student realizes that wearing a low-cut shirt doesn't affect me like other professors? Ok, the question-mark is a bit harder to use since the keyboard is not as sensitive as my usual one.

You would think guys could bother to put on real pants when they come to class - it's not that hard. I mean, really - pajamas are cool...when you're in bed, in the dorms or stumbling towards an eight o'clock class.Not bothering to change for an evening class is just lack of effort.

Dude... Stop jiggling. Once is an itch. Three times and it's pocket-pool.

Ew.
Have I started rambling yet?

Yeah, I think that at least one of my students is not with it right now. He is just staring off into space and occasionally mussing up his hair as though the stimulation will create a static charge and it will somehow make the neurons fire ONCE more.

Feh.

Bottles of Mountain Dew: 14
Amp: 2
Ambiguous Coffee Cups: 3
Cans of Pepsi: 2
Guys who don't appear to have showered today: 4
Guys who don't appear to have showered for two days: 2
Women with a rooster-tail of hair tied back into a mess with something akin to a scrunchy: 4
Vacant stares by students up and to the right - 15
Concentrated stares down and to the left- 4
Number of strange looks by students as I type this out: 3

Well, I'm still waiting for a few of the students to finish. There are only four left in the room - one of them is a student who never shows up for class unless there is something to turn in or a test. He has a D and that's probably only because of the chapter reviews that post for the students to reference when they study.

I'm such a nice guy.

Don't sit there and snicker - I am.

Really.

I always try and help my students whenever possible. Professors who seem to have a chip on their shoulder and dare their students to knock it off have miss-placed priorities in my opinion. Yes, you should challenge your students but it should be challenging them to succeede, not to failt.

Hey, the skinny kid with the army buzz is done.

One more student left.

She's one hell of a writer though; her essays are always well-phrased and thought-out.

I think she's basically done so I'm goingto finishthis up and headout.

(yes, must focus on actually hitting the space bar to get it to work)

Later.

-T

Time for the Change

2008-11-10T21:19:00.005-05:00

In every society that I have studied, there are moments when the there is a change, an evolution of the society to become something different. In early societies, this may have been the change that occurs in the great gatherings of the summer: leaders are replaced, the shaman are initiated and the boys and girls are recognized as young men and women. This change was an accepted element of their society, something that would occur every summer or so as the need arose.

As society has become more and more complex, the annual or semi-annual change was stretched out more and more until it became a rare event that occurred only once a decade.

In our world, change is embraced and feared in the same breath. We are eager to buy up the latest change in communication's technology with Iphones and laptops and the like. Technological change is almost too common. Every Thanksmas (the combined holiday of Thanksgiving and Christmas), people are all too eager to seek out the latest tech toys not because we may need them but because the consumption of new technology is not only 'GOOD' but also required.

Change, within society however, happens slowly.

Thankfully it does still happen.

Without yammering about the merits of the new President-Elect, I will let him speak for himself.

The "Yes We Can" speech has gone viral throughout the net. Though many people are looking to him for the salvation of the country, he doesn't seem like he is presenting himself as the "leader" of the country but more like motivator.

Not "Yes -I- Can" but "We".

Pulling ourselves out of the past eight- years will be difficult, but I think that it is time for a change. Oddly enough, this is the year of balance, of the Crane. It is time to learn from our history and find a place to stand that works for us.

It is time for a Change.

-T

Athens Halloween 08

2008-11-03T16:47:00.003-05:00

Once more, the streets of Athens, Ohio were filled with the rowdy masses of the "Tweenty" Crowd (Eighteen through twenty) for the annual Halloween festival. The main street in Athens, Court St., was shut down and upwards of ten-thousand people walked from end to end drinking and carrying on in all manners of costumes.

My friend Dan and I walked down so that I could get some pictures (because everything is just fodder for the Blog) and it was nice to know that we had grown out of such things.

At one time it was fun to go up and make the laps around the 'party', but once you've done it a few times it becomes somewhat boring; especially if you're not someone who drinks alcohol.

There were scantily-clad guys and gals as far as the eyes could see. I tried to get some pictures of the throng of people, but my camera doesn't like taking pictures at night. There was also the problem that court street has a large hill in the middle of it; separating it off into North and South Court respectively. These shots are taken from the end of North Court looking back onto the street. Campus is at the foot of South Court with the Court House in the center.

To my knowledge nothing bad happened at the party. There are always going to be people who get arrested at the Party but I don't believe that there were any serious offenses.

It really made me miss my adopted "Home Town".

-T

A shot from Greenlawn

2008-11-03T16:44:00.003-05:00

This is a shot I took today in the Greenlawn Cemetery in Portsmouth. I was surprised to find out that not all of the trees had lost their leaves and the vibrant yellows against the harsh browns of the branches was just too cool not to grab.

I may try painting this sometime.

-T

Home

2008-11-02T01:04:00.004-04:00

Year of the Crane

2008-10-28T11:41:00.003-04:00

Years of the Crane
2008
1996
1984
1972
1960
1948

Concept: The crane is a symbol of balance; balance through wisdom.

Born: Those born in the year of the crane are often faced with having to navigate through the hazards of life to find their own balance. Like the crane picking its way through the reeds at the edge of the waters, they move from one leg to the other - gently picking the way through potential danger. Cranes will have hardship thrown at them over and over again but they have the capacity to find a balance that may not work for anyone else.

Year: The year of the Crane is all about figuring out some sense of balance for your life. It may not work for other people but if it works for you - if you can find some sense of balance, embrace it.

Almost a Daddy

2008-10-28T11:07:00.004-04:00

A friend of mine from High School, who has kept in tenuous contact with me over the past 18 years, appeared on my door step on Sunday with a tale of saddness and woe.

She, Stephanie, had seperated from her 48 year old husband (she's 36 like me) and her youngest son, Conner, had been having severe behavioral problems with the man over the past few months.

After the kid was put into handcuffs for fighting with other kids in school and threatening teachers, she had to remove him from that school and decided to drive all the way up from Florida to drop the kid off with her own parents here in portsmouth.

Normally, the child would have been sent to go live with his father, a man named Chris, but Chris had died in 2006 from... something. So there was no family on the father's side to take care of the boy. That left Stephanie's own parents to figure it out. Her own parents are getting on in years and her dad's health, from what I understand, isn't the best.

So she and two guys that she know made the road trip up to Portsmouth and she ended up on my doorstep. She said that she attempted to call me, but I probably ignored it since I don't answer numbers I don't recognize.

This is when it gets weird.

Since Stephanie, who has had no job for 6 months and is attending school in Florida for an Associates, is still living with her soon-to-be-ex husband, she wanted me to act as a "mentor" for her son.

It was clear that she didn't want me as a Mentor, she wanted me to be a dad to her son since her son "was just like me". I'm not sure what she meant by that since, at 13, I was damn-near homicidal, half-blind, and seriously in need of time alone.

Her own father is ill enough that he couldn't go tromping the the woods with the boy - which is what Stephanie wanted. I told her that I had no interest in being someone's surrogate father. Immediately she back-peddled and tried to explain that it wouldn't be that much and just a few hours a week or so.

Her plan, it was revealed, was to drop the kid with her parents here in Portsmouth and bring me in as a surrogate role-model for the boy if they couldn't keep control of him. This would work, in her mind, long enough for her to finish her Associates degree (by July of this year) and then she could collect the boy and reunite him with his older brother (at 15 years old) . The three of them would find some new place to live and everything would be great - once she has her degree.

So... a woman I haven't seen but for maybe a half-dozen times in eighteen years arrives with a thirteen year-old son and wants me to watch over him because he can't stand her near-fifty year-old husband. Rather than pulling both of the boys out of Florida and relocating to Shawnee State (since the only thing holding her there is the degree that she's working on down there), she's dropping a child with parents who are ill-prepared for a teenage boy and wanting me to pull up the slack.

Even though I had such a perfect role model as a father, I would somehow be able to utilize my uber-cool teacher mojo to take care of a child that I've met twice.

Yeah.

So, I was almost a daddy.

And then it happened.

Yes, it happened.

Listen for it....

"Oh HEEEeeeEEELL No."

Politely, yes politely, I explained that her entire process of thinking lacked any sense of logic and that she was being selfish. She was focusing on her own life more than her children's. She wanted her degree. All things will be better once she has her degree. She's not realizing that an Associates' degree isn't going to solve all of her problems and that even when she gets it, she'll have to go back and pick up the pieces of a child that has been fostered upon her own parents sixteen hours away from its mother.

