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Left Behind?

2011-05-23T10:54:00.001-06:00

I feel a little behind. What can I say? Maybe I should just be happy that I'm gaining experience, but I can't shake this feeling that I should be doing something more. I think part of it is that I've been thinking about my friends from the graduate program at MSU.

One is just starting a PhD program, one is starting to wind his down, one is in the middle of another MA, and yet another just finished a second MA in Business Administration (I think).

Where does this leave me? Wondering what to do next. What path to choose? Long-term is it worth investing more money when about 5% of PhDs find works in Academia (no citation).

Ugh

Ashlinn and the Animals

2010-11-12T21:23:00.001-07:00

Our friend Haley just moved back to Bozeman. Anyway, she really wanted to meet Ashlinn so we went out Veteran's day to introduce her and let her see Haley's 2 horses, 10 chickens, and 1 dog. She took some quick pictures that turned out incredibly. I'm not posting the slideshow on our site, but you should check them out here: http://www.haleypoulosblog.com/2010/11/ashlinn.html Haley's main site is here http://haleypoulos.com/. If you know anyone that needs some professional photos, send them her way.

Thanks again Haley!

This Year

2010-10-04T20:15:00.002-06:00

We have a ton to be thankful for this year. Ashlinn has been great (she is an amazing little girl), we had a wonderful vacation (minus the camera loss...although that didn't ruin things), we both have jobs, we love our house, we have our health, and of course while we were at our jobs we've had great day care.

That said, this year has been one Money Suck. The car is still having issues and we are trying to pay down the loan enough so we can use our insurance money (hail damage) to pay off the rest of the loan for the engine. The company we bought the engine from did send new parts to get things working again, but it sounds like we'll have to come up with another 300-350. I keep telling myself that this is just a rough year and next year will be better, but I'm pretty frustrated.

Susan has been fabulous with Ashlinn this last year. She, Mike, and Nathan have been a fixture for much of the time we've had her. I've said this many times, but we don't worry. The great news is they are having another baby! The bad news is that, at least for awhile, we need to find an alternative (not complaining). Jen and I have been mulling things over and trying to figure out our options. The sad thing is that we feel like anything option is going to be such a huge step down from what we have. We have a great person watching our little girl. How do you replace that? I don't know.

Two months left in the year...ugh.

Still taking suggestions for an awesome daycare alternative.

Follow-up

2010-09-21T20:29:00.003-06:00

Turns out or CC company isn't that great. Total cost for repair $333. What they covered $165. Turns out they won't cover 'time lost' unless the car company turns over fleet information. This is unlikely because the car company doesn't see it as relevant. The car company suggested we use Visa next time because they tend to be more reasonable. I'll post a few more thoughts soon. I'm ready for this year to be over...it has been a HUGE money suck for us.

Some thoughts about products we've used lately

2010-08-18T22:42:00.001-06:00

Awesome

Toyota Venza - We needed a rental car for our trip to Oregon. Great gas mileage and tons of room. If we could afford one, I think we'd pick one up. I was very impressed and it wasn't at all what I was expecting. We hit a hawk going 80 miles an hour...the window wasn't touched. We did pick up a chip and crack on the way home (see next).
Our CC company that I used to rent the car. What can I say, car rental coverage is awesome and I didn't worry at all once I called them.
Nikon D40 - What can I say, our camera took amazing pictures. It is not in a better place currently. It fell in the Ocean on the second day of our trip. Even though they don't make the D40 any longer, we bought a used body on ebay. I love this camera!
My new Seagate hybrid Momentus drive. I finally got a chance to migrate to this drive. Much faster and cooler. I guess it is worth posting on some blogs! (I may have to check the name on this one.

Bad

Creative Labs Zen Vision - It worked well for 6 months and then the touchpad stopped working. I opened it to see if I could replace it...turns out the wires were literally falling off. With very poor SD card integration, I think I'll have to save some money and find something else.

Horrible

Vivitar Vivicam 38 - We picked this up to take some shots on our trip. Feels flimsy and reminds me of my grandma's old camera. 'Viewscreen' looks like it was pulled from a 90's top. No drivers could be found online and thus I couldn't copy them off my netbook. It came with photo management software (just what we wanted). After 24 pictures and a trip home, no pictures remained on the camera. Who knows where they went. Absolute crap of a camera. Of course I didn't pay much for it, but seriously.

A couple of quick notes

2010-01-26T20:40:00.003-07:00

1. Hopefully we'll have some more pics of the little girl soon. She has become increasingly cute and seems to be doing really well the days she is hanging with Susan and Nathan.

2. I've flashed a spare wireless hub that I'm going to use as a repeater in our house with dd-wrt. It seems like it could be pretty cool.

3. My phone. Probably the worst phone I've ever had. Not that I made frequent calls, but they are eve less frequent now.

4. The new job is going okay. Everyone seems disappointed when I say that. It is just taking some time for me to adjust. I dig it.

The little girl

2010-01-10T19:57:00.003-07:00

What a cute baby.

Other Spaces, Other Voices: Something to remember.

2009-08-03T14:21:00.004-06:00

Well my thesis 'Other Spaces, Other Voices: Heterotopic Spaces in Island Narratives' is now a book. Of course I think it may be somewhat overpriced at $60. The important thing to remember is that since it is a thesis, it can be found (via the Montana State University Library) website as a downloadable pdf. It has been slightly revised since it was accepted for my degree.

Ashlinn Ciara

2009-07-20T10:14:00.002-06:00

Ashlinn has arrived! You can find the 'scoop' and pictures here: http://ashlinnciara.blogspot.com/

Edit: I've actually posted this information on Ashlinn's blog, but I thought I'd include it here. We have and will be posting pictures there somewhat regularly.
Ashlinn Ciara
Arrival weight: 7 lbs 13 oz
Arrival length: 21.5 inches long
Arrival date: 7/14/09
Arrival time: 7:58pm
Arrival hair: Not red, brown

Here is a quick rundown of what 'went down' on Tuesday.

Jen originally had an appointment with her doctor at 4:20 on Tuesday afternoon. This was going to be her first day off and so she was going to sleep in. The doctor's office called and asked that we come in during the morning just in case they needed to check fluid levels, etc.

We made it in and the appointment went fairly well. Tracy wasn't quite sure why the baby hadn't come yet (she thought she'd be early). Jen was measuring 3cm (6cm – outer cervix). So the plan was to have Jen be induced on Thursday. By the time we made it home, the doctor had called and asked if we wanted to go Tuesday. This was a surprise, but we thought it would be best and it would give us more time as a family.

By 2:30 they had given Jen pitocin, at 3:30 Jen's water was broken. It was somewhat slow for awhile. At 6:30pm Jen was measuring 6cm. When the nurse was leaving for the day (7:30) she said Jen was at 8cm. I was amazed, after all that was 2 cm in one hour.

I chatted with Jean for a few minutes and then went in to check on Jen. She said that she had quite a bit of pain and thought the epidural wasn't working anymore. I asked the nurse to come in for just a moment. By the time we walked back in the room, Jen was ready to go and had started her breathing. The nurse called the doctor and she appeared someone surprised. The doctor thought it would be another two hours at least!

That wasn't in the plan. Basically there were three major contractions and Jen pushed six times. The baby was out within five minutes.

Everyone seemed very impressed with Jen's performance and they were very surprised that it was Jen's first baby.

I am very amazed with Jen at this point. No complaining and when the baby and Jen were ready, she looked like superwomen.

Needless to say, with the transition from work to hospital, scheduled inducing for Thursday to Tuesday, and such a quick birth, Jen has been a little overwhelmed. Quite frankly, she hasn't had much time to process everything.

I'm at home tonight (Weds) and Jen and Ashlinn are at the hospital. The hope is that she can recover and get some much needed rest. We'll be bringing everyone home tomorrow.

No News

2009-07-10T19:21:00.001-06:00

No baby news yet. The doc said that she could be here as soon as Saturday...for some reason I'm fairly skeptical. The due date is Weds and we have an appointment on Tues if the baby doesn't arrive before then. It seems as if much hasn't changed.

What doesn't work:
Cinci Chili
Long walk
Eggplant Parmesan
etc, etc, etc.

Oh well, it is getting close I suppose.

On a random note....I checked out my google analytics today. It seems as if most traffic comes from the chronicle of higher ed forum (looking for book info) and a DIY page that references our floor installation. I always look at the map and try and decide if friends are actually visiting me from places like Illinios or Oregon. Perhaps it is random traffic.

I will post when it is "Go Time"...okay actually after "Go Time".

Ramblings

2009-06-22T20:22:00.001-06:00

Things have seemed to slow down a little bit, but I guess that happens during the last month of pregnancy. We have the bag packed, car seat installed, and are ready as we are going to be. Now we wait.

We did have a nice visit with Jen's mom this last weekend. I think that she may be a little excited to be a grandma. We wound up not doing too much, but that made for a good weekend. Hopefully things are a little more settled with Jen's job in Microbiology (or soon will be). Mom and baby seem to be doing well. Jen and I may need to do daycare or some other option a few times a week, we'd appreciate any suggestions.

My position at the CBE is about the same. When school starts in the Fall, I'll drop down to eight hours a week and then I'll teach three classes. I love teaching, but I'm a little nervous. I'm not sure who else will be up there at this point and I guess I'm feeling a little like everyone else has moved on grad school. In a strange way I sometimes feel like I'm still hanging on. I have a feeling this semester is going to make or break it for teaching. I'm anxious to start a PhD program, but I really need to figure out what I want to do before I can find a program. I can't make up my mind and cutbacks at many Universities have me worried. Technology/education/composition/theory? I don't want to regret passing on a PhD, but I'm indecisive.

