Month: April 2005

The drive took about nine hours. I didn’t really stop much, but I didn’t really exceed the speed limit, either. (Actually, I didn’t go to the bathroom at all, the whole drive. That’s kind of shocking.)

Anyway, I’m back home in Augusta now.

As I was driving I had all kinds of thoughts that I wanted to share, and I kept thinking it would be cool if I signed up for an audioblogging service that I could call with my cell phone, so I could make posts when I wasn’t near a computer. I am such a nerd.

One of the thoughts was just that it was so beautiful out. It was rainy (intermittent rain for most of the drive), and water was cascading down those beautiful shale/limestone shelf cliffs that you see all along I-75 in Kentucky. Mist had alighted on the tree-covered hills, and everything was just so green. I didn’t take any pictures (I was driving, you know), but I sort of wish I had.

I had a thought that I want desperately to remember because it was just so weird–I remember that I was hoping something for someone who either I don’t know personally, or who is a fictional character, and I went off on a long tangent about it, and then thought, “I like to make up stories about everything.” At the career advising interview I went to, the counselor focused on my personality and what kind of jobs I would like, and to do that I had to take the Keirsey sorter yet again. I remembered one of the questions being something about speculating in great detail internally versus noticing everything around me (introvert vs. extravert), and I thought about how true the former is for me. I tend to be oblivious to details that don’t have any direct relation to what I’m doing; the rest of my mind is fully occupied with its own amusement.

I also thought about my parents, how they were both standing in the doorway smiling at me when I went out to my car, filled with so much love. And then how Dad went to move his truck out of my way so I wouldn’t have to back around it, and Mom smiled and waved adoringly from the doorway. It made me tear up. I love them both so much. They are such wonderful people.

First: Mari’s hafla is in the newspaper!! It’s a very nice article, with some choice quotes from Mari. Here’s one:

“This was always one of those things I was going to do when I lost weight, when I became that perfect person I was always going to be,” she said. “Then I decided I would give myself a break and try it. That’s when I discovered that this is a style of dance really open to everyone – all body types, all ages, all sizes and all levels of experience.”

Secondly, Ed quotes an article in full (and doesn’t link it, but I found it by googling, and it’s here) about pitting respected auction houses against each other in a high-risk game of janken for millions of dollars in profit. Just goes to show that there is strategy to rock, paper, scissors.

In a post entitled “A kind of obsolescence“, Eric Burns writes the following:

When you grow up, Christmas becomes more exciting for what you’re getting for others than for what you’re getting. Your birthday becomes vaguely embarrassing. You walk through toy stores and see more and more things you want to buy because they’re ironic, and fewer and fewer things you want to buy because they’re cool.

And eventually, your computers become boxes that run your software. When they can’t run your software any more, you get a new one. Until then, who needs it?

That’s so sad, in a way.

I actually think that’s neat. While I’m not one of the “must have the latest and coolest” types, I do have my own childish wants and desires. It’s heartening to me to think that someday I will look forward to Christmas because of what I’ll be giving to others. I like that thought. I think I’m already on the road to that–Christmas presents aren’t much of a big deal to me anymore. The only problem is that I haven’t been buying presents for other people. ;>

The smugmug site has a cool “hacking” section where innovators can mess around with the application and do all sorts of neat things with it. For example, somebody has created a script by which you can display your last five uploaded photos on a website elsewhere (apparently similar to a Flickr function). I would like to see a “last five comments” script. I think that would be cool. I’m going to install the “last X comments” plugin for WordPress when I finally get around to switching over, because I like being able to track when and how dialogue is being had, and I think it would be nice to have that functionality for my picture site too.

Just got back from AJ’s, where he and Faye and I played quite a few rousing games of Mario Kart 64. First we played through all the levels, including the Extra (backwards) levels, in 3-way Versus mode. Then we took turns playing the 150cc cups: me and AJ on Mushroom, then me and Faye on Mushroom, then AJ and Faye on Mushroom; me and AJ on Flower, then me and Faye on Flower, and finally AJ and Faye on Flower. It took forever, especially since we kept getting below 4th place in Flower Cup and having to redo the levels. By the time we were done it was almost 3 am.

We ate popcorn, and we cussed at and trash-talked each other like crazy. (I think my potential for vulgarity still surprises them. Also, Faye was very amused by the term “asshat”.)