I gave her a hug, some coffee, and sent her back into the game. She needs to fix her own problems and not include someone from high school.

Oh, and get this:

She continually tried to site our friendship in high school as 'eternal' and something that has lasted for the past eighteen years. Granted, I have kept in touch with a few people that I knew in High School - one of them I've lived with, attended his wedding on my birthday, etc., and he's even a soulless red-head, but come on. She is someone that I've seen only sparsely, for a few hours, once every two or three years. For her, nothing has changed because she's still living as though it were the day after high school graduation.

Those people are quite disturbing.

So... for those people who are reading this and wondering "WHAT THE HELL?"... there ya go.

Hopefully it was more entertaining for you than it was for me.

My life has more drama than a production of Les Miserables.

Fall, I missed you

2008-10-28T10:21:00.003-04:00

It's official, Lady Winter is wining the fight against the Lord of Leaves.

Like a pair of boxers sweating it out in a ring, the weather has been going back and forth for the past week or so but this morning I think Winter rang Autumn's bell. Waking up to 37 degrees outside was a bit of a surprise. Waking up to some outside cats screaming for food at eight in the morning meant that I had to brace myself against the frigid temperatures.

So, with a cup of kitty kibble in hand, I dashed out to fill their offering bowl and then quickly ducked back inside and scampered back into the nest of my blankets and covers.

Day-um. It be cold out there.

-T

Bucky Paper

2008-10-20T16:27:00.004-04:00

If the pen is mightier than the sword - what about the paper?

Since the Ancient Egyptians wove sections of papyrus together, we have enjoyed the ability to record our thoughts upon a medium lighter than stone or wood. While browsing through Cnn.Com today, I saw something that caught my attention.

Revolutionary paper, in general, is something that I'm always interested in. I have been looking for paper that is made from more renewable sources (hemp, etc.), but there's not much research going on in the field as of late. When I saw the link to this story I had to check it out.
I doubt that anyone will be using this new type of "paper" to scribble on any time soon. The new paper, called "Buckypaper" was developed through research into composite materials at Florida University A&M.

From CNN.COM

Buckypaper is 10 times lighter but potentially 500 times stronger than steel when sheets of it are stacked and pressed together to form a composite. Unlike conventional composite materials, though, it conducts electricity like copper or silicon and disperses heat like steel or brass.

From Wikipedia:
Buckypaper is a thin sheet made from an aggregate of carbon nanotubes.^[1] The nanotubes are approximately 50,000 times thinner than a human hair.^[1] Originally, it was fabricated as a way to handle carbon nanotubes, but in 2008 is being studied and developed into applications by several research groups, showing promise as a building material for aerospace vehicles, body armor and next-generation electronics and displays.

I don't understand all of the physics, chemistry or mad alchemy behind such a material, but I hope that this might lead us to a continued appreciation for where such innovation originated.

Though researchers now are more likely to use laptops more so than small notebooks, it's good to hear that "paper" and pen have yet to be completely forgotten.

Personally, I find the notebooks of early researchers (Leonardo Da Vinci), to be treasured works on par with illuminated bibles.

Free Notebooks?

2008-10-16T12:08:00.002-04:00

It's almost a pick-up line to someone like me.

I have been looking for a good notebook for a very long time. I have gone through a number of different designs from the fairly cheap to the expensive. One of the more common notebooks used today is the Moleskine. It's not a bad notebook but it has two fatal flaws: A) it's two and sometimes three times as expensive as the others out there and B) it's not 'exactly' what I need when I'm looking for a notebook. Depending on the model, it is either too skinny or two narrow or doesn't have enough pages to make it worth the expense.

One of the sites that I follow is a blog that reviews Moleskine alternatives, is a blog called "Black Cover".

Black cover is a great site that gives practical reviews of almost a dozen different varieties of notebooks out on the market. For those out there, like me, this helps us in the quest for the right notebook for the right job.

I'd recommend Black Cover to anyone who is looking for a selection of notebooks to choose from.

-Tom

New Schedule for Spring

2008-10-15T17:27:00.002-04:00

Well, it seems as though my schedule for this spring is going to be one of the more "creative" ones that I've had in near two and a half years of teaching at Shawnee.

The sections that were made available for the part-time faculty were all over the place. Some in the day and some at night as though they were made without really thinking about the students.

My Criminology course is two days a week next term rather than one night like it is now. The once-a-week classes are really rough on the students and myself. You're trying to cover a whole chapter of material in one night. However, as most of the students are already suffering from symptoms closely approximating ADD, they just can't focus their thoughts for three hours. Normally I give them a break about every 45 minutes or so - enough time for people to go down and grab something to drink or burn a bit of tobacco or cloves. It's long enough that they can relax their mind - relax their attention, for long enough so that when we get back into the lecture they have a bit more mental stamina.

My Sociology course is going to be three days a week - meaning that I'll have to be on campus on both Monday... AND... Friday. Ugh. I rather enjoyed having a four day weekend. Oh well.

It will be interesting at least.

-Tom

Franken-built

2008-10-11T02:21:00.005-04:00

Well, with the death and mysterious resurrection of my desktop, it was only fitting -considering the halloween season - that we end up having to create a new machine from scratch.

So with pieces from Josh's old desktop and most of my desktop we have been building a replacement most of the evening. With my motherboard, processor, memory and the like - we installed it all on Josh's frame with my old DvD Rom and Josh's DvD Rom as well.

Then we took Josh's old hard drive (which was still running Windows xp when his motherboard died a year ago) and installed it as a slave.

What does this mean?

Sometime tomorrow - I think - I'll have a clean install to corrupt all over again with an additional 120 gig hard drive for extra storage for all of the series I keep downloading plus two dvd roms to burn the stuff too.

Who knows - I might ask Mike to put Ubunto (A version of Linix) on the system rather than windows. See what happens.

Maybe I'll be turned into some uber Leet, white-hat something.

or... not.

I still think in Analog.

-Tom

Yup, I changed it

2008-10-07T22:38:00.003-04:00

It was getting to that point and I wanted to update my blog.

After I searched through the web for a cool, new template I found one that reminded me of my fondness for journals and notebooks.

This one incorporates the important elements I wanted: Green, Notebook and uncluttered.

Whatcha think?

-Tom

Zombie Computers

2008-10-07T09:59:00.004-04:00

Well, oddly enough the desktop has come back from the dead.

Last night, after I had already pronounced the desktop as dead, I reached over and punched the power button once more out of sheer habit. I needed to look something up and the laptop was in the other room and as soon as I hit the power button I realized "Duh, it's dead."

Well, this time - rather than it turning on for a few moments to start it's power-up process and then die when it 'accessed' either of the two CD/dvd roms - it actually fired up.

I'm not sure whether or not a faulty cd / dvd rom would cause it to fail to boot, though I did try disconnecting both to see if that would remove whatever the problem was before I declared it dead on Sunday.

So as of right now, it's up and working. However, I'm not going to try and jinx it by restarting the system until I have more info.

In somewhat related news, Bryian the technomancer and part-time chinese herbalist, sent me a link to a mini-laptop that Walmart is putting out. I am a huge fan of the mini-laptop concept. The very title of my blog is a "Digital Notebook". It's something that I've been toying with for ... more than a decade. My notebook is almost a symbolic representation of myself. Wherever you see me, there is my notebook - in one form or another. The problem that I have had is that the notebook eventually runs out. I would rather have a notebook that I could keep typing on and the like.

With the new Dell Mini-9 and the Everex 7" Cloudbook, I'm getting closer and closer to achieving a "digital notebook".

-Tom

It's dead Jim.

2008-10-05T11:18:00.002-04:00

It's official.

My desktop is dead.

This morning I found out that the desktop computer will not turn on. Once you turn on the power, it starts to fire up but even before the monitor would display the first image, it dies.

I'm sure that means something so I'm trying to look up what it might be but for now it's dead.

Thank the heavens that I still have my laptop or else I would be disconnected.

fffear.

Later.

-Tom

Hammies and the curse of the sadistic bastard

2008-10-04T09:16:00.004-04:00

Guess what I discovered?

I found out that I have hamstrings once more.

