A Sliver of Brain Matter

My year is almost over in a few ways 1) Tomorrow I will be 3 years from the big "40" 2) 2007 is almost over The past couple of weeks, I've been reflecting a lot on the past few years-- the years since moving from PA. I really think my life took a turn for the better once I broke up with Jen, met Judy, and bought--then sold--my house. Looking back, I see a lot of people in my life at that time going nowhere. Of the few I still keep in touch with *two are still living at home with their parents (or returning to live with their parents) *one is married and divorced, although much better off for it in my opinion *one is married with a child, still living in the same house and looking to sell it for the past 4 years. *one is working at a retail store, happily, though! and is a single parent I wonder how I would be if I were still in the area? Miserable? Looking for something more to give my life meaning? Would I really have left everything to go back to school for my PhD? ...

It's been one week since my car was hit. I have yet to get a report on the damage from my insurance company OR the body shop. My back is still a little stiff and sometimes there are some twinges of pain, but it feels much better than it did a week ago. Luckily, teaching guard requires me to do a lot of back and abdominal stretches and strengthening activities, so that helps a little bit. Speaking of guard: my high school guard now has 45 seconds of show on the floor. They're regional A, so there's not much moving involved, but it will work. I'll add more if I think they're capable of handling it. The girls who are on sabre are loving it. I think the work is kinda simple, cheesy, but of course, they never really had sabre work before, so it's awesome to them. I haven't seen the independent guard in about a month now. It's interesting that in that time they've had 1 entire weekend canceled, and 2 rehearsals cut several hours short. I have no...

At this time on a Saturday morning I would be running around trying to organize things for one (or both) of the two performance groups located in Dallas for which I am on staff. However, yesterday on my way home from work, I was hit by a dump truck as I was changing lanes on my drive home from work. Thankfully, I'm ok-- my back and neck are stiff and sore, but I'm going to the doctor about that. As for my car, the rear bumper was torn off, my hubcap came off and my tire on that side was shredded, and there's a big ol' dent in the rear driver-side quarter panel. Of course, I don't know much about car damage, so we'll see what is really wrong once the body shop takes a look at it. I took some pictures, and if I figure out how to save pictures from my cell phone to my computer, I may even post them. I've never been involved in an accident before. It was quite scary and I didn't know what to do. Police came by to help us move our cars off the side of the...

Yup, there are tons of them in the world, and I seem to know at least 10 who just love to show how much of an idiot they are. What's worse, is they all like to hang out together and be idiots , while telling other people that they're not idiots. I shouldn't let it bother me. I try not to, but they really irritate others who then come bitching to me about it, and that bothers me.

These past few days have been really relaxing. I was feeling really sick and feverish Wednesday night after work and into Thursday afternoon, but recovered quickly. Judy said it was probably just stress...as noted a few posts ago, I've been undergoing a lot of stress lately. 1) New projects thrown my way each day at work. Now, if it was something I was familiar with, it wouldn't bother me much, but it's generally something I've never seen before and I am being asked to edit the stuff for details that someone familiar with the subject matter should be looking at. Luckily, I keep getting compliments on my work, but when I make a simple comment like "this manuscript is incomplete" when there are 2 chapters listed but no content in them, and my supervisor says "I don't understand why you're saying this manuscript is incomplete?" um. then I have to take 5 minutes to explain it... uggh. 2) Winterguard A--I'm in charge. I'm in charge. I...

Me =

Culture of Discipline

And I really don't care. Which is sad, because Halloween was always my favorite time of year. Maybe it's the 80 degree weather, or the fact that most trees in Texas don't change color and lose their foliage. Maybe I'm too old *gasp* to enjoy it anymore. Whatever. this isn't going the way i thought it would. and i'm getting upset. oh well. i'll post it anyway

Chimps are pretty good actors , and have much more control over their vocalizations than previously thought. Speaking of monkeys...Not everything is bigger in Texas . Need to go a little further south. A recent experiment questions how both art and science are used "to construct meaning out of memory, location, and psychosis." Very interesting! Why arguing is healthy for women (like they need another excuse)!! ;-) j/k! Things to see...