What a great time :D

There’s a good article over at MSNBC about the end of analog TV. There’s a deadline of New Year’s Eve, 2006 for air TV to be cut off and replaced with digital, but no one knows when it will really happen. There are definite benefits to doing it soon, but there are also problems with cutting off air TV.

Here’s one part I found particularly amusing:

The real problem is the 15 million or so U.S. households whose only television service comes over the air. For these people, predominately lower-income and disproportionately black and Hispanic, the cut-off will be bad news indeed.

Most discussions in Washington contemplate some sort of free or subsidized converters for low-income households, paid for by the government, perhaps with the help of broadcasters or consumer electronics manufacturers. Estimates for the costs of that subsidy range from under one to several billion dollars — the cost declining as the cut-off date is moved further into the future. Proponents argue that the cost of the subsidy is small compared to the economic benefits, although last year the Bush administration indicated it was not in favor of subsidized converters.

Priorities! These people may not have decent education opportunities, or even healthy food options, but damned if we’re going to deprive them of television! So I suppose TV needs to be added to the list of basic human rights.

Be sure to check out page 3, “Why not put it off indefinitely?” There are some great things that could be done with the air channels once they’re freed up, including wireless Internet for everyone, more channels for public safety services, plus an auction of the remaining channels that could help pad the governent budget. (Hey, maybe they could use the auction money to ensure that poor people will still have television.)

WebMD has put out a list of the top cities for the worst spring allergies this year. (Here’s the actual list.) I’m sort of surprised by the results. I mean, first of all:

1. Lexington, Ky. (last year: 16)

And then we’ve got

27. Augusta, Ga. (last year: 2)

Does that even make sense? Did we have some crazy weather patterns this year, or what?

People always used to tell me that Augusta was the worst city in the United States for allergies, and that people who never had allergies before developed them when they moved to Augusta. That did seem to be the case with me. Lately I’ve felt like I’ve been adjusting…I haven’t had horrible migraines in awhile, and really the only allergy effect I’ve noticed is sneezing, which passes in a day or so. But could the adjusting simply be due to a shift in which cities have seen the worst allergy attacks?

And if that’s the case, am I going to start feeling terrible here in a day or two, since I’m in the top allergy city right now? ;P Maybe it’s a good thing I’m going home on Friday :>

Today (well, yesterday…whatever) I went biking at Veterans Park. No one else in my family does the biking thing, so I was by myself, but that’s pretty normal :> I like exploring by myself, anyway. (I do wonder what other people think when they hear me talking out loud to myself, though.)

I took Boone’s advice and went to Veterans Park, which is on South Point Drive in Lexington (just south of Man O War off Nicholasville Road, or you can get to it from Man O War via Clearwater Drive, or even Saron Drive). As you might expect, there are pictures.

At first, I found myself on a paved jogging path, and although I did find the neat bridge pictured above, I ultimately wasn’t satisfied. The path was very short, and took virtually no time at all on my bike. I wasn’t in the mood to ride in circles for hours; I wanted to explore.

The dirt trails leading off from the paved path were worrisome because they seemed to be going downhill, and my brakes aren’t doing so well these days. (Gotta have those checked.) Plus, the trails seemed to be part of the disc golf course, so I was afraid I would be getting in people’s way. However, finally I did venture down a path (eventually walking the bike after having to fling myself off of it to keep from crashing–growling expletives all the way, I assure you), and I’m glad I did. The dirt trail levels off alongside a creek, and runs for quite a distance through the woods. It’s absolutely beautiful.

There are lots more pictures. Go check them out.

You’ll notice that you can buy prints from this gallery. I’ve decided to enable that on other galleries, too. If you like any of my pictures, please feel free to buy yourself some copies. I’d feel like a real professional! ;>

Occasionally Wanda, my fellow 2go-Box escapee, will send me links to jobs on CareerBuilder.com. From there I will typically start browsing all the listings just to see what’s there.

Today I happened upon a link that said “teacher”, and that made me think of how Dad said he thought I wanted to be a teacher. (I’m not sure where he got that idea.) Then I thought about teaching ESL. But that brought back a bevy of unhappy feelings from my last experience concerning TESL.