Hamstrings are the muscles on the back of your thighs. I haven't really used such muscles in quite a while. However, my "Sadistic Bastard" of a weight-trainer (aka. Will) has had me doing some pretty messed up things in the gym of late.

After Wednesday's workout my legs were tight but nothing more than that. I stretched out and all that and thought that they would be fine. The next day, while I was giving my Criminology students their first exam, I could feel those hamstrings start to tighten. It's not like I could start stretching out my muscles as people were writing out their essays so I took it in stride.

Then, later at home, I realized that they were more than just a "little" tight. They were starting to really make their voices known. By Friday morning I was half-crippled every time I tried to bend over or take a long stride while walking.

Today, after a soak in the hot tub yesterday, my legs are less of a chorus and more of a whisper. I can still feel them but they're not crippling me.

Sadistic Bastard!

New Gear

2008-09-09T09:35:00.003-04:00

Not that I have it yet, but I'm seriously considering it.

Not since my friend Bryian gave me (yes, gave me) an NEC 780 mini-laptop a few years ago have I come across anything that seems like it could replace or augment my notebook.

This mini notebook is only 9 inches by 7 which is smaller than some of my analog notebooks that I've used over the years.

It's the Dell Inspirion Mini 9.

At only 350-450, this would be the perfect "WORKING" laptop that's an actual laptop and not a portable computer. It's designed for people who need to word process and hit the net but stay mobile.

This might have to happen.

-Tom

Letter-Writing Folio

2008-09-09T09:07:00.004-04:00

As I write a lot of letters, I was running into the problem that I couldn't find any kind of folder or folio to hold all of my letter stuff in one place. So, being the true bibliophile, I decided to make what I needed.

Basically, the folio had to hold envelopes, a writing pad and something to write with. You would have thought that it would have been easy to find. Any kind of office supply place should have had something that could of worked but nope.

With some scrap pieces of cardboard, file folder and gray board, I grabbed the handyman's secret weapon (duct tape) and started pulling the elements together.

I added a slot to the back of the folio so that whatever writing pad I was using could be slid into it. I wanted it to be held closed so the letters would fall out or get loose in my bag so I added a closure flap to the right with some velcro squares.

The pencil loops was just so that I had some place to keep a utensil.

Duct tape makes a perfect joint; it's flexible and fairly strong.

If I were doing this folio for real, I'd probably use leather; preferably pig skin.

This design is a working prototype so it's not about polish or presentation. It just has to work until I can figure out where corrections need to be made. Give it while and I'll probably make a version for real. Just in time so that I can find a folio that I was originally looking for.

Once the folio is closed, the velcro strips line up to keep it held closed. I may cover the thing in paper or something even though it only is a working prototype.

I'll post some updates if I make revisions.

-Tom

A Squatting Ent?

2008-09-09T08:59:00.003-04:00

You find the mythical world in the strangest places sometimes.

This is a shot of a strange bit of greenery in the local cemetery.

Does it not look like some huge ent has leaned up against a tree and is watching something in the distance.

Btw, if you were to line up where the figure is looking, the first thing he would be watching is a funeral home.

Makes ya wonder.

-Tom

Update

2008-09-06T16:42:00.003-04:00

Well, it turns out that Josh was hurt more than previously thought.

Even though his muscles have started to relax and the swelling has gone down, he was in more and more pain. He couldn't figure out why his arm was hurting more as it got further from the date of the wreck.

Today he called me up to ask if I could pick him up because he was in wincing pain just to stand still.

After a trip to the emergency room he found out that he had fractured his clavicle. The swelling of the muscles apparently disguised the break in the original x-ray.

So now he's on better pain killers and wearing some kind of cloth harness to keep his shoulders straight and allow the collar bone to heal.

Once more Josh is crashing at my place this weekend because he's not able to easily crawl into the top bunk at the dorms.

I'm such a nice guy.

NSTIW

2008-08-31T00:57:00.002-04:00

It's been one of those days.

Today was my first weekend since classes start. It's the time when I try and get into a rhythm to clean the house and work on projects for the coming week. Well, I am still in the process of cleaning and de-junking the house so my project today was to launch another assault on the front room. However, before I sent in the army, I wanted to at least start on a project that I've been meaning to play with for several months.

To start things off I was working in the guest room and starting a project that I had on a shelf since Josh, my ex-roommate, had moved in. A friend of mine had asked me to repair a book of fairytales for her. It's an older book from the sixties or seventies that was well warn and very well loved and the pages were literally falling out of the spine. The pages had to be cut free from the spine and separated and then repaired. Each page can take hours to repair - not for the actual repairs but for all of the time it takes to allow the cleaning agents and glue to dry. So once I had one page in the drying phase I could attack the front room.

While cleaning on the front room I got a call from Dan, the Fish. He was in the area and wanted to swing by and catch up before he headed back up to Athens. So I took a break when he got to the house. I hadn't gotten much information about "The Family" lately but assumed that things were progressing well and measured as most things (save for people screaming on a roof) tend to do. Heather was on her way to Indiana, Morgana was in preparation to move into the dorms and start her education at Ohio University, and Dan was gearing up to start classes in Lancaster.

After a while Dan had to go because he was needing to get back to Athens so he could change in time for his weekend gig as a drummer for Barbara's restaurant, Salam. Yes, my friends are just that cool. So I bid him fare well and started to attack the front room once more.

A bit later, Josh and his buddy, Mike, showed up to grab a load of Josh's stuff. They were in and out in only a few minutes but it was another small break. Once they were gone, the spot that was once occupied by Josh's box was cleaned and things were moved to accommodate the new, open design. (AKA: No More JUNK.)

Em wanted to come over lunch and I decided that I could use some of her AbFab (that's ABsolutely FABulous) sense of design with me moving things around in the front room. A few more boxes got cleaned before she showed up and I took another break to catch up with her after her first week of classes.

Most of the conversation, after the consumption of some pizza, was flavored with me cleaning and pitching junk from the piles of things in the front room. While in the last throws of sorting, I received a phone call from Josh's cellphone. It wasn't Josh.

Mike was calling me to let me know that he and Josh had been in a wreck; the word he was used was 'T-boned'. I'm not sure exactly what I asked him but it was something akin to "PUT JOSH ON THE PHONE." I'm sure it was polite and civil (in my usual manner) but there was no doubt in my mind that I could, at that very moment, teleport through the phone if only to make sure that Josh was ok.

Josh explained what had happened but there were a few words that popped into my mind and didn't want to leave. Words like: Jaws of Life, and Backboard, are hard to miss when someone's telling you that they're ok. I think he actually repeated that he was 'ok' a few times in between his description of how they had to remove the ENTIRE PASSENGER SIDE of Mike's car. Not the door, the whole side. That is, both the back door, the front door and the connective membrane of metal that would separate the two.

At that time, Josh was waiting on the results from his x-ray to see if anything was broken. Josh's mother works at the local hospital were he was taken (and is also skilled in the taking of x-rays) so she was right there with him. I asked him if he needed anything, but since he didn't know when they were going to tell him what was going on and his mom was there - he didn't need anything at the time.

So I got off the phone with Josh, told Em the basic jist, and then unleashed a torrent, nay - a stream of cleansing energy; that is to say that I cranked up my tidy genes and organized and pitched with more gusto. My friend was hurt but there was nothing much I could do for him at that particular moment. So, being the controlling person that I am, I decided to bring some much needed order to my house - whether the universe wanted to allow it or not.

A few minutes later Josh called me and asked if he could get a ride from the hospital. Mike's car was totaled and his mom couldn't leave work. So Em took off so she could get ready for work and I put the Saturnator's headlights (they're the closest things to nipples) to the wind and was off to SOMC.

Long story short....

.... Too late.

Josh is crashed in the guest room right now with the right side of his body aching and twinging with pain. There is no bruising after several hours and he's on some mighty good pain killers and muscle relaxers. He could have gone back to the dorms but his bed is the top bunk. He would not have been able to crawl up to the top with his body so whacked out of shape by the wreck. So, since I had just cleaned the guest room and such, ran him to get his 'scrip filled at Walmart and down to his dorm to get some clothes and piled him on the couch for a while. Mike's parents eventually came and picked him up so he could figure out what he will do because of the accident (he was sited for failure to yield to a stop sign).

After I got some chicken-rice down him so that he would have something on his stomach to help the meds work, I poured him into the guest bed so that he could try and sleep to let his body heal.