The next machine I pick up may be a Mac. I've always been a PC guy, but I'm a little frustrated with how difficult and expensive it can be at times. I realize that a Mac isn't exactly cheap, but I can run Imovie in OSX and other things I can use XP or 7. If I had my way, I'd go with Mint and then run a mixture of programs....the programs aren't there with Linux, I'm tired of reinstalling/fixing Vista, I don't have a Mac. I guess I don't want the hassle.

The house is coming along nicely. One of the big projects I need to start and finish is our deck. The previous owner put a coat of paint on the boards....it isn't lasting so I need to clean the paint and refinish with some stain. Perhaps a pressure washer will do the trick. The other big issue is some work on two of our gutters. It looks like the flashing wasn't done correctly...I think this is the only thing I don't feel comfortable doing. Looks like we'll be ponying up some cash to have it fixed. Hopefully we can find a good deal.

My other goal...another vehicle. Maybe a Subaru outback...I haven't figured that one out yet, but with the baby I'd like to have a second rig with AWD.

Hopefully my next post will be announcing the new arrival.

It has been five years today!!!

2009-05-22T08:25:00.002-06:00

It has been five years to the day that Jen and I got married. We celebrated our anniversary a week early by going to Yellowstone (we wanted to beat the crowds and save a little dough). I can say that I haven't been happier. We are both trying to figure out long term job things and our first baby is on the way, but the important thing is that we have each other and always seem to work an issues out. We are getting where we are going and are enjoying the trip.

Pictures from out trip to Yellowstone

2009-05-18T10:01:00.010-06:00

Jen and I hit Yellowstone for our fifth anniversary. It came a week early, but it was a welcome break. I do think we probably pushed it a little too much as Jen was exhausted. We had a great time, but I wish we could have hit it when there was a little less snow. At least we avoided the rush that starts this coming weekend.

Working with a new template

2009-04-20T11:29:00.001-06:00

There has always been something I've like about the Chao tic Soul Wordpress theme In fact I like Wordpress, but I just can do as much editing unless I 1. Pay for the ability to or 2. install it on a server. I did a little searching and found it for blogger, but it was formatted for the new blogger theme thanks to Randomness . So, I modified it (albeit somewhat inspired by my latest installation of Mint on my notebook). The plan is to integrate a few more things from my old template (safely backed up in case this doesn't turn out well).

So I guess those regular visitors...Becker and Kevin (and anyone else)...yah or nah? Is the RSS feed still working?

MSI Wind running Mint

2009-04-16T08:23:00.009-06:00

After a little fiddling, I've got my wind dual booting Mint and XP. Wireless and the webcam weren't working out of the box, but I was able to get them up and going after a little looking last night. You can click on the images to catch a larger view. Mint's default fonts are good, but I added the 'mac' ones for a slightly different look.

New Baby Pics

2009-04-05T16:51:00.007-06:00

Well, we have some baby pictures! The doctor was concerned when she measured Jen's stomach because it was 'off'. The good news is that everything is okay and we can say the measurements are average. We also actually found out the sex! Presently the due date is 7.15.09.

As always, click here for the album.

The first of the floors

2009-03-02T10:23:00.009-07:00

We just finished up our first bedroom floor. It used to be white shag carpet. Hopefully we'll come up with enough scratch to do the main floor as well. (You can leave comments or ask questions, but I moderate them).

My wife

2009-02-20T15:56:00.001-07:00

We have big news. Well, we've had it for awhile. Jen and I are expecting in July. She has been terribly sick for months, but has been managing it better as of late. Quite simply, she has been doing a remarkable job. Of course, she has been scouring the land and making excellent finds. That means we have a rockin crib and some other things.

I have to say that has been really supportive and last night she went through our tax information (I get very stressed with it). Now that it is "in the can" or at our accountant's, I'm starting to feel a little better. I'll have more of an update later, but I wanted to just let everyone know how "kick ass" my wife is.

Cool....maybe

2009-02-16T13:08:00.001-07:00

A very cool thing happened as a swung through the English Department today. I received a letter notifying me that one of my former students had nominated me for one of the 2009 President's Excellence in Teaching Awards. I think it is great that my student nominated me, but I may not qualify. It turns out that I need three years teaching experience. I've been teaching four years, but two were as a Graduate Teaching Assistant. We'll see.

Little jobs

2009-01-11T19:31:00.003-07:00

Oh yeah, Still looking for little side jobs. I'm trying to get more comfortable with CMSMS to set up sites. I'd like to do something a little more familiar though. I did teach myself MS Access the other day. Maybe I've gained an additional skill that would qualify me for something other than 'Walmart greeter'.

Amazing how little things can piss me off.

2009-01-11T19:20:00.003-07:00

Well, I've decided to enable comment moderation. This means that you'll need a blogger/gmail or OpenID account to post. I posted about my experience with VDM Verlag and some ass left a comment about how I shouldn't tell people that VDM is reputable (never did) and that I shouldn't fool myself thinking it'll do anything for my career (never thought it would).

Anyway, rant over. I've added a few ads to generate some income. We'll see if that will do anything...actually I've done it because Jeff and I are working on a new project that will need to be supported by ads. It is the 'super secret deluxe google' project.

I'm second guessing academia again. I'm enjoying my work at the CBE, but it is a short term plan (I don't think there is any long term position for me there). The people are great and I enjoy working up there. Academics has me a little frustrated though. Am I going to back in the same position in the fall? Am I going decide to do something different. I honestly don't know. Mike Becker suggested that I go become a writer...not sure I have those skills. Maybe I'll try to go back and get a CS degree. It seems to pay.

I managed to download the 86x and 64 versions of Windows 7 on campus the other day. I installed the 64bit version on a spare notebook drive and it rocked. It is very fast. Very fast...I'd like to upgrade my machine, but I don't know if it is worth it. The license expires in August and money is going to get tight. So I don't think it is worth it.

Things around campus aren't great. Not sure why no one is covering the big black hole on campus and the 'trickle down' affect that it is going to have on the rest of the departments (It's not exactly the economy, really).

I find it funny that I railed against System Mechanic and now I have their ads on my site. I guess I need to write about Mint Linux, Windows 7, Google Documents, Open Office, etc.

I wish it was a three day weekend...I want to do more of nothing.

Jobs

2008-12-22T13:16:00.001-07:00

Anyone have suggestions for 'extra' jobs that I might be suitable for? A part time gig for Jen would be great as well (especially if it was home based).

We could really use some ideas.

Humorous...

2008-12-03T08:56:00.003-07:00

Things have been crazy and it seems like it is taking forever to get caught up...I feel like I've really neglected our friends somewhat. I'm looking forward to Spring, no homework...but no teaching.

Anyway, I thought this was funny. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle job search notified me that I have a job match. Good thing I got my Masters.

Domestics People Greeter Post Date: Dec 02
Company Name: Wal-Mart
Location: MT-Bozeman

System Mechanic...crap

2008-11-01T18:08:00.001-06:00

I've been a fan of System Mechanic for a number of years, but today I un-installed it permanently. Is it because it isn't a good program? No. After a year of having in installed on my machine, the subscription ran out. Usually this means that you no longer have access to online updates, in this instance it meant that I could no longer use the program.

I don't remember the last time a program that I paid for actually stopped working because I didn't update my subscription (granted my antivirus would have not had the most current definitions).

Well this is the end of my association with Iolo and System Mechanic. I'll be posting back with an alternative (be it paid or open-source). I'd suggest anyone that they steer clear of Iolo, because you'll be forced to upgrade you software in a year.

Same old...

2008-10-09T15:52:00.001-06:00

In a strange conversation with my supervisor today, I was told that I probably wouldn't be offered any CLS sections for the Spring. I don't have a PhD and I'm still too new. I'm really bummed. We were having a strangly cheerful conversations and then she dropped in a "by the way." I guess there isn't a good time to bring that up (and she wasn't mean about it). But it really sucks and it kind of has taken the wind out of my sails.

A very brief update

2008-09-18T11:06:00.001-06:00

Things are going well this semester. I can't believe how happy I am to be teaching again. The biggest challenge thus far has been staying on top of my papers. I've been trying to get as much done on campus as possible. It has helped that I've been team teaching with Ariana (recent graduate).

Other than being super tired when we get home, things with the house are going great. Jen has been wonderful and surprised me for my birthday. We obviously aren't quite where we want to be on the job front (long term plans that is), but it has been easier escape home. Jen, Liam, Aila, and the house are wonderful.

Regarding Summer Movies

2008-07-21T17:32:00.000-06:00

I was really looking forward to a number of summer movies and we managed to hit three big budget ones.

Ironman – Robert Downey Jr. did a great job and the movie was enjoyable, but it is an origin story. We'll see how the next one pans out.

Indiana Jones – I thought this was good, but I'm really struggling with it. I need to watch it one more time. The movie takes place 20 years after the last one and it feels like it. Meaning: It really seemed like there needed to be a bridge between the movies. No Sean Connery (retired), no Denholm Elliott (dead), and no John Rhys-Davies (I think there were contract issues). Basically it felt like there was no connection other than Karen Allen and Harrison Ford (it wasn't enough). The story was interesting, but unlike some of the other movies, the mystery was somewhat confusing and it seemed like there was no clear detective work being done (or at least visible to the audience) and this made the unraveling plot confusing. Maybe I'll change my tune after watching it another time or two.

The Dark Knight – Best movie I've seen in awhile. It was a tad on the long side, but worth it. I thought about Heath Ledger a few times, but it wasn't because he slipped out of character. He is the Joker and did a great job pulling it off. Is it an Oscar worthy performance or one of the best ever? I think we need a few years of perspective to really know. There are a ton of great scenes and I can't wait to watch this again. By far the only movie of recent memory that has lived up to the hype.

