Our church has various "ministries." But I find that I can no longer take the term "ministry" seriously. It always reminds me of scams run by traveling preachers. For example, we got some junk mail from a "ministry" that promised that if we sent in a "seed offering," God would give us incredibly specific amounts of money (sample testimonial: C.K. ( Read more... )

Normally I'd put deep thought posts like this on my blog, but hardly anyone reads my blog anymore (due to extended hiatus issues), and even fewer people comment. And this is something I was curious to hear people's reactions to.

The proximate, but not sole, source of my question was a blog comment that said, in part:

I agree that it’s highly ( Read more... )

Now that I live in a cold place, I find I am in need of:

1. Winter hat
2. Scarf

If someone were to volunteer to create such things for me, I could return the favor in COLD HARD CASH (or possibly check or paypal).

I have five years to acquire the following things:

1) Stockings
2) Knee-length pants
3) Fancy coat
4) Lacy neckwear
5) High heeled shoes with large buckles
6) Giant curly wig

Because the day after I officially get tenure, I'm teaching all of my classes 1600s-style.

me: good thing I went to that "how to apply for a grant" workshop this morning, because apparently the Joint Fire Science Program is soliciting proposals for social science of fire projects and it's due Nov. 20
Christina: OOOh
apply apply
me: I could get my first grown-up grant
Christina: heh
Stenny, you're a man now.
me: :^P ( Read more... )

Yesterday as I was walking out of my building, a car drove by with some students in it. They rolled down the passenger side window and yelled "nerd!" They drove off before I could say "Why yes -- I'm a professor. It's my job to be a nerd. How many thousand dollars a year are they paying you to be cool?"

Some people get tattoos to commemorate important times in their lives. I've decided I'm going to honor my past by adopting dialectical quirks. So I'll remember growing up in western PA by pronouncing "creek" as "crick," and my trips to Australia by saying "no worries" and "good onya," and my time in Arizona by putting "the" in front of numbered ( Read more... )

Sat, July 25 ( Read more... )

Here's our proposed route for driving from Casa Grande to Pittsburgh the last week in July. We're looking for suggestions of people to hang out with and/or things to do along the way. (Dave, I know you saw all the cool rock formations out West during your geology summer trip -- do you remember which ones are most worth stopping for?)

( In which I attempt to embed a Google Map )

Yesterday at Walgreens I bought some pomegranate juice that advertised that it was:
* Gluten-free
* Lactose-free
* Low sodium
* Vegan

I'm a little disturbed by the implication that there might be non-vegan gluten-filled juice out there.