Yes, it's been one of those days.

-Tom

P.s. NSTIW: No Shit There I Was... How -else- do you begin a blog such as this?

Bon Anniversaire

2008-08-25T13:45:00.002-04:00

Yes,

it's that time once again.

With the start of the 2008-2009 academic year at Shawnee State University, I celebrate my birthday.

This morning I was up with the birds (couldn't sleep) and went down to campus for our first 'Professional Day' whereby the university's administration made several presentations about the growth of the campus and some other topics.

There were some interesting stats about this year: we're getting closer and closer to 4k students enrolled; a huge step for Shawnee. We've seen a huge jump in enrollment over the summer though I don't know the specific stats. I would guess that the increased enrollment was a result of the local, shrinking economy. More people are choosing to enroll for classes if jobs are scarce and they're going to Shawnee because we are generally less expensive.

One of the presentations today said that most students will have something close to $16,500 in debt when they graduate. This doesn't seem to be too bad for a four-year degree. When you're faced with low income and you need to improve your marketability for jobs, the cheapest solution is often the only solution.

The rest of the presentations were a bit wordy - they were more like lengthy lectures on topics that no one cared about. Even though a lot of the faculty would bemoan students for getting up and walking out to grab a drink in the middle of a class; checking their cellphones or talking to their neighbor - almost everyone was showing their boredom.

I love irony.

After the presentations, we were treated to a nice lunch of BBQ chicken and pork. I got to sit with a few other of the professors and a fellow adjunct from my department. I made the joke that maybe we should be sitting at the "Kid's Table" since we weren't full-time faculty.

It was a brief lunch and then I wanted to get some work done, but I found that there are now three other faculty sharing my office. One of which were using it so I just decided to come home and change out of my 'professor gear'. After a summer of living in little more than cargo shorts, t-shirts and Teva sandals, getting dressed in khaki's and a dress-shirt was a bit constricting.

Tomorrow night is the first night of lecture for me. I was hoping to teach during the day again, but my classes are all at night. Oh well, it just means that I can sleep in more.

There's not much more going on right now. I've been able to rearrange and clean the house a little and I'll probably jump into it again here in a few, but I wanted to get a post up.

I haven't been blogging much lately because there's not been much going on. Now with classes getting back into full swing that'll change.

See ya later.

-Tom

Merry Moving Day

2008-08-23T09:08:00.004-04:00

Well, it's come.

Today is Moving Day.

Josh is in the process of gathering up his stuff to move into the dorms today around 1 p.m. We've already hauled most of his furniture to his parent's place and now he just has the little stuff that he'll take with him.

Well, I shouldn't say "little stuff", because he's got the idea that he's going to take a TON of things along with him. Josh plans on hauling all of his kitchen stuff with him so that he can cook in the dorms. He's never lived in the dorms and is operating on the idea that the dorms are just like an apartment.

The dorms are very similar to an apartment (two large bedrooms with three people each and a connecting living room) and there's a small kitchen area there for people to store food or to cook.
At 25 years old, Josh will be one of the oldest people in the dorms.

I'm sure that this will be a very interesting experience for him.

Once he's moved his stuff out, I'm going to be cleaning and rearranging the house a bit. The house has had a 'cluttered' feeling ever since Josh moved in. There just wasn't much room to put all of his stuff away so a lot of it sat in baskets and boxes in the front room. That combined with some stuff that I am storing for some other friends just junked up the front room.

Not that many people came over to the house, but the first thing that they would see was all of the stuff cluttering up the front room and it just bugged the hell out of me.

Oh well, that'll be fixed soon.

More later.

-Tom

...Giveth and it Taketh away

2008-07-30T12:01:00.002-04:00

The very day that I got approved for the next batch of "Summer Funds", my computer chair decided to break. I've had the chair for at least the past five years if not longer and when it finally gave up there was no repairing it.

I'm quite certain that the metal bits in the chair weren't designed to be used for as long as I have had the chair so when they finally broke - several of the bits actually 'ripped' apart.

So, as soon as I get some funds back in my wallet - the universe decides to encourage me to spend it quickly.

Oh... joy.

Boomdiada

2008-07-29T13:08:00.004-04:00

Because I can't get this blasted song out of my head.

I had to share.

Click here.

-T

What goes thump?

2008-07-28T08:52:00.003-04:00

There are many things that make noise,
crickets, cats, and cicada and boys
but few of them make a thump in the night.

Now even if you allow
for the occasional growl
there are few things that go thump.

But that is exactly what awoke me at four in the morn,
a thump that sounded as loud as a horn.

The thump was that of a tree as it fell,
more accurately as it's crashing death's knell.

With a strong summer blow,
the trees twisted to and fro
and one did go thump in the night.

As I launched from the door
to see ever so more,
I spied what had given me such a fright.

'twas a branch and a limb and two trunks did fall,
for when one tree fell
it took them all.

Now I know the answer
of what goes thump in the night.
It's the sound of a tree
attempting to flee
and forgetting that trees can't take flight.

(This post brought to you because I can't get that damn 'Hippy Grandma' out of my head)

-Tom

I've been blogged!

2008-07-21T10:38:00.003-04:00

Ok, so it's only Em's blog about my outdoor kitchen, but still.

Have a look here.

-Tom

Cellphone Problems

2008-07-10T20:42:00.002-04:00

Just FYI:

For the past few days my cellphone has enjoyed dropping calls, not ringing, sending calls directly to voice mail and the like.

I have no idea what's wrong with it and I am in the process of getting a replacement from AT&T. It seems to work best when it's plugged in (usually at night).

I will try and call people back (it hasn't stopped doing that part yet) if it tells me that I had a call.

Otherwise, find me on yahoo or email.

Patience.

-Tom

How to freak out your host in 13 steps

2008-07-04T09:43:00.004-04:00

Step 1: Wake up at 8:30 a.m. and realize that the 'small' leak you discovered in your car yesterday may not have been so small with the torrential down-pours that we've been having of late.

Step 2: Investigate the 'small' leak and discover that not only is your driver seat wet, but there is an INCH of standing water in the floor board. Yes, an inch.

Step 3: Momentarily loose your icy facade and grumble out demonic slurs upon the birds and squirrels within ear-shot.

Step 4: Investigate the leak further to discover that what attempts you have made to seal what -might- be a leaky spot has been completely ignored by the rain as though it were the Maginot Line.

Step 4.a.: Wonder if Saturn was invented by the French.

Step 4.b.: Scribble note to self, "Saturn. French? Dig!" in notebook.

Step 5: Check weather.com and discover waves and waves of rain clouds heading for your position.

Step 5.a.: Fully understand what it might feel like to be the commanding officer along the Maginot Line after the first wave of German soldiers have gotten past you and then find out that there are more coming.

Step 5.b: Consider your options and decide that rather than use a French answer to this problem, try Welsh.

Step 6: Realize that your car, though parked under a friend's deck, is also pointing nose-in to their garage.

Step 7: Decide that the best option is to simply remove yourself from the field of battle until you've properly prepared yourself. (And hope your hosts won't freak when you want to borrow their garage for the rest of your visit.)

Step 8: Investigate their basement.

Step 8.a: Realize that for the years that your hosts have lived in their house, you've never seen them use their garage as a container for anything other than boxes (both full and empty).

Step 9: Organize their basement / garage into a space that's large enough to accommodate your car.

Step 9.a.: Move piles and piles of card board bits thither and yon. (Can I use thither in a thentance?)

Step 9.b.: Discover lost pages for the Pilgrim's Journal in the piles of empty boxes that have been scattered about.

Step 9.c.: Fight overwhelming urge to tidy your host's garage / basement.

Step 9.d: Become stumped at the presence of a weight bench in their basement cocooned by box-debris.

Step 9.e.: Really fight the urge to tidy your host's garage / basement.

Step 9.f: Discover that the large lump under the pile of boxes is actually a couch. (so that's where that thing went.)

Step 9.g: Really, no kidding, fight the urge to tidy your host's garage / basement. (This is where I'm channeling my inner Welshman. Yes, I'm still Irish but I bare a striking behavioral resemblance to a certain Welshman named Ianto and we'll leave it at that.)

Step 9.g.1: Fight the urge to sing 'Captain Jack' by Billy Joel while writing this blog.

Step 10: Finish cleaning a space for your car and go back into your host's house to ask if you can do what you've been preparing to do for the past thirty minutes.