That's about it for now...I have some other updates pending

Busy busy

2008-04-13T22:50:00.002-06:00

I started my new job and things are going smoothly. Thanks to everyone that helped out (Jeff, Robert, Kirk, Jill, Lori, and especially my lovely Jen). I am very happy to report that I've been doing a range of things at work and I'm staying happily busy. Tomorrow Jen and I are moving a few bed frames to our fried Jill house for storage and hopefully we will be getting rid of our storage unit soon.

In 'whats free' this month. We are taking a first time home buyers class, which has helped us rethink our approach to other things (like student loans). The current priority is save, save, and maybe sell some things to 1. clean house 2. to establish a down payment for the future. Hopefully we can hit that before too long and the universe will help out in some way. We are ready to move. I'm also going to start learning Latin this summer which should help with those PhD applications.

Liam has recovered well, Jen has about 3 weeks left of school, and I have class lined up for fall. Thing seem to be coming together!

I have a job again

2008-04-01T20:35:00.001-06:00

Just a very quick update because I am wiped out (Jen and Liam are too, I'm not sure where Aila is at the moment). Anyway there are a couple of new notes. I contacted Diane who is at The Center for Biofilm Engineering, and after some figuring and planning they created a position for me. My title is Educational Program Assistant (or something like that). I worked there last summer and they seem really happy with the work I was able to do so they are bringing me back. They have a bunch of projects that I can work on and hopefully complete. The nice thing is they know that I'll most likely be leaving to teach in the fall and are happy to have me for the time being. I'll be working 3/4 time and will also work on developing my side project and planning for graduate school. It was very nice to walk into day. Everyone that was there when I left welcomed me back. Great people and atmosphere.

The next tidbit is that I was offered my sections of 121 and it looks like I'll get a section of CLS seminar. So I'm set for now and next Fall. I'm optimistic about getting classes in the Spring as well. Last Summer is was "I don't think it'll happen, we don't have enough sections." They wound up opening at least 6 more and I got to teach. This year they straight up asked me how many sections I wanted...so I'm moving up the ladder.

I'll update more later. We are all really tired and it is going to be a busy week. It feels like Friday already.

Zoot update

2008-03-26T00:32:00.001-06:00

I received a letter from Zoot. The didn't offer me the job, but they did say that I should apply again if I saw another position that struck my interest. Oh well, I know that the MSU Math Department was calling my references today.

Any positions avalible???

2008-03-24T03:59:00.004-06:00

4am Monday morning and I can't sleep. I still haven't found a job. I talked to Diane at CBE, but that is probably a part time deal at best and the pay isn't great. I'm still waiting to hear back from her and at least it would be something. I guess the good news is that I have classes lined up for the Fall. No word from Zoot or the MSU Math department.

Jen has been very understanding and supportive.

Liam seems like he is doing much better with only a few linger affects: his third eyelid is still a little bit closed at times (seems to come and go) and his pupils dilate different amounts; his eye 'stuff' runs near where the mass was so most likely both issues are caused by irritation and will take awhile to heal.

Sounds like Liam or Aila might be on the way out to the living room to check on me.

The story of a sick little kitty

2008-03-03T21:45:00.001-07:00

Saturday Liam seemed a little lethargic; Sunday he was hiding under our bed. Once Jen was able to get him out we noticed the his inner eyelid was partially closed and it seemed to be bothering him. After a quick call to the vet we put a warm wet towel on it and he seemed to be doing better. Fast forward to today...I took him to the vet and his ear got checked out. The Vet couldn't see very far into his ear, so we left him to be sedated and checked further. At lunch our vet called and gave us 'crummy' news. Basically there is a 'mass' in Liam's ear, but they aren't really sure what it is. Jen and I seem to be getting slightly different information, but we are staying positive and hoping that the meds that we have will help take are of any issues. If Liam isn't feeling somewhat better in three days, there is a good chance that we'll have to take him to Helena to biopsy it. The vet said a tumor was pretty unlikely, but it is always a chance.

This evening we are all feeling a little better. Aila was hissing at Liam most of the evening (apparently he smelled funny), Liam was walking around the apartment like he was drunk, and Jen and I felt absolutely horrible that we couldn't do much for him. He is at least sleeping a little bit And the good news is he actually ate some wet cat food and drank water. I was worried because he hasn't eaten much in a day or two. Hopefully I'll post a little update in a few days when he is feeling better.

Jobless and in need of Bees

2008-02-28T16:20:00.004-07:00

Okay, I'm officially asking for help / suggestions / whatever.

I was up for a job at Printingforless.com, but turned it down for a number of reasons. I'm trying to stay positive and hope something better comes along. Jen has been more than understanding through this whole process, but the bottom line is that I haven't been able to find a job and even the crappy jobs I haven't gotten. I need a job.

My friend Jill was telling us about a conference that she went to. They did this 'beehive' thing. Basically, everyone picked one thing that they wanted or needed most and everyone else went out and checked with people they knew. Her example was 2000 dollar house. Everyone at the conference went out and eventually someone was able to find a 2000 dollar house for that person. Not that a $2000 house wouldn't be nice, but at this point I just need a job that I don't hate and one that pays decently.

I'm a hard worker with a knack for working with people (shouldn't I be teaching this semester?)

Any bees out there? I could really use some help.

Book Cover!

2008-01-09T08:42:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is...at least the book cover. I have to admit that I haven't double checked the text yet, but I'm pretty excited. It looks like the ISBN number will be 978-3-8364-3808-7.

School thoughts

2007-11-28T14:47:00.001-07:00

This is a rough week. As Jen put it, "This is probably the worst week I've ever had in school" (or something close to that). She has been working her butt off with multiple projects. On top of that she's been very sick since almost Thanksgiving. I think if she can just make it through to this weekend, things will look better. Things pick up for me tomorrow until I'm done with finals week, but my stress doesn't even compare.

Today I handed out my evaluations for my English 121 classes. As always I get a little nervous about the responses I'll get, but for the most part they are pretty good. The bigger thing that this indicates is that the semester is winding down and I really don't have much class time left. It always depresses me a little bit, but it looks like next semester I won't be able to teach any classes. I'm pretty bummed. And for all the extra time and stress that I occasionally stress about, I really do love teaching.

I really need to figure out what I'm going to do.

Underated Movies

2007-11-22T13:18:00.001-07:00

The Island
Stranger than Fiction

Just some recent kid pictures

2007-11-20T14:15:00.000-07:00

Page updates

2007-11-20T11:44:00.000-07:00

Well, I discovered today that you can integrate photos in a flash slideshow into your blog (if you have your pictures in your gmail account). Now when you select the photos from the drop down menu, you'll see them in a slide show. The 'random photo' page has links to many different albums that aren't list on the drop down menu.

Of course

2007-11-14T10:59:00.000-07:00

I did neglect to mention that my lovely and amazing wife took many pictures of me in an attempt to capture that perfect one for my book. Did I mention that she also did a wonderful job editing my thesis?

Book Photo

2007-10-28T23:35:00.000-06:00

Amongst the craziness of the semsester, I'm tying to get my thesis revised. A publisher is interested in publishing my thesis as a book. Long story short, I only have until November 12th to get everything ready. Anyway, below are two versions of the pics that I'm thinking of using for the cover. Sorry everyone...we have been incredibly busy lately.

Edit: Looks like it will be the black & white one.

Thesis News

2007-10-05T21:47:00.000-06:00

Well, My thesis is finally online at the Montana.edu libraries website. Anyone can access the abstract here. From that page there is a link to the actual thesis. Next up is google scholar. I'm not sure how long that will take though.

Lastly, there is a change that it will be published in book format. A publisher contacted me and interested. It is a print on demand company and it won't cost me a dime to do. I get five free copies (which is cool) and a few pennies here and there if it sells. The really cool thing is that my work would be out there and others might be able to find it. We'll see how it goes.

I'm wide awake

2007-10-02T02:17:00.001-06:00

2:16 am and I'm awake. Someone is keeping me up and I think I know who it is. Go to bed

Honeymoon - August 2004

2007-10-01T22:01:00.002-06:00

See full size, individual photos from this album here

Oregon Vacation - 07

2007-10-01T21:57:00.002-06:00

See full size, individual photos from this album here

Evergreen Air Museum

2007-10-01T21:38:00.002-06:00

See full size, individual photos from this album here

The Kids

2007-10-01T21:06:00.003-06:00

See full size, individual photos from this album here

Supposed to be grading

2007-10-01T19:46:00.001-06:00

Well, I'm supposed to be grading papers, but I'm having a tough time this evening focusing on it. It doesn't help that the Bengals are playing and I'm listening to it on the radio. That means I'm sitting up in my office...seems like I'll be working on this all week.

On a side note, I did my movie intro thing today in both my 121 classes. I never know how it goes, but even if only helps a couple students I guess it is worth it. At least I can see the connection and I think it is interesting. What can I say. I like movies. There is an semi-occasional 'sign' coming from the back of one of my classes...somebody isn't happy especially since I ask everyone to clarify their email addresses for me. The sigh won't last long.

One of the movies I show is The Princess Bride. I can't believe it, but over half my class hasn't seen it. Granted it is a little dated and isn't the highest quality, but it is funny.

I can't remember if I've written this already, but I am now search able on the MSU library site. Yep my thesis comes up...next up...google scholar.

I guess I'm just feeling down this eve...not sure why. It has been one of those 'off' kind of 'bad' days.

"Houston we have a problem"...I hope I get out of this funk.

I should be asleep

2007-10-01T00:14:00.001-06:00

Well, things are going okay around here, but I feel a little behind with all my work. I've managed to grade 9 papers out of 56ish. It is going to be a long week, but Jen is studying so I guess I'll just hang out in my office. At least that keeps me from watching nothing on the television. Oh that reminds me. I actually have a office phone number 994.5192. I don't get many calls, but that is okay.