Some people just need to get over themselves. Seriously whatever your (this is a general "your", not pointing to a specific "you"-- Romance languages are so much better for pointing out this differentiation in singular vs. plural or specific vs. general) personal issues are.... just do everyone a favor and deal with them. They're not my issues; I don't want them, nor do I want to have them cast onto me because you can't deal with them on your own. If you're not doing that, thank you. I appreciate it. Don't feed the drama. No one benefits from that. We all have enough of our own problems to deal with on a daily basis. In Lighter news (well, I think so)...an article in Scientific American claims that language evolves over time based on the common usage of words-- or lack thereof-- here's a link to the article: Use It or Lose It: Why Language Changes Over Time I wanted to insert a picture here, but it's not working, so I guess I'll jus...

Let's see what I've done this past month Texas Independent Winterguard A non-profit youth organization based in Denton, TX (3 hours away from where I live). I've been asked to be the assistant director for this group. The job pretty much entails running business/administrative aspects--such as public relations, budgeting, scheduling, etc.--for the group. So far I've created a budget, a calendar, flyers, press releases, and been in almost constant communication with the Frontier Performing Arts Association board of directors who oversee the operations of TXI and a number of other groups in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Frontier Drum and Bugle Corps I can't get into too much detail about this, but I've been talking with the current and former directors of this group, as well as with the current program coordinator. Looks like some interesting developments will be taking place in the upcoming year. I'll probably give more information next week...if I rememb...

October 1. Usually around this time I'm thinking of leaves changing colors, a cool crispness in the air, hot cider, warm sweaters, and kissing my baby after a haunted hay ride. Today is no exception...However, we live in TX (and before that in FL), so very few, if any of these thoughts will become actuality. As I look out my window, the sky is blue, the clouds are high, and the leaves are green. The current temperature is 75 with a high of 90. I'm not sure if that has been reached already. It's only 1 pm, so probably not. It just strikes me as exceptionally odd. October is actually one of my favorite months of the year, but since moving to the south, it's just not the same. We went to a street fair this past weekend, but...I don't know.. it wasn't fun. Maybe it was the people we were with? Maybe it was the fact that the fair was more like a market place. There wasn't much to do but walk around and spend money on stuff--and by that I mean on objects l...

So, for the first time in...I don't know how long, we're entertaining! Yup, people are actually coming over to our place to enjoy our company (and a healthy dose of Monty Python's "Holy Grail"). Two of our guests are vegan, so I'm going to attempt to make an egg-free batter for veggies tempura. I wish I could think of a vegan type sauce to go with that. We're also going to make some baked parmesan-chicken fingers with marinara sauce. Judy suggested that, and I don't know how to make it , but it sounds yummy! It can't be that tough if it's just chicken, parm cheese, and some batter for the coating. In other news... Jason named me as the assistant director of Texas Independent. Judy is business manager, and Cherie is the travel coordinator/something else I can't remember. I know we're going to be doing a lot of work, but hopefully we get it as close to correct as possible so that we get TXI off the ground and running!! We just hav...

A few days ago I posted a blog about the "waning of IQ". It's pretty interesting to me, as a former teacher, to see a discussion about IQ and how it's not actual intelligence that's waning, but the tests that supposedly measure intelligence. I'm not a big believer in tests as measurements of ability. We're tested daily to show our knowledge about topics taught in schools-- math, reading, social interaction, geography (reading a map), culture, and so on--some of us know things, some of us don't. Does that mean people are lacking in intelligence? Probably not. I won't go into detail about the supposed socio-economic bias exhibited by many so-called "Intelligence Tests"... Anyway, I've always done fairly well on tests- especially multiple choice tests and essays--so I'm not against them for the reason others might be (that they don't do well, or are stressed out by them). I just feel that tests specifically used to measure...