Step 11: Quietly creep up the stairs to their bedroom since they're still not moving this morning. (around 9:30 a.m. - which may be early for some people and especially if there's a baby involved.)

Step 12: Ask the question: "Can I borrow your garage for the rest of the day?"

Step 12.a: Wait for their sleep-induced, mental-lethargy to catch up with what you just asked.

Step 12.b: Explain the situation about your car and pause dramatically for appropriate snickers and repeats of "What? What?" from your half-asleep hosts.

Step 12.c: Wait for one of them to say, "It won't fit." and then explain that you've already made a spot for your car.

Step 13: Gratefully accept your host's permission to use their garage for a while and move your car out of the range of fire (or rain) that is headed your way.

Step 13.a: Wait for them to fully wake up and wonder if your asking to borrow their garage was actually a dream or something.

It Happened alright.

2008-06-29T09:00:00.003-04:00

Well, It Happened.

Last night I went to see the movie "The Happening". I wasn't too sure how it would turn out and the only thing that I read about it was something close to "Nature Strikes Back". But, as it was an M. Night Shyamala(h)-ding-dong movie I was hoping that there would be his usual plot twist at the end like he's done with Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and The Village.

However, what I got was a whole lot of wasted time. The movie's plot was so completely out in left field that I was reeling from it within the first ten minutes. I tried to find some redeemable quality in the concept, but all I could see was a bunch of shock-based scenes intended to give the audience a scare in between their moments of confusion.

The filming of the movie was so terrible that you ACTUALLY see the boom mike coming down from the top of the screen to follow the various actors who are on camera. Now normally I would have chalked it up to a single mistake that they didn't catch in editing but this happens over and over again. It's so noticeable because the microphone has a big red line around the end so you can see it switching direction from one actor and then to the other.

Normally, in disaster movies such as this, the audience can become involved in the movie by watching the characters figure out the 'rules' to the disaster. Either it's something as simple as: "Get out of the city" or "Stay in the light." But this movie's plot is so far out there that there isn't really a 'rule' that you can hold onto. Anything and everything that is green wants to kill you. The end.

So, there's about two hours of my life that I will not be getting back.

Grade: F

Flying a Kite

2008-06-15T10:09:00.004-04:00

On June 15, 1752, Franklin successfully drew an electric charge from a rain cloud using a key tied to a kite.

Franklin a truly interesting person. His inventions and ideas on politics and technology were, in some ways, revolutionary; literally.

I wanted to blog about something this morning and found that I was more interested in a kite than the actual holiday celebrated today. The accomplishments of a man flying a kite with a brass key during a storm is more interesting, to me, than a holiday celebrating a figure that I've never known.

Similar to discussions about mysteriously ephemeral figures and prophets, I have heard my friends relate their thoughts on the matter and regail me with all of the stories associated with their childhood, but in the end I am left ignorant.

Perhaps my lack of faith in the figure celebrated today is connected to the lack of faith in the figure celebrated in late December and again with the first days of spring.

So, today, as families gather and phone calls are made back and forth - I will think of a man on a hill with a kite and a key.

At least -he- kept a notebook. :)

-Me

Sitting in a pool of gasoline...

2008-05-29T14:23:00.003-04:00

... and that was only the beginning of my day.

In response to a trouble call from my grandfather, I ended up running out to give his van a jump. He couldn't get it started even with a jump so he had to call a tow-truck. He said that he didn't need my help beyond that so I came back home.

At this point, I hadn't even grabbed a shower yet. Before I could get one toe wet, my grandfather called again and asked for an extra pair of hands. I should know better, but he's my last grandparent so I threw my clothes back on and headed back over.

Within ten minutes, we discovered that his fuel line had a crack in it and I was sitting in a pool of gasoline while it drained into buckets. This then progressed into cutting the rusted section out of the gas line and replacing it with high-pressure hose.

I've found out
a) My Gerber pocket knife can cut through high-pressure hose like it's butter.
b) Gasoline is not shampoo.
c) Even with an electrician, an auto mechanic, a carpenter and a few plumbers in the family I am -STILL- no where near mechanically inclined.

So I'm going to jump in the shower - there's been no follow-up calls for 10 minutes. I think it's safe.

Later.

-Tom

I went to the Hospital today...

2008-05-28T17:43:00.006-04:00

And for all of you who were only skimming the blog for a title, hah!

Today I rode over to the local Hospital with Josh. It's about a 3 mile round trip so it was a little further than I was used to riding, but it was a good ride.

The seat has been fixed and the handle bars have been raised so I'm not hunched over so much and having problems with my 'sitting bones'.

Riding has become something that I do now each day to build up my endurance and shred some calories. This is also, unfortunately, giving me more sun than I'm used to so I'm also enjoying a the pleasure of some Advil before I head out.

Glasses of Iced Tea: Lots
Bottles of Diet Pepsi: None
Cravings for cookies, pizza and diet pepsi: incalculable.
Number of days I've saved gasoline: 4
Number of house projects conceptualized: 13
Number of house projects I can afford: (tba)

Owie

2008-05-24T10:38:00.003-04:00

Miles Ridden: 2
Money spent: too much
Lessons learned about bike seats: 1, Owie.
# of 'Pain in the ass' jokes: 47

Rather than being stuck at home all the time because gas prices are just too high for luxury driving, I opted to invest a few bucks into something that I hope will pay me back two fold.

Yesterday, I went out to the store and picked up the cheapest bike possible as a means to hopefully save a few bucks in gas and, more importantly, get more exercise into my weekly schedule. The bike was only $70 dollars but once you factor in the other little bits that are needed to do any kind of riding, it did start to add up.

Bike Lock, $10.
Air Pump, $10
Seat Cover $15

Speaking of the seat cover, let's just go back to how I enjoyed my first, two-mile ride yesterday.

When we got the bikes, both Josh and I got locks but I picked up the air pump, figuring that the tires would need to be pumped up before we could ride, and he got a gel seat. At the time, I didn't think that the cover was necessary.

Riding after almost twenty years was a lesson in just how much I'm out of shape as well as how the construction of something as forgetful as a bike seat can cause you more than a little pain. Josh and I immediately wanted to ride over to the cemetery and back; approximately a two mile round trip. I realized about half way into the trip that my ass was hurting more than my legs. I assumed that my legs would burn because I haven't used them for that kind of work out in a while. This was a different kind of pain.

Now, not to get weird but I think that this pain stemmed from the fact that I don't have much of an ass; well, at least not now. After sitting on the bike seat for a quarter mile, I realized that somehow my pelvis (specifically, the ischia are your sitting bones. They carry all your weight when you sit down.) was not cushioned at all and I was actually getting bruises. By the time we got to the cemetery, I was almost standing up on the pedals to avoid from sitting on the seat.

So when we got home yesterday, I was in more than a little pain and my legs were alternately going numb because of the shooting pains down from my ass. We got into the house and I immediately crashed on the couch in a drip of sweat.

Riding is going to be a fun activity, but the seat is a joke. If I wanted to have a pain in my ass all summer... (yea, you can take it from there).

So now I'm nursing my bruises and waiting to wake up a little more before I head back up to Walmart.

Owie.

-T

OMG! WTF? GAS $$$ UGH.

2008-05-22T21:08:00.003-04:00

Ok,

So I have been talking about getting a bike to ride around town this summer (and beyond) because of the rising gas prices. A few days ago I had to put some gas in my car to keep it running and it cost me $16.00 for a QUARTER tank; roughly 4 gallons. I have a small, four-cylinder car so it normally doesn't take that much to fill it up. I haven't FILLED my gas tank in months.

I have gotten into the habit of walking down to the store for groceries or odds and ends rather than jumping in the car to conserve on gas. Today, as a matter of example, I went down to the store to get a few things on foot. Josh and I then went down to campus in the car because he had to pick up a few boxes of stuff from this past quarter that would have just been too hard to carry. When we got back we walked across town to the movies; again, to conserve gas - and to preemptively burn off the calories of dinner.

On the way back from the movies we got picked up by my pal Jim to go out to the lake with his dog, Jake. It was a great time to go hang out and stuff but here's where things get interesting.

Once we were back into town, the price of gas had shot up to $4.20 a gallon for the cheap gas. When we drove down to campus around 1 p.m. it was still $3.99. I was hoping that it would stay just under four dollars for Memorial Day. I guess I was completely wrong. The oil companies knew that Memorial day would be a big travel weekend, even if it's just out to some local park for a BBQ, and are grabbing up as much money as they can.