For the most part I try not to post much about my classes on my blog, but I am having a good time with my 121 classes this semester. I'm a little frustrated at the size, but if history is any indication, they'll shrink up before too long. I still don't know what I'll be doing in the fall, but hopefully it'll be teaching. I did 'take my students' temperature the other day and it seems like most of them are pretty happy with the way things are going. There are always a couple that aren't happy...oh well. One of the more interesting comments was "The door I am is haunted". It kind of cracked me up because I thought it meant something else.

Anyway, my machine is still in the shop and I'm getting really pissed. I emailed Dell on Friday to tell them to send me my machine (fixed with the appropriate parts) or send me a new machine. I'm personally hoping for a new machine, but I'd take my old one. I feel like I'm not getting anything done. It has been two weeks.

Okay, time for bed.

Not Good

2007-09-04T03:05:00.001-06:00

Wow, can't sleep and it is almost 3am. By the time this is posted I'm sure I'll pass that mark. My mind is running and I keep thinking about class and all the preparation I need to do. That probably sounds bad, but I actually don't have tons to do. I'm still trying to navigate my way through 119 because I'm using Kacie's plan for the semester. It seems like a great path, but I'm just not on track with everything yet. Basically it still isn't crystal clear in my brain. CLS is fun, but settling in would help. I've started the search for PhD schools and that is a little unsettling. I'm not really excited about the prospect of moving, but I don't see many options other than moving. The real problem is I don't see myself settling and continue teaching as an adjunct. We'll see. Maybe that'll change. I'm excited about the new pics that we posted (link in the last post and soon to be on the main photo page. I suppose I should try to hit the hay. I need to shut my brain off and get some sleep.

Vacation Picures

2007-09-02T14:12:00.001-06:00

I've got the initial pictures up of our trip. There are a bunch in this album and then some more of the Evergreen Air Museum here.

Problem with Pictures

2007-07-18T09:49:00.001-06:00

I'm not sure if anyone has had a problem opening the picture pages, but they should be fixed.

Harry Potter Worm Claims Wizard Hero Is Dead

2007-07-09T08:52:00.001-06:00

I don't know why I find this so funny...maybe it is because I've worked a couple of Harry Potter release parties. It is from yahoo news article.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20070707/tc_cmp/200900821;_ylt=Aq8FdpA0Io5yma.pGwumyKnMWM0F

Can't wait to find out what happens to Harry Potter when the final book in the series comes out this month? Be careful where you get your spoilers from.

Security researchers are warning people not to be lured in by online promises of information about the outcome of the final battle at Hogwarts. Sophos Inc. reported that a new worm is taking advantage of the Potter mania that is starting to build around the world.

The worm, which is hidden in USB drives, isn't particularly damaging, according to Allysa Myers, a researcher with McAfee Avert Labs. In her blog, Myers said the worm "doesn't try to steal any system information, diddle with your data, or own your box -- it just makes system changes such that your system becomes largely unusable."

With the millions of people waiting with bated breath for the final Harry Potter novel, and the premiere of the new movie coming in less than two weeks, hackers will be tempted to take advantage of the excitement, Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, said.
"There is a real danger that muggles will blindly allow their USB flash drives to auto-run and become infected by this worm," he said in a written statement. "Using such social engineering at this time is a trick dastardly enough for Lord Voldemort himself."

The final installment in J.K. Rowling's seven-book series , " Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," is set to be released on July 21. The previous book was the fastest-selling book in U.S. history, selling 6.9 million copies in the United States in the first 24 hours, according to a report on CNN.

The W32/Hairy-A worm is set up to automatically infect a PC when users plug-in USB drives, which carry a file posing as a copy of the novel. If users allow USB drives to "auto-run" they will see a file called HarryPotter-TheDeathlyHallows.doc. Inside the Word file is the simple phrase, "Harry Potter is dead." Sophos researchers report the worm then looks for other removable drives to infect.

After infecting Windows computers, the worm creates a number of new users, namely the book's main characters -- Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. After logging in, users are shown the following message via a batch file: "read and repent; the end is near; repent from your evil ways O Ye folks; lest you burn in hell... JK Rowling especially."

Cluley explained in an interview that the malware writer originally embedded the worm on a USB memory stick and then simply got it into the hands of an unsuspecting user. The malware spreads when a user shares the stick with a friend or colleague who wants to access a file on it. A user might go to a meeting and share the stick with everyone in the room, spreading the worm further. The trick, said Cluley, is not to use a memory stick that you just pick up somewhere.

"This is an 'old school' virus, written to give the author a platform to show off rather than to steal identities or cash," said Cluley. "This person isn't being driven by the desire to inflate his or her bank account, but by a loathing for JK Rowling and her incredibly popular books."

More Photos

2007-07-05T19:33:00.000-06:00

One quick more update on photos. I'm updating the random photos page to include a more comprehensive list of our photos. Any time I add a new gallery I'll post it there...as well as a quick post.

fireworks from the fourth

2007-07-05T19:17:00.000-06:00

Nothing too exciting, but we took a bunch of photos of the fireworks.

the drive to bridger

2007-07-05T19:16:00.000-06:00

Jen and I took a drive up to Bridger Bowl the other day and we took a bunch of pictures. It was a nice drice and I was very excited because I finally picked up the camera that I've been looking at for awhile. It is a Nikon D40 digital SLR that I was able to find online at onecall.com. I place the order through shop.com and as a first time buyer I got an additional 10% off. Needless to say I'm very happy with my purchase.

There is a cypia feature on the camera. The nice thing is that you don't shoot in cypia, you essentially create copies of the picture you want and it saves it as a different file type.

I'm not used to being able to take photographs this close up. I just happened to take a picture of this thistle and Jen and I really like the way it turned out.

Fourth of July - 2007

2007-07-04T22:07:00.001-06:00

Click on the album if you'd like to be taken to a non-slide show version.

Bridger Bowl - June 16, 2007

2007-06-16T22:08:00.002-06:00

Click on the album if you'd like to be taken to a non-slide show version.

summer job and school

2007-06-11T16:00:00.000-06:00

I have a job. It was advertised as a ten hour a week position, but they were quick to offer me 24 hours per week. And there are weeks that I'm going to be filling in more days. That combined with updating the Microbiology website should fill up my summer just enough. Plus it is only days. Oh, the first job is as a web assistant at the Center for Biofilm Engineering. The work they do is pretty amazing and is really cutting edge stuff...I can't even begin to explain the kinds of things they do. Pretty cool though.

Anyway, I will be teaching two sections College Writing 1 classes in the fall, one section of a College of Letters and Science seminar class, and one section of English 119 through the College of Technology (Great Falls). The good news is that I have a job for the fall, but nothing is guaranteed for the Spring.

Jen has been busting her butt working at microbiology and the church, doing an internship, and working on summer classes. Hopefully this will make everything a little less crazy for her in the fall.

a quick update

2007-05-01T23:25:00.001-06:00

Good news. Looks like I'll be teaching two sections of College Writing 1 and one section of CLS. Bad news is that isn't until September and it is only for four months. Nothing is guaranteed passed December. Oh well, I'm excited. Now I just need to find something for the summer. Suggestions and ideas welcome!

Award Winners

2007-04-29T21:20:00.000-06:00

Ellen and I won an award for Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant (we teach and assist nobody). The cool thing was they thought we were great separately, but our collaborative work ensured that we were both awarded.

GTAs

2007-04-29T21:16:00.000-06:00

Brita, Wayne, Jamie, Ellen, Jamin, Luke, Me, Arianna, and Charity...many of the first and second year GTAs. (Missing: Sue, Melanie, Jimmy, Mike, and Kacie). This was taken after the Engish awards ceremony.

Note the time

2007-04-18T00:56:00.001-06:00

Who needs sleep? Never gonna get it....

Notes from Ryanland (part 2)

2007-04-16T17:57:00.001-06:00

Well, Jen has a speech at the Belgrade Public Library this evening so I'm just hanging out hoping that no one will show. That means she gets to leave early.

As I mentioned earlier, I passed my defense. I'm pretty excited about it for a couple of reasons. 1. Apparently my thesis is doing the kinds of things that I will be doing if I go onto PhD. I'm not saying that it is great. It actually has many issues, but I've successfully started to integrated some very different theorists. 2. Dr. Sexson asked me if I was going nuts. He has started seeing islands everywhere and was wondering if I was experiencing the same thing. I am, but what is funny is that he started reading a novel and the main character washes up on an island. Apparently this made Dr. Sexson feel like he was in "Ryanland". I thought that was kind of cool.

Anyway, I'm pretty pooped this evening and all I want to do is sleep, read something light, and watch some movies...I guess I can do that for awhile, but soon I'll need to find a job.

Guess it is time to browse.

Notes from Ryanland

2007-04-16T13:58:00.000-06:00

You have to love this. Apparently, there was some confusion and on the thesis announcement page it lists my thesis as "Other Spaces, Other Voices: Heterotopic Sauces in Island narratives" as opposed to "Other Spaces, Other Voices: Heterotopic Spaces in Island Narratives." I'm not sure what a heterotopic sauce is, but it sounds interesting. Perhaps it means bringing in Chinese, Italian, and American sauces onto the same plate so we can talk about what we eat. It should be find as long as it doesn't get listed at the library this way so someone doesn't go looking for my thesis and expect a culinary focused thesis.

I am getting closer. I just sent my newly revised thesis to the head of my committee for a few last minute revisions. He said it really didn't matter and he was going to "bless me" and forgive all my grammatical errors. That is a good thing because he is signing off on it.

Thesis Defense

2007-04-11T14:21:00.001-06:00

Good news. I passed my thesis defense today. That means I've poked my head out of my hole, seen my shadow (or not) and there is roughly a week and a half that I'm going to be hiding once again to finish things up. Thanks to all those of you who have been asking and I'll will try to update everyone soon.

Lastly, no I really haven't figured out what to do for a job.

