So, I saw Star Trek again this weekend (where again = #4 actually, because I am a dork). I'm over being bugged by the techno-babble ("Prepare the red matter!" and while you're at it, reverse the polarity of the neutron flow!). And I'm over being bugged by the science trivia (If you're really coming out of warp in the atmosphere/magnetic field of ( Read more... )

Today is one of the days that the FFA (Future Farmers of America) invade campus. I really have no problem with the organization itself or any of the individual kids in it - it does some really cool stuff and I always enjoy their stuff at the State Fair. But teenagers by the dozen with minimal adult supervision? Doesn't leave me wanting to put the ( Read more... )

I'm sitting in the hallway of Burton Hall on the Minneapolis campus, waiting for a staff meeting to start. I came into the building in the company of a large number of small children (about 4-6 years old) and roughly twice as many adults, who all tromped down the hall and into one of the classrooms. They were in the classroom for maybe 15 minutes ( Read more... )

A little over a year, I took up rapper dancing. (No, it has nothing to do with rap music, for those of you who are cocking your head and saying, "Um..oookay...") A rapper is a short piece of flexible metal with a wooden handle at each end. You and four about-to-be-very-close friends hold a handle in each hand so that you're joined in a ring and ( Read more... )

Both the University and Metro Transit have fleets of brand new buses. I was idly looking around one the other day and noticed that the regular trio of "No..." signs had been expanded. "No food or drink," "No music without headphones" and "No smoking" have now been joined by "No littering" and "No gambling." The "No littering" doesn't surprise me ( Read more... )

The distance between here and Champaign, IL seems to change. This time, 500 miles went by very, very quickly, probably because I didn't stop for lunch on the way out. By the time I was thinking about lunch (somewhere between Madison, WI, and Peru, IL) there was a medium-serious fog everywhere. It was the sort of fog that's perfectly OK for ( Read more... )

Things heard while flipping through the national 24-hour news channels at 1 in the morning:

"When something like this happens in a major metropolitan area, and I should remind our viewers that Minneapolis is a major metropolitan area ( Read more... )

Nope, wasn't on the I35W bridge. Closest I got was that I was crossing the Franklin Ave Bridge at about 6:15, wondering where on earth the Minneapolis Park Patrol, of all people, could possibly be going in such a rush. Sorry I haven't called anyone back, but phone calls seem to be understandably problematic.

Have I mentioned how much I love my cats ( Read more... )

My beloved iPod, which went sadly dark and unresponsive one afternoon last week, is now risen from the dead. I left it plugged into the Mac for 4 days and it's now back and playing good as ever ( Read more... )