Something also to consider, the Economic Stimulus checks that everyone is getting to help boost the economy is probably going to go directly into everyone's gas tank.

Ugh.

-T

Fluffy Muffin Taters

2008-05-17T12:54:00.003-04:00

Must

Not

Kill.

The coffee house has been besieged by a middle-school, girls, soccer team.

My monastic mental discipline has allowed me to fend off the Urukai-like assaults to my senses, but the sheer vacuum of cogent thought is starting to suck my mind out through my right ear.

I am not sure what they're talking about, but the few syllables that break through my rapidly failing shields have formed the phrase:

Fluffy....Muffin....Taters.

I'm afraid.

-T

Denison-Trip

2008-05-17T10:05:00.006-04:00

I'm sitting in a very nice coffee house in Granville, Ohio near Denison University. Jim and I drove up at o'dark-thirty this morning for a meeting.

The coffee house is not what one would imagine as being a traditional caffeine den as it's built within a beautiful house on a road near the river. Aptly named, it is called the River Road Coffee House.

Within five minutes of stepping through the doors I am immediately filled with sense of both longing and disappointment. I would love for Portsmouth to have such a coffee house near campus - but I don't think it will happen for several more years if at all. This place, the River Road, has a very warm and inviting atmosphere. It encourages people to spend a few hours and relax. Just from where I'm sitting, there are tables full of laptops and text books and students / professors a plenty.

Ahh... Academia.

Feels like home.

More later.
-Tom

Ancient Curse

2008-05-12T08:43:00.002-04:00

Well, that's what it feels like sometimes.

I had plans to work in my backyard since before Finals Week. I need to haul all of the sandstone blocks that once made a retaining wall out from behind the car port and use them elsewhere.

However, since I made arrangements to borrow tools and set aside time to work on this phase in the project, it has decided to rain. Not -just- rain, but down pour. The temperature has dropped and it's stayed cool and wet which has mostly removed the idea of yard work.

One of these days I'm going to swear that my fate is the result of an Ancient Curse.

And one of these days I'll be right.

-T

Chai Goodness

2008-05-09T09:13:00.003-04:00

So..

This morning I had to crawl out of bed early to take my cat, Cinder, to the Vet to have her fixed. I was not going to go through another Heat or another batch of kittens with her. So I was up at the crack of dawn (7:30 a.m.) to begin the cat-wrangling.

Thankfully, she often sleeps at the foot of my bed so she was easy to catch. I snuck up to her and offered her a head-scratch before I figuratively threw a black bag over her tiny head and stuffed her into the box. Well, that's what you would have thought by the noise she was making. While she yowled in her cat-crate, I tried to get myself together and get going.

Here's the interesting part:

My roommate Josh is heading to Yellowstone National Park for two weeks for a school trip. He leaves today sometime in the afternoon. They are going to drive straight through and switch out drivers as necessary. Since he's going to be one of the drivers, he stayed up late last night so that he would sleep in today. I, foolishly, stayed up with him - to a point.

With yowling cat-crate in hand, I stumbled out of the house and immediately remembered that I needed to get gas. Gas here is up to 3.79 a gallon. So while I'm not-filling up my tank, everyone around me hears the painful yowl of my cat in the carrier.

I get a few strange looks (she was yelling so loudly that she could be heard through closed car doors), but eventually got back on the road.

Dropping the cat off was much like going to a doctor's office. They ushered me into a small waiting room and asked me about this and that for the procedure.

They offered meds for the cat. They offered shots, and boosters and a number of other services even though I told them I was just there to get her fixed. The vet-tech was nice and personable but really was pushing their other services and I was only half awake so I numbly sat through her recitation of how many flavors of topical antibiotic they had. (I think she said flavors)

I just kept repeating "Just fix her..."

Once that bit of joy was finished, I was on my way back home and remembered that, as it was Friday, I was going to run by and grab some chai for my mother and I. There's only one place in Portsmouth that serves Chai - Hatti Beasleys. They're really attempting to make their shop work, but I think that it would have a better market if it was closer to the University. Right now, their only real market is the nearby Hospital and all of the "Tomb Walkers" who walk around Green Lawn Cemetery around dusk.

Well, now I'm home and I'm out on the front porch so I don't wake up Josh.

Finals are over.

I have Chai.

I'm on my laptop.

Life is sometimes not so bad.
-T

My first morning

2008-05-07T10:02:00.003-04:00

So I was hoping to sleep in a little today, as it's my first day off, and enjoy a lazy morning.

Well, that didn't happen.

My bathroom sink has not been draining well of late and I had it on my list (actually #11) for things to tackle. This morning I hear my roommate, Josh, tell me - "Dude, the sink doesn't work".

This is Josh-speak for:

"Thomas, I believe that the drain is clogged and you may need to have it fixed more quickly than anticipated."

So I crawled out of bed and grabbed my tools and went to the basement.

I SO need a tool belt.

The problem wasn't in the main drain it was at the sink.

Now let me paint you a picture of my skill with plumbing. I have none. So I took the sink apart (yes, the whole sink) and took the various parts out to the driveway to spray it out with my garden hose. Once things were cleaned out, I put it back together (and surprisingly had no spare parts) and it works fine now.

After some breakfast, I'm going to head into my next project: Beating my driveway with a sledge hammer. It's been quite uppity lately and needs to be taught a lesson.

Later. :)

-Tom

p.s. yes, that image of the plumber's crack will haunt you for the next 30 minutes.

I'm Done

2008-05-06T23:22:00.007-04:00

That's right,

I'm done!

Today was the day of my final exams; Psychology, Sociology and Criminology all in one day. So for six hours straight today, with only a half-hour break every two hours, I was giving, grading and posting grades.

JOY.

I've been caught up with getting things finished for the term for the past week or so (tons of papers to grade) and haven't been posting much to the blog. There really hasn't been much to publish other than "Yes, I'm -still- reading papers". So I decided to postpone any substantive post until I was finished. And now...

I'M DONE!!

God it feels good to say that so I'll say it once more.

I'M FINALLY DONE!!!

Ok, anyway.

It's not that I don't like my job. I love my job. I even like a percentage of my students. However there's something that I need to get off my chest.

There is a new form of evil in the world. Yes,

E-vil

Back in the chapters of history, we all knew this horrible concept as simply as self-important girls who attempted to twist anything and anyone to do their bidding. Oddly enough they were able to turn schools, clicks and whole athletic teams into their disciples. You all knew them. They were at your school in one form or another. Their evil was known by another name:

HEATHERS

This evil was was thought to have been destroyed and forgotten with the shoulder pads for which they were known.

Stalking the halls like an unholy quadruplet of attitude (that's At-ta-tude for those who know how to pronounce the head-shake devil language spoken only by click-chicks, drag queens and poorly acted villains of the 80's), they simply assumed that their powers of accessorization and haircare gave them ultimate authority.

Now let us move forward to college, let's say a small University. This evil has been reborn not with shoulder pads or with poofy 80's hair, but with something much much worse.

Hip Huggers

Dressed like their momma's didn't teach them how to pull up their damned pants, the evil struts their way around our campus and heads turn.

The girls want to be them.

The guys want to be WITH them.

They are the spawn of an ancient evil.

And their name is:

ASHLEY

The Ashley, they are plural and are therefor named as such, are an evil horde of women that descended up on Shawnee's campus and more to the point, my classes. I have three Ashley's in Criminology, two in Psych and one in Sociology. Each one of them is a clone of the other. They do not participate in class, when they actually bother attending. Each of them had to be told "Do not text on your phone in my class," only once. I say once, not because they stopped the behavior, but actually because they just stopped coming to class.

Only attending on test days, sometimes missing the test day completely, they routinely scored below 50% even with an in-class review of the material on the previous class and hand-outs to help them study. To me, this was their inability, or unwillingness to put forth any effort towards their classes. According to one of the Ashley:

"Grades aren't important. Life is just like High School - it's not WHAT you know but WHO you know."

So now that we were winding up the course, the Ashley attempted to once again use their powers to their own end.

This is when one Evil met another kind of Evil.

Sparks flew through the air and the ground broke apart to spew fire and death.

The Ashley met opposition and for the first time in their lives (according to the shocked looks on their faces) they were not given what they wanted.