One of the coolest things I've read in awhile

2007-03-29T21:45:00.001-06:00

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/03/29/bono.knight.ap/index.html

Bono a British knight; Don't call him 'sir'

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) -- Irish rock star and global humanitarian Bono became a knight of the British empire Thursday -- and joked that his youngest son thought he was about to join the Jedi order instead.

"You have permission to call me anything you want -- except sir, all right? Lord of lords, your demigodness, that'll do," Bono, 46, told reporters after he was crowned a "Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire" in an informal, laugh-filled ceremony in the Dublin home of British Ambassador David Reddaway.

Reddaway paid tribute to Bono's work as a campaigner against poverty and disease in Africa -- but first asked whether Bono was disappointed that becoming a knight no longer involved a sword or kneeling.

"Please, I wasn't expecting you to kneel," Bono said, his hand on the ambassador's shoulder.

Accompanying Bono were his wife, Ali, their four children -- Jordan, 17; Eve, 15; Elijah, 7, and John, 5 -- and two of his U2 bandmates: guitarist The Edge and bassist Adam Clayton, both of whom were English-born and retain British citizenship.

Bono's two boys sat cross-legged on the floor throughout the ceremony. Bono said John was disappointed that his dad was not presented with a Star Wars light saber.

"He thought I was becoming a Jedi," Bono said.

Because he is an Irish citizen, Bono is not entitled to be called "Sir." That honor is reserved for citizens of the United Kingdom or British Commonwealth countries. Ireland left the Commonwealth when it became a republic in 1949.

Bono has been criticized in some Irish nationalist quarters for accepting a British honor at all.

But the Dublin-born singer, whose real name is Paul Hewson, dismissed this as ridiculous, given the unprecedentedly warm relations today between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom.

"I think Great Britain is great," Bono said. "And Irish people support British football teams. And Irish bands sign British record labels. And Irish people speak English.

"And we even have one (Englishman) in our band," Bono said, referring to Clayton, who came to Ireland at age 5 but retains something close to an English accent. The Edge, real name Dave Evans, came to Dublin from London at age 1.

Bono -- who sported lapel pins for two of his previous European government awards, the Legion d'Honneur from France and the Order of Liberty from Portugal -- said such official accolades "really help me get through a few doors I wouldn't get through. And that's the truth; that's the way the world is."

Bono said he originally was not planning anything special for the day he received the knighthood. But he said Monday's surprise power-sharing deal in Northern Ireland between Democratic Unionist leader Ian Paisley and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams had inspired him to throw a party at his billionaire's-row home in Killiney, south Dublin.

"I wasn't going to have even a bit of a do. I was going to slip in, keep it very quiet," he said. "But when I saw big Ian sitting down there with Gerry Adams I just thought: This is the end of an era but the beginning of a much better one."

Picked thise up from reuters Reuters...

2007-03-29T12:44:00.001-06:00

http://health.yahoo.com/news/173545

Alzheimer's vaccine works on mice: Japan scientist
March 28, 2007 11:49:28 PM PST

Japanese scientists have developed an oral vaccine for Alzheimer's disease that has proven effective and safe in mice, the director of a research institute behind the project said on Thursday.
The team is preparing to move to small-scale clinical trials in humans, possibly this year, said Takeshi Tabira, director of the National Institute for Longevity Sciences in Aichi, central Japan.
We hope the Phase I trials go well, Tabira said. Animals are able to recover their functions after developing symptoms, but humans are less able to do so. It may be that this only works in the early stages of the disease, when symptoms are light."
When administered to mice suffering from the disease, which causes dementia and is currently incurable, the vaccine reduced the amount of amyloid plaques in the brain and improved mental function.
Amyloid plaques are believed to be at the root of Alzheimer's -- a growing problem for aging populations around the world. The disease affects five million in the United States alone, the Alzheimer's Association said in a report last week.

The treatment did not cause inflammation or bleeding in the brains of the mice, Tabira said.
The vaccine is made by inserting amyloid-producing genes into a non-harmful virus. When taken orally, the virus stimulates the immune system to attack and break down the amyloid proteins in the brain, Tabira said.
The treatment was tested on 28 mice genetically modified to develop Alzheimer's disease. Half the animals were given a dose of the vaccine at the age of 10 months, while the control group were not treated.
Three months later, tests showed mental function in the treated mice had returned to levels close to those before they developed Alzheimer's symptoms.

U.S. drugmaker Wyeth and its Irish partner Elan Corp have an Alzheimer's vaccine called ACC-001 in early stage human trials.
The Japanese research, carried out in conjunction with scientists at Nagoya University and others, is to be published by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology in July.

An even more brief update

2007-03-26T22:45:00.001-06:00

Currently 77 pages, just did major revisions on my first two chapters. Tomorrow is a major revision on chapter three. Weds my polished rough draft goes to my committee and my oral defense will take place on April 11th. Yeah, I'm kind of stressed...Jen has a bunch of crap going on with school at the moment as well. I think we are both ready for this semester to be done.

Oh yeah, I won an award for outstanding GTA with my friend Ellen. We were nominated partially because of our collaborative work. The College of Letters and Science didn't feel we were that spectacular so we didn't winn the college level award. I'm still pretty happy that we picked up the department award.

A quick update

2007-03-14T22:03:00.001-06:00

Just a quick update on how things are going. It is spring break and of course that means Jen is working hard and I've been working on my thesis. My committee got a very rough 46 pages last Friday and my job over spring break is to complete some major revisions. Well, major revisions have brought the thesis up to 64 pages (70 if I format it correctly). Mon, Tues, and Weds I spent roughly from 8 am to 5 pm on campus, would return home to eat and be back up in my cubicle from 7 to 10 or 10:30.

The good news is that has paid off and most of the really major changes have been made. Tomorrow I'm planning on doing medium level correction during the day (while Jen is at work). That means that Jen and I actually get Thurs evening, and all of Friday and Saturday to relax. This is a pretty happy moment since we haven't had tons of time together the last couple of weeks. Sunday I'm grading papers and will spend the rest of the time looking for little errors on my thesis.

Anyway, I'm feeling like things are finally coming together. I'm not super confident in my writing, but I guess my committee head feels as if I'll be able to finish. I'll wait until my committee has my next polished draft before I start writing my conclusion. I'm now nervous about my oral defense....I don't have a date scheduled at this point and I'm just hoping that I know my stuff well enough.

Sorry to all of you that haven't heard from me in awhile. We are doing okay, but things have been somewhat stressful.

Making some progress

2007-03-05T00:00:00.001-07:00

Well in the past 2 1/2 weeks I've written about 100 pages worth of information. Of that only 15 I've managed to use on my thesis. This evening I hit page 38 which I'm hoping that is good enough for a very rough initial draft. The second part of my thesis covers the Star Wars movies and is kind of challenging because I think I'm too familiar with it. 13 pages and it seems really really rough. I feel better about my introductory chapter and my second chapter. They both need work, but the theory is down, I just need to go more in depth. By the end of Spring Break I'm hoping to have a fairly polished version of the whole thing. We'll see. I just want to be done at this point.

On a side note: I won the English Department award for Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant (we assist only students BTW) with my friend Ellen. We tend to collaborate quite a bit and the couldn't see sending either of us along without the other. I think the comment was something like "we think you are both amazing, but you take it to a whole other level by working together." That made me feel pretty good. Since we won, we are up for the College level award...that would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath.

Okay, I need to head to bed.

Major trouble with my thesis

2007-02-25T22:28:00.000-07:00

Well, I went from feeling pretty good about the potential progress on my thesis to feeling pretty crappy. I roughly have 35 pages written (which has to be rewritten so) this Thursday I have to give my committee that chunk so they can decide if I'm going to finish. The bad news is that the 6-7 pages of my introduction needs some serious reworking, the chapter on the Tempest which was about 13, has totally been rewritten and is thus far incomplete. I'm sitting at basically 10 new pages that draw little from my original material. I'm worried that with all the work I've put into it today that I've just made a mess of it all. Lastly, I have to do a rewrite of my second chapter on Star Wars. I'm serciously starting to doubt my ability to finish. I think I'm going to head home for the evening because I can't clear my head and sort out what I'm trying to say.

I'm pretty depressed at this point...I just want to be done.

Google Will Let You Read Books Online

2007-01-21T17:01:00.000-07:00

I thought this was an interesting read. It is from a site called http://googlesystem.blogspot.com. I also found this article about Yahoo and Google interesting as well.

"Google Will Let You Read Books Online

Google's book search program will give publishers a new option to monetize their content: sell online access. Currently a very small part of the books indexed by Google can be read entirely and most are public domain books.

"With online access, users who discover a book through Google Book Search will be able to pay for immediate access to its full contents. (...) The book will be available to users only through their browser, and only when they've signed in with their personal account. Users cannot save a copy on their computer or copy pages from the book."

So you'll not actually buy a book (even in a digital format), you'll buy the right to read it online. As the price should be much smaller than for a PDF, this might be an option if you just need some information from a book.

Google doesn't think this system could be a substitute for book stores. "You may just want to rent a travel guide for the holiday or buy a chapter of a book. Ultimately, it will be the readers who decide how books are read," says Jens Redmer, from Google Europe."

Writing

2007-01-17T16:43:00.000-07:00

I finally have something up under my writing section here

Closing in...

2007-01-15T17:21:00.000-07:00

Just a few days before classes start, but things are looking good. For the most part I'm ready for my class to start. In fact today Ellen and I sat down and wrote up the first assignment sequence...that means the first five weeks of school are planned out. I wish I could say that was the case with my thesis. I feel very behind and should be much further along.

Good news is that Jen and I are purging...well we are giving the house a good cleaning and we are getting rid of some things. I'm hoping that will allow us to get rid of our storage unit early this summer. I really don't know what I'm going to be doing for the next year or so. I'm hoping I finish my thesis, but job-wise I have no idea. The thought of retail again is horrible. For some reason I've been thinking about applying for a position at a bank. I don't know why, but it is in the back of my head.