The Waning of I.Q. DAVID BROOKS Published: September 14, 2007 in the New York Times A nice phenomenon of the past few years is the diminishing influence of I.Q. Skip to next paragraph David Brooks. The Way We Live Now For a time, I.Q. was the most reliable method we had to capture mental aptitude. People had the impression that we are born with these information-processing engines in our heads and that smart people have more horsepower than dumb people. And in fact, there’s something to that. There is such a thing as general intelligence; people who are good at one mental skill tend to be good at others. This intelligence is partly hereditary. A meta-analysis by Bernie Devlin of the University of Pittsburgh found that genes account for about 48 percent of the differences in I.Q. scores. There’s even evidence that people with bigger brains tend to have higher intelligence. But there has always been something opaque about I.Q....

So, this was the first weekend w/out drum corps in ...months. I did a whole lot of nothing! It was nice and relaxing, but I need something to do, so I registered for a class on grant writing. Saturday was the first class, and it was just a basic overview of what a grant is and what not to focus on when writing a grant. I learned a lot. I need to take the whole class (either part II of the class or a full semester). Taking the class also made me think about going back to school for an MBA-- non-profit organization management. It could be interesting, and a side of business that i've thought of before. Anyway. What else? Watched the last 4 episodes of ROME. Man, that was a good show. I'm sorry to see it gone :( Now I'm worried about Scrubs-- will it be back? !!?? I hope so! On Friday I was asked to cut my hours down to 37.5 Still full time (so I still get benefits), but less time to get things done. Not a big deal for me right now since our next project is still bein...

So, the drum corps season is over, and now marching band season is underway. I like the kids at the school I'm teaching. They are novice/regional A level, but have potential to be at the top of the class if I ever get time to work with them on movement and weapon basics. They can spin flags pretty well, and some of them are already working on performing the show. We've been doing a lot of learning of drill lately. The 3rd # is taking a while because it's 24 sets. So far the kids have learned 12 of those sets, so we're 1/2-way there!!! Unfortunately (in my opinion) they spent time teaching a throw-away show that will only be performed four times. I guess they used it to help learn marching basics, but it took time away from learning the competition show. The parents seemed to enjoy it though, and that's always a good thing because it gets their support. I'm thoroughly and utterly confused by UIL rules. UIL is the "governing body" of TX extra-...

It was HOT in Dallas!!! It was nice to see Brent again, although we didn't see him for long what with practice and all that. Why do people insist on fighting you when you have a job to do? Thanks to all the nice people who understand how difficult things can be at times. Did I mention that it was HOT in Dallas?? No sunburn! YAY! :-) My wife is way hot....hotter than Dallas! ;-) lol Sometimes I really miss my cats...

I've been told throughout my life to shut up and "not make waves." I've been told that my ideas are stupid and worthless. I've been told that all I ever do is speak negatively... I am capable of speech and communication. I am able to get across complex ideas in a simple way that almost anyone can understand. If you want to listen/read, please do. If you don't, then don't. The only one I'm "making trouble" for is myself, and most times I'm not making trouble. If I am, it's not on purpose. I have great ideas, but I also know when things aren't working, and I'll be the first to speak up if I feel that way. I'm not shy about it. I'll offer criticisms and constructive ideas to go along with them. If you only want to pay attention to the negative, whose fault is that? not mine. I've never told anyone else to silence themselves if they feel something is wrong. I would never tell anyone their ideas are "stu...

It was really wet and cold in Minnesota. That is all for now.

Texas Independent (TXI) is a new Independent winter guard from Dallas, TX, that will be debuting during the 2008 competitive season. The ensemble is open to ages 14 - 22. However, Texas Independent does not recruit any student from any high school program that has an active scholastic winterguard established. Plans are well under way for the 2008 season where TXI plans on participating in the North Texas Color Guard Association (NTCA) as well as participating in WGI regional events as well as WGI finals in Dayton, Ohio. Location: Date: Time: TBA Sunday, September 23, 2007, 10am to 6pm Please wear dance attire - preferably black. Flags will be provided but those wishing to audition for a weapon spot will need to bring their own equipment. TXI Audition Fee - $40 - non refundable In order to audition you must have both a completed audition form and your audition fee at registration. For more information and to join our mailing list, please visit our website at http://txinde...