Yes.

I crushed their widdle egos.

I ruined their widdle lives.

I failed their sorry, hoochy-momma, crack-whore-thong wearin' asses!!

And...

I'm Done!

Expect more frequent updates now that

On the Shelf

2008-04-15T09:54:00.005-04:00

Normally I don't read much fiction. I will get too caught up in the concepts and ideas of the story and then crash into disappointment when it's not as real as I want it to be. (I -WILL- have an army of robots at my command. Mark my words...)

However, I am starting to experiment with new things and one of them is to read a series of books by Jim Butcher, the author of the Dresden Files.

Harry Dresden is the best at what he does. Well, technically, he's the only at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal creativity or capability, they come to him for answers. For the "everyday" world is actually full of strange and magical things -- and most of them don't play well with humans. That's where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a -- well, whatever.
There's just one problem. Business, to put it mildly, stinks. So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry's seeing dollar signs. But where there's black magic, there's a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry's name. And that's when things start to get... interesting.

Magic. It can get a guy killed.

The books were turned into a pilot series on the Scifi channel but it only had 12 episodes shot. I would have liked for them to have made more. The characters of Harry (the wizard), Bob (the ghost of a warlock who is condemed to live in his skull for eternity) and Murphy (the plucky, street-wise detective) is a bit archetypal but still fun to watch.

Just something Funny

2008-04-10T23:42:00.000-04:00

Power Outtage

2008-04-10T11:23:00.003-04:00

Shawnee Obelisk
Originally uploaded by Green Pilgrim

Tuesday marked a weird event on Shawnee's campus.

While I was teaching my morning Psych class, the power went out across the campus. One minute I was talking about fear and phobias and the next we're sitting in almost complete darkness with just a faint glow coming through the doors. There was nothing to do but to close the class early and let them go.

So I went out to the President's Porch and grabbed my notebook for a bit of a break. I didn't know if they were going to cancell classes for the rest of the day or if it was something simple like a blown fuse. Well, it was something close to a blown fuse but it would take more than someone flipping a switch to repair it. Rumors began to spread from group to group as to how long it would take for the problem to be fixed.

And then security upped the anty.

Several security guards wandered from group to group and told us that it would take between six and eight hours to fix the problem. The immediate response from all of the secretaries and faculty was:

WHEN ARE THEY RELEASING US?

It took about a half hour for the word to go out that classes were going to be cancelled for the rest of the day. As soon as I heard, I jumped into my car and headed for the exits because I didn't want to be caught in what would have been a huge traffic snarl; all of campus leaving at once.

Well, two hours (or so) later they sent word, via the emergency call-back service, that power had been restored. By then, I was on my way over to a friend's house to head out to the lake again.

Somedays you don't argue with the universe. You just accept things as a gift and move on.

Waterfall - 1934

2008-04-07T09:29:00.001-04:00

lake-11
Originally uploaded by Green Pilgrim

In 1934 several things were happening around the world.

May 23, Police kill Bonnie and Clyde
May 11, Massive Dust Storms sweep across the Great Plains
Oct 16, Chinese Communists break through the Nationalist enemy lines
Aug 11, Alcatraz Island is opened as a Federal Prison.

And...

Some guy carved the date and stuck the rock near this waterfall in Scioto County, Ohio.

While out with some friends at the lake yesterday, I came across this waterfall. The fall is actually there to drain water from the hill above the lake and under the roadway. However, the drain is reinforced with what appears to be a stacked-stone wall. (I don't have a larger shot of the whole wall, but the stones here are tiny compared to the larger stones that stretch out down the hill.)

I took a moment to see if I could capture the water as it fell from the rocks and down to the splash-point. I'm still learning how to use my camera to capture "action" shots such as moving water. It wasn't until I got home and was sorting through the pictures that I saw that someone had carved the date 1934 on one of the rocks (I was at a considerable distance when I took the picture) near the fall.

I wonder if the waterfall was built in 34 or if someone just decided to commemorate the year for some other reason. Who knows.

It was still a nice day to go out to the lake.

-Tom

Bedside Archaeology

2008-04-03T08:55:00.002-04:00

Archaeologists often identify people by the objects found along side them in their graves. However, I was wondering what someone could tell about me if they were to examine the contents of my bed-side table.

So the question evolved into: What's beside your bed?

1. Field Book
2. Coffee Cup full of Pens
3. Lamp
4. Cellphone (and charger)
5. Laptop (and charger)
6. Dictionary of the Supernatural (Published in the 70's)
7. Introduction to Watercolors (Borders bargain books)
8. A small, cast-iron pipkin (think mini-cauldron)
9. Bottle of Water
10. A sleepy cat named Rusty (he decided to sprawl himself across the top)
11. The history and truth of the Unicorn* (A faux 'journal' with illustrations and some awesome calligraphy)
12. Marine K-Bar knife with sheath
13. Stack of blank note-cards

It's supposed to be ... Spring?

2008-04-02T12:35:00.002-04:00

Well, that's the rumor that I've heard.

I'm out on my front porch this afternoon to enjoy a bit of the not-cold weather and guess what - it's still cold. The high today is just barely within the 50's. I was hoping to enjoy some not-winter-like weather and get some work done out on the front porch today. That doesn't seem to be a good choice since everytime the wind blows my fingers seem to stiffen.

Classes are going fairly well this week. There's nothing on the schedule; no exams or papers to grade. Next week, however, I get to tackle the mountain of Criminological ephemera that will be thrown at me in the shape of research papers. Can you hear the sound of joy in my voice? No? Well, that's because it's been squashed under the foot of aggravation. Every time I read my student's papers I'm hoping that I will at least be able to track what they are writing about; never mind how they're writing it. If I can at least follow, with some clarity, what they're talking about and where they're going with their topic, I'm fine. When it comes to HOW they write, I try not to get too freaked out. I remind myself that these students aren't what I would call 'academically minded'. Though part of me would hold them to a standard that I was used to at Ohio University, there is another part of me that is a bit more practical about such matters.

This is not the place to begin a crusade.

The University is slowly starting to up the bar on its students, but such things are done with patience and lots of meetings. Not only do the students have to be coaxed up out of their shell, some of the professors also have to be encouraged (sometimes with a lead pipe) to come out of their Ivory Tower and...well... teach.

We have some professors who are keeping their students involved and participating in their lectures and others just drone on as though they were giving a presentation to a group of people who already know what they're talking about; ignoring any question presented to them because it 'disrupts their flow'.

If your students are unable to learn the material, how can you 'Profess' to be an educator of any kind. I've had my fair share of students who just don't give a damn, but when the ones that are trying don't understand and, more importantly, can't get clarification, there's something wrong.

The job that I was hoping for on campus, apparently has been sucked through the black hole of a budget sheet. Lack of funding. So I will have to find something else to occupy myself. I have been told, several times, that I am appreciated and an asset in the Department. I love working on campus and if I had the choice, I'd continue to work there in other capacities, but that requires that they have the money to pay me.

Ok... fingers really getting cold now. Going to have to shut down and go back inside to the constant drone of 'World of Warcraft' in the guest room.

Ugh.

I wish it was warmer.

-Tom

Donkey!

2008-04-01T15:22:00.001-04:00

donkey
Originally uploaded by Green Pilgrim

A morning in Athens with my beat-up satchel, heavily used notebook and new Donkey Coffee mug.

Life doesn't have to be complicated to be good.

-Tom

I'm a Cowboy...

2008-03-27T23:24:00.007-04:00

Somehow this song just crawled into my head when I was reading the "Back in the Saddle" post from the other day.

I'm a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride
I'm wanted dead or alive
Wanted dead or alive

So I have finished the first week back from Spring Break and it's raining... again.

I wanted to work on the back yard during the break but it rained so much that my back yard was little more than a quagmire of mud. I needed to put in some additional drainage around the edge around foundation of the car port. It didn't exactly work out as I had planned.

I hoped, foolishly, that this weekend would be dry enough for me to try something constructive. Well, it seems that it's going to be mud soup once more.

For some reason, a common element in my thoughts of late has been the 'Drifter'; a Cowboy, a Gypsy, etc. This would suggest that I'm not really comfortable with what I'm doing right now. It's an accurate assessment of things to be honest. Life isn't bad right now, per say, but it's not really giving me what I want out of life.