On a side note I'm finally losing some weight and I'm happy with what I've lost, but I've got more 28 pounds to go to get back to my wedding weight. Eventually I'd like to drop about 48 (I think I'd feel better). The first couple of weeks have gone well, but it has slowed a little bit. The trick? I having been starving myself or anything like that. Eating 1 burrito instead of 2. Yep, Jen is making very healthy food and has been for awhile, but if I pack in way more than I should then it doesn't do good things. (Lots of water as well.) I do miss an occasional Diet Lime Coke.

I also found the camera I want to get. It is a digital SLR camera. The Nikon D40. The camera we have right now takes a couple of pictures and then the batteries are drained. It has never been great, but we really notice now. The Nikon D40 will take something like 470 on a charge. So that would be great, but the price tag comes in around $599. I guess that means that it will be quiet awhile before that happens. I can dream.

Good movie news

2007-01-01T12:19:00.000-07:00

I read this short article this morning...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/01/georgelucas.indianajones.ap/index.html

Lucas: 4th 'Indiana Jones' to shoot in 2007
POSTED: 9:17 a.m. EST, January 1, 2007

BEVERLY HILLS, California (AP) -- George Lucas said Friday that filming of the long-awaited "Indiana Jones" movie will begin in 2007.

Harrison Ford, who appeared in the three earlier flicks, the last one coming in 1989, is set to star again.

Lucas said he and Steven Spielberg recently finalized the script for the film.

"It's going to be fantastic. It's going to be the best one yet," the 62-year-old filmmaker said during a break from preparing for his duties as grand marshal of Monday's Rose Parade.

Exact film locations have not been decided yet, but Lucas said part of the movie will be shot in Los Angeles.

The fourth chapter of the "Indiana Jones" saga, which will hit theaters in May 2008, has been in development for over a decade with several screenwriters taking a crack at the script, but it only recently gained momentum.

Lucas kept mum about the plot, but said that the latest action flick will be a "character piece" that will include "very interesting mysteries."

"I think it's going to be really cool," Lucas said.

At the inaugural Rome Film Festival in October, the 64-year-old Ford said he was excited to team up with Lucas and Spielberg again for the fourth "Indiana Jones" installment. Ford said he was "fit to continue" to play the title role despite his age. (Gallery: Harrison Ford's career)

Ford played Indiana Jones in 1981's "Raiders of the Lost Ark," 1984's "Temple of Doom" and 1989's "The Last Crusade."

Lucas praised Ford for breathing life into his character.

"Mostly it's the charm of Harrison that makes it work," he said.

Back

2006-12-29T13:39:00.001-07:00

We survived Christmas and the drive back. Even though we didn't leave until the snow storm hit, we were okay. The trip that usually takes us about 2 hours took us almost 3. For the most part the roads really sucked, but visibility was good. So I was very happy. All in all I think the trip was good and we had a pretty relaxing time. Christmas presents were good and we came back to very happy cats. Unlike me, they seemed to have lost a good amount of weight and they both look really healthy. The few pounds I managed to lose before we left came back quickly.

Right now I'm procrastinating my work and I'm feeling kind of overwhelmed by it. I found in my box 5 more things to read for my thesis and basically my brain isn't willing to do the work. I guess we don't have much new news.

Christmas Eve

2006-12-24T18:05:00.000-07:00

Well, is is 6pm and Jen is working right now. Since Christmas eve is on Sunday she had to work the morning and the evening for services. It looks like it may be a long day though since we were up at 5:45 this morning. One of Jen's friend's boyfriend needed a ride to the airport bright and early. I did go back to sleep, but I'm a little surprised that I'm as awake as I am. One present left to wrap and that is it.

I'm trying not to let the holiday stress me out, but it is. We had to have the car worked on and this was shortly after we had paid off the credit card. I'm hoping that we can do that again soon, but it kind of came at the wrong time. Our downstairs neighber just moved out and I'm beginning to think it would be nice if we could as well. I just don't see that happening, but I wouldn't be surprised if he upped the rent again. A year and a half ago he told us that he was going to raise the rent by $25 a month. Of course when I moved in I asked if he was going to raise the rent. He seemed very offended and said of course he wouldn't. Anyway, fast forward almost a year later and he raised it $50 with less than a week's notice. I wasn't very happy about that at all. The problem is that finding a place where we could have cats for less is pretty hard here. At this point we wouldn't think of giving up them.

So anyway, I keep hoping that Santa will be kind to us this year. I'm not sure what that means, but we can always hope.

I'm also trying to figure out what I'm going to do when I'm done with school. Jen will have a semester or so left after I finish; that is if I can finish. I feel very far behind right now. Anyway, it looks like I'll need to find something for a year and I really don't want to go back to retail. There just doesn't seem to be much demand for my skills. Anyway, we are looking forward to a couple more weeks of no school and we made it another year with no major health issues.

I hope everyone has a merry Christmas, New Year, Festivus, etc!

Short deal

2006-12-22T14:17:00.000-07:00

I added a movie review link under my name in the menu bar. Hopefully, I'll put more of these up soon.

It snowed today and I'm almost finished wrapping. Happy Festivus to everyone!

Eragon Review

2006-12-15T23:02:00.000-07:00

Ratings:
2 1/2 paws out of 4.
3 on the sore ass meter (1 not at all, 10 means I can't sit still).

It was opening night for Eragon and we hit the 3pm matinee. I was kind of surprised, but there were hardly any people in the theater with us. I do have a feeling that the show after ours was going to be filled with kids because the parking lot seemed packed.

Well, I looked up Dungeons and Dragons on Rottentomatoes.com. It was a movie released in 2000 or 2001 and was absolutely horrible. Basically it was the only movie that I could remember that would have a bad rating and its rating was 11%. I checked Eragon as well and it was at 16%. To be honest I don't think it is even in the same neighborhood as DnD.

The Good: The CGI was pretty decent and I really thought that the setting worked well with the story. Saphira looked pretty cool and Jeremy Irons was pretty good. The last battle scene was pretty good. The world looked a little more lived in...somewhere in between Lord of the Rings and The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. I would probably liken the world to something along the lines of Willow.

The Bad: Rachel Weisz's voice coming out of the dragon just didn't fit. I don't even know what to say. It just didn't work. There were way too many cheesy lines that would crop up throughout.
Jeremy Iron's narration at the beginning was kind of long. They could have cut the last line out. The armor was wacky. At points there were people wearing armor and head dress looking deals. I think the armor they showed for Saphira wasn't the same that was on her.
Some of the clothing was really odd and it reflected at times a mixture between African, Native American, and Fashionable leather. John Malkovich...he isn't in the movie very much and his throne room seems kind of fake.

Overall I would probably rent it or maybe see a matinee, but it is no Lord of the Rings. Speaking of, there are so many movies/stories that this one borrows from and I think the biggest issue for me is that it is so obvious. This has been covered in numerous places, but the similariets to LOTR and Star Wars really bothered me. Not sure if Paolini has come out and addressed this or not. I really don't think they'll be making a big budget sequel and I think the other books would have a chance at made for TV movies. I could be wrong and kids may flock to it.

It isn't great, but it isn't as bad as critiques say.

Done and stuff

2006-12-15T00:14:00.000-07:00

Well, Jen and I are essentially done with the fall semester. She has a class she has to go to tomorrow, but it isn't' a test. I finished grading my papers last night and today I only had to comment on 2. So while Jen was in her last test, I wrote them up and mailed them off. We are just waiting for grades to be posted. I have only 1 semester left for my masters (hopefully) and my work isn't really graded. So my GPA will be something like a 3.95 overall...that is everything goes well. The A- I got my first semester still bothers me, but at least I'm got things figured out now.

We haven't done any Christmas shopping or set up the tree yet :-( Kind of a bummer, but we've been so busy that we haven't had time. Tonight we were in the store and we came out only to notice that someone had spit to big wads of snot onto the car. I wasn't happy. I'm hoping it was just some punks, but it crossed my mind that one of my students could have done it. I only had 1 F this semester, but there are a couple of students that got lower grades and probably aren't happy. It sucks, but there is only so much I can do to help them succeed. Anyway, we washed the car and now we are just hanging out.

I talked to Matt the other day and it sounds like they are moving. They are going to have a pretty sweet deal. Apparently a friend is buying a house and they are going to live there for about half the rent they are paying now. Anybody? Anybody? Anybody got a house available in Bozeman? We aren't sure what we are going to do at this point. Our rent went up and married student housing isn't really a possibility because of our cats. Oh well, I guess we'll get where we are going.

It sounds like Chloe is doing a little better. If you haven't checked out the site you should.

Anyway, I hope we can get into the Christmas spirit. At least we don't have school or work really hanging over our heads for a week or two.

Funny story from Jen's myspace

2006-12-13T02:38:00.000-07:00

Jen posted this on her myspace account and I totally forgot about it. Thinking back it was pretty funny.

This happened a week ago, but I was just thinking about it a few minutes ago and it got me laughing hysterically all over again... Ryan and I went out to dinner at the Mongolian BBQ, and while we were adding our sauces, the ball of minced garlic I added to the top of my overflowing bowl rolled off and into the pit of the Mongolian barbecue sauce. Ryan and I couldn't stop making our typical wise-ass sarcastic marks to one another when this kid, probably around 10 or 11, walked up on the opposite side of the bar, leaned over closer to us, and asked Ryan, "What language are you speaking?"

We turned towards the kid and looked at him blankly when he then said something else that we didn't hear. My first thought was that either this kid was "special" or just simply messing with us. He again repeated his question, and then stared at both of us, waiting for a response. I then asked him, "What do you mean?"