An acquaintance had suggested I volunteer with a local church that offered ESL classes. I thought about it for awhile, and finally contacted the person in charge of the program. She was very friendly and helpful, or so I thought, but I was still feeling timid, as I had no real classroom experience. So rather than committing to anything, I suggested that I stop by sometime and see how the classes were run. She seemed to agree with this, stating that classes had already begun for that semester anyway. I didn’t go to that week’s class, and by the next week I had decided that since classes had already started, I probably shouldn’t try to stick my nose in, and instead try for the following semester. I emailed her to tell her so, and she wrote back, “I had to turn students away last week. There was no teacher for them because you weren’t there.”

To my knowledge, I had never given her the impression that I was going to be there. I had worked to give her the impression that I didn’t know what I was doing, that I was willing to help but that I didn’t have any experience, that I wanted to at least observe classes before running one of my own. But apparently what I was saying did not get through to her. Apparently my interest was taken as an offering of services, and when I didn’t “follow through”, I was then ripe for the guilt trip of a lifetime.

Ever since then, I haven’t been able to think cheerfully about teaching English as a second language. The whole experience soured me on it. It really shouldn’t. I need to get past it.

But I really can’t believe I was treated like that.

Look at this latest Duane Keiser. God. It’s already sold. I might have considered begging Sean…

:>

Thursday the 21st: Connor spent the night. We played with Little People. (The tall, voluptuous one with blond hair and the blue dress is me! Connor has five Aunt Heather Little People.)
Friday the 22nd: Got up early for a change, and played with Connor. My period started (two days late) and destroyed my mood. Went home with Connor, played outside with Connor and Logan, ate dinner with them, read two books to Connor, stayed up with AJ and Faye downstairs and watched goofy movies on stupidvideos.com.
Saturday the 23rd: Got up at 1:30 pm. Yeah, so much for a normal schedule. Watched 7th Heaven, Charmed, and Smallville with Mom. Ate steak. Went to Audra and Matt’s house and hung out with them and Jeremiah, Leslie, and Luke. Ate s’mores, chips, and pizza, and played Scene It and Taboo. Made a big deal about how I haven’t seen any movies, then answered lots of movie trivia questions correctly. (Go me.)

Audra, I promised to give you the link to our family picture site, but I don’t have your email address here, so I’m just putting a link in this post and hoping you’ll see it. If you don’t see it, then either you’ll email me asking for it, or I’ll just send it to you next week when I’m at home.

Here’s the link.

See, I told you that URL was ridiculous.

I have career advising next Friday from 2 to 4 pm. I was thinking that I could stay for the weekend, too, and go camping with my brothers and their “crew”.

However, I completely forgot that Southern Oasis is next Saturday!

:P

Option 1: Sleep in big time before career advising on Friday, go to the advising, and drive home immediately afterwards.

Option 2: Get up as early as possible on Saturday and drive home, going to the hafla immediately upon arrival in town.

Neither of these is very appealing, but since I am determined not to miss either event, I’ll have to pick one of them. Right now I’m leaning towards Option 1, since I’ve been sleeping in a lot this whole trip.

Your Linguistic Profile:

65% General American English

20% Yankee

15% Dixie

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

This is interesting to me as a person who has studied linguistics (I wish I could just say “linguist”…:P). A lot of these questions (maybe all of them) are familiar to me as fun quizzes we used to take in class. Do those of you who have spoken to me in person or on the phone agree with this assessment?

The career advisor is out of town this week, and only does interviews on Fridays, so I am staying through next Friday. I will be taking a Kiersey sorter and doing some “homework” before then, and then we will have a two hour session in which we will discuss my likes and personality and jobs that might be good for me, and how to get them, and stuff.

My homework is to list all the jobs I think I might like, and then go back and write pros and cons for all of them and find the job descriptions at the US Labor Department. I’m also supposed to ask 3-5 people who are close to me what kind of job they could see me doing.

I figured I could go ahead and ask everybody who reads my blog, too: what sort of job can you see me doing? What sort of job would you think I would enjoy/be good at?

(It’s like I’m copying off of Jazz! ;>)

You Are 60% Normal (Really Normal)

Otherwise known as the normal amount of normal You’re like most people most of the time But you’ve got those quirks that make you endearing You’re unique, yes… but not frighteningly so!

Your Seduction Style: The Natural

You don’t really try to seduce people… it just seems to happen. Fun loving and free spirited, you bring out the inner child in people. You are spontaneous, sincere, and unpretentious – a hard combo to find! People drop their guard around you, and find themselves falling fast.