At one time, I had an image of myself on a motorcycle or a jeep and just traveling across country with a camera to explore all the Forgotten Places. The image is perhaps a bit stereotypical; the adventurous wanderer. The mysterious wanderer with a heart of gold and a dark secret. Cliche' of course, but it's something that I identified with very early on. Short of inheriting some serious money or figuring out how to travel on the cheap (not with today's gas prices), the "Wise Wanderer" moment will be on hold for a while.

However, I'm getting a case of itchy-feet. I just don't know where I want to go.

Well, correct that, I do know where I'd like to visit, but I can't afford a trip to Japan right now.

Though I would wish to be alone as I explored the various gardens and shrines, it would be nice to be able to share the trip over and back with someone. Such moments are best when you can experience them without distraction and allow yourself to take the time needed to fully appreciate them.

Discovery is made
when the mind is unclouded.

Anyway...

This post has deviated somewhat from my original notes (yes, I made notes for a blog entry while in my office this afternoon), so I should draw it to a close.

Always the Quest,
-Tom

Back in the saddle...

2008-03-26T00:42:00.004-04:00

Today was my first day back after our spring break...

Or as I would like to call it, "The mostly rainy, somewhat cold, but thankfully no snow" Break.

Psychology, in the morning, was fairly slow; they weren't very eager to get back into the saddle for the second half of the semester. Sociology, in the afternoon, was lively as always - quick to crack a joke and enjoy the stories passed around of someone's spring break. Criminology, late-afternoon, was a test so it was a fairly quick class.

One of my worst students is in Criminology. I say that he's one of my worst students because he 1) Doesn't come to class. 2) doesn't take notes. 3) Doesn't participate. 4) Doesn't do the reading. 5) Hasn't scored above a 40% on either of the first two exams and 6) Wrote a paper on solar eclipses that was devoid of punctuation or any sense of grammatical logic - and the topic was on Lunar influences on crime.

He is, honestly, someone that I feel should not be in school. His answer to any question probing him about why he is at Shawnee?

"I ain't got nuttin else better to do."

It's quite aggrivating.

Tomorrow is already forming into a "laundry and papers" day. I grab someplace quiet while I'm doing laundry and start to read all of the essays that I'm grading by hand. I usually try and find someplace quiet so I will not be tempted to start spewing obscenities about how my students can't write or can't hold a logical thought on paper for more than a sentence.

Ugh.

It's times like these - when I am facing the students who seriously just don't want to be in School, but also don't want to have to find a 'real' job - that I think it would be better to go off and do something else.

Like go be a cowboy...

... with a notebook.

-Me

Hobbit Homes

2008-03-13T09:43:00.003-04:00

From: A Low Impact Woodland Home's Site

The Welsh are at it again!

Take one baby, a toddler and a building site. Mix well with a generous helping of mud, combine with 6 weeks of solid welsh rain whilst living under canvas. Do this in candle light without a bathroom or electricity for three months. Chuck in living with your father for good measure. Top with an assortment of large slugs. The result a hand crafted home of beauty, warmth and health for about £3,000.

There is also a plan underway to create an entire low impact village called "Lammas".

Bookbinding: Poor Man's Double-Fold

2008-03-10T13:45:00.021-04:00

I'm always looking for new ways to experiment with bookbinding. One of the ideas that occurred to me was to make a double-fold book that could be made with readily available supplies; like composition notebooks.

When I was younger, composition notebooks were worth their weight in silver. They were handy for just about everything. About two years ago, I found that a dollar-store near me was selling these pocket-sized composition notebooks and I picked up a few dozen to play with.

This project involves turning two of these small, comp. books into a double-fold book. I've made several full-sized, double-folds for friends over the years and this is just an easier, quick version. Double-folds are handy because it allows you to have two separate books within the same cover. I have used the double-fold design for things like bibles, diaries, and scrapbooks. It's a handy design because you can take a finished book (in the case of a bible) and add a notebook to it for your own research or reference. I didn't like cutting the cover of the bible (I'm a devout follower of "The Book" - aka bibliophile), but the friend I was making the piece for didn't mind as it was one of the free copies of the Book of Mormon.

STEP 1:

Stand book 2 (your secondary book) up on its edge and trace it against the inside cover of book 1 (the main book you'll be writing in most of the time). Trace the width of Book 2 and give it a little bit of wiggle room. You DON'T want it too tight.

I use a clip to hold the second book upright for the picture, but you won't need anything like that. Just use a pencil or a pen to trace the width.

(* Book 1 is the book that you will constantly be referencing or writing in. In the case of the Double-Fold Bible, I put the bible there since I knew that my friend would be reading it a lot. Book 2 would be where he would write his questions and comments.

STEP 2:

With a sturdy ruler and an razor-knife, cut Book 1 at the line you just traced. I used a small cutting board under the book since I didn't want my desk marked up.

It's very important to leave plenty of room on this cut.

If you plan on adding pictures to Book 1 (for a travel-journal or perhaps a scrapbook), you will want to add half the width that you measured so that when the pages bulk up it won't strain the spine that you're creating.

When you place the two books together, there should be a little bit of an over-hang of Book 1's cut cover.

STEP 3:
To connect Book 1 and Book 2 you need a flexible binder. I used the Handy Man's Secret Weapon: Duct Tape. You could use cloth tape (aka: athletic tape) if you wanted a different look on the spine.

Scotch Tape, Masking Tape or anything that's cellophane-based won't work as its flexibility will eventually wear out.

Step 4:

Cut the strip of Duct-Tape in half (by width) and apply it to connect the back cover of book 2 and the cut cover of book 1. However, you want to leave a little "wiggle" room here as well so the books open smoothly.

COMPLETE:
Once you have taped the two books together it should look something like this.

The spine of Book 2 should line up with the edges of the pages of Book 1. If you wanted, you could attach some kind of closure mechanism (elastic or a tie) to hold the two books closed if you want.

For the purposes of this project I didn't add any closure as the books are so small they'll not need any. For a full-scale double-fold, I would recommend an elastic band around the middle or on the edge (like a Moleskine)

If you don't like what the inside of the newly bound double-fold looks like, I would recommend that you add a decorative end-page that would stretch from the last page of Book 2 to the first page of Book 1.

For the purposes of this project I didn't bother with covering the composition books. If I were finishing the project completely, I would grab construction or scrapbooking paper to cover it.

For more information on how to recover a notebook, see my earlier post.

Edit (6/20/09): The concept of the double-fold notebook can be used for a number of different functions. Double-fold books are a few-hundred years old by design. They were originally created to enclose both a journal and reference book under one cover. The most commonly found example is that of a medical journal.

So let's say that you have two books in one: the book on the left (often folded up against the one on the right) is not accessed as often. In medical journals of the time, it was where the physician (or other scientist) would record their proven formulas or concoctions that were effectual against given symptoms. The book on the right, more commonly accessed because of the design, would be a series of running entries about what medical cases they came across; essentially a "chart" for all of their clients as they were seen.

If you were using it for research, the left book could be used to record all of your formula or other established tools for your work and the other could be used to record your progress.

Good luck.

Four Easy Steps

2008-03-10T13:09:00.005-04:00

So about that Ritalin

2008-03-08T19:00:00.003-05:00

Last night, around midnight, I was surprised by a big flash of lightning. The rain began to pour and assumed that we would have to miss out on the snow that everyone else was getting. Then, as I was getting ready for bed, I realized that the rain sounded different; almost metallic.

I poked my head out of the front door and realized that it was the ting-ting of freezing rain that I was hearing. So I crawled into bed with the idea that we would probably have some icy patches but that was about it.

And then, when I woke up, my roommate said four words:

"You got your wish."

I ran to the front of the house and tore open the door like a 'Night Before Christmas'. The street was coated with snow; choked with the White-Death. I realized, while I was in bed waking up this morning, that the lack of sound that seemed a bit eerie; no cars, no rain, nothing.

So after I got myself together, I threw on a coat and grabbed my shovel and did that very domestic chore of clearing the driveway. Within a stroke or two of the blade, I realized that I was standing on about an inch of compacted slush as well as a few inches of snow. Oh, this was going to be a Good Snow. By the time I got out to the front steps, I ended up having to scrap the ice away rather than shovel it.

I'm sure my neighbors were pleased hearing the sound of plastic against concrete at 10 a.m. on a snowy Saturday.

Who knows how long it will last.

-Tom