I have a really yucky head-cold right now. Judy thinks it might be allergies, but I'm not so sure symptoms: Sore Throat, post-nasal drip, itchy nose. Feel congested. coughing (from post-nasal drip). Tired. Feel slightly dehydrated. Eyes warm and itchy feeling. Sounds like a cold to me! Today I couldn't eat breakfast I was so blah. for lunch I had a cup of soup (mushroom bisque, I think) and a crappy slice of pizza. I took an Advil cold and Sinus and a Benedryl. Right now I just want to lie down and fall asleep, but it's only 2:30 and I work until 6:30. i could probably take off early, but I'm leaving for Minneapolis and taking all day Friday off, so I'm already down on hours for the week! It's would be impossible for me to make up the 4 hours with only 1 more work day to go this week. So i looked up my symptoms, and it seems more allergy related than cold related. Guess I'll have to get a strongre allergy medicine than Claratin. Unless my insuran...

I'm doing a lot of research for a new project at work. Research, research, research. I love doing it, but it does get boring sometimes. "You love research? Why?" Well, I enjoy learning things. Getting all sorts of different perspectives on things and understanding why things happen the way they do or why certain ideas are more powerful than others. I also enjoy questioning what the information says and finding other sources that either back it up or dispute it. Then I enjoy taking all the information and making up my own mind based on the evidence presented. Yummy synthesis! We're off to Minnesota this weekend for competitions in St. Paul and St. Peter. I'm coming down with a head cold (or possibly overly active allergies!) and that's going to make flying a bitch. But, I love Minnesota in the summer-- it's so pretty! Yes, I said Pretty. At least Judy will be there this year, although no Cherie to make fun of people with :-( We'll have to tak...

Boring weekend, for the most part. For those in the know. I am a member of a drum and bugle corps from Dallas, TX. This corps is called FRONTIER and is an all-age corps including members as young as 13 and as old at mid 60's. I'm a member of the colorguard--or visual ensemble--and this past weekend we finally finished writing our show. It took a long time, but its actually nice to be done. The last two seasons the shows were not completed until championships weekend and then performed poorly at championships. This year we have 3 weeks to try and clean the show as much as possible. Well, technically we only have 2 weeks before finals, but that's better than an hour or two! The only thing that really sucked about this past weekend is that Judy (wife) had to stay home because she was teaching 2 summer classes and had to stay to give their finals on Saturday! Oh well, the life of a PhD candidate, I suppose... her blog is here if you want to look at it. That's about ...

I'm not going to do a typical intro-- where I live, etc., etc. Instead I'm going to post some things that say a bit about me. Kind of haphazard, but oh well. My new tattoo Rare river dolphi n 'now extinct' They were most likely hunted to death. Click the link to find out more. The most horrible of crimes against humanity: Genocide. Save Darfur My favorite kinds of music: Gothic, Industrial, Punk, and Classical Comedy... HA HA HA HA!! Stop... I can't .... breathe... hahahaha!! HAA!! A few of my worse habits :( Myspace food--- especially this place! Good enough for now.

So I've finally caved in and started my own online blog. I have a blog on myspace and xanga, and facebook.... I don't write in them much. I guess there's just some stuff I want to say that I don't necessarily want my friends and family to read. Or maybe I just think they won't care. Or maybe I just don't want to write on those sites.... who knows. The past few days I've been hearing about how a new blog is started every half second. That's a lot of blogs. Hopefully mine will be of interest to me (if to no one else) and make the time to set this up worth it. Thankfully it was easy to do. Not like in the old days of the interweb! Man, that was tough. I don't even need to remember any html or learn XML or java for this! My next blog will be a bit of introduction and what not... ---------------- Now playing: Ministry - Stigmata (Live 1990) via FoxyTunes