He turned bright red, and said,

"Oh, uh, I guess I thought you were; well, it just sounded like, um. I thought he was speaking another language." I couldn't contain my laughter, which is of course, contagious, forcing Ryan to laugh uncontrollably. I was really trying to stop because the kid looked truly mortified and ran back to his table, but I couldn't help myself. Am I evil? I'm sure his belief that Ryan was speaking another language was reinforced after he began questioning us and we just stared at him blankly. Anyway, I know it's one of those instances where you would have had to have been there to find the true humor in it, but I still joke about it with Ryan. The funniest part, whether this kid ever realizes it or not, is that he asked an American English teacher what language he was speaking.

Physicists in Japan plan to create a new universe

2006-12-13T01:16:00.000-07:00

Saw this article...kind of interesting

USING THE HIGGS FIELD, SCIENTISTS THEORIZE IT IS POSSIBLE TO CAUSE A 'BABY UNIVERSE' TO BREAK OFF FROM OUR OWN, SAFELY 2 August 2006

A radical new project could permit human beings to create a "baby universe" in a laboratory in Japan. While it sounds like a dangerous undertaking, the physicists involved believe that if the project is successful, the space-time around a tiny point within our universe will be distorted in such a way that it will begin to form a new superfluid space, and eventually break off, separate in all respects from our experience of space and time, causing no harm to the fabric of our universe.

The project takes as its starting point two basic theories about the foundations of our universe: the big bang and inflation theory. The big bang theory, as many readers are well aware, observes that all objects in the known universe appear to be moving away from one another, suggesting that the universe was jump-started when all matter and energy were concentrated in an inconceivably tiny space, allowing them to overcome binding forces and causing a cosmic explosion.

It is well-tested and consistent with all currently accepted models for general cosmology, as tested against advanced theoretical and observational physics. But it is only one piece of the puzzle. Inflation is a key theory, developed in 1981, when MIT physicist Alan Guth observed that there appeared to have been a period immediately following the big bang when the universe "inflated" rapidly, allowing distinct regions of matter and energy to function comfortably free from any forces that might cause them to collapse against each other or disrupt each other's evolution.

This project is not exactly theoretical physics at work. It is closer to a physical application of observed phenomena, in combination, with the aim of achieving an as yet untested physical effect. Inflation theory helps provide the means of understanding how that effect might be brought about.

As reported by the New Scientist: "Inflation theory, subsequently modified by Linde, relies on the fact that the 'vacuum' of empty space-time is not a boring, static place. Instead, it is subject to quantum fluctuations that cause strange bubbles to appear at random times. These bubbles of 'false vacuum' contain space-time with different —and very curious— properties."
The space-time inside these false vacuums is organized and kept constant by a phenomenon known as the 'Higgs field'. It is believed that with the constant provided by the Higgs field, these bubbles of 'false vacuum' can be induced to withstand contact with the high pressure exterior vacuum and subsequently to expand through a kind of cosmic inflation like the one which followed the big bang at the beginning of our universe.

The key is a monopole, a unique sperical particle with only a north or south pole, only one charge. Adding mass and energy to this already extremely dense particle, could cause it to expand "eternally", providing the trigger needed to make the bubble of false vacuum into an ever-expanding universe, akin to our own, but entirely separate and likely to develop its own physical properties, laws and materials.

Here is the key to the "new universe" paradigm for the project. It would not be simply an extension of our own universe, a space where strange things happen. The New Scientist reports physicist Nobuyuki Sakai's discoveries regarding this process as follows:
"[T]he baby universe has its own space-time and, as this inflates, the pressure from the true vacuum outside its walls continues to constrain it. As these forces compete, the growing baby universe is forced to bubble out from our space-time until its only connection to us is through a narrow space-time tunnel called a wormhole..."

Eventually, the "umbilical" connection between our space-time and the baby universe would be effectively cut, and the baby universe would enter into its own unique process of unending expansion. From our perspective, it would be lost inside a microscopic "black hole", which will not appear to expand into our space-time. Hawking radiation will be emitted and the tiny black hole will "evaporate", sealing the separation between the two universes.

Ultimately, this evaporation is what makes the project possible, but is also, perhaps, its most serious obstacle. It is expected that the separation between our space-time and the baby universe would occur so quickly, it might be impossible —within the limitations of our physical universe— to observe its having been created.

I passed my written exam and rambling about seti@home stuff

2006-11-28T21:50:00.000-07:00

Well I haven't had a change to talk to anybody on my comittee yet, but Dr. Bennett emailed me a quick note to let me know that I passed. He said that he'd get me some formal feedback by Friday. Anyway, that is a big relief and when I sat down to grade papers this evening I flew. Nothing like good news to make things a little easier.

Next week I have a rough draft due for my comp theory class and then the revision is due a week later. Once I finish up it is all thesis stuff for me and I'm really excited about that.

On a totally different note, I installed seti@home on my machines again. Basically when your machine is running and you aren't using it, the Boinc program analysis little bits of information for seti@home. There are a number of these types of analysis that can be run on any machine and a list can be found here. I'm considering running analysis for cancer research as well and that information can be downloaded from the World Community Grid. It is free and your machine is running anyway, so why not jump in and help out.

Done....for now...

2006-11-21T00:28:00.000-07:00

Well, four hours and eleven pages later I've gotten through with my written comps. I'm pretty nervous about the whole situation because I feel like I didn't do as well as I should have. There first question I answered more completely and used a range of texts. The second question, even though it was four pages, I'm not sure I answered. To top the whole thing off I don't feel like either had a very strong thesis. It looks like nobody on my committee will be looking at it before the break (which I can see as good and bad). I'm just hoping that I don't have to retake them. Jen has been very good about being patient this last week and a half. Most nights I was on campus until somewhere between 10:30 and midnight.

On a side note, Jen took me out for a yummy dinner this evening. She is getting ready to bake some pies for the trip to Billings. It'll be a quick trip and we have tons to get done in the last two weeks, but I am really anxious to get it all done. After this semester my GPA is pretty much set.

The first day

2006-11-12T22:34:00.000-07:00

Well, 40 texts and just over a week until my comps. Today I scanned over 6 texts, and I'm watching one of the movies. I am going to have a crazy week, but I'm hoping that I can get to the point where I'm not reviewing next Monday. We'll see. Jen has a crazy week as well...we'll get through it, but I have faith that Jen will do much better than I will. I'm not sure that I can knock it out of the park. I hope I feel good coming out of it and then we can enjoy the T-day break a little bit.

a real book recommendation

2006-11-10T14:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm actually reading this one for class, but I find it very interesting and I would highly recommend it. It is called Writing at the End of the World by Richard E. Miller. ISBN is 0822958864. You can find it here at Amazon or a BN.com.

I found this kind of funny

2006-11-07T19:33:00.000-07:00

Most pictures I put in are equated to Brandon Frazier, but I'm particularly proud of this one...

More updates

2006-11-01T22:08:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm still not sure what is going on with Jeff's server, but I have been able to update my artwork page and the honeymoon photos. I think I'm going to stick to google's photo album because it is pretty 'friendly'.

The first hump hit tonight and I finished my book presentation, but I'm not sure how it went. I had to leave a little early because we were having some car issues. I think we may have a loose wire because it wouldn't even attempt to start. Battery is good, and I didn't even hear a click when I tried to start it. So I'm crossing my fingers in hopes that it isn't a starter problem.

Making Cincy Chili tonight for tomorrow and Jen is working on her homework. My knees hurt (I think the weather is changing). I don't have much to say this evening apparently.

Honeymoon

Updated Wedding Photos

2006-10-28T16:30:00.000-06:00

Well, I don't think Jeff has figured out exactly what happened with the server...but on a side note I've uploaded the wedding photos and kids photos to my google album. Hopefully, I'll be able to upload our honeymoon photos and my artwork later.

Wedding Photos

The Kids

Server problems

2006-10-27T01:00:00.000-06:00

Looks like the server crashed where my site is, mostly it is on blogger at this point. Right now the menu won't work and I'm not sure what will happen with all the pics. Hopefully we'll be back up and running soon.

School and Dells

2006-10-22T23:33:00.000-06:00

Things have been crazy lately and I don't remember being this tired for a very long time. Right now I am trying to get ahead in with my school stuff since I have a presentation in a week. The good news is that I have conferences with my students...so I'm mostly reading papers and then I get a chance to sit down with them and talk. There is very little planning there. My written tests are on November 21st and I'm ready to have them done with. The only problem is that I'm not ready to take them.

On a Google sidenote...google docs and spreadsheets are now integrated into gmail. I'm kind of excited because you can share documents with others. I'd like to use this for class, but I'm not sure what I'll do with it. Additionally they have Incorporated a photo album feature which I plan on switching over to when I have time. Right now I don't see that happening until the Christmas break.

On a sucky note I heard from my friend Kevin. Okay that isn't sucky, but his news was. Apparently his Dell notebook started having video problems and when he shipped it off they initially said it was covered under the warranty. On further inspection they said there was a hole in the screen that wasn't covered. It gets worse...the repair would be almost as much as buying a new machine. I haven't heard how things are going, but I think Dell should take are of this for him. On another Dell note...last Thursday my Notebook wouldn't charge. It turns out that the power adapter went bad so I had to order a new one. I'm usually a pretty big fan of their machines, but I'm not really happy at this point.

I've decided that I'd like a Mac book Pro. I don't want to fork out the dough and I really don't want to use the Mac OS, but I do think the machines seem nice. I think I'd dual boot Linux and windows. Ultimately, I won't ever have one though. Way too much money.

Lastly, I'm having issues with my Yahoo account. I couldn't remember my password or the answer to my hint...the email for my password reset is no longer valid. I'll be calling shortly because I can't even use messenger.

Oh, one really last thing. Cincy won today and that means they are tied for first. It wasn't pretty, but I think the offense is finally starting to click. Pitt lost...enough said. Happy day.

school and linux

2006-10-08T20:08:00.000-06:00

With no Cincy game on this weekend, I've got more time on my hand. Okay, not really, but I'd like to think that I do. My dad is coming into town tomorrow evening for some meetings so we are trying to pick up the apartment some. On the schedule for this evening is reading for 121 tomorrow. I'm not really sure what I want to do in class tomorrow. Then reading for my comp theory class, maybe the response for it, and I might even get ambitious and write a short story. We are planning on going to the Burns/Tester debate tomorrow evening so everything that we can get done early helps.

Everything is going pretty well here...not much new...really tired and ready for winter.

I've got a new setup on a dell latitude ls. It has a small screen 12.1 inches, 500 mhz CPU, 256MB of Ram, and is around 4 pounds.. No drives...which really makes installing a pain in the butt. There is no booting off of any external device without dell's special drives. Anyway, after trying a number of distributions ( Suse - which I always like, Mepis, DSL (Damn Small Linux), PCLinuxOS, and Ubuntu) PCLinuxOS is the winner for this system. It seems to run well and it detected my wireless card with no problems. Overall the configuration is pretty simple and it finally seems like some of the distributions are getting to the point where they are friendly enough for casual Windows user. Of course I changed everything I could so I doesn't look like Windows. Ubuntu seems like a descent choice, but I really didn't want to mess with a wrapper to get it working. Suse worked as well, but I probably wouldn't use it unless it was on a desktop. There may be a stripped down version specifically for a notebook, but I didn't look and the standard 10.1 took up more room than I wanted. This machine is meant to be simply with a Internet connection so I could us openoffice, writely.com, or zoho.com.

I am a little jealous because one of my students has a mac and is installing windows, linux, and macosx. I really wouldn't mind a macbook pro, but I think I wouldn't install the macos on it. Way too much money though. Oh well.

Okay, I should go for now. Almost halftime and I need to get through my article.

The Game

2006-09-24T15:42:00.000-06:00

I'm keeping it very short today because I have much to do this week and it all starts today. My goal is sixteen papers graded, do Kirk's reading and short response, and then sleep. Tomorrow I have my short story to write, more conferences on top of the writing center and and October 1 deadline for a bunch of graduate school things. Hopefully by Weds most of that stuff will be done.

The Bengals were on the tv today...which rarely happens in this neck of the woods. The offense looked like they weren't in sync and the run defense wasn't much better. But in the end it took four tds by Carson and three ints by Ben and Cincy is 3-0 on the season. Not a bad start, but they really need to step it up. A win is a win today. I'll take it. I'm still really tired.

Hitting the ground running

2006-09-20T23:50:00.000-06:00

Well, it is only a few into the Fall semester and Jen and I are busier than ever. For some reason it seems like I'm doing more reading than I did last year. Sometime near the end of October I'll be taking my Comps (test) for graduate school. Essentially it is a four hour test and I'll be writing and revising most of the time. It does seem a little overwhelming. While I'm doing that I'm trying to make more progress on my thesis. It just doesn't seem like there is enough time in the day. Jen is working a number of jobs and has a full time load of classes. The cats are doing well, but they are a little upset that we are busy all the time. In the back of my mind I keep worrying about what I'm going to do when I'm done with graduate school....job....and loan wise. At least my attitude has shifted and I once again feel like I can actually finish.

I have to go...reading papers for the class I'm teaching and I want to get most done by the weekend. Cincy playing Pitt on television this Sunday.

I'm tired....

The start of a new semester

2006-08-27T23:53:00.000-06:00

Hopefully we are in the home stretch. Well at least at the beginning of the home stretch. Jen and I both felt kind of sick today and are trying to recover. We start classes tomorrow and I have a mixture of excitment and nervousness right now. Ellen, Brita, and I are all trying a different text which means revamping some of the things that we did last year. At least we are trying to push ourselves a little bit. Anyway, I'm hoping that I have everything ready for tomorrow and I really hope that we have the first five weeks figured out. I don't think Jen is that excited about starting class again, but I think she'll do well. It looks like this semester things will be even tighter than last year. Honestly, I'm more stressed about what I'm going to do when I'm done with school and what is going to happen once the bills start coming in. I'm sure things will work out, but it is in my nature to worry about all those things.

I'm sure that cats will be a little upset with us after tomorrow...they have gotten a little spoiled with the amount of time we've spent at home lately. Oh, more bad news. When I initially moved into my apartment I asked my landlord if he was going to raise the rent. He emphatically said "no, I'm not going to raise the rent on you". Then last October he said he might have to raise it by $25, well yesterday I got a letter in the mail saying that he was raising it $50 a month starting in less than a week. There has to be something illegal about that. I'm sure that he'd pitch a fit if we told him we were moving in less than a week. Unfortunately we don't have much of a choice and we really do get pretty good rent for Bozeman. We just didn't need the extra expense.

We went and saw the movie Invincible last night. I thought that is was pretty good and Jen even liked it. We saw a few previews that also looked interesting. One was a WWI flyer movie called Flyboys, and the other movie was a Ben Stiller one....I think it was called something like Nights in the Museum. I'm pretty sure that isn't the exact name, but it looked entertaining. At least there are some movies that look more promising than most of this summers movies. Well, I suppose I should wind this down and try to get some sleep. Everything is pretty much packed up and ready to go. I just have to wait until 2pm to teach.

A view a Hyalite

2006-08-19T18:25:00.000-06:00

We love to go camping up at Hyalite and we decided to actually post a couple of pictures. This one isn't too far from our campsite. Very nice view and even better weather.

A deer from our last camping trip

2006-08-19T18:22:00.000-06:00

On our last camping trip this deer wandered into our camp while we were eating; she came within about 8 feet of us and was very interested in what we were doing. I scared her a little with the camera.

We met The Fonz today

2006-08-12T14:57:00.000-06:00

Well, it was pretty cool and I'm glad that we went today. We didn't make it for the reading, but Henry was very nice and he is amazing with kids. Jen got a few things signed and I just stood in line to shake his hand. I also met Frank who is the producer of the movie they are shooting. What was really cool was that we hung out until the end and Henry came over and shook Kevin's hand and thanked him for coming. Then he shook Jen's hand...and said "thank you for coming you gorgeous woman". And then he shook my hand again and thanked me for coming. Yeah, I said something quick because I was a little nervous.

Our friend Shannon and Henry

Henry talking to Jen

Winding things down

freshly revised site

2006-08-11T23:12:00.000-06:00

Well I'm pretty excited because after about a week of work (mostly Jeff's) the page is up and running primarily as a blog site. That means the first page is quickly updated and many of the pages are self contained. For awhile I had multiple pages that all drew on an external css file. That meant that I still had a bunch of code and I tended to use iframes to set everything up. Lets just say things are a little easier now. Essentially the page has the same design. After Jeff's recent conversion of his page and some discussion with Kevin, I decided that I wanted to convert the site over to blogger. For those of you that hadn't noticed, my blog was through blogger already. Now storment.net just forwards to the blog space. Anyway, the basic code for my page was taken from a blog, modified, and now Jeff has essentially converted it back.

Tomorrow we may be hitting B&N for a signing. I'm not usually into those and really wasn't when I worked there, but the Fonz is going to be there tomorrow. That's right, Henry Winkler is in town doing a movie and he's written a bunch of kid's books. My friend Shannon got talking to him one day and the next thing she knew she was setting up a signing for him on her last day. Well, it wasn't her last day, but things have gone downhill is seems and she is the latest in a long line of Barnes & Noble managers leaving for different pastures. Don't get me wrong, I love B&N, but there are some real issues.

I'm pretty excited for Sunday evening...it is the first preseason game for the bengals :-) I guess I don't have much to say about that.

I have about 2 weeks to get ready for school and I'm pretty excited to be teaching again. I am pretty worried that I'm not going to be able to finish my Masters and that what I'm going to be looking at isn't a good enough idea. This semester I have to take my comps. Basically it is a 4 hours test where I have three questions and have to write on two of them. From what I understand the average is anywhere between 10-20 pages. Yikes.

Jeff is also getting me up to speed on Forex trading which I'm a little nervous about. The good news is that he is a great teacher and is really helping me out more than I think most people would. He seems to always be looking out for me. Jen and I wish that they lived closer, but it sounds like his job and hospital are pretty important to their family situation. If you are reading this you should check out Chloe's page. They are pretty amazing people and it sounds like their family and friends out there have been pretty helpful. They really don't get much sleep...hence Jeff's ability to teach me Forex things. He has his own trader site set up as well here

The last news is that I moved into my new office space. I'm bummed and happy. Last year I shared a office space with 8 or so English graduate students and about 6 History graduate students. It was nice to visit and share ideas and I'd really like to help the first year graduate students this year. The big issue is that I never got anything done. Since I was in my office in prime time I didn't grade many papers and wound up doing them Sunday nights. Now my space is down the hall in a cubicle next to a window. To put things in perspective, the windows in my old space revealed a nice view of the hall. We kind of felt like we were zoo animals with people peering in. It should be very nice.

Okay, I should close for now, but I'd really like to hear from anyone that stops by.

Chloe Fiona Patterson and Family

2006-08-02T14:21:00.000-06:00

My best friend and his wife recently had another little girl names Chloe who has a number of medical conditions. I encourage anyone that stops by my page, to visit their page and read her story. They can use any prayers and wishes that you send their way. You can find them here http://www.visitchloe.com/

And here are the conditions that she has:

Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum, Absence of the Septum Pellucidum, Colpocephaly, Plagiocephaly, Laryngomalacia, Tracheomalacia, High Palette, Neurogenic Dysphagia

I honestly can't tell you what all those things are, but they are hanging in there and are just